Lumpwood charcoal

locky76

Anyone out there making lumpwood charcoal?
It seems to be fairly vibrant in the uk but I haven't seen much of it in Ireland.
Is it a potential business opportunity?

timfromtang

howdy,
we make a little charcoal here, using the two barrel retort method, we use the lumpwood charcoal we produce for hobby forging (my son likes to make knives) and for some of our firewood customers who like a barbie in the summer.
It is fun to make, lots of impressive big flames etc
tim

wayoutwest

Hi Tim
Any chance that you could post up pics of your retort kiln?
I would love to make my own barbeque charcoal plus have a go at making artists drawing charcoal at the same time. I read somewhere that you can make this by putting a few handfulls of small willow sticks in a biscuit tin, pack with sawdust, and then put in the kiln along with the main lumpwood.

locky76

timfromtang wrote: »

howdy,
we make a little charcoal here, using the two barrel retort method, we use the lumpwood charcoal we produce for hobby forging (my son likes to make knives) and for some of our firewood customers who like a barbie in the summer.
It is fun to make, lots of impressive big flames etc
tim

Cheers Tim, I'm fascinated by it really- smoke, fire and chainsaw work, what's not to like!

timfromtang

wayoutwest wrote: »

Hi Tim
Any chance that you could post up pics of your retort kiln?
I would love to make my own barbeque charcoal plus have a go at making artists drawing charcoal at the same time. I read somewhere that you can make this by putting a few handfulls of small willow sticks in a biscuit tin, pack with sawdust, and then put in the kiln along with the main lumpwood.

tis nithing to look at, i simply use a 100 liter iron barell full o sticks inverted into a 200 litre (45 gal) barrell sealed against the floor, and stack loadsa small stick san such around to completel fill the 45 gal barel, light it, whack on the lid with a chimney pipe 6" dia, the outer 45 gal drum has a ring of holes (made with a pickaxe) around the bottom to admit primary air,
photo of rust barrel anyone?
tim