Homemade Hardwood Charcoal
Channel: StarkRavenStudios
Date: 2013-01-14

Here's how I make charcoal for blacksmithing. I like this better than coal for a number of reasons: it's a cleaner fuel in terms of emissions and pollutants, there's no clinker to deal with (but more ash -- a large flue is a good idea), and a lot quicker to start. I can be taking my first heat about a minute and a half after setting a match to a half-sheet of newspaper, a pine cone, or a few scraps of birch bark to start the charcoal. I do use a much greater volume of charcoal than I used to use of coal for the same work, but I expect the weight of fuel used is about the same.

I do prefer hardwood to softwood for charcoal in the forge. The softwood charcoal burns away faster, and it takes an even greater volume of fuel to do the same work than I would burn of hardwood charcoal. Also, the ash from softwood charcoal really irritates my eyes and nose! But some folks love it, so try it out. You can mix hardwood and softwood charcoal after they've been converted, but don't try to make charcoal from both together: the softwood will be all consumed before the hardwood is completely converted, and you'll get poor yields.

There are other ways to make charcoal, but this is my favorite after trying several approaches. I like it because it's easy to set up, there's no open flame other than that escaping the top of the flue pipe,and I don't burn any extra fuel just to maintain the heat. Once started, it's self-peretuating until it gets to the bottom of the batch.

I'll be posting another video soon about how this type of process (TLUD: Top-Lit Updraft gasification) works.