Most of my charcoal is from soft wood and doesn’t ring. I do recall that some of it did ring, maybe from hard wood.
Mine is a mix of Birch, Cherry and maple. I have no always thought that the higher the temp it is cooked at the better, but I guess there is no such thing as bad char. Just some is better
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Before I shovel the glowing char into my cooling bucket I like to stir it up and get it very active. This makes it a bit harder to get close to the furnace but it allows me to flip back any pieces that are burning yellow. The char I shovel out always has a nice blue flame to it so I expect it is fully baked.
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So I dug out another plastic barrel with a lid and got the bagged char transferred into it before it rained here for two days but that barrel is now close to being full. I think i see an end to this problem though since a friend dropped off a gift of four plastic barrels with screw on lids. Between the extreme temperature season coming to an end in about a month and four empty barrels I think I am good for storage for this year.
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Reading your post reminded me that I have a batch ready to harvest now too.
Questain for the charco reapers. How small of a peice of wood is best for turning too charco, or how hard would it be too turn a full pallet into charco with smoke free burn,or is a. Full pallet too large.???And allso is there a way too sell charco profitable without any over regulated bs. Thanks.
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Hi Kevin are you thinking of charcoaling whole pallets on say a bonfire or breaking them down so they will fit into a drum ? , pallet wood makes great engine grade fuel if they are hardwood pallets , softwood ones tend to be a lot dustier when sizing down , as for selling charcoal , yep can be done but remember charcoal for cooking is normally sold by weight and so is not normally clean enough for engines , and i wouldn’t use pallet wood for cooking unless you can say hand on heart there is no preservatives coating them , as food grade pallets have some sort of coating on them .
Dave
Yes i was just thinking how one could turn hole pallet or pallets stacked up into charco, maybe its best cut them up smaller and burn in a 250 gallon drum maybe.?Thanks dave. PS ENGINE FUEL
consider a standard 275 gallon heating oil tank laid down with side cut out to receive whole pallet. use a leaf blower and air manifold to create a smoke free curtain kiln.
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Thanks Bruce for the idea on pallet char, im am not sure how too put a sheet curtain, could you draw a ruff sketch and effect how works too lesson or smoke free, i am new too smoke free charcoling.Thanks.
Kevin,
See Making Charcoal without Smoke topic under the Charcoal category for this and other smoke free ideas.
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Thanks Bruce i might try the barrel retort with afterburner barrel on top of the wood storage Barrel for starters.
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Kevin,
Even with an afterburner, I still get quite a bit of smoke from the retort. I think some type of cone or pyramid kiln is better because you are feeding stock gradually. Just takes time. A curtain kiln is the most smoke free IMO. The disadvantage of the curtain kiln is high heat. Barrels will burn out quickly without SS and you need gloves and face shield for feeding.
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Thanks Bruce i will check out the other type charco maker units.
My charcoal fire log has seen better days. I have made 65 gallons in this vessel in my wood stove that heats my shop this winter. I used it some last year as well. I don’t remember how much last year but not nearly as much. The top of the log it the filler of my upgraded simple fire.
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Way to go! That is getting your money’s worth out of a piece of pipe. I made out of a fire extinguisher that looks almost that bad.
Stainless flue liner holds up better. I have harvested about 40 feet of 6 inch flexible flue liner. All free as leftover cut off pieces thrown out by a local stove shop after relining jobs.
Lately I’ve been using a 6 qt bain marie.
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I noticed that distinct melted snow look around my 5 gallon cooling bucket yesterday. It normally doesn’t bleed that much heat so I checked it and it had glowing coals and hot sides. The last harvest was 16 hrs before in the dark and I had put the lid on upside down so it didn’t seal. I know I lost 4 inches in height, not sure yet how much of the rest is ok or ash in the pail.
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You have to hate it when that happens. Oh well still plenty of heating season left. And then there is the maple syrup season CV too.
I lost some last year before I figured out I couldn’t put hot coals in a fairly full steel barrel without a good lid. This is my first problem with the pail.
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I made my first video yesterday to show my sifting, storing and then harvesting of charcoal. I sift and store cold charcoal that has been sitting in the steel cooling pail for at least a day. This also allows me to use a plastic barrel as primary storage rather than continually emptying my steel barrel into plastic to make room. I have had a bit of trouble watching the video online and will try to fix that after getting some tech help. No dialogue and the sound gets out of sync with the video so I recommend watching with the volume off, you are mostly missing scraping, pouring and clanging noises.
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