Charcoal Home

How is charcoal made?

Why choose locally produced charcoal?

5 easy steps to making charcoal in a kiln.

Step 1

A metal kiln, a circular steel drum of around eight feet diameter and four feet tall is used in this example. It can hold approximately one and a half tonnes of wood. There is a removable lid and a number of vents allowing air to flow to and from the bottom of the kiln.

Once the vents are cleaned and inserted under the drum, the preparation of the burn is made by placing the “charge” (in this case charcoal finings) in the centre of the kiln and laying over “spacer” logs to help channel the airflow from the vents towards the charge. Then wood is stacked horizontally across the spacers all the way to the top of the drum, but leaving some space above the charge to act as a chimney within the kiln.

Step Two

Once fully loaded, the kiln is lit by pouring hot embers from a fire down onto the charge below. Another way to light the charge is to push a lit rag through a vent into the centre of the kiln. The lid is loosely placed on top of the kiln whilst the fire establishes itself for roughly an hour, with air flowing in through some vents whilst smoke flows out of others.

Step 3

The lid is firmly settled into place and chimneys added to four equally spaced vents, whilst remaining four vents draw in air. The lid is sealed airtight with soil or sand. The burn will continue for up to 20 hours depending on weather conditions and the moisture content of the wood. The vents and chimneys can be swapped around to ensure an even burn and the best yield.

The key indication that it is time to snuff the burn out is when the smoke from the chimneys goes from greyish blue to clear. The chimneys are removed and all vents sealed with soil, to be left for minimum 24 hours to cool.

Step 4

Once fully cooled, the lid is prised open and inside will be roughly 250 kilos of high quality charcoal. Care needs to be taken to be ready for the possibility of "flare ups" where the intake of air re-ignites the fire.

Step 5

This is then shovelled onto a large sieve chute which separates the charcoal lumps from the finings which are caught below. The lumps are bagged mainly for barbecuing, but there are also many other uses for charcoal...

• Domestic fuel (smokeless)
• Horticultural soil-improver for soils & composts
• Manufacturing of acetylene cylinders, light-buoys, electric batteries, special metal (e.g. steel) alloys, chemical solutions, copper smelting, brass-making or in hardening processes, gas respirators, cooker hoods, animal feeds, medicines (as an anti-toxin), digestive biscuits, glass making, ink pigment, glycerine, fuse & gunpowders, artists supplies, soap & beauty products
• Water, Sewage & Air filtration to remove bad flavour and bad odour
• Soaking up oil and petrol spills at sea
• Wound-dressing, for supporting lesions
• It can be put into socks then put in the garden pond to control excess nitrates in the water

Creosote - a by-product of wood tar produced during the charcoal burn - can be used as a timber preservative.