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Here's how I go about making my fuel for blacksmithing.
I use the same technique that has been in practice for thousands of years which can be seen in good detail being used by Primitive Technology on youtube.
A conical stack of wood is made, tightly set together so there's few or no air gaps.
Big pieces in the middle, thin pieces on the outer sides, small pieces packed here and there.
There are actually many different ways to go about making a charcoal mound, each charcoal maker had their own way of stacking tending to it.
Though all of still focuses on the wood needing to burn very slowly and with as little oxygen as possible so it doesn't turn to ash.
If fire is seen from any of the small vent holes it has to be plugged up so oxygen isn't fed into the mound.
Before coal was regularly used, charcoal was the main source of fuel for the production of iron as well as the working of such iron by blacksmiths. It was also the main fuel for just about anything that required an exceptionally high temperature.
Whole acres of forests were cut down and huge mounds of wood about the size of a moving van or even larger were made and plumes of smoke billowed out of them for days while the men who built such large hills of charcoal tended to them.
It was quite a dangerous job and charcoal makers were quite solitary and funny people.
I use the same technique that has been in practice for thousands of years which can be seen in good detail being used by Primitive Technology on youtube.
A conical stack of wood is made, tightly set together so there's few or no air gaps.
Big pieces in the middle, thin pieces on the outer sides, small pieces packed here and there.
There are actually many different ways to go about making a charcoal mound, each charcoal maker had their own way of stacking tending to it.
Though all of still focuses on the wood needing to burn very slowly and with as little oxygen as possible so it doesn't turn to ash.
If fire is seen from any of the small vent holes it has to be plugged up so oxygen isn't fed into the mound.
Before coal was regularly used, charcoal was the main source of fuel for the production of iron as well as the working of such iron by blacksmiths. It was also the main fuel for just about anything that required an exceptionally high temperature.
Whole acres of forests were cut down and huge mounds of wood about the size of a moving van or even larger were made and plumes of smoke billowed out of them for days while the men who built such large hills of charcoal tended to them.
It was quite a dangerous job and charcoal makers were quite solitary and funny people.
Category Crafting / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1232 x 1200px
File Size 2.59 MB
I used to make charcoal in a much more inefficient way before I moved. I actually still did it, but on a slightly larger scale.
The way I used to make it was to use a barrel, or any sort of closable steel vessel and fill it with hard woods and light a fire around it to heat the barrel up and turn that wood into charcoal.
This gives good results, but there are many many issues with it.
1. The barrel or canister degrades over time from the excessive heat, causing its wall thickness to flake away in the form of scale as it oxidizes.
This destroys the barrel and renders it useless as a barrel. So, another one will need to be used.
2. The canister has to be packed very tightly full of dry wood or else it won't hold a significant amount to be worth the effort. There needs to be VERY LITTLE air spaces inside.
Sometimes even a greatly filled barrel full of wood could end up with half of the barrel containing charcoal.
This is due to the amount of volatiles driven off from the process. Gasses, oils, water vapor.
3. You have to use twice as much wood than you actually put into the barrel to make a batch of charcoal. The vessel needs to be heated with a fuel to convert the wood inside into a higher quality fuel.
This is unnecessarily wasteful because that wood could be used for heating something else or even be used for carving. I used to use a soft hardwood that is very abundant and not really good for making charcoal out of as the fuel to heat the barrel. It was quite exhausting to have to gather two different types of wood and sometimes need even more just to finish the batch.
4. The vessel you use has limitations in the amount of wood it can hold inside, sometimes I've ended up making 2-3 batches in one day and the amount I made from that is far less than the amount I can make using the mound method.
I'm able to fill a large wheel barrow full of charcoal after just one session using the mound.
The way I used to make it was to use a barrel, or any sort of closable steel vessel and fill it with hard woods and light a fire around it to heat the barrel up and turn that wood into charcoal.
This gives good results, but there are many many issues with it.
1. The barrel or canister degrades over time from the excessive heat, causing its wall thickness to flake away in the form of scale as it oxidizes.
This destroys the barrel and renders it useless as a barrel. So, another one will need to be used.
2. The canister has to be packed very tightly full of dry wood or else it won't hold a significant amount to be worth the effort. There needs to be VERY LITTLE air spaces inside.
Sometimes even a greatly filled barrel full of wood could end up with half of the barrel containing charcoal.
This is due to the amount of volatiles driven off from the process. Gasses, oils, water vapor.
3. You have to use twice as much wood than you actually put into the barrel to make a batch of charcoal. The vessel needs to be heated with a fuel to convert the wood inside into a higher quality fuel.
This is unnecessarily wasteful because that wood could be used for heating something else or even be used for carving. I used to use a soft hardwood that is very abundant and not really good for making charcoal out of as the fuel to heat the barrel. It was quite exhausting to have to gather two different types of wood and sometimes need even more just to finish the batch.
4. The vessel you use has limitations in the amount of wood it can hold inside, sometimes I've ended up making 2-3 batches in one day and the amount I made from that is far less than the amount I can make using the mound method.
I'm able to fill a large wheel barrow full of charcoal after just one session using the mound.
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