Charcoal

[Brokennock]

I guess after 4 pages an almost two year break should give us sufficient time to find and answer for the o.p.

I'm sure the o.p. has been waiting patiently.

 

[IanH]

Why does resurrecting an ancient thread cause heartburn? I see that a lot across many boards on the internet and the only time it's kind of dumb is if the person bringing it back from the dead is directly answering a question from the thread starter. Even weirder if the OP's title indicates in the forum's particular manner that they have since died. But otherwise it is often someone in the middle of a binge search for an answer, which is good in my opinion, even though they may have failed to pay attention to the timeline of their search hits.

 

[IanH]

The converse of this is someone posting a thread with a question everyone on the board but them knows the answer to, and them being scolded and told to search it up and even being provided links to.......wait for it......

.......two year old threads.

 

[Dude]

Hey! Thanks for resurrecting this old thread! I've learned something new - I could use the poplar near the house, rather than wading through the brush down to the willow by the water, and then dragging it back. And the poplar might even be better than willow.

 

[Brokennock]

Why does resurrecting an ancient thread cause heartburn? I see that a lot across many boards on the internet and the only time it's kind of dumb is if the person bringing it back from the dead is directly answering a question from the thread starter. Even weirder if the OP's title indicates in the forum's particular manner that they have since died. But otherwise it is often someone in the middle of a binge search for an answer, which is good in my opinion, even though they may have failed to pay attention to the timeline of their search hits.

It doesn't necessarily cause heartburn. But it seems ridiculous sometimes. Especially when lately their seems to be a ton of them.
News flash, no one is waiting 2 or 3 or 5 years for your ultimate wisdom answer.
Start a new thread, refer to the thread that inspired it,,,, gasp,,,, one could even put in a link.
Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is an update from the o.p., occasionally it is even new info or a new perspective on the subject. But, if it is actually a new and different answer or information,,,, it even more deserves a new topic, with a reference to the old one,,,, so the new info doesn't get lost in the old thread....

Some of us come here, and other similar places, constantly hoping for someone new. New information, new historical research, a new item someone made that is inspiring, a new and thoughtful question that inspires at least a little good discussion before it derails or we get bogged down in dogma.

I apologize, one of the personality types that bugs me is an overinflated ego, and that, sometimes, is how some of these seem to me. To me it reads as someone thinking, "I don't care how old this is, I have to show off what I know or think. They haven't gotten a real answer until they have heard from me."
As I've said,,, no one was waiting years to get an answer from any of us.
Again, start a fresh thread. Start a fresh discussion.

One or two now and then is one thing, can even be amusing, but 7 in one day?

 

[Benny76]

I’ve heard of people using cedar or pine pet bedding to make their charcoal..

 

[Billbobebob]

Willow for the win, at least where I am.

Here is the science (if anyone cares):
ANY pure wood charcoal works. It is the carbon that is essential. Everything else is a contaminate. Even activated charcoal made from coconuts will work (though it's almost the worst). The difference in the type of charcoal you use is really only determinative of how much fouling and waste it generates when it burns. Obviously, what we as MLs care about is cleanliness. Hard woods burn really dirty because they are made of way more polysaccharides (cellulose C6 H10 05), which is essentially (chemically speaking) a long chain sugar. Ever burned sugar? That's mostly a type of what you're swabbing out of your barrel.

The amount of cellulose in the charcoal is determinative. The more cellulose in the wood the higher the Janka hardness of the wood, and the more fouling it will generate.

Alder buckthorn (what's in Swiss) and willow are pretty darned soft for easily harvestable woods that will keep the fouling down, but people generally don't make anything from them because most of the time they're almost more of a bush without a good trunk to harvest for making things, so they don't end up on discussions of the hardness of woods (mostly done by woodworkers). For actual trees all you have to do is look at the Janka hardness to tell how much fouling it will generate:
https://www.wood-database.com/top-ten-softest-woods/
The softest woods have the least "sugar" in them, so they will make the cleanest charcoal. QED.
Balsa is expensive, and it makes an incredibly fluffy, dusty charcoal that when crushed is a hassle to work with, but it burns so clean you won't believe it. I don't know where alder buckthorn or willow is on the Janka scale, but it's probably at least above balsa and paulownia (the wood they make surfboards out of).

The charcoal choice is about clean burning only. That's why any will work for fireworks. It doesn't matter. For our purposes you may as well buy Swiss if you're going to try and make the best (cleanest) you can, because it almost costs about the same unless you have a stand of balsa or paulownia ($$$) on your land and can make better than store bought. I only have access to willow, and it works about the same as Alder Buckthorn. If you stay on that list (under a Janka of 350, meaning low cellulose woods) it won't be as clean as Swiss, but it won't be a fouley, cakey, mess either.

You know, this is 14th century technology. Ancient by any measure. I find it ironic that we can't talk directly about something so old, widely known, and well trod. That is a very sad commentary on the world under which we are living in today, and the palpable fear that our own government is doing all it can to instill in us. Fear begets fear, and that seems to be their business.
"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -Thomas Jefferson
You know, the second amendment isn't in our Constitution for hunting or hobbies. It is specifically there as a check on power.
It use to be that we all operated under that maxim. I don't think we do anymore. Does that strike you as a something a just government, instituted to protect and defend our liberty, would do? It doesn't to me. Thomas Jefferson was right about so very much, and his words right true through history as if he said them yesterday.

You are 100 percent correct on everything you have said . I happen to have balsa trees and another tree called a matapalo tree both make great charcoal. Here in Costa Rica they are considered junk trees . People will just give you the trees if you cut them down.

 

[IanH]

It doesn't necessarily cause heartburn. But it seems ridiculous sometimes. Especially when lately their seems to be a ton of them.
News flash, no one is waiting 2 or 3 or 5 years for your ultimate wisdom answer.
Start a new thread, refer to the thread that inspired it,,,, gasp,,,, one could even put in a link.
Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is an update from the o.p., occasionally it is even new info or a new perspective on the subject. But, if it is actually a new and different answer or information,,,, it even more deserves a new topic, with a reference to the old one,,,, so the new info doesn't get lost in the old thread....

Some of us come here, and other similar places, constantly hoping for someone new. New information, new historical research, a new item someone made that is inspiring, a new and thoughtful question that inspires at least a little good discussion before it derails or we get bogged down in dogma.

I apologize, one of the personality types that bugs me is an overinflated ego, and that, sometimes, is how some of these seem to me. To me it reads as someone thinking, "I don't care how old this is, I have to show off what I know or think. They haven't gotten a real answer until they have heard from me."
As I've said,,, no one was waiting years to get an answer from any of us.
Again, start a fresh thread. Start a fresh discussion.

One or two now and then is one thing, can even be amusing, but 7 in one day?

Thank you for the well-reasoned explanation. I did not perceive any of that from your previous post, it showed up to me as an indignant rant from one of the personality types that happens to rub ME wrong, which is the "self-righteous" controlling type. I see I was wrong in my perception and also that you bring up some good points that make me reconsider my opinion of dead thread resurrection.

 

[BBGun]

No answer on the aspen? I can get alot of aspen. On willow does it matter if its weepeing willow or whatever. A few yards around have willows but not sure which species. They hand low etc. I could get some of this.

I believe it's weeping willow.

 

[BBGun]

The castboolits forum has a large powder making sticky at the top of their muzzleloading page.. Just saying.

Thanks,
I joined that bunch a while back, almost forgot about them.

 

[Brokennock]

Thank you for the well-reasoned explanation. I did not perceive any of that from your previous post, it showed up to me as an indignant rant from one of the personality types that happens to rub ME wrong, which is the "self-righteous" controlling type. I see I was wrong in my perception and also that you bring up some good points that make me reconsider my opinion of dead thread resurrection.

I guess you could chalk up my initial reaction to disappointment. I open the bold faced topics, the ones with new responses, with some excitement at something potentially new and interesting. Combine that with what seems like a lot of resurrected threads/topics lately and I get bummed out.

Thanks for extending a bit of grace and understanding.

 

[HighUintas]

To make good charcoal. As someone pointed out, keep the retort tempt under 600F. Kill the cook when the offgassing just starts to dwindle a bit. All wood pieces should be as uniform in size as possible. Dry the wood before charring. Remove all bark, bark seams, knots, pith, etc. Don't let dirt get into your charcoal wood. Don't cut your wood with the same saw you have used for metal.

Woods: Paulownia, balsa, sassafras, willow (black being best), black alder, cedar picket, eastern red cedar, quaking Aspen, southern red maple...

You want the ash content of the charcoal to be 2.5% or less. You want the creosote content to be high as possible. Buckthorn alder, which is the best of best, meets both of these criteria.

 

[reddogge]

I haven't heard NJ white cedar mentioned. I have lots of it since I carve decoys and have a good supply of it and am always generating scraps.

 

[BBGun]

I haven't heard NJ white cedar mentioned. I have lots of it since I carve decoys and have a good supply of it and am always generating scraps.

Try just a small amount, curious how it does.

 

[Piquant]

I haven't heard NJ white cedar mentioned. I have lots of it since I carve decoys and have a good supply of it and am always generating scraps.

I haven't heard NJ white cedar mentioned. I have lots of it since I carve decoys and have a good supply of it and am always generating scraps.

I used cedar fence boards with great satisfaction. Which I believe is western red cedar. I would give white cedar a try, I think it would work well. Let us know.

 

[Rob M.]

To the original question ....how long to " cook " the wood till it is made into charcoal . Keep the container on the fire until smoke and fire stop coming out the hole in the can , then take it off the fire and set aside . Open it up the next day ...

 

[Muzzle57]

To the original question ....how long to " cook " the wood till it is made into charcoal . Keep the container on the fire until smoke and fire stop coming out the hole in the can , then take it off the fire and set aside . Open it up the next day ...

Stick a piece of dowel rod into the opening in the lid to keep oxygen out and igniting the material.

 

[oldwood]

When we were kids back in the 1950's , we would buy powsered charcoal at the drug store. We used it to make our own black powder.

 

[mtsage]

View attachment 249888
View attachment 249887
I guess after 4 pages an almost two year break should give us sufficient time to find and answer for the o.p.

I'm sure the o.p. has been waiting patiently.

Well I’m the OP of this post. It went way beyond what I had hoped for. Lots of good info posted by many diff peeps. Can’t imagine any more info being posted on this subject.

 

[Brokennock]

Can’t imagine any more info being posted on this subject

Oh,,,, just you wait.....