256 replies to this topic

[Andrew]

Plum is apparently really good as well! There is a plum tree at the bottom of my garden, If it is good, I might take a bow saw to it.

[Pretty green flames]

What about cherry tree.

I got an really old cherry tree in my garden and i'd like to know if it's usefull.....Anyone

[sasman]

Last year i made my own charcoal Specifically i used 2 types of wood.. willow and Pine.. Willow was used for my BP and pine was used for sparks..

I honestly could not tell much difference between.. either..I hope pine would produce nice sparks.. but in my case it did not.. My tiger tails stars worked ok but lacked the long tail.. mine was very short..no matter how i made the tigertail even via the wet proccess the tale remained very short..So i assume it must have been my charcoal?..


So this year just in case i'm was making my charcoal wrong i going to buy a few different types..
I remember pritch purchased some willow charcoal from Coates charcoal...Has anyone had good results from this Coates charcoal?....And also some of this Lump wood charcoal.. which i am seeing lots of at petrol stations..What is the best type to buy?...What is putting me of with BBQ charcoal is this webpage.

BBQ charcoal

If you notice that they set fire to the wood??? ..

Now thats got to be wrong has'nt it?... what do you reckon?.. is this dodgy charcoal ??... or is worth trying?..

[BigG]

Last year i made my own charcoal Specifically i used 2 types of wood.. willow and Pine.. Willow was used for my BP and pine was used for sparks..

I honestly could not tell much difference between.. either..I hope pine would produce nice sparks.. but in my case it did not.. My tiger tails stars worked ok but lacked the long tail.. mine was very short..no matter how i made the tigertail even via the wet proccess the tale remained very short..So i assume it must have been my charcoal?..
So this year just in case i'm was making my charcoal wrong i going to buy a few different types..
I remember pritch purchased some willow charcoal from Coates charcoal...Has anyone had good results from this Coates charcoal?....And also some of this Lump wood charcoal.. which i am seeing lots of at petrol stations..What is the best type to buy?...What is putting me of with BBQ charcoal is this webpage.

BBQ charcoal

If you notice that they set fire to the wood??? ..

Now thats got to be wrong has'nt it?... what do you reckon?.. is this dodgy charcoal ??... or is worth trying?..

I bealive what you see is them setting fire to the wood in the KILN - in short - they use wood to "fire the oven" - but I would suspect that the "cooking" is done in a seperate chember. How about ringing them and asking?

BBQ charcoal in this country is "cleaner" compare to imported or USA one - and in many cases will not be different then what you cook at home - but is most of the time of mixed hard wood.

Edited by BigG, 17 May 2005 - 03:43 PM.

[lord_dranack]

The traditional charcoal makers used to make a pile of wood, set a fire in it, then cover it with sods of earth while the pile burned inside with little access to oxygen. Then however many hours later (I think anything from 24 to 48)
it would be finished and the charcoal removed from the pile.

They are igniting some of the wood, then using that to turn the rest of the wood in the metal kiln into charcoal.

[paul]

Blackpowder does not give enough sparks to test any charcoal. Try using some charcoal streamer composition with it

[alany]

Senko Hanabi is a good test of your charcoal for spark forming use.

Every charcoal is different, and pine in particular is quite good (but pine soot is better). Not every charcoal that is useless in Senko Hanabi is poor in say chrysanthemum #6 though, but generally the converse is true.

[pymp]

The video doesn't appear to be working. One question that i have been wondering, i have not had the chance to start making my own BP yet, but how do i go about mixing the PN, sulphur and charcoal? do i just stir it around for ages...?

[RegimentalPyro]

I can confirm a woodfire is the way to go. I think a bag of charcoal would not generate enough heat unless it surrounded the tin and had a very good airflow

You build a nice bonfire, and when it's going strong you place your tins at the heart and then pile more wood around them. Make sure that all sides of the tins are well heated. [as a general indication of the sort of heat you are aiming for, one side of my tin was glowing red hot when it came out!]

After about 20-30mins the vent holes of your tins will stop spouting flames. That's when they're ready to come out and start cooling.

Use damp sand/earth at this point to stop air getting in via the vent holes.


The Opportunistic charcoal maker
Now as bonfires are few and far between these days, I generally keep a few tins well stocked with seasoned willow and pine. My friends are informed to let me know whenever a bonfire is taking place, whereupon round I pop with my tins and a few beers to show willing.

Edited by RegimentalPyro, 30 May 2005 - 08:49 AM.

[DrDerekDoctors]

Poot. Well, that's gonna' set me back a while then. I'll try completely surrounding the tin using the remainder of my charcoal in a wire basket I just found in the shed (from when we owned a village shop) and that should enable me to pile it up around the edges keep the stuff off the floor so plenty of air can get to it.

Fingers crossed!

[DrDerekDoctors]

Righty, took another try at it today using a construct consisting of the tin of wood resting on two bricks in a shopping basket which charcoal between the bricks and this itself resting on a further two bricks... Worked a charm! With all the exposure it burnt really hot and I had so many fumes escaping from the top of the tin I was able to light them and they kept burning for the entire duration of about 90 minutes. After that I covered it in dirt and when it had cooled down opened it up. Blimey, I was aware that the weight reduced significantly but didn't realise how much the SIZE reduced, too. It seems like there was half as much stuff in there as before and my total yield (after debarking, which was satisfying) was a massive (!) 166grams. Wooo! I shall get milling tomorrow.

[Richard H]

Sounds like a job well done, happy milling!

[mcfluffin]

Hi! I am a bit of a chemist, so I had a couple of questions about processing charcoal.
As was discussed earlier, there is probably a way to prepare standard BBQ charcoal to a better form. Since I believe that ash is potassium carbonate, which has realitivly solubity in water(I've extracted it from fireplace ash before by heating it), couldn't you mill standard BBQ charcoal and then pass hot water over it to purify it? Perhaps using a solvent like carbon tetrachloride(possibly even acetone) could be used to further purify it. This may sound like a lot of work, but I'm not in an area where I really want to produce high amounts of smoke for a couple of hours.
Also, I've heard that you can get activated carbon from fish stores. Anyone played with this as it sounds like the ideal "chacoal". Also, wouldn't graphite work in a similar manner? I have some broken carbon rods and know how to get them relativly cheaply.
Finally, out of curiosity, is the flammable gas that comes off during processing methonal? If so, it might be nice to use it for something else if I was to prepare the charcaol since I would already have to set up some sort of condensor not to attract too much attention(people think you're a terrorist in America if you do anything pyrotechnic..).
Even if you want to just yell at me because I missed the answears to these on the web or on the forums, giving me the links would help me a lot.

[RegimentalPyro]

This is a common mistake to make.

Thinks: Charcoal is just carbon right? So if I use pure carbon in the form of [insert pure carbon form here] then my BP will be oh so more powerful.

The error is to assume that the charcoal is just carbon. It isn't. It also contains resins, oils and tars. All of this handily helps the BP reaction. Some charcoals contains a high ash content when burned. This will hinder the BP reaction.

Activated charcoal is just charcoal with a *very* high surface area [2-3g = tennis court!]. This may sound like a good thing for the BP reaction, but the surface area property will be destroyed/nullified by ash as soon as it starts burning.

So what we want is a charcoal that has a low ash content. In the UK willow is used, although plum, grapevine etc can also be used with good results. If you can score some balsa charcoal then that will give the best results of all.

Sourcing small quantities of willow charcoal is not hard. Go to an art shop and ask for artists willow charcoal [sigh: How many times have I written this!]. Large quantities require a charcoal burner.

edit: spelling mistakes corrected.

Edited by RegimentalPyro, 30 June 2005 - 07:11 AM.

[Yugen-biki]

Graphite will not work.

The gas that comes out of the retort is not likely to be methanol, but a mixture of many kinds of carbohydrates. Every thing from volotile ones, to tar like ones.

Purifying BBQ coal might work and it might not. A retort made out of a tin can on the BBQ filler with a good wood will work.
Here is how I do it: http://www.a0tu.com/Yuki/Charcoal.html