Has anyone used cedar lumber for charcoal, not cedar shavings?

[eMikey]

It would seem that I could get a lot more charcoal out of a piece of cedar lumber, than out of the shavings?

 

Has anyone used something like this:

 

http://www.lowes.com/pd_175694-46086-00127___?productId=50423222&pl=1&Ntt=cedar

 

if so, what were the results like?

 

[DaMounty]

Hi

 

I have used cedar lumber - chips and believe it or not an old hydro pole (it was cedar untreated) all three worked great for me. I found the lumber much nicer to work with as compared to the shavings. I did not notice any difference between the three.

 

DaM

[eMikey]

I've used retorts before, they are super easy to use AND I already have a few. I am glad to hear you say that.

[Wiley]

I use cedar logs: un-cut cedar boards works great.

[braddsn]

Mikey all I use is the lumber. Works great. I cut up the logs on my sawmill into half inch thick boards and use it.

[calebkessinger]

"I cut up the logs on my sawmill"

 

Tid bit jealous here....

[Blackthumb]

I too have a sawmill and produce lots of cedar 'waste'. Also have bags of cedar planer shavings that work as well. I have stopped using wood charcoal and have gone to newspaper...less messy and don't have to grind.

[mikeee]

"I cut up the logs on my sawmill"

 

Tid bit jealous here....

 

 

I know someone who has a mill & lathe that could build a saw mill. :-)

You can tool up a chain saw with a cutting guide and slab tree trunks.

There are several videos on YouTube that show several designs people have made on the cheap.

[braddsn]

This is true mikeee. The 'chainsaw' mills you are referring to are called 'Alaskan' mills. There are many types, but all use a chainsaw for the cutting mechanism. These are however extremely labor intensive, and for them to be effective need to be paired with a large chainsaw and a special chain made for cutting with the grain. They are best used when you have 2 guys working. I have a Norwood Lumbermate. It uses a large band blade.

[mikeee]

There are smaller systems that one person can easily use on smaller logs.

The critical part is positioning the cutting tool on a selected horizontal plane through the log

to cut the slabs in a uniform dimension. The bigger machines make it easy to make the first cut to

clean the bark off the tree to get down to the wood and create the horizontal cut along the log.

There are several simple guides that have been designed for smaller chain saws to make the initial

cut on a log and several other brackets that can mount to a smaller chain saw blade to make consistent

thickness of slabs along the logs. These simple devices are great for someone wanting to harvest some

wood slabs on a limited scale. Doing this on a larger scale or as a business one of the bigger machines will speed the entire process and make it cost effective.

[mikeee]

This is the Haddon Lumbermaker which slides along a 2x6 that is screwed to a log.

 

[Arthur]

UK pyro lore is that you should use wood that grows rapidly near water, and you should use debarked branches from the size of a man's finger to the thickness of an arm.

 

Having had willow charcoal from big logs and another batch from thin sticks the thinner sticks made noticeably faster powder.

 

If you have determined that a particular Cedar does make good powder then using moderate sticks or branches may give better powder than using heavy lumber. However choice of timber type makes a lot of difference and choice of stick size only makes less difference, but good sticks of good wood will be the best powder which we all seem to strive for.

[GMetcalf]

Bearing in mind the shavings probably come from the same part of the tree as the boards do (they'll just be offcuts from sawing the wood down to size I imagine) the result of charcoaling them will broadly be the same. As Arthur says, the smaller branches do seem to make better charcoal than the trunks and as always science has the answer for this (which I only learnt recently may I add):

• Smaller diameter branches have a higher pith to wood ratio. The pith is more porous than the wood (vastly so), hence producing lower density charcoal with far more air spaces within it. Vine and willow have their benefit here.
• Smaller diameter branches, when charcoaled, have a structure of canals which, due to the small radius of the branch, are stretched more than the main trunk and therefore have a much more varied collection of canal sizes with more small canals, thus also decreasing the density of the charcoal. This contrasts with the trunk which has large canals with thicker walls between them which when charcoaled and powdered produces a higher density product.
• The tree variety also does seem to make a difference with, broadly speaking, evergreens having a more homogenous structure than leafy trees, thus producing higher density charcoals. Although Red Cedar does seem to be an exception to this rule...

I'd personally like to get some samples of various charcoals under my 100x objective on my microscope to have a look at their structure and see if Cedar, despite being an evergreen, has a similar structure to Willow and Alder hence making good charcoal, unlike normal White Pine.

[bpman]

Where do you reside? I have; pine, cedar, locust ,sumac, and more.

[PyroRob]

I have made good cedar chabcoal in a retort using cedar shakes. They are a little pricey to buy but if you know a roofer he could probably get you some from a tear off, they used to be used as a starter course for asphalt shingles. The charcoal is very hot great burst and lift. probably too hot for gerbs ect.

Rob