Charcoal and other Fuels

Charcoal and Other Fuels

To view the Flash MP3 Player please update your Flash Player.

Audio Archive for the Tinkers Shop 11-02-13 (Right-Click to Download)

Some Standard Forge Fuels
Hardwood Charcoal - Home made	Anthricite Coal - Best	Lignite Coal - Poor	Natural Gas 20#	Natural Gas 100#

Hardwood Charcoal - Commercial	Bituminous Coal - Tarry	Coke - Coal after heating	Natural Gas 34#

Three ways to make Charcoal
Build a Bonfire	Make it in a Vertical Barrel	Use a Horizontal Retort

This is the simplest and most primitive way to make Charcoal. Clear a fairly large area of anything even remotely flammable, stack up your wood and light it off! Keep feeding your fire until you have a large pile of glowing embers. Drown your fire and wait till the next day. Separate out your larger pieces of charcoal and let dry till ready to use. Any of the pieces too small can be saved, crushed further and turned into your garden!	Take a 55 gallon drum with a removable lid. Stand it up with the open end up. At the bottom, cut six 1” holes evenly spaced around the perimeter as intake vents. Fill the barrel with small wood- the main thing is that you have the barrel fairly tightly packed. Start a fire on top of the barrelful of wood. Let it burn down to the bottom vents- this might take 6 or 8 hours. Put the lid on the barrel, and toss some dirt on the vents to seal them. Come back in the morning when it’s cooled, and harvest your charcoal. This method can also be used to make bio-char for gardens.	This is my favorite way to make charcoal for smithing. The photo above is of a dual barrel setup which uses 55 gallon drums which have a 'bung' on the side near the bottom. This one uses 2" pipe exclusively to form the 'burner' assembly. Three elbows, one close nipple, one 6" pipe, one 24" pipe, a 36" pipe and an end cap comprise the list of materials. The builder drilled 1/2" holes every 6" down each side of the 36" pipe that goes under the barrel. When screwed in he made sure the holes were pointing left and right so that the flames would be directed around both sides of the barrel. The entire assembly is put into an enclosure, filled with wood, and a fire lit below the drums.

There is a fourth method of producing charcoal and that is thru the use of a Kiln (which is basically a much larger form of retort).

An example of one such is located at the following web site: Radtke Charcoal Kiln

A Charcoal Retort in action
The making of charcoal was once a major industry around the world. It was used to fuel the early iron smelters and in the production of wrought iron itself. It was also used as a barter item. Blacksmiths who did not have ready access to coal of high enough quality to fuel their forges would sometimes accept charcoal from customers as payment against their blacksmithing bill, or they would purchase charcoal from local colliers.
	A semi-side view of the 'burner pipe' Notice the flames coming out around the lid of the barrel.
In this shot there are some interesting things to note: This drum used a clamp-on lid with a 2" large bung and a 1" small one. I used two 1" close nipples, two 2" -> 1 1/2" reduction couplings, two 1 1/2" elbows, one 24" long 1 1/2" pipe, one 36" long 2" pipe, and a 2" end cap to make my burner assembly. When I drilled out the 2: pipe I drilled two rows of 5/16" alond the length of the pipe about 3" apart. The two rows were drilled at the 10 and 2 oclock positions as viewed from the end. When the gasses from the charring wood in the retort come thru these holes the wood-gas is directed along the sides of the barrell acting much like the burners on a stove. The 'back' end of the burner assembly is held up by a rock in the fire.
	A front view of the retort in action.
The gasses will start slowly and you will see flames just licking out of the holes drilled in the bottom pipe. A single barrel will take about 20-30 minutes to start producing gas. In about 5 or 10 minutes it will be like a pressurized gas valve was turned on. Flames will shoot out the holes, hit the side walls travel up and around the barrels accompanied by a loud roaring sound. Hardwood is not be as dramatic but pine really puts on a show. Once the gases ignite, you don't need to add any more fuel. During the first part of the burn there will be a lot of smoke, some of it quite black. Once it really gets going though, there will just be an incredible amount of heat. Let it burn until the fire dies on its own, about 2 hours. This means all the gases have been driven off. It is best to let it cool down overnight. Opening it too soon and allowing air in can ignite the hot charcoal.

Yield for Retort production of charcoal.

Load the barrel(s) with the short stuff. Around 12" or less. Use the longer pieces for fuel. Don't pack the wood into the barrel. There needs to be some space for the gas to escape the wood. If you are too neat about how you put the wood in, it is like trying to char one big piece of wood.	Here is the charcoal just after opening the lids. Wear a respirator, there will be a lot of fine charcoal dust in the air as you shovel it. You can get some idea of the volume loss by comparing to the picture before the burn. This burn used nearly a barrels worth of wood for fuel. So in the end it may all even out. You can't get something for nothing.