How i make my own cherry lump(vids)

Hey all. Here are two videos i constructed to show how charcoal is made. I used a propane burner from my smoker as the main heat source. It is cheaper for me to use very little propane vs a bunch of wood as the heat source.
Basically, take an unused empty paint can. You can buy them at home depot or lowes. They are roughly 5$ and are just empty cans. But really, any empty can with a metal lid will work. Make sure to punch 4 or 5 holes in the lid for the smoke to escape.
Fill the can up with your wood and then place the top on it.


I placed the can into a weber charcoal chimney and set that above the heat source. i turned it on low. You will begin to se smoke pour out the holes. With in 15 minutes, a TON of smoke will come out. Once the smoke has turned very light blue and is pretty thin, take it off the heat source, open it up and make sure it has carbonized.



This is the importnat part i forgot to do the first time. Make sure to place the lid back on and tip it upside down on the cement or dirt so the holes are covered. If you dont, the hot wood will burn down to ash...
Enjoy and i hope this will be fun for you guys. I know it was for me. Stuff burns HOT to.
Part 1:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iovXP-5v03w"]Making charcoal part 1 - YouTube[/ame]
Part 2:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY3XLSOvSCg"]Making charcoal part 2 - YouTube[/ame]

For a paint can size, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half. I want to make a bunch at a time and thought about using a 5 gallon metal bucket or a small metal trash can.

The purpose of the chimney for me was to hold the can. My burner has a piece of square tubing that is welded to the top so its hard for the can to ballance on it. The propane works great for me cuz it is way cheaper for me to use gas than it is to buy pine or other wood to birn as heat source. I live in the city so my only option is to buy firewood. Haha so propane is cheapest for me. Its fun to make it though. Hope you all try it out

V-wiz said:

Very nice, just curious why not just burn/cook the wood itself instead of making charcoal?

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I thought of that but its fun to make. Kicks and giggles! Haha. Also i was curious to how much wood would burn away before it gets to ember stage vs how much waste there was from making charcoal. Turns out that the wood chunck loses maybe 15% of its original volume. Ok maybe volume is not the right word. The actual phyiscal shape and size is still at least 85% the same but the mass has changed so it was kindafun to try out.

We used the same method to make charcoal cloth for firestarting in historical re-enactment. Altoids tins and old jeans

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interesting. Which historical re-enactment group and for which era? civil war? revolutionary?
I might have to make some of that stuff for camping.
@smokindink71: I have an electric burner as well. I may have to try this method out. Is it pretty fast? or does it take longer to heat up and make the charcoal? What kind of electric burner? All i have is a portable single stove top burner and an electric charcoal starter.

Try one of the metal popcorn tins you find around christmas.

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Thats what i was trying to figure out the other day. I had a image in my head of a giant tin that i had at one point in time and couldnt think of what it was. But i knew i had one at one point in time. It was a dang pop corn tin. those work great.
Now i just need to find more wood

thanks guys