I made my first batch a few days ago, using split oak...right now i just got done grilling some BBQ smoked chicken...my nex batch should be done by morning..its 3.5" oak x 6"... very happy with my results..you do a good job yourself ❤❤❤❤❤❤
This is why I like your channel - you will turn your hand to so many different things, and I have learned new things - and found the guts to try myself. You mentioning the sound of the charcoal was something I was going to bring up!
How have I not found this channel before? Started with looking for videos of the panasonic cf-u1 Has all kinds of things that interest me. This is my kind of lady!
I was kind of shocked when you said the maple does not split well. I'm in the Pacific Northwest and other than conifers it is mostly maple and alder. I've also had the opposite experience where I find wet wood much easier to split. I was confused by this until I took a closer look at your maple. We mostly have a species called big leaf maple. I believe what you have is much closer to something called eastern rock maple. It is famed for being very hard with interwoven grain. I live in a 1951 house with the original kitchen which was all Eastern Rock maple. If you have not yet sliced and planed it, I highly suggest you try. The stuff in my kitchen might be slightly specialized, but it is some of the most beautiful wood grain I have ever seen. For clarity, I have dealt in exotic woods at an earlier point in my life I have a fairly wide exposure. It is really one of the most beautiful and unique grained woods. It is famed for its tight brain preventing splitting or checks. Fair warning though, it is also known for having a great deal of stress in the wood. For example you might see a violent split occur when you are 2/3 of the way through sawing. It's a little startling, but it's not really dangerous. Give it a try, I think you'll really be impressed, particularly thin slices like your clipboards you were making.
@@5roundsrapid263 coincidentally enough, big leaf maple is very prone to the fungus responsible for bird's eye and fiddle back, most forms of figure besides compression. As it happens, my acreage is all infected with this fungus. One of my main gigs is cutting guitar blanks and rifle blanks out of this wood. I believe in the Northwest I am one of the larger suppliers of guitar blanks
@@5roundsrapid263 May I ask, are you in the timber business? Your name could be interpreted a few different ways. Also, just since you knew the Henry Ford thing, do you happen to know what they make modern briquettes out of?
If I'm not mistaken, it's a bad idea to take the lid off before it has completely cooled. There are a lot of lighter gases produced that can escape if they do not have time to come down in temperature and condensate into resin on/in the charcoal.
If you want to make the bricks with the ash. You'll need lime (for strength). Cause my test with the ash n dirt mix will break down over a short period (2wk-1month) gone or take rain weather. Hope that helps
Do you know the answer to this question? Why do people use charcoal to barbecue? I have always barbecued over wood, I mean I wait for it to burn down a bit first. Everyone always regards this as terribly strange until they eat it. I'm no chef, but I find that alder is really nice for red meat and that cedar absolutely improves fish dishes. I have always found the wood to compliment the food. Is it just convenience and less wait time? I mean I've tried it, it seemed like it saved maybe 10 minutes, but everything you eat just has an overall campfire influence, just a general smoky charred flavor. I still prefer it to in an oven, but I just don't understand why people use charcoal instead of wood. Particularly when you look at the respective prices. Most people have wood trimmings that they burn simply to get rid of. But then they go buy a bag of commercial charcoal which is burnt who knows what the hell. I'm sure that like every other corporate interest, it is a race to the bottom in terms of overhead. I don't think I would want to know what charcoal is made from, I'm sure it is diseased trees from highway medians that the county subsidizes the removal of? Who knows? Is there anybody out there who thinks charcoal tastes better? I would love to understand from anybody with a different opinion. Edit: on further thought, I could see It's lightweight being beneficial in a hiking / camping scenario in an area without wood.
Modern charcoal was invented to use up the scrap wood from Henry Ford’s first auto plant. I much prefer wood myself, too. I grew up in a rural area, and we always used real wood for barbecue.
@@5roundsrapid263 I have never heard that about Ford. It makes perfect sense, particularly if he used it to heat the factories. Very interesting, thank you for the input
There's a difference between "clean smoke" and "dirty smoke". Dirty smoke has a lot of soot and does not taste very good. It's easier to burn a clean fire with charcoal, though of course you can also do so with wood if you know what you're doing. It's also easier to keep a steady temperature with a charcoal fire. Wood fires tend to spike in temperature as the wood gasses combust before settling down to embers. Charcoal behaves more like embers during most of its burn.
Recommend a few Bungie straps around the log your trying split really finely. Saves a lot of bending over and picking up flying chunks of wood. 👍 Cheers
Te saludo desde México mi hermano y le doy un consejo En ves de usar el bote para cosinar el carbón mejor utilize el poso donde prende la lumbre ya está hecho solo llenelo con toda esa madera que usa para calentar el bote y listo , solo llenelo con rajas de leña y tapelo con una en lámina algo de tierra y verá como le sacará mejor provecho a la madera
Charcoal for days! I think Cody's Lab did a video where he compared store bought to his own homemade charcoal. I don't recall the results as it was a couple of years ago, I think.
+Lousypirate You misunderstand, I meant that his charcoal was better than what he bought. I know my charcoal is perfect. At least the four batches that got a full baking.
Hello Riona, thank you for sharing your experience. I hear those metal paint cans are becoming harder to find these days (more made from plastic now). I too am in the process of perfecting my charcoal process and I wanted to get your perspective on two questions. I read in some older texts the type of wood used to make the charcoal has a large impact on the properties of the charcoal made. While I was initially a little skeptical of this, like isn't it all just carbon, the texts were written by educated individuals trying to refine charcoal for industrial use - so I am more inclined to believe their conclusions were evidence based. Which has sent me down the enjoyable path of experimenting with different woods. What I am looking for is probably different than your average backyard barbequer - instead of staying power, I am looking for charcoal that burns quicker and leaves less ash. Willow is example of this. I am interested to know if you have any thoughts on this topic in general or related to my search for faster/more complete burn. Secondly my setup is smaller than yours, think just slightly larger than a Weber grill. The paint can you use is too large a container for my setup. I have been having trouble finding a reliable container. I found several low quality steel boxes that must have had another metal mixed in as they don't survive many fires before the metal flakes apart. Given your scrap experience, are there any good smaller container ideas that come to mind for making charcoal? Thank you for your thoughts. I hope you are doing well, as a fellow tinkerer I enjoy your interests.
Wood type definitely has an effect. I haven't burned mine yet but I suspect the light fluffy cottonwood charcoal will burn cleaner, but with less power. The japanese use oak for their charcoal so it has a denser energy content As for smaller containers, they don't have to be fully sealed, just mostly sealed. The steam generated by the charcoal will make sure no air gets in. Maybe try a small gallon paint can instead of the 5 gallon tar buckets I was using.
@@RinoaL So I made some willow charcoal this weekend, paint can worked great, but I may have also set a record for how a paint can lid has been launched into the air :) So I've been making char for a decent amount of years, and I when I first began I poked holes in the containers to vent the gases, but over time I found this really wasn't necessary as the containers I was using were not air tight and would make char fine as is. Well foolish me, I made the assumption subconsciously without even thinking that the paint can would be similar. As it turns out pain cans are quite air tight (add it to my list of ingenious discoveries). Fortunately the paint can was facing skyward and I was safely behind a barrier when a large "babooom" sounded, and the paint can lid went sky high before coming back down and making that spinning coin sound on concrete. After changing my pants, and laughing at my own stupidity, I punched a hole in the lid which did wonders at improving the success rate. Remember kids, safety first :)
Start the fire in the barrel with some holes in the bottom you can close off with dirt..get the fire going good and load it with your wood put the lid on mostly closed until smoke turns to a bluish usually 3 hrs depends how wet the wood is dry wood is best..that's how I do it works good .. charcoal retorts are the way to go they use the gas from the charcoal to fuel the heat needed to make the charcoal..very little wasted wood and super clean burn!
Okay well the last minute cleared up why you are making charcoal. I had forgot about that practice from the video game that you tried a few months back. Completely agree with you about briquettes, I'm convinced they are nasty s*** just held together from being pressed. I cannot see a scenario where ideal trunk would is used and yet they would opt for the very difficult start burning briquette
Great job great video 📹 you sure are good at what you do with charcoal bravo bravo bravo i have a question have you seen a person who eats charcoal and coal dust it has dangerous chemicals in it you get chemical burns 🔥 the hands fingers handeing the pieces of charcoal lump cowboy your mouth that is why people should use gloves like you did in your video the person lungs suffer the most with the black ⚫️ coal dust goes in the 🫁 🫁 im just curious as to how she eats it is all leave a message let me know what you think of my comment
I made my first batch a few days ago, using split oak...right now i just got done grilling some BBQ smoked chicken...my nex batch should be done by morning..its 3.5" oak x 6"... very happy with my results..you do a good job yourself ❤❤❤❤❤❤
This is why I like your channel - you will turn your hand to so many different things, and I have learned new things - and found the guts to try myself. You mentioning the sound of the charcoal was something I was going to bring up!
How have I not found this channel before? Started with looking for videos of the panasonic cf-u1
Has all kinds of things that interest me. This is my kind of lady!
This is a very good idea.
Nicely done. I just got done make a few batches a couple weeks ago.
I was kind of shocked when you said the maple does not split well. I'm in the Pacific Northwest and other than conifers it is mostly maple and alder. I've also had the opposite experience where I find wet wood much easier to split. I was confused by this until I took a closer look at your maple. We mostly have a species called big leaf maple. I believe what you have is much closer to something called eastern rock maple. It is famed for being very hard with interwoven grain. I live in a 1951 house with the original kitchen which was all Eastern Rock maple. If you have not yet sliced and planed it, I highly suggest you try. The stuff in my kitchen might be slightly specialized, but it is some of the most beautiful wood grain I have ever seen. For clarity, I have dealt in exotic woods at an earlier point in my life I have a fairly wide exposure. It is really one of the most beautiful and unique grained woods. It is famed for its tight brain preventing splitting or checks. Fair warning though, it is also known for having a great deal of stress in the wood. For example you might see a violent split occur when you are 2/3 of the way through sawing. It's a little startling, but it's not really dangerous. Give it a try, I think you'll really be impressed, particularly thin slices like your clipboards you were making.
Yes, rock maple can have amazing grain patterns. Birdseye maple was very commonly used in guitars, but now it’s getting hard to find.
@@5roundsrapid263 coincidentally enough, big leaf maple is very prone to the fungus responsible for bird's eye and fiddle back, most forms of figure besides compression. As it happens, my acreage is all infected with this fungus. One of my main gigs is cutting guitar blanks and rifle blanks out of this wood. I believe in the Northwest I am one of the larger suppliers of guitar blanks
@@5roundsrapid263 May I ask, are you in the timber business? Your name could be interpreted a few different ways. Also, just since you knew the Henry Ford thing, do you happen to know what they make modern briquettes out of?
If I'm not mistaken, it's a bad idea to take the lid off before it has completely cooled. There are a lot of lighter gases produced that can escape if they do not have time to come down in temperature and condensate into resin on/in the charcoal.
Well the fire was hot, and I wanted to get another batch in
This makes me want to save up a year's worth of bricks and make my own pit.
If you want to make the bricks with the ash. You'll need lime (for strength). Cause my test with the ash n dirt mix will break down over a short period (2wk-1month) gone or take rain weather. Hope that helps
@@memaxcool That might be a cool experiment. I meant saving them up from leftovers at job sites, I'm a contractor.
@@marshhawk3997 thats good to reuse leftovers lol. waste not lose not
This might be a good side business.
Thanks, I agree
@@RinoaL It makes my day when you reply to me. :) Makes me feel happy. :) You have amazing videos. Thank you for all your hard work. :)
This is awesome! That last batch was roaring!
That is some very nice lump charcoal. It’d be great for smoking some ribs or pork shoulder.
That some impressive wood gas production
Why is the sound of charcoal falling on other charcoal so satisfying 🤔
Do you know the answer to this question? Why do people use charcoal to barbecue? I have always barbecued over wood, I mean I wait for it to burn down a bit first. Everyone always regards this as terribly strange until they eat it. I'm no chef, but I find that alder is really nice for red meat and that cedar absolutely improves fish dishes. I have always found the wood to compliment the food. Is it just convenience and less wait time? I mean I've tried it, it seemed like it saved maybe 10 minutes, but everything you eat just has an overall campfire influence, just a general smoky charred flavor. I still prefer it to in an oven, but I just don't understand why people use charcoal instead of wood. Particularly when you look at the respective prices. Most people have wood trimmings that they burn simply to get rid of. But then they go buy a bag of commercial charcoal which is burnt who knows what the hell. I'm sure that like every other corporate interest, it is a race to the bottom in terms of overhead. I don't think I would want to know what charcoal is made from, I'm sure it is diseased trees from highway medians that the county subsidizes the removal of? Who knows? Is there anybody out there who thinks charcoal tastes better? I would love to understand from anybody with a different opinion. Edit: on further thought, I could see It's lightweight being beneficial in a hiking / camping scenario in an area without wood.
Modern charcoal was invented to use up the scrap wood from Henry Ford’s first auto plant. I much prefer wood myself, too. I grew up in a rural area, and we always used real wood for barbecue.
@@5roundsrapid263 I have never heard that about Ford. It makes perfect sense, particularly if he used it to heat the factories. Very interesting, thank you for the input
Only issue with wood is it's smokey, it works well for food, but not for your eyes
There's a difference between "clean smoke" and "dirty smoke". Dirty smoke has a lot of soot and does not taste very good. It's easier to burn a clean fire with charcoal, though of course you can also do so with wood if you know what you're doing. It's also easier to keep a steady temperature with a charcoal fire. Wood fires tend to spike in temperature as the wood gasses combust before settling down to embers. Charcoal behaves more like embers during most of its burn.
Recommend a few Bungie straps around the log your trying split really finely. Saves a lot of bending over and picking up flying chunks of wood. 👍 Cheers
That’s a great idea! thanks!
If I were to make charcoal, it would be for garden soil purposes. It provides a great substrate for microbial growth and lasts a very long time.
Te saludo desde México mi hermano y le doy un consejo
En ves de usar el bote para cosinar el carbón mejor utilize el poso donde prende la lumbre ya está hecho solo llenelo con toda esa madera que usa para calentar el bote y listo , solo llenelo con rajas de leña y tapelo con una en lámina algo de tierra y verá como le sacará mejor provecho a la madera
would love to see you attempt to turn pinecones and insects into charcoal and encase them in resin or something, they look very pretty
Lol sounds like a jet engine 😂 how obnoxious. I love it
I want to try that charcoal in my grill, prolly would taste great.
It does actually
Golden tip. When you're stuck in a log pull up and hit with the backside of the ax. Trust me it makes it way easier.
Yeah I always forget that
How is Bill place going, I not seen anything in a while ?
Charcoal for days!
I think Cody's Lab did a video where he compared store bought to his own homemade charcoal. I don't recall the results as it was a couple of years ago, I think.
I bet his was far better
@@RinoaL I think the store bought had a higher moisture content or something like that.
@@RinoaL don't sell yourself short like that.
+Lousypirate You misunderstand, I meant that his charcoal was better than what he bought. I know my charcoal is perfect. At least the four batches that got a full baking.
@@RinoaL you are correct. I misinterpreted that as you were talking about the video. Hooray for the English language.
If you make it into activated charcoal, would it still have the same amount of carbon monoxide producing stuff?
the softer the wood the better
Hardwoods make better charcoal though
Hello Riona, thank you for sharing your experience. I hear those metal paint cans are becoming harder to find these days (more made from plastic now).
I too am in the process of perfecting my charcoal process and I wanted to get your perspective on two questions.
I read in some older texts the type of wood used to make the charcoal has a large impact on the properties of the charcoal made. While I was initially a little skeptical of this, like isn't it all just carbon, the texts were written by educated individuals trying to refine charcoal for industrial use - so I am more inclined to believe their conclusions were evidence based. Which has sent me down the enjoyable path of experimenting with different woods. What I am looking for is probably different than your average backyard barbequer - instead of staying power, I am looking for charcoal that burns quicker and leaves less ash. Willow is example of this. I am interested to know if you have any thoughts on this topic in general or related to my search for faster/more complete burn.
Secondly my setup is smaller than yours, think just slightly larger than a Weber grill. The paint can you use is too large a container for my setup. I have been having trouble finding a reliable container. I found several low quality steel boxes that must have had another metal mixed in as they don't survive many fires before the metal flakes apart. Given your scrap experience, are there any good smaller container ideas that come to mind for making charcoal?
Thank you for your thoughts. I hope you are doing well, as a fellow tinkerer I enjoy your interests.
Wood type definitely has an effect. I haven't burned mine yet but I suspect the light fluffy cottonwood charcoal will burn cleaner, but with less power. The japanese use oak for their charcoal so it has a denser energy content
As for smaller containers, they don't have to be fully sealed, just mostly sealed. The steam generated by the charcoal will make sure no air gets in. Maybe try a small gallon paint can instead of the 5 gallon tar buckets I was using.
@@RinoaL
So I made some willow charcoal this weekend, paint can worked great, but I may have also set a record for how a paint can lid has been launched into the air :)
So I've been making char for a decent amount of years, and I when I first began I poked holes in the containers to vent the gases, but over time I found this really wasn't necessary as the containers I was using were not air tight and would make char fine as is.
Well foolish me, I made the assumption subconsciously without even thinking that the paint can would be similar. As it turns out pain cans are quite air tight (add it to my list of ingenious discoveries).
Fortunately the paint can was facing skyward and I was safely behind a barrier when a large "babooom" sounded, and the paint can lid went sky high before coming back down and making that spinning coin sound on concrete.
After changing my pants, and laughing at my own stupidity, I punched a hole in the lid which did wonders at improving the success rate.
Remember kids, safety first :)
Use a 55 gallon barrel with a lid, make some real big batches of charcoal.
Would take a lot longer, and maybe require a bigger fire. I'm thinking more like an air compressor tank with a hatch
Start the fire in the barrel with some holes in the bottom you can close off with dirt..get the fire going good and load it with your wood put the lid on mostly closed until smoke turns to a bluish usually 3 hrs depends how wet the wood is dry wood is best..that's how I do it works good .. charcoal retorts are the way to go they use the gas from the charcoal to fuel the heat needed to make the charcoal..very little wasted wood and super clean burn!
No thanks, that results in a less complete carbonization as far as I can tell. I want to over-cook my charcoal since I intend to burn it indoors
Okay well the last minute cleared up why you are making charcoal. I had forgot about that practice from the video game that you tried a few months back. Completely agree with you about briquettes, I'm convinced they are nasty s*** just held together from being pressed. I cannot see a scenario where ideal trunk would is used and yet they would opt for the very difficult start burning briquette
It will also save you a new handle for the axe if shit hits wrong.
Ax seems a bit dull there. However I make charcoal quit a bit. You may want to explain how it works for those that do not understand
I sharpen it though on my bandsaw. This wood is just so hard to split. Hard on my chainsaw as well
What kind of wood you using or for how long you have it on the fire?
Most of this is white oak if I recall correctly, and it stays on the fire for several hours. I take it off the fire when it stops smoking or burning.
I have never seen someone accidentally invent a gasifier. That would certainly power a compact car
did you notice a drop in muscular strength after transitioning?
Definitely, although i never measured it.
WOOD GAS to difficult. i always wanted to make bio diesel but i dont have a diesel engine
I'd buy a bag
I was so worried you were going to go for the hose just while panicked. Very smart not to do so. Should have known you would be on top of it
No, I was happy it got that hot
Great job great video 📹 you sure are good at what you do with charcoal bravo bravo bravo i have a question have you seen a person who eats charcoal and coal dust it has dangerous chemicals in it you get chemical burns 🔥 the hands fingers handeing the pieces of charcoal lump cowboy your mouth that is why people should use gloves like you did in your video the person lungs suffer the most with the black ⚫️ coal dust goes in the 🫁 🫁 im just curious as to how she eats it is all leave a message let me know what you think of my comment
What on earth are you talking about?
You want to know something i dont understand how this person can eat charcoal in the first place they call it PICA
What person is eating charcoal?
Blacksmithing... black powdering🤣🤣
22nd
I am a new subscriber i like how you do things you are also very good at chopping wood 🪵