
Open burned Charcoal...
#1
Posted 02 August 2007 - 11:15 AM
The thing is, i have never cooked the wood without oxygen in a closed container like most people do. In fact i have done the exact opposite. I have a large metal box i constructed with an open top and a 4" diameter vent at the bottom. When i cook my wood i fill the box completely and ignite it with a leaf blower aimed at the bottom vent. This burns all the wood and turns it into a thick pile of coals on the bottom right quick.
With the leaf blower running it keeps the pile white hot for a good half hour to 45 minutes, until I suspect all the wood is completely burnt.
I then proceed to spray down the coals with a hose. I have fairly pure water here, so i don't believe I'm contaminating the charcoal with that. I then dump all the charcoal onto a sieve and wash it throughly to remove any ash that wasn't blown away by the leaf blower (most of it is). After drying this charcoal has always burned quite fast in my black powder and has provided me with a good way to make large quantity's of various charcoals.
The reason i believe this has worked for me is the washing step i take. Any ash created that is not water soluble is fine enough particle size to fall through the sieve. Without ash contamination, is there any property of the charcoal that is taken away by cooking the wood like this?
I very much like being able to make large quantity's of willow, grapevine and pine charcoal like this, and it seems to work well for me. I would however like to know if I'm somehow missing out on better preforming compositions. As one who as never bought commercial charcoal i have nothing to contrast this to.
Thanks
-Ben
#2
Posted 02 August 2007 - 01:00 PM
BUT, if the BP that you create this way works well for what you're doing with it, don't worry another minute about it. Many people get too caught up in the "is my BP the fastest" fetish, and forget to enjoy the art.

#3
Posted 02 August 2007 - 01:37 PM
-Ben
#4
Posted 02 August 2007 - 06:55 PM
#5
Posted 02 August 2007 - 07:34 PM
In my particular situation I heat my house with a wood stove, so I have a ready source of heat (for at least 6 momths of the year, anyway). I made a 6"X24" homemade steel retort with a screw-cap on one end, and about fifty 1/4" holes along the bottom. I fill the thing with poplar/maple/white pine/newsprint/willow and toss the thing onto the coals, with the holes down. The fire evaporates the water, then drive the oils and alchohols down through the holes, where they ignite and add to the heat. With the holes down there is no opportunity for oxygen to enter the retort and consume the charcoal. I remove the retort from the fire and set it in a sand box I keep near the stove, still holes-down so no oxygen can enter, and let it cool down. This has given me a consistant product from batch to batch, with the exception of newsprint. Newsprint has proved to be some of the best and some of the worst stuff I've made. It seems particularly problematic in BP rocket formulas, where i've abandoned it completly in favor of maple charcoal. I have no scientific reason for this, it's merely my experience.
Christ, I'm chattering-on like a loon. I noticed that I also spelled "alcohol" incorrectly, which is udoubtably due to my consumption of same. This is not a night to combine fuels and oxydizers! The ability of a pyro to count to ten on ones fingers is inversely proportional to his blood-alcohol level, so tonight I'm leaving behind the 6" mortars in favor of the 16 oz. margruerittas. Ethanol, have mercy on my soul............
"Who is John Galt?"
#6
Posted 02 August 2007 - 11:27 PM
I'm still interested at what oils could modify the burn rate of the charcoal. If they were readily available it could be an interesting thing to experiment with tigertail type stars and the similar. I imagine it would have some beneficial effects on tailed stars, and nearly any other composition containing charcoal.
#7
Posted 07 August 2007 - 12:10 PM
Hmmmm....I've thought on the same subject; namely "spiking" generic, mixed source charcoal with fractions of various VOCs and making test batches of some simple charcoal streamer, like Chrys6, and evaluate the difference (if any)....I'm still interested at what oils could modify the burn rate of the charcoal. If they were readily available it could be an interesting thing to experiment with tigertail type stars and the similar. I imagine it would have some beneficial effects on tailed stars, and nearly any other composition containing charcoal.
My plan was to take a control batch of ~800g of un-milled cowboy charcoal, process it through the old meat grinder, then ball mill into airfloat. I would portion out into 100g batches and add, say .25% - .5% of:
Mineral oil
Naphthalene
Kerosene
A few types of motor oil (why not?)
WD-40
Maybe Olive or Vegetable oil
I would re-mill the mix to fully integrate the volatiles, then make and bind the stars as normal. Hopefully the small addition of VOCs will not hamper the action of an aqueous binder.
I’ve not read any purposeful adulteration of charcoal in other tests. Has any enterprising soul already done this?
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter... you're the firestarter, twisted firestarter.
#8
Posted 07 August 2007 - 12:24 PM
It seems easy enough to test, i may try milling up some chrys6 and adding some of the oils to test amounts. Another thing that might change results could be addition of the oils before and after the charcoal is in a composition. It would be easier and faster to test if you could add the oils to the entire composition, at least for me because i like to mill the components together throughly. Therefore you could mill a very large batch of chrys6 instead of many small test batches over the course of at least a week.
#9
Posted 07 August 2007 - 04:40 PM
If you did it that way, you should do a batch adding the extra organics, before and after mixing the comp, to see if the results vary.
P.S. - if you do some trials, don't forget to try Patchouli or Sandlewood...Hippie friendly fireworks!

I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter... you're the firestarter, twisted firestarter.
#10
Posted 10 August 2007 - 07:29 PM
For now if you're interested the comp i'm testing with is...
60 kno3
30 ash charcoal
10 sulfur
+ 6 dextrin
+ 3 1/3rd ml of olive oil (this is an odd measurement because i added 5ml to 150g, also i pretreated the charcoal with it so this was added before the rest was milled)
alright, well more later
#11
Posted 10 August 2007 - 08:22 PM
I'm definitely staying tuned, though.
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter... you're the firestarter, twisted firestarter.
#12
Posted 11 August 2007 - 09:14 AM
#13
Posted 13 August 2007 - 08:23 PM
The only problem i had with the stars was an obnoxiously long drying time, i just put them in a toaster oven at 200 degrees F for 45 minutes to dry them out so i could fire today. The pink in the stars was beautiful, it's a shame the camera didn't pick it up. Looked great with the golden tail.
I'll try some small shells with them later in the week
#14
Posted 23 August 2007 - 10:08 PM
#15
Posted 23 August 2007 - 10:22 PM
As far as the method, it's not new. It is how it used to be done, and may possibly still be done on a large batch process. Well, one used to light the center of the wood, let it burn down so much, and then smother it with a lid, or a large mound of earth for a few weeks to fully carbonize the wood and such. A retort type of method does indeed give more product, and theoretically speaking, a slightly less contaminated one as not all ash is soluble in water. Still most of that should be washed away anyway.
If it works for you, and you literally have wood to burn, I say go for it though. However with most of us with a limited amount of good charcoal wood, a retort type method makes sense.
The sky is my canvas, and I have 2,113 pounds of powdered paint in the workshop.
#16
Posted 24 August 2007 - 12:07 PM
I wonder if the pink color is comparable to those pink glitter stars they had at the grand public display? Those were great!
#17
Posted 02 September 2007 - 01:01 PM
I think for now i will keep my charcoal method, although i am curious to see how my grapevine/willow mix compares to the same mix made in a retort.
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