Bulk Producing Pine Charcoal

[PyroPortrayal]

You might need to dry it in a drying box, dehumidifier, or really low temp oven to get all the water out. Some people experience comps balling up or coating the sides of their ball mill because the chems have a tiny amount of moisture in them. Supposedly charcoal is usually the culprit.

[MrThahey]

how well does pine charcoal work for iron smelting?

[Nighthawkinlight]

@MrThahey It may burn hot enough, but it will likely burn too quickly to get iron up to temperature. You may want to look elsewhere besides a wood charcoal.

[garrett2119]

if its made right pine charoal can be used for cooking, you just have to make sure that its "cooked" long enough for all the resins to burn out

[Nighthawkinlight]

@garrett2119 Yes, it could be safely used, but it burns extremely quickly compared to other harder charcoals. Because of the low density it would require much more by volume to cook and constant feeding to replenish what turns to ash.

[pliedas]

so pine charcoal is ok to cook with too?

[Nighthawkinlight]

@pliedas No. Pine burns too quickly and with too much resin for use in cooking. Ideally, you would want a hardwood like hickory, oak, ash, maple...Be sure you are not using a wood that is poisonous.

[mjw789234]

why would u want pine charcoal?

[Nighthawkinlight]

@mjw789234 Pine is ideal for many uses in fireworks.

[MacsCanfly]

i just picked up a 20 pound bag of 100% all natural charcoal for 12$ bucks

[flashsn1pe]

if you put water on the charcol and ball mill it with black powder it sticks inside of i i just let it burn its self out

[TheBombBros]

so the charcoal is what you cook with or an ingrediant in bp? cant you use it for both?

[Nighthawkinlight]

I use it for BP and other fireworks.

[ther0flcopter]

hahah enough charcoal?

[iDrawYouChoob]

I just buy BBQ charcoal because i'm lazy lol

[solidacid1337]

don't, most BBQ briquettes contain clay.

[japanesepoptart]

@iDrawYouChoob

Pine is better.

The type of charcoal, hardness of the wood, type of wood, and grandulation size all affect the preformance of both black powder and many other compositions

I know some other good types of wood are; willow, maple, balsa(expensive), and also pouplar, but I haven't tried pouplar for myself.

[PyroFacinatioN]

So when you say half of the wood is burned, you mean that half of the wood turns into ashes and the rest is good? logic :D

[Nighthawkinlight]

Indeed. The way I make charcoal is rather hard to explain, and I imagine quite hard to duplicate. It's based off an ancient method in which wood would be placed at the bottom of a fire, and much would be burned above it, heating the lower wood to charcoal but having so much fire above that no oxygen could get through.

That should answer the comment you made on my other video. Also, for charcoal you should strip all the bark off the wood you are using before cooking.

[purgatoryironworks]

Im curious as to why this is hard to duplicate. This method is as simple as they come. Also, Id like to know your reason for stripping the bark before you coal the wood.

Thanks

[Nighthawkinlight]

It is difficult to duplicate because it takes some practice to keep all the wood from becoming contaminated with ash. I strip the bark because it makes inferior charcoal.

I have a much more reliable method for making charcoal in a more recent video titled 'how to make fireworks grade charcoal'.

[Jeffrocket55]

Im using sawdust and after filtering it yeilds great charcoal.

[pyrofun3]

hmm, i never sprayed all i do is get a drum than put some wood in their than light in on fire than the charcoal is bright red hot i let it cool down than it goes black than i just ball mill it and use it bp works verry good and produces fast bp but one thing i hate is that every time there charcoal goes out there is some white stuff i suspect that is the oxidezed charcoal i just brush it of do you wreckan im doing it good i will spray it for now on

[Nighthawkinlight]

My method is pretty refined to keep ash from contaminating my charcoal. You may want to look into making a retort and cooking your charcoal the standard way. Look on pyroguide(dot)com or apcforum(dot)net to see how.

[NielsMF]

so.. why are you spraying it in the end? wasn't the charcoal in a can inside the fire? or did you just burned the wood, and made out the fire just in time preventing it would turn into ash?

[Nighthawkinlight]

I simply burned the wood. I pile it all in a corner to allow the wood burning on top to cook the coals beneath it. Their burning also removes any oxygen that would get into my charcoal. It needs to be sprayed as soon as the fire is out to cool the charcoal down before it oxidizes.

[9DragonMaster]

@Nighthawkinlight why spray it down??? What are you spraying it with? water or with alchohol? i always transfer it straight into plastic bags once the lid cools off. My result was really good lift powder grade bp using cedar and 13 hour mill. I'm about to make pinecone charcoal since I've ran out of wood to use, can I use a 2x4 which is typically douglas fir? I went to lowes and home depot looking at the names of the woods they had, rubbish. Any tips? I've got lots of 2x4's and pinecones

[MDHmodder]

I am using scotch pine right now. It is wicked fast.

[Nighthawkinlight]

Very good. Whatever has the results you want is a good way to go with charcoal.

[progamer246]

u've got a good fire started right there!

[DarkStar851]

He's not trying to make fire, he's trying to make Charcol! :)

[WiLsOnPrOdUcTiOnS666]

hey man great vid, are charcoal briquettes ane good for bp? 5/5

[Nighthawkinlight]

No unfortunately not. Natural bbq charcoal will work, but it is quite poor in preformance.

[WiLsOnPrOdUcTiOnS666]

ok thanks man i will give yourmethod ago, u seem to know wat ur doing by the looks of your other vids :)

[techohead01]

for charcoaling i built a small brick furnace, and i keep a large wood fire going, and rotate paint tins full of willow in the fire for about 4 hours. if i keep charcoaling for about 8-10 hours straight, i can produce 1KG of excellent quality willow charcoal. how does your method compare in regards to time efficciency and quality? because charcoal should be made in a completely airtight environment to prevent oxidising into ash.

[Nighthawkinlight]

Time is great, it only takes about 45 minutes. Quality is also very good for this particular type of charcoal, it produces exceedingly fast black powder. It does have a low efficiency, about half of the wood is burned to make the other half into charcoal, but that is fine for me seeing as I am in the tree removal business and am never short on wood.

[Fatboys714]

Where do I go to buy this?

[Nighthawkinlight]

The cooker is just made of folded sheet metal. If you want charcoal I suggest artisancharcoal

[kno3dude]

now i know what to do with the barbaque this summer:)thanks for great advice vid,how long do you flush it,and when do you take it out of the fire,if its a secret, its ok:)or i am available for pm aswell,regards from vikingland

[Nighthawkinlight]

I keep washing it until no more gray water runs off, and then about 5 minutes after that. I will take it out of the fire after stirring the coals several times under the burning wood, and taking samples of the largest coals out and breaking them in half. If there is no brown wood inside the largest pieces it all is done.

[Pyrotecnican]

Vikingland? Norway or somewere around there?

[kno3dude]

jepp, you got it right:)

[burnaboy66]

Nice gotta try that, thrn i dont need to buy :P. btw, is that charcoal pretty solid like barbecue coal? or is it easy to grind?

[Nighthawkinlight]

It depends on the wood. With this lightweight white pine it is a very soft charcoal. With some other woods such as grapevine or ash it is very hard.

[Xxdarkness21xX]

wow thats a great idea

thats alot of charcoal! nice vid 5/5 =)

[Nighthawkinlight]

The stuff makes my fastest BP. Same stuff I sold to you actually. How's that been working out btw?

[Xxdarkness21xX]

good, i need some better quality tubes dang things keep blowing up lol.....but yea its very fast faster than the balsa

[shamushi]

cool, clever, clean. Yet another great idea from you!

[dtwresstlingxx]

very

[Nighthawkinlight]

Thanks, I appreciate the comment