spitfire Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Anyone has experience with grape charcoal..? I just made a 250g test batch last week, (milled for 8 hrs) and it turned out to be a very fast BP. All though i always use 1 year willow branches for my lift and break, i was very surprised to see the result of grape. Funny thing is, i tried Vine coal too, but that gave me rather poor results in spite what people say. Making good BP is just like making good wine or beer, and the charcoal makes all the difference. To share a story with you pyro buffs, 1 or 2 times a year i have my ''wood harvest and charcoal burning day''. Close to my house there are some fields completely overgrown with willow trees. At 7 a.m. i get my saw and branch scissors and head out... collecting fresh willow branches and meanwhile look out for fisherman and other people wanting to ask questions what on earth i am doing. No, i don't like unattended visitors when i am doing anything related to pyro. When the trunk of my car is full with willow i go back home, and peel of all the bark. That is a hell of a job! Cut all branches to the right size and fill my kiln. Then mother nature does the rest, while i zip on some beer and enjoy the warm flames... good times, and only pyro's understand that feeling i guess. Drinking some beer while the process of burning and cooking is going on, i reminisce of all the good BP this has given me through the years and what projects are to come. It is a relaxed, happy day and i always enjoy this section of pyro in complete loneliness, feeling lucky to do it, to enjoy simple things that give a lot in return! When the first batch of BP is finished a few days later... that's the magic that gives me a rush of blood to the head, and many ideas of new projects are born on those moments. How wonderful can life be, if you know how to enjoy it. Best regards, spitfire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 One of the Russians (Urbanski I think) makes tables in his books of the properties of charcoal as varied by the charcoaling temperature, it makes interesting reading, you can overcook charcoal too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I would say that you can cook charcoal past it's optimum without too much trouble. It's much harder to say cook willow charcoal into crap charcoal. Even slightly over cooked, which is actually how I do it, is quite powerful. My general rule of thumb was to cook until the smoke disappeared, and then probably an extra 20 minutes to finish everything off. For a large batch with the cooling time, the extra 20 min really don't make much of a difference. For a small 100g batch or so it may add up however when the cooling time is really only a few hours. Some of my fastest charcoal ever actually came from cooking it on an electric hotplate in a metal coffee can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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