Primitive Technology: Reusable charcoal mound
17,726,162
Published 2017-06-17
The mound was lit and the flame burned backwards down the heap in the opposite direction to the draft. This protects the coal made above the level of the fire from burning as carbon dioxide rushes past instead of oxygen, preventing combustion of charcoal. Each air entry was sealed only when fire became visible through them. This is an easy way to tell when to close them up, i.e. when the fire had burned down all of the wood in the heap. When the last air entry was closed, the air exit at the top of the mound was sealed, 5 hours after starting. The next day when cool, a large arched opening was made in the side of the mound to extract the charcoal. Despite a few unburnt brands the yield and quality was good filling almost 2 baskets.
To see if the kiln was reusable, I restacked it with timber cut from a fallen gum tree branch up the mountain. Due to the difficulty in reaching into the mound I stacked the wood in criss-crossed horizontal layers. The opening was sealed with mud and the mound lit as before. This time the mound burned quickly and I had to seal it early as the timber was burning at different rates, 3 hours after starting. Some large logs remained unburnt while charcoal that had already formed started to burn up being wasted as ash.
When I opened it the next day it had still produced an ok amount of charcoal but was disappointingly low compared to the first batch. This may partly be due to some of the wood being still green though it’s probably more likely to be due to how it was stacked. The lesson here is that when making charcoal the wood needs to be tightly stacked with few air spaces between. If not, the mound admits too much oxygen that quickly burns the timber.
Another thought I had was that wood may convert to charcoal better if laid vertically (or roughly so, like the cone in the first firing) so that the fire starts at the top of the wood and burns down. Stacking the wood in horizontal layers means that each layer has to set the one bellow alight leading to problems if the wood is green (use dry wood if stacking horizontally). By stacking wood vertically each piece is alight already and simply burns down towards the air entries. Stacking in this way also makes it easier to see fire in the air entries letting you know when to seal the mound.
For the reasons above I may make another charcoal kiln in future in the shape of a cylinder with air entries around the base and an open top. The kiln would be re-usable and easily stacked. A conical pile of wood would protrude above the walls of the kiln and be plastered in a temporary cover of mud. The kiln would be fired as with a normal mound and when finished the temporary cover of mud would be removed to extract the charcoal
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All Comments (21)
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It would be a major project, but why not build a kiln with an interior chamber for pottery or charcoal?
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Something like that? You would only need clay for a cover plate over the inner chamber. The rest could be mud construction. -
I feel like the majority of viewers don't know this; turn on captions!
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Am I the only one who just loves the sound of charcoal rolling around?
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5 years later and this method is still better than the more modern charcoal maker videos going around.
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Love the sound of charcole being moved about ❤
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99 construction and 99 crafting but doesn't even wear a skill cape. So humble.
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I wouldn't be surprised if this guy creates a 1000gb fiber optic ethernet cable out of vines and twigs
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Мужик просто молодец! Самый качественный канал на ютубе. Все своими руками, всю душу и сердце вкладывает в это.
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0:39 his water powered hammer in the background. DEEPEST LORE.
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No FakePranks, No Politics, No Drama, No Vlogging, No Celebration Every 1 Million Subs - just pure entertainment.
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There's something therapeutic about Watching a YouTube vid that doesn't have someone screaming every 3 seconds to get attention, keep 'em coming!
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I get so excited every time he makes charcoal. It's such a beautiful sight.
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He can start his own brand new civilization
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No crappy bakground music, No Annotations, No voice overs...Just Chirping birds, mother nature and a caveman with a camera. best channel on YouTube.
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Of all the YouTubers I watch, Primitive Technology is the one I admire the most. Your dedication is second to none.
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I just read your book and it was so good to find out more about your experiments. Very enjoyable and good photographes as well...Thanks!
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Спасибо авторам фильма и этому парню. Смотрел все видео . На наглядном примере многое объясняется. Как возникла цивилизация и всё , что связано ней. Супер !
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The only YouTuber I know to not speak a single word and have millions of subscribers
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kind of ironic, we're using this advanced technology that promotes communication, to watch 1 guy do stuff we've been doing since the dawn of time, and he never says a word. Hella fun to watch tho
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Trees hate him! Find out how this man makes charcoal with one simple trick!
