The GOOD, The BAD, The UGLY, WOOD for Charcoal Making

Hi Giorgio, we have around 10% rain fall a year here and over 270 days of sun shine. Drying the charcoal in 55 gallon barrels is no problem with vent holes in the bottom and uncovered on top on sunny days.
I like using my charcoal damp 10 % moisture anyways. I use down draft gasifiers.
The best thing is no charcoal ash or dust to contend with. I do not use my crusher/trommal classifier screen unit at all any more.
I have built my units to handle 1" to 1/8" size mix of charcoal.
Bob

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The Firewood Poem

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut’s only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E’en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter’s cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

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The fire gathering is over early tonight but there is plenty of charcoal made while enjoy friends we haven’t seen in for months.


A little over a 1/4 of a barrel full. Just need to cool it down with water for the night.
Bob

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Pulling wood out of the two year old cherry wood pile that was piling up. The ground squirrels decided that it would make a wonderful place for a home under the pile. Ugly wood under the dirt they piled on it the bad molded wood will all go to the fire pit once it dry out, it will still make good charcoal. We will have a fire gathering tomorrow night, more charcoal making. The clean dry good wood will go through the chunked for the wood burn truck. No wasted wood. Some of the wood is going to the wood pile for the wood stove for next season.

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Running that ugly wood in your chunker must be a challenge

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Only the more kinda straight ugly ones. The chunker changes there ugliness into beautiful chunked pieces of gasifier fuel. What a transformation.

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Michael, glad to hear from you. We haven’t heard from you in a while.
Did you finish your massive trunks? They seemed even more challanging to me.
Caught any fish in your back yard lately? :smile:

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Well it finally happened with all of the charcoal making from just the fire gatherings. If you going to have a problem it might as well be a good one. Where to store all this extra charcoal after drying it down to about 10 % moisture content.







Charcoal stored in 55 gallon barrels, plastic barrels, garbage can, and of course feed bags. I even have charcoal stored in my car top carrier that will go on top of my 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
So the plan is to clear out a area by the charcoal making operation next to the poplar trees and build a cover over the storage area using the poplar trees.


I know it is not on high ground but it does have good drainage from the fire pit area, and the sprinkler system can be redirected away from this area. I will put some pallets down and a couple of Apple bins on top to hold the charcoal in and start filling them up. One Apple bin can probably hold half what I have right now stored up. I will be able to pull up with in a few feet of the storage area to refuel the vehicles when driving on charcoal or wood. The chunker is going to be moved where the wood pile is located right now to make a pull through parking area and wood/charcoal refueling station.

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This will give me some incentive to get my new storage area done. Crooked branches that will not go through the chunker so it is open fire pit charcoal making tonight with friends and family. I love these fire gatherings, I have lost count of how many I have been to. Good times around a campfire.

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