Making charcoal for blacksmithing
Making small batch charcoal for the forge using a double barrel Kiln.
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Blacksmithing and related activities can be hazardous. These videos are not a substitute for competent professional instruction. Your safety is your sole responsibility. Always use appropriate safety equipment including eye and ear protection when working in the shop. Follow manufactures safety guidelines for the use of all equipment. In the event something shown in one of these videos seems unsafe, it is up to you to make the appropriate changes to protect yourself.t yourself.
My first effort was with a 55 gallon drum . Living in the city ment I met all the firefighters that night! I convinced them I was smoking fish,but still had to put the hose to the fire. Now I use a Webber grill as outdoor cooking is legal. The next time I got a visit they looked over the fence ,said it 's just a Webber, smiled and went away. Been making my charcoal for 5 years now no problems.
The UK strikes again....
Modern problems require modern solutions.... Cheers to finding your loophole!
nice
Can relate, neighbors called Twice in 1 day on me and were too lazy to look over the fence lol
Good effort that man💪
Asked for this a while back and you said you'd do it as soon as the burn ban was gone, thank you for keeping your word
Greetings, I would like to share: the stuff that falls through the steel mesh, into the wheel barrow is pot ash an excellent source of potassium an essential nutrient for garden soil. Sprinkle it about, till it in, add it to holes dug to receive new plantings. Garden on, Tom.
I make 30-50 pounds at a time in a few hours. Welded legs on a steel drum on its side with a chimney welded to it.. and a fire underneath. it's great. I fill up 3 more 55 gallon drums with end product.. lasts a decent amount of time.. and I can always just make more.. it's a fairly set it and forget it process.
Went good, I have a mate here in Australia, he just cuts up bits of wood starts a fire and burns it, when done just hoses is down. Saw it the other day and it's good charcoal. I remember years ago when I lived near the bush, i'd go out after bush fires and collect charcoal from burnt logs etc. It's good stuff.
You seem like a person who is genuinely happy and enthusiastic about life. Nice to see on KZhead someone who is just happy to be working in the world and sharing knowledge and positivity, not out to criticize society. I enjoy your videos. looking forward to more
I use paint cans with a tiny hole poked in em, and put them in a larger campfire. What I do could be (and soon will be) made less wasteful by using something besides an open campfire but what you're doing wastes a huge percentage of the potential charcoal by just burning it. If you can get one or more metal sealed containers with holes you just heat them from the outside and they carbonize and put out flammable wood gas that burns off through the hole - ZERO losses.
There's a lot of bull pine on a portion of my property. I was going to have it cleared for pulp wood, but I think making charcoal will be more beneficial. I've been planning to dig a pit and cooking it underground.
hi John, i also make my own, the finer dust and small pieces i use as biochar in a composting system, the rest obviously for the forge, however this dry system of yours works well, i use a wet method to produce mine, you just keep feeding a fire in a drum, and keep burning untill you have coals and no more flames, then douse the whole lot with water to put out the fire... your charcoal needs a few days to dry after, but you can use a whole day to produce vast quantities. great vid
I do the same thing. Glad I’m not alone with that method
i make charcoal by hole in the ground. dig a hole, throw lots of wood in, burn it and cover it up with wet dirt. works like a charm.
@@littleh4xx0r Hi, do you mean, burn it until no flames and just coal left, and then cover it with wet sand or dirt?
@@herrero4270 yeah, exactly. but you can also just burn more wood on top of the coals, the fire burns the oxygen from the air before it reaches the coals. when the hole is full of coal you cover it with wet sand or dirt, leaving a little vent hole. after the smoke goes from white to clear you cover that too, and let it cool.
@@herrero4270 yes, exactly. but you can put more wood on the coals first, the fire will burn the oxygen before it reaches the coals. after u have a sufficient amount of amber coals you cover it with wet dirt, leaving just a little vent hole for left volatile compounds. after the smoke turns from white to almost clear you plug that hole too and let the kiln cool. there are methods where you actually cover the fire, but that is probably more suitable for really big operations. i am not sure if you can get the heat that far up at a small scale
Couple things to point out. 1) sapwood doesn't make charcoal very well. The charcoal it does make is light and burns up quickly, produces more ash too. Material from the truck of the tree produces more dense charcoal, that leaves less ash. 50 years of running a woodstove for heat taught me the ash part btw. A coard of trunk wood will produce half the ash as a coard of branch wood for instance from the same species. 2) a charcoal retort that reburns the smoke gasses is more efficient.
Agreed. The guys making charcoal for the garden utilise vitrification. Similar setup just tweeked a bit.
@@seancooney297 I made charcoal for the garden using a trench method. Lookup skillcultz on youtube. My brother on the excavator dug a four by 3 by 8 ft trench and I burned a trailered load of wood in it and way faster then other ways I've tried.
@@koltoncrane3099 ha will do. I like the idea of the trench method is great for larger volumes. I'd say the natives of South America used this method we they were making Terra Preta. Another interesting topic. Charcoal is an untapped gold mine. Regards Sean
I live on six acres of oak....thanks for the inspiration!
Just made 50 gallons 2 weeks back. Need to again. Only a shovel full left.
he who knows charcoal , well done thanks.
To my knowledge, your presentation ticked all of the boxes. Kudos.
My english is Very bad, but yours videos bring a lot of inspiration for me thank you very much.
You are very welcome
Thank's for the video ..stay safe
I used an old harbor freight sand blaster reservoir, cut top off, put a couple guide tabs on the bottom, a skirt on the top, a pipe through the bottom, put it inside a burn barrel, filler up, put lid back on, fill burn barrel up, add it's lid and chimney, light, watch, hopefully doesn't smoke out the neighborhood before the gasification starts and burns (looks like a jet coming out of the chimney, and the pipe coming out the bottom of the retort), once fire is out, (about 3 hrs) let cool. Get about a 5 gallon bucket and a half each load
After several times using this, haven't had any ashes in the retort yet, never sealed the exhaust pipe of the retort. One load outside the retort yet inside the burn barrel is all it needs. Accept for making sure nothing else catches fire, it's a light it and forget it system, no added fuel needed after original load up. Just wish it was BIGGER 😁 kzhead.info/sun/aaetebOQiYqMpJs/bejne.html
Thanks John! Really neat to see this done.
I've always wondered how charcoal was made. Smoke in the camera was funny. Thanks for the laugh. And thanks for bringing us along for the ride.
I love the way you keep the channel new and interesting with topics like this.
I am impressed with this simple method of making charcoal. With us, traditionally charcoal is still made in kilns. Greetings from the Suebian Alb (South Germany :-D)
I find grading the charcoal from best to worse renders the whole batch useable. Gunpowder,colorant,pyrotechnics,filter, smith,melt,cook,smelt, biochar,reburn.I'm sure there are many more uses than these,depending on species used.
Learned a lot from you thanks for putting the information out there and helping new blacksmiths
I had an idea about the process. Thanks John. Another great video.
10 of those barrels with tighter lids ,if you have access to as large woods , "which I do ,' you could make a truck load . I have a 1000 gallon pro pane tank and 2 300 gallon fuel drums . Same barrel set up just much larger set up . I should be able to make quite a bit in 1 day . Thank you for this video
Hi John here in Australia the old timers used to do it with a water tank about 4 toot high with no bottom in it chocked up on bricks so air comes in the bottom and the wood stacked up so there’s plenty of air ;light it up in multiple places from underneath when you come to no smoke slide the lid across that is on rails to one side hold it down with bricks or rocks have dirt or sand around the outside of the tank to shovel around and block the air from the bottom and you’ll get tons doing it that way
Great job John, thanks for sharing with us. Fred. 🙏🏻🙏🏻👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👋👋
Been smithing with charcoal for much longer than I care to admit!Since coal isn't available in my area charcoal is what we use!My grandfather made charcoal,my father made it and now it's one of the things I do regularly!The harder the wood the better!I also sort by size with two inch cubes(approximately) being my go to chunk!Of course I break it up after it's made and keep assorted boxes filled with the different sizes I like!I also supply the folks in my area with the fuel they need/like for cooking etc.!
What is your method of making it, if you don’t mind my asking.
@@Earth-bornGraffics just an old cistern and some roofing tin...
Ideally you don't want any of the wood to burn down to ash, but if some does and you have a garden that ash is a valuable fertilizer. Just apply it in *small* doses to the soil, or it will burn your plants' roots. It's very alkaline. Some people use that alkalinity to help fix soils that are too acidic. Proceed with caution. A little goes a long way.
Great tips and ideas John thank you very much for making this video I have been thinking for a long time about making my own charcoal
Always interesting sir, thank you for all of your time and effort.
Great video! Really enjoying catching up on your videos.
Really cool. Very nice how to video. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work John. Forge On. Keep making. God Bless.
Great video. Great tips thank you for sharing.
Those smaller pieces work well for the grill 👌
I didn't realize it can be this simple, thank you very much for this video and I'll be referring back to this vid in the near future. I am waiting for my parts to arrive so I can start practicing blacksmithing, your channel is one of my resources for knowledge! Greetings from the tiny islands of Palau in the Pacific.
Thank you for posting this great information 👍
I use a similar system but the inner barrel I fill with oak then use duct tape to keep it all in. At that point I put my larger 55 gallon drum on its side then slide the smaller drum in upside down. Once I stand it all back up I fill my outer drum with pine typically and debris much like you did... let it burn down then put my cover on and stove pipe over night. In the morning I have a lot of large chunk charcoal in the inner barrel with very little small stuff but it's completely charcoal. In my setup the fire never touches the oak... only the heat, gasses and lack of oxygen causes the process.
I do almost the same thing.
Thar's how I do it too....
Thst sounds like the same process as making charcloth. The flame never touches the cloth and only the heat from the fire cools it. There is a small hole for the smoke to release while its cooking. Once the smoke stops coming out of the hole you plug it off and let I td coo
TLUD and Retorts are both very good. Personally I think TLUD are more versatile than retorts.
Very cool thanks for sharing John!
This is something close to my heart since I first started to look into charcoal making to enrich my soil. I would strongly urge anyone interested to go check out the making charcoal series on Living Web Farm channel. They show the firing of a double barrel retort in the first episode, then move on to larger systems. they also use heat capture to heat their buildings in the winter. They go in depth on explaining pyrolysis and how to know if you got a good batch (it should sound like glass). The char dust is very valuable as it can go into compost and becomes excellent soil biology housing. It also holds crazy amounts of moisture which is great for arid areas. Some permaculture folks even suggest adding rain water and urine and spreading the mixture in poor soils areas to rebuild structure. You can tweak that retort so it doesn't smoke more than a few minutes at the beginning. Then it should go to clear vapor.
Good to see you making charcoal. I'm trying some different ways also. Being can't get coal. Thanks John.
I've read from those who use charcoal exclusively (japanese smiths etc) that they prefer smaller bits, they transfer more heat. But they also have a differemt style of forge (sideblast) with manual blower or bellows
a great tutorial John.
Great and simple 👍 explain perfectly thank you
There are some great charcoal retort videos and plans on KZhead and the blacksmith forums, just gotta hunt em down... 55 gal drum and some 6" pipe. Kinda like a big rocket stove...with smaller pipes that feed the gases back into the burn chamber. Cool video, thanks!! Glad to see a smith using charcoal, thought I was the only one...😉
i enjoy your video, shows how it goes for beginner like me. Thx a lot
thanks for sharing on how you make it may God bless you and your family 🙏 stay safe
I heat my rugged house with a barrel stove… I have an 8x24” section of stove pipe with a cap on each end, no added venting required I pack it with good wood and stuff it inside the barrel to a side after I get the heating fire well started, put on the work gloves and give it a quarter or third turn each time I add a log Leave it in all night, pull it out in the morning and pick through it, what breaks up goes in the empty ash bucket until I’m sure it’s not a fire hazard, unready pieces get recycled back into the center surrounded by fresh wood If a cap comes off it all burns up, but that just makes morning that much warmer
I usually forge in my barrel stove in the garage, while burning wood to keep garage warm, i may try this before winter. Thanks for the great video.
I really enjoy charcoal making videos. We dont do this here thats the reason i find it so interesting and exciting. Fun day making charcoal outside. Enjoyed the video👍👍🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Thanks for showing us your set up John. I use charcoal exclusively as good coal or coke ate not available in my state. I am able to collect charcoal from the forest nearby where bushfires have been, which I find easier than collecting wood and burning it. This traditional gathered hardwood charcoal works well in my forge.
That is neat. Seen it done but have never attempted it
Straight and to the point
I would build something where you cook the wood like char cloth. If the flames never touch the wood you get bigger pieces and less waste. Although you do have to burn wood to do this method. I have done it, but on a very small scale. IE cookie tin. 😂
With some engineering involved you can pipe the exhaust gasses back under the closed off burn chamber and use those to fuel the burn. But its lots more work to build.
@@BlackBearForge it's not so bad actually. An old bulk fuel tank, I buy them all the time at farm sales for $5-$50, works good and the fill hole is already threaded for pipe. 300 gallon or 500 gallon tanks so they hold a lot of wood. The stands they usually sell with can even be cut down to make perfect bases and those barrel stove kits may cheap fairly airtight door to fill with wood and remove the charcoal.
@@dustyroads5753 I wonder if you could build a large burner for propane to cook it? Or would that not be cost effective?
@@DomMini probably not cost effective imo. However in a charcoal retort the "wood gasses" in the smoke are redirected via a pipe to underneath the barrel and burned to "cook" the charcoal. I build a fire under the barrel with limb wood, fill the barrel with split trunk wood, and when the wood in the barrel produces enough gases it's also lit as it exits the pipe. when not enough gases are produced to sustain a flame out of the pipe, the wood fire underneath the barrel is still "cooking charcoal".
@@dustyroads5753 Thanks for reply! That makes sense!
Softwood charcoal makes some good quality black powder
may i suggest cody’s lab charcoal series?
Open pit burn drowned out and air dried is the only way I've ever made charcoal before. I like your method. If I can source the barrels I'll have to try it. Thanks.
You are VERY good at explaining!!! Right to the point, and thoughts organized, wish **I** could do that!!!
Thanks!! I was thinking about trying it just yesterday!! Just didn’t know how lol
Thanks for making this video, man! You saved a writer today...probably one of many lol
Their is a guy in California that dose a double barrel set up . One one top of the other. Fire in one barrel ( the bottom ) the wood to be charcoal on top . There is a pipe that runs from the top to the bottom to burn off the gas from the wood on top . It seems to work very well . I can't remember the man's name or site , but it came up when looking at how to make charcoal so may not be hard . Hope it helps . Always fun experiments
Awesome- thank you
Still a great haul of charcoal for the amount of effort put into it. Great stuff...👍🏽😁
This method, I haven’t seen Before. I’ve seen and used a vented sealed drum inside of a bigger drum or fire pit. With the fire around the outer drum. Only thing coming out of the inner drum is smoke that usually burns as it comes thru it’s vent hole. Results with big pieces of charcoal that need to be broken. Glad to have seen another way to do it.
I use a similar system for my forge, just made a video about it. I fill the barrel with wood, take the bung out for a vent, and keep a fire going underneath until the wood gas burns off.
Thanks John, some good info there. I'm lucky to have a few acres of hardwood forest so I have an abundant supply. I made my first batch 2 weeks ago using Peppermint gum and Manna gum, both Aussie hardwoods. I used the charcoal along with store bought lump charcoal that was ironically imported american charcoal. The gum (eucalypt) lasted a lot longer and was slower to break down. I'm going to find or make a stronger inner drum that will last a period of time as My first one was practically destroyed by the fire (I might have had it a tad too hot). Great idea from Neil about using the fines for biochar, will do that in future. Have a great day!!
Hi John I use the two 44 gallon drum method . bottom drum holes around the bottom sides. The top drum has both ends cut out and acts as a turbine and burns of all the smoke . Works well as i don't live on a property there are over houses close by. :)
I also do my charcoal, I made an installation that goes into my wood boiler. I made a pair of videos on this topic. On the other hand, I find that the charcoal makes more dust around the forge
great vid
Hi John, maybe I'll try a charcoal video also, after I get down what works best for me, so far I've had varying degrees of success. No coal available, still working on a new gas forge also and using wood is very very very inefficient. I dropped by again to comment because I keep forgetting about what should be a simple useful project. Making a vegetable peeler. Used mostly on carrots potatoes, and apples. I'm sure you have one and have seen many. I bet we could make one. I'd like to see how you'd go about it. I plan to try son as my shop is back up with a useable forge.
I'll look forward to seeing your video. I suspect a vegetable peeler is a lot harder to make right than it seems.
First thought it was "Dr.Phil" in a new setting 😊. Nice video, keep it up !👍
I tried doing it similar to this setup, had to shut it down and go back to the drawing board. Then one day I came across a slightly different way of doing it and next thing you know I had a personal charcoal making factory in my backyard in the suburbs with no smoke as well
And Just likes that, Simply watching a video you answered to 3 problems i had....haha nice
Thank you for your video. I'll add a comment if it suits you, but time ago I already gave it a like. As always, your videos are very good, and very useful. You are intelligent, have good vocabulary, clear ideas, experience and care for the detail. I suspect you like to read good books.
It was great.
John I have plenty of mesquite just sitting around in a big pile so sounds like I have some good grilling coming up in an easier way to start it but get rid of a lot of my waste wood
Charcoal made like this burns slower and cooler than store bought briquets, taking longer to get steaks cooked. You could add a small blower to the BBQ to make it burn hotter, but then why not just put a grill over your forge.
Good info!!!
Excellent! I did something similar before I found a cheap source of lump charcoal. I live in the city. My neighbors weren't happy. If you have the space and time to lay your charcoal out to dry, you can always drench it when it gets to where you want it, then lay it out to dry. Also, not all woods produce charcoal. For example, sycamore burns strait to ashes. It may be good for potash, but not charcoal.
Where do you get your charcoal? In my area the best supplier of lump charcoal I know of is Restaurant Depot, if you actually want to buy supplies for a restaurant the one in my area is a terrible supplier (they are never fully stocked, have lots of cockroaches, and many of the things they do have are in the middle of the aisle or damaged) but for purchasing hardwood lump charcoal in bulk they are pretty cheap and usually have a half dozen different brands to choose from.
@@garethbaus5471 I just wait for it to go on sale at big box stores. They've been pretty consistent before summertime and bbq holidays like memorial day and 4th of July. I stock up and use it whenever I need it. I'm averaging about $5/10lbs. With inflation what it is, I'm sure cost will go up for store bought. I mainly use it for aluminum casting from a small coal furnace. I can do several small castings from a 10 pound bag, or a couple 2 - 3 pound casts.
@@moretimethanmoney8611 prior to Covid I was getting 20 pounds for about that price. The shutdowns killed the family business, so I no longer have reliable access to Restaurant Depot to see what the current prices are.
Why have I never seen an electric chainsaw in my life? That's so awesome! 3:39
I've been pretty impressed for a small saw. I still keep the big Stihl for serious work.
@@BlackBearForge Of course but I am just surprised. I never knew those electric chainsaws existed. I'm not sure why my mind is blown from that. Haha
I so wanna try this
Hello John Thank you for this simple Methode to mske charkcoal Have a good week take cate Yours Frank Galetzka
im new here and absolutely love your content. just and idea. I don't know if it would be good for a forge because it's so flammable, but I created a small scale gasification system from a paint can and copper tube. with the paint can sealed and the can on top of an open fire , i was able to light the "smoke " coming out of the copper tube on fire . the end result for the wood was whole pieces of wood completely char coaled . the char coal was very flammable . if this would work; then creating that system on a much bigger scale using a 30 and / or 55 gal barrel might be not only ideal but would give you bigger and better quality yields .
Hey John, you can use the really small stuff for gardening. mixed with some compost it makes great soil amendment.
That's the plan!
@@BlackBearForge tomatoes really love that stuff I wonder, don't you have a lot of space? If you wanna make a bigger load of charcoal, you could just do a ground kiln. basically 1. dig a hole, 2. add wood, 3. burn it 4. repeat 2. and 3. until your hole is full with charcoal 5. cover it with wet dirt and leave open a vent hole 6. leave alone until smoke goes transparent 7. cover completely and wait to cool down 8. dig up and directly sift charcoal 9. profits? not sure about that one, but it's fun ^^ the limitations to this are basically how big a hole you can dig, how much wood you can burn and how big of a fire you are comfortable with. . it's one of the more traditional ways, and in my experience you get quite a decent charcoal for the smithy that way. you'll have to sift it, but i would do that anyways. i really love your videos, learned tons about blacksmithing just watching and listening to you. thanks a lot man.
In Australia they use some bathtubs one on top of each other and have the wood in there
Thanks for the upload.. You are catching quite a following here in Denmark.
Cool, thanks
@@BlackBearForge your channel is refreshing and gives a good perspective on the craft. Many new enthusiasts here are asking for a good site to start, and I must agree with most of the seasoned craftsmen here in Denmark, that you have a certain kind of natural appeal and it's easy to learn from you. It's one thing to have the skills of a smith, but your professional approach mixed with a calm delivery is really something that gets noticed..
Nice smith
if you stick the thicker stuff in the top of the barel thay should get more time to burn down
Nice good idea.I've been making charcoal for several years.Living in Canada where let say winter keep us COOL 🍙 😎 and where some how we need to keep our working areas comfortable Presently I am developing (upgrading) a double function ROCKETSTOVE "RETORT" #1 Keeping the working area comfortable during winter while causing less pollution #2 Producing Hi quality lump charcoal at the same time. Where every day I'll produce +-14 pounds of good quality charcoal depending on the type of wood used and the size of the charcoal chambers "RETORT" The hole ideas is to become more efficient flexible and less of a polluter while recuperating the maximum energy BTU that normally be wasted or not even consider .Like always I enjoy your presence and contribution to the blacksmith community.Thanks Sincerely
You could use the residual ash for future composting. It helps the soil absorb more of the nutrients in the compost
As far as I know that's not right. You are talking about the charcoal itself not the ash. See all the terra preta videos with biochar etc. Ash is alkaline and some stuff has heavy metals in them. I wouldn't use that for gardening. Charcoal itself is fine, because it just stores water, nutrients, Microorganisms and so on.
@@warmesuppe as of recent I've found out that you are very much right.
Nice.
A friend and I make 150gal batches using Lee Sauder's design made from a couple 275gal oil tanks. Works great, we always get a full char, very little dust. I highly recommend that system
I like Lee's system. But don't have suitable tanks available around here.
@@BlackBearForgeI bet you could do a similar setup using 55gal drums or even big propane tanks. Whatever you can get that's free... Heating houses with oil/diesel is pretty common in New England so the tanks are pretty easy to come by around here, at least for now. All you really need is the central tank for the retort and the cowling can be made from any kind of mishmash sheet metal. We have our retort tank propped up on legs made from scrap and the cowling just directs the fire around it
This is a good video I dont do my own blacksmithing but this behind the scenes thing is so good
Did this on a smaller scale using a steel paint can & a firepit...made a bunch of smaller pine charcoal out of the leftover broken boards from our dojo's belt testing
You should try to make kiln for "Stockholm Tar" it's more efficient att making charcoal in my mind and you get Tar and turpentine out of it to. And the smoke from the tap makes sure you don't make ash instead of charcoal. Think Miko Snellman has a video up on a backyard setup
I found the inner barrel should have 1-2 holes in the bottom for gas to escape, and then pack the outer barrel around the inner with hot fast burning wood. There's less o2 entering the inner drum and you convert the inner amazingly
I can't make charcoal in the volume you do. My inner "barrell" is a 1 gallon clean paint can. Can't get the charcoal just right, so I'm using store bought lump hardwood. Burns better, lasts longer, and my bride doesn't complain about the boy scout smell on my clothes that comes with making my own.
Just getting started but I got to tell you this guy has me pretty confident. Watch his stuff alot. Anyone know how to reach out to him?
For anyone that doesn't have metal pipe suitable for chimney. I made it out of corregated roof iron. Cut a piece the length desired across the channels then down the channels the desired diameter once rolled with slight over lap. Roll the piece using large piece PVC pipe as jig. 150mm is good. Screw or rivet as it comes together.
I haven't tried the wet method but I do mine just like the wet method but in a hole in the ground and cover it with dirt really good and leave it for overnight COVERED WITH DIRT and come back and dig it off perfect charcoal the layer of dirt blocks the air air tight
I buy mine John, dont have timber laying around for charcoal making. Since I started mixing it with coke I use about 1/4 of the amount!
I wish I had a good source to buy in bulk. But I would have to buy it bagged and shipped.
@@BlackBearForge I buy bagged, just over $2 kilo, buy 200 kilos at a time and delivery is free. Yeh, its expensive but so is everything else here in Australia!