Anybody Make Forge Charcoal?

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I have been watching Japanese blacksmith videos and noticed they usually burn charcoal.

I think it would be cool to build a forge and use charcoal, I have always used gas. I have all the mesquite I can cut here and it has great heat value.

Has anyone here done this? I'm learning more about it now but thought it woud be interesting to ask.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You can build a charcoal retort oven from old 55-galon drums.

here is one of hundreds of online tutorials:

Making Your Own Lump Charcoal - Backdoor Survival

Charcoal making can be an easy process! Master it today by going through our comprehensive, step-by-step guide to put this skill in your back pocket.

www.backdoorsurvival.com

 

[DanF]

I started out using coal and loved it, but it was hard to get in my area and became super expensive.
So, I put together a 55 gal drum retort oven as Stacy mentioned. Used that for roughly 2years or so and liked it a lot. Whenever I get tired of the same old same old process with the heat treat oven or gas forge I’ll fire up the barrel and make enough for a couple knives to stay connected to my roots.
It IS great fun

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

You can build a charcoal retort oven from old 55-galon drums.

here is one of hundreds of online tutorials:

Making Your Own Lump Charcoal - Backdoor Survival

Charcoal making can be an easy process! Master it today by going through our comprehensive, step-by-step guide to put this skill in your back pocket.

www.backdoorsurvival.com

Thanks! That's what I was planning, I just wanted to see what people thought about it.

I was reading about bio-char making and they do it differently than the charcoal tutorials so I might try both.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I started out using coal and loved it, but it was hard to get in my area and became super expensive.
So, I put together a 55 gal drum retort oven as Stacy mentioned. Used that for roughly 2years or so and liked it a lot. Whenever I get tired of the same old same old process with the heat treat oven or gas forge I’ll fire up the barrel and make enough for a couple knives to stay connected to my roots.
It IS great fun

Yeah I can probably mine coal in CO from some seams I know of... and there is actally a nearby coal mine here in central TX. I like the idea of just doing it here on my property.

Nice! I think that is what I will do, there are plenty drums nearby on marketplace... sounds safer that way. 55 gallons should run the forge for a fair bit too. I have an Atlas forge for smaller to somewhat big stuff but want to use the charcoal for heat treating swords.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

All coal isn't forging coal. You need low sulfur, low ash, bituminous coal. Preferable, Pocahontas #3.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Al coal isn't forging coal. You need low sulfur, low ash, bituminous coal. Preferable, Pocahontas #3.

The stuff I can get in CO is nice and clean, no clue about the geology nearby though. I used to make my living mining lapidary materials. I'm still just going to use charcoal, easy to source and I am not doing a lot of sword forging, just want to be able to.

 

[transmaster]

Biochar retort.

For anthracite coal.
Blaschak Anthracite
Lehigh Anthracite

Years ago, I lived out in rural Laramie County, and I heated the house with a Warm Morning coal heater. I used to make a 14-hour trip to Hanna, Wyoming, in an old Binder sugar beet truck to load it up with coal. Over a ton in the old truck, and it was a steady 40 mph there and back. A load lasted a couple of months. I had an opportunity to pick up several hundred pounds of Anthracite coal. It was like heating manna from heaven. I think I had 500 pounds of Anthracite, which outlasted 2 tons of Wyoming Bituminous.

 

[Ken H>]

I was reading about bio-char making and they do it differently than the charcoal tutorials so I might try both.

You mention bio-char and I had to look that one up. From my reading it seems it's not used for fuel, but soil. "Charcoal is optimized for fuel, burning hot and consistently, while biochar is designed for soil enhancement."
Perhaps you have a way to use it for fuel? As I said, I know nothing about biochar, but am always looking to learn new stuff.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

You mention bio-char and I had to look that one up. From my reading it seems it's not used for fuel, but soil. "Charcoal is optimized for fuel, burning hot and consistently, while biochar is designed for soil enhancement."
Perhaps you have a way to use it for fuel? As I said, I know nothing about biochar, but am always looking to learn new stuff.

I just liked the bio char method as it was low effort for a large amount... no clue if it yields different results but that makes sense. I think I'd just do this in a barrel after reading about it though.

 

[transmaster]

One of the Japanese YouTube channels featuring one of the small knife forges, the knife sensei talks about charcoal. He said that charcoal made from pine is the best because the way it burns it's carbon infusion into the steel is the best.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Bio-char is different from charcoal. Bio-char is made by burning yard waste and/or lumbermill waste in a big steep walled pit. It is set on fire and then hosed off once it is all burning good. The pit is then quickly covered with a mound of dirt and let sit for a week. When dug up, the resulting mix of dirt, charcoal, and ash is sold as bio-char. Home made bio-char is usually done by piling all your yard waste (grass clippings, branches, wood chunks, etc.) in a vertical 55-gallon drum. get it burning, and maybe build a fire around the outside. When it is burning good, shovel the wood and coals from the fire outside the barrel into the barrel, and shovel in at least a foot of dirt. Let sit for a day or more until te barrel is cool. Dump it out and mix in your flower beds ( especially good for raised beds) and bag up some for making potting soil for flower pots and such.
I keep a bag of bio-char to make soil for my potted night blooming cacti and palm plants.

Home made charcoal is done similarly, and can use the same simple barrel setup described above with OK results. A large metal plate is placed over the barrel instead of dirt.
Commercially, of for regular production at home, chunks of dry wood are placed in horizontal barrel or other closed container with a vent pipe and heated to 500-600°F from below until all the volatiles are driven off.. Such a barrel/drum/chamber is called a retort. The volatile gases (wood gas) and oils ( pine tar, etc.) are driven off and burned at the vent pipe leaving behind the carbon rich charcoal. When te gass vent stops burning a fkame, remove the heat from under the barrel, close off the vent, and let the wood convert to charcoal. It is pretty easy to do if you live rurally where the smoke and smell isn't a problem. Many home retorts are made from a couple old 55-gallon drums. 500°F gives soft charcoal and 600°F gives hard charcoal. Charcoal briquettes are made from charcoal powder that is mixed with a clay binder, compressed, then baked. Briquettes are not suitable for forging, BTW.

 

[transmaster]

The Primitive Technology YouTube channel has numerous posts about making charcoal. He is limited to Iron Age technology. He is located in Northern Australia.

 

[transmaster]

Bio-char is different from charcoal. Bio-char is made by burning yard waste and/or lumbermill waste in a big steep walled pit. It is set on fire and then hosed off once it is all burning good. The pit is then quickly covered with a mound of dirt and let sit for a week. When dug up, the resulting mix of dirt, charcoal, and ash is sold as bio-char. Home made bio-char is usually done by piling all your yard waste (grass clippings, branches, wood chunks, etc.) in a vertical 55-gallon drum. get it burning, and maybe build a fire around the outside. When it is burning good, shovel the wood and coals from the fire outside the barrel into the barrel, and shovel in at least a foot of dirt. Let sit for a day or more until te barrel is cool. Dump it out and mix in your flower beds ( especially good for raised beds) and bag up some for making potting soil for flower pots and such.
I keep a bag of bio-char to make soil for my potted night blooming cacti and palm plants.

Home made charcoal is done similarly, and can use the same simple barrel setup described above with OK results. A large metal plate is placed over the barrel instead of dirt.
Commercially, of for regular production at home, chunks of dry wood are placed in horizontal barrel or other closed container with a vent pipe and heated to 500-600°F from below until all the volatiles are driven off.. Such a barrel/drum/chamber is called a retort. The volatile gases (wood gas) and oils ( pine tar, etc.) are driven off and burned at the vent pipe leaving behind the carbon rich charcoal. When te gass vent stops burning a fkame, remove the heat from under the barrel, close off the vent, and let the wood convert to charcoal. It is pretty easy to do if you live rurally where the smoke and smell isn't a problem. Many home retorts are made from a couple old 55-gallon drums. 500°F gives soft charcoal and 600°F gives hard charcoal. Charcoal briquettes are made from charcoal powder that is mixed with a clay binder, compressed, then baked. Briquettes are not suitable for forging, BTW.

Charcoal Briquettes are partially made out of old newspapers. This started many years ago when newspapers were printed in non-toxic soy based ink.

 

[Mecha]

One of the Japanese YouTube channels featuring one of the small knife forges, the knife sensei talks about charcoal. He said that charcoal made from pine is the best because the way it burns it's carbon infusion into the steel is the best.

They use different wood charcoal for different operations: pine for forging, and oak for heat treatment/yaki ire.