Willow Alternatives [Beware 56K]

[Twotails]

I have a woodchipper, would this work at choping up the wood for charcoal.

 

I planned for some branches not to root, Once they root, i'll spread them out.

 

I also have a ton of Lilac bushes that need pruining, i'll test that while im at it.

[flying fish]

The eastern cottonwood was ridiculously fast... It beats the Willow by a long shot...

 

I did the comparison between the three charcoals that I mentioned above. Lifted 3-gram Emerald Green light-grid stars with 2 grams of lift in a 1" diameter stargun. I was clearly correct in my hypothesis, Cottonwood>Willow>Mesquite. The cottonwood went off with nice thump which the others did not...Clearly shot the star much higher than the willow. If I had to guess the heights, the mesquite got the star up maybe 6 feet. Willow... 30-40.... Cottonwood...60+!

 

The possible catch is that the tree I used was very young...maybe only an inch or so in diameter (like someone mentioned above with willow trees being harvested at around that diameter). SOOOO... A full sized cottonwood may not produce the same results.

 

And on the topic of my charcoal manufacturing technique, I used a paint can on a bonfire...cooked it until there was literally no more smoke coming out...so it was "well done" you might say. At one point when the lid came loose it bursted into flames. Due to some ash formation it was rinsed over a screen.

Edited October 11, 2009 by flying fish

[50AE]

Today I'm cooking some poplar charcoal, there was a poplar tree on the street and I came with a saw .

[Arthur]

One of the UK's charcoal suppliers makes his pine charcoal from discarded pallets salvaged from the roadside and waste disposal places. He saws out the straight plank into lengths easily packed into his oven, then he uses the rest of the pallet to burn in the fire drum round the oven.

It is super charcoal that he makes!

 

Just shows that growing your own is not always viable.

[derekroolz]

One of the UK's charcoal suppliers makes his pine charcoal from discarded pallets salvaged from the roadside and waste disposal places. He saws out the straight plank into lengths easily packed into his oven, then he uses the rest of the pallet to burn in the fire drum round the oven.

It is super charcoal that he makes!

 

Just shows that growing your own is not always viable.

 

True that, I get pallets and just cut them down and before I know it I have decent charcoal. But I can also buy alder and willow from my local scrap yard for a very reasonable price too.

[Twotails]

I just made some Nice Bamboo charcoal, And a nice batch of Hemp charcoal.

 

Anyone Use bamboo before? Any good?

[Mumbles]

Ian Von Malitz gives the impression that both are rather mediocre. This is in comparison with more traditional materials such as willow and maple. Hemp is noted to be worse than bamboo, and rather hygroscopic. They both are noted to have high ash contents. The general trend is the higher the ash, the slower it preforms, although there are certainly anomalies.

[Twotails]

Well, One of these days i'll have to make some BP with them and compare., Thanks for the info

[dagabu]

Well, One of these days i'll have to make some BP with them and compare., Thanks for the info

 

I made a retort full of cedar dog bed shavings charcoal last night and ball milled it this morning. I did the standard 75:15:10 mix and riced it for pulverone tonight. It's drying now but I was told that it is close to Balsa for speed. No idea of what the sparks look like though.

 

D

[QED4803]

So far my most effective lift has been made with Jacaranda charcoal, outpacing white pine by a large margin. It's a subtropical tree, mildly popular with landscapers in the US deep south. Aussies take note--I understand this is available down under as well! It has the advantage (from a pyro perspective) of being a fairly soft wood that sheds branches heavily in high winds or after a rare freeze, providing plenty of windfall.

 

I'm certainly not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but if you find yourself in a southern locale where a lot of the more commonly used woods are not available, this may be one to try out.

[dagabu]

I made a retort full of cedar dog bed shavings charcoal last night and ball milled it this morning. I did the standard 75:15:10 mix and riced it for pulverone tonight. It's drying now but I was told that it is close to Balsa for speed. No idea of what the sparks look like though.

 

D

 

It works for pulverone but I don't like it otherwise, its almost gone now, replaced it with a bag of hardwood charcoal.

[Seymour]

This makes sense, especially when one considers the similarities between it and Paulownia.

 

I've heard Paulownia being described as 'poor man's Jacaranda'

[swervedriver]

Jacaranda? There are jacaranda trees all over where I am. I'll have to wait for a hurricane though, they are all for landscaping and ornamental. No one would let me cut on those trees, they are beutiful when in bloom. I'm going to try it if I can find some fallen branches some day.

[Bonny]

I'm not out of town very much anymore,where I harvest my willow, so I'm debating a new wood for charcoal to make lift. I am considering a few options:

SPF (2/4's etc) for all my charcoal ( I already use it for everything except lift) As long as it performs good enough that would be the most simple.

 

Otherwise, I will choose between Maple, Ash or maybe Black Poplar for lift.

[QED4803]

This makes sense, especially when one considers the similarities between it and Paulownia.

 

I've heard Paulownia being described as 'poor man's Jacaranda'

 

I've noticed also that an awfully lot of trees wirh bipinnate leaves (doubly branched, kinda lacy) are considered to provide reactive charcoal, including Paulownia, Jacaranda and locusts. Maybe the botanists among us can find a connection.

[QED4803]

I just made some Nice Bamboo charcoal, And a nice batch of Hemp charcoal.

 

Anyone Use bamboo before? Any good?

 

Von Malitz does report bamboo as having a very high ash content, but there are so many species and cultivars of bamboo that I should think it would be hard to generalize. I don't think Shimizu even references it in FAST. Bamboo is actually a grass and doesn't produce wood, per se. Please let us know what your experience is including, if possible, the species and/or cultivar of bamboo and the age of the stalks used--they grow quickly and change characteristics over time.

 

Thanks,

Smitty

[Swede]

I tried bamboo... I have a stand of it in our backyard. It makes a rather poor charcoal, full of silicates and detritus, and it is more of a curiosity than anything else. If you have better luck with it, it'd be worth hearing about.

[Steps]

So far my most effective lift has been made with Jacaranda charcoal, outpacing white pine by a large margin. It's a subtropical tree, mildly popular with landscapers in the US deep south. Aussies take note--I understand this is available down under as well! It has the advantage (from a pyro perspective) of being a fairly soft wood that sheds branches heavily in high winds or after a rare freeze, providing plenty of windfall.

 

I'm certainly not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but if you find yourself in a southern locale where a lot of the more commonly used woods are not available, this may be one to try out.

 

So you can definately support Jacaranda charcoal?

 

This is by far the most common tree in the area, and a very big storm recently made them drop many logs.

 

It is a lot easier than finding willow or any of the other fast bp charcoal trees as they are everywhere.

[CannonBall]

I've actually made some BP (meal powder ) with charcoal made from all kinds of miscellany wood ( we buy wood trimmings from the local furniture factory as firewood) and i can say that it was faster than anything i've ever seen on internet, 1/4 of a teaspoon made a pretty nice "thump" and it left almost no residue .

PS: It was ballmilled for ~9 hours.

Edited December 31, 2013 by CannonBall

[DssTvDummy]

I am all about cheap and easy.......white pine hampster bedding from Walmart makes good pyro BP.....it cooks fast in a pot retort ......you can get a huge bag of it for $7.....

[FlaMtnBkr]

Get the eastern red cedar instead of the pine and give it a shot. Should be quite a bit hotter than the pine. It should say on it but also easy to tell by smell.

[memo]

i have been using tropical red cedar, so far i am not impressed, anyone tried teak ? fast growing hard wood. before the cedar i used bags of charcole from the store. everything i make is slow even after granulated.

 

memo

[Shunt]

If you live in the eastern USA you might want to try Staghorn sumac. It grows incredibly fast and is generally regarded as a 'nuisance' tree by the crews that clear growth under power lines. It is a pain to process however as it has a 'pith' core that needs to be removed, I just split 1.5" to 2" new growth saplings with a large knife and scrape out the pith with a sharpened spoon. Also I do debark, but am not sure that is necessary. Cook as usual by retort method, makes very hot BP if not overcooked. http://www.all-creatures.org/pica/ftshl-sumac-sh-06.html

[Mumbles]

Memo, you probably have a large variety of trees that we do not. Something fast growing, generally lacking any sort of sap or tar, and typically soft in physical characteristics tend to be best sources. You will probably need to do some experimentation. Whatever lumber they use locally for construction may be a good place to starts. I don't mean large heavy load bearing lumber, but the softer stuff that tends to be used to create walls. 2x4 or so. It probably wont be the absolute best, but it almost certainly wont be the worst either.

[Shunt]

+ To Mumbles, "Something fast growing, generally lacking any sort of sap or tar, and typically soft in physical characteristics tend to be best sources."

That is why I mentioned staghorn sumac, it has all the qualities that Mumbles noted. @Memo: I am new here and did not notice your location was Central America. I would love to try some balsa charcoal, others have put it near the top in tests for fast burning BP. However as Mumbles noted the variety of trees in my location rules that out due to the high cost, as it is only available in hobby shops. Did some quick research online and it seems to be native to your location. If so, that might be a solution for you. Below is some info from a website I found, I just did a copy and paste.

WHERE DOES BALSA WOOD COME FROM?

Balsa trees grow naturally in the humid rain forests of Central and South America. Its natural range extends south from Guatemala, through Central America, to the north and west coast of South America as far as Bolivia. However, the small country of Ecquador on the western coast of South America, is the primary source of model aircraft grade blasa in the world. Blasa needs a warm climate with plenty of rainfall and good drainage. For that reason, the best stands of balsa usually appear on the high ground between tropical rivers. Ecquador has the ideal geography and climate for growing balsa trees. The scientific name for balsa wood is ochroma lagopus. The word balsa itself is Spanish meaning raft, in reference to its excellent floatation qualities. In Ecquador it is known as Boya, meaning buoy.

 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE A BALSA TREE TO GROW?

Balsa trees grow very rapidly (like all pesky weeds). Six months after germination, the tree is about 1-1/2 inches in diameter and 10 - 12 feet tall. In 6 to 10 years the tree is ready for cutting, having reached a height of 60 to 90 feet tall and a diameter of 12 to 45 inches. If left to continue growing, the new wood being grown on the outside layers becomes very hard and the tree begins to rot in the center. Unharvested, a balsa tree may grow to a diameter of 6 feet or more, but very little usable lumber can be obtained from a tree of this size. The basla leaf is similar in shape to a grape leaf, only a lot bigger. When the tree is young, these leaves measure a much as four feet across. They become progressivly smaller as the tree grows older, until they are about 8 - 10 inches across. Balsa is one of the few trees in the jungle which has a simple leaf shape. This fact alone makes the balsa tree stand out in the jungle.