Wisconsin Pyrotechnic Arts Guild
Making Charcoal
To have really good charcoal of the right kind for different pyro compositions requires either having a source of custom made charcoals or making it yourself. Here is one way one of our WPAG members makes his own charcoal.
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A 15 gallon steel barrel is loaded with 1 inch square pieces of white pine. The cover for the barrel has a pipe attached to allow the gasses to vent during cooking. The cover is secured to the barrel by folding down the tabs. |
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After the cover is put on, the 15 gallon barrel is placed inside of a 55 gallon steel barrel. The 15 gallon barrel is centered in the 55 gallon barrel with bricks. The 55 gallon barrel has one end open. A door has been put in the rear of the 55 gallon barrel for draft control. |
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Wood for the fire is then loaded around the 15 gallon barrel. To aid in starting the fire a propane cylinder with attached hose is used. |
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Here you can see the propane being used to start the wood on fire. It doesn't take long to get a good fire going when you use propane to start it. |
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The propane has been removed and the fire is burning nicely on it's own. As the wood burns down more is added. Soon the gasses will start to vent from the 15 gallon barrel. |
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Here you can see the wood inside the 15 gallon barrel is heated up and starting to vent gasses. Note that the gasses themselves burn and provide additional heat. The fire is maintained by adding wood until gasses no longer come out of the 15 gallon barrel. |
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After the gasses have stopped coming out of the 15 gallon barrel, it is removed from the fire and buried top down in about a 4 inch hole. This is done to seal the barrel to prevent air getting into it while it cools. If air were to get into the barrel while the charcoal inside is still hot, it may start burning and turn to ash which would destroy all your hard work.. |
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Here's the finished product after being cooled. This batch produced about 9 pounds of white pine charcoal. |
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Here the charcoal is spread out so you can see what it looks like. |
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If it's all done right, you will have nice black chunks of charcoal. If any pieces are brown in color you didn't cook it enough. These chunks are then broken up and ball milled to make air float charcoal. |