Interesting to watch on a cold snowy evening.
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Ah so Missa Don. You bring on new thoughts Hi.
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The White Charcoal is almost " bio graphite ".
At this level or refinement its better than anthracite coal
I have often thought about trying to make it myself using one of these retorts.
http://iwasaki-sumiyaki.com/esub2.htm
And I have seen these for sale here but I don’t know anyone that uses these Japanses style white charcoal hand warmers ( from Ebay )
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I have used them and they work great. No smell, last for hours. You can put them in your coat sleeves and your hands will stay harm in your gloves. No need to wear heavy insulated bulky gloves.
Keep on Gasifiing. Bob
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I always wondered how they made those… Hookahs use that stuff on foil to give a long lasting clean heat to slowly burn the product.
As a kid, I had one of the hand warmers like pictured, but we could never find fuel sources for it. Now I know.
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Very interesting video. Thanks for the share.
I also had a charcoal hand warmer, worked great, but as Brian noted, fuel was very hard to find. To hear sticks of charcoal ring like metal when struck together is almost unbelievable. Very interesting, Don, thanks for posting.
We’ve just had our coldest day this winter, this am it’s freezing rain with 2-4" of snow this pm. The next 7 days will be in the 30’s and low 40’s. Weirdest winter I can remember.
Pepe
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I too am interested in making some charcoal. My neighbor has a lot of 3-4’ wood of various diams ready to use when I want.
Very detailed construction pics, thanks for posting.
Pepe
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I was interested how the charcoal worked out cooking the rice in the video .
Hope wife don’t run me out of the house tomorrow morning when I try adding some charcoal to her grits 
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That was a new one for me too. Can’t wait to hear my wifey scream when I try this. Also using charcoal to keep veggies fresh was new. A piece of charcoal the size of the end of your thumb has the surface area of a football field.
I needed a little oven for molding ABS plastic in an off the grid location in Africa so tried charcoal. I built an oven inside of an insulated 5 gallon bucket. Charcoal burns so evenly that it held an even 350F for one hour on one cup of charcoal. Great stuff!
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The production of white charcoal is thermal process above 700F for longer periods of time.
This process is cooking the carbon black down to form new bonds.
The conclusion of this process require more heat and pressure and time, but eventually leads to nano tubes Bucky balls and even diamonds.
You can make charcoal at lower temperatures, but not graphite and this is what makes the white charcoal ring like metal when tapped together.
This white charcoal is so good at what it does for heating its better than Anthracite,
Also White charcoal is conductive because of it’s construction, Carbon black in regular charcoal is basically not…
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My retort gets up to 1100F inside and makes ringing charcoal. It is very conductive. Put two car batteries in series and put pieces of my charcoal in jumper cables. Strike together for a super bright and hot carbon arc. I assume the “white” coating comes from the clay that is used to cover the charcoal when it comes out of the kiln.
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wayne your wife appears to be very understanding but she just might think the day has come and have you committed
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Thanks for the video, Don. Notice the guy with the chainsaw needs some safety training…! Seems like I could hear an interesting guitar tune in that video.
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Your making the good stuff Bruce.
Do you make sticks too or just large chunks?
Graphite has a metallic looking quality too it.
I carry a bottle of it at work to blow into looks.
At the end of the day my finger tips have a silvery/black metallic shimmer from the keys I handle.
I know the ash is said to make it look white but I think some of the reflective shine enhances the white look of it.
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Bruce, You mind showing us your setup?
White charcoal… or Binchotan, coming from the japanes… the last stage of cooking the charcoal is the quick rising of the temperature in the kiln above 1000°C, glowing the charcoal and then smother it with a special mix from sand, dust and “secret” ingredients…
The white shinny shell comes from a short oxydation with a little air in the sand.
more info;
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I think this link will take you to the beginning of some pics of my retort: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/charcoalgasifiers/photos/photostream/lightbox/227717049?orderBy=mtime&sortOrder=desc&photoFilter=ALL#
Click on the arrow on the right to progress through the slides.
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From the pictures it appears that you have really done a lot of work with charcoal. A picture is worth 1000 words, BUT, a picture can conger up a 1000 questions. So much interesting stuff that I didn’t really understand, but thank you anyway. I will have to go back and digest what I can from the pictures. TomC
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