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How I make charcoal with a pyramid kiln


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I wanted to share my method of producing charcoal in a fairly easy and efficient way using the charcoal pyramid kiln.

The pyramid itself is just a homemade assembly of sheet metal held together with bolts. It is slightly buried to avoid oxygen coming from under the fire.

The advantage of this method is that you can use wood that is not perfectly dry and it is quite fast. Furthermore, you won't need to cut any charcoal.
In my case, I burn mostly dead poplar wood gathered by myself.

 

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The first step is to put some mussed newspaper in the bottom and add some kindling on top. After that, I light the fire by adding an ignited newspaper in the center.

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As soon as the fire is getting stronger, I start to toss some split wood and some small round branches.

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Whenever I see a lot of flames, I just continue to toss more wood. At this point, I stopped adding wood because the pyramid is full and it was windy.


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We can already see the wood charring now. In order to minimize losses, I use some fire tongs to put the largest chunks of wood in the center.

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I am now ready to harvest the charcoal because I no longer see any flames and the chunks are easily breakable with my spade.
The trash can you see on the left has a capacity of around 80 L.

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This is how it looks before putting the lid on the trash can. We can now see a lot of ashes.
Warning: The trash can is now hot and should be manipulated safely, like using thick gloves.

Before removing the lid, you should wait at least between 24-48 hours to let the charcoal cool.

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That is the strainer I will be using to remove the ashes from the charcoal after it has been cooled.

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Here is some non filtered charcoal.

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Here is the end product, after shaking the charcoal for a few seconds. You might want to wear a dust mask before doing this.
The nice thing is that you don't need to cut the charcoal, but still get various sizes of charcoal.
Personally, I just use it as it is but you could easily separate the charcoal in different grades.

 

If you have any question or comment, I'll be glad to hear it. ;)

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WoodnMetalGuy,

The method shown in the video is indeed very efficient, better than the pyramid kiln.

However, it is not strictly better than the pyramid kiln.
For example, it would cost more to buy or/and be much more complicated to build.

I also think it takes more preparation (stacking a lot wood uniformly in the container) to get it to work and it takes more time collecting the charcoal  (the charcoal may also need cutting).

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Xavier: For the effort and materials you put into making your direct method, hopper, (A pyramid points upwards) you could've made a semi-direct charcoal retort. For the price of a 55gl drum with the clamp on lid and no real work you could have an indirect method charcoal retort. 

Wood to charcoal yields improve in the order I listed the basic charcoaling methods.

Frosty The Lucky. 

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JHCC,

You got me curious about the efficiency the charcoal pyramid kiln. :D

I believe I have found a way to estimate fairly accurately the ratio of weight of charcoal/wood.

I will be using this small machine to weight each log that I will throw in the fire, individually.
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After that, I will sum up the whole mass of the raw wood.
Once all the charcoal is in the trash can, I will measure the weight of charcoal by subtracting the total weight minus the trash can weight.
I will now be able to determine the ratio.

Anyway, it will be for the next day or so. ;)

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Make sure you note whether you're using seasoned wood or green. The former will weigh less to start, and I suspect you'll get a more efficient burn, as you won't be expending energy to cook off the excess moisture.

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JHCC,

Since I have some extra wood, I will be using all the wood that is not green, but not perfectly dry as it was collected recently from dead trees.
(The trees have been dead for at least 1 year ago and it is somewhat humid around the St. Lawrence River.)

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This is new to me so forgive any ignorance but couldn't the OP stuff a couple of those 5 gallon looking cans with lids in the background of his photos with wood, then build a fire in his pyramid and cook the wood in those cans?  Looks like he could get about three of those in the pyramid (could be photo depth perception distortion)  He would then only sacrifice to burning, the wood in the pyramid that is used to cook the wood in the cans.  Also as I understand it, he would need to poke some holes for gas to escape in those cans.

 

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WNC Goater,

The idea of cooking some wood in a few containers above the fire is an interesting idea as it will be using some of the wasted heat.
It will provide some good quality charcoal, but will require more preparation.

JHCC,

I have calculated the ratio of weight of charcoal/raw wood.

The ratio is 9,29 %.

mass of raw wood: (77,5 ± 2,8) kg
mass of charcoal: (7,2 ± 0,4) kg

The best ratio is 10,2 %.
The worst ratio is 8,47 %.

I could get a more accurate ratio when the charcoal will be cold. (It was divided among 2 trash can, doubling the incertitude.)

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to measure the average humidity of the wood and it was not perfectly dry for sure.

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59 minutes ago, WNC Goater said:

This is new to me so forgive any ignorance but couldn't the OP stuff a couple of those 5 gallon looking cans with lids in the background of his photos with wood, then build a fire in his pyramid and cook the wood in those cans?  Looks like he could get about three of those in the pyramid (could be photo depth perception distortion)  He would then only sacrifice to burning, the wood in the pyramid that is used to cook the wood in the cans.  Also as I understand it, he would need to poke some holes for gas to escape in those cans.

 

You're correct but the OP is engaged in making discoveries rather than just picking and using an ancient method. Of course we can have fun with him by asking questions like yours and reading all his rationalizations. There's nothing to forgive you for Goater, your observation is exactly right, he's making the lowest tech level method as complicated as he can for his own reasons. It's certainly not efficient nor effective method. Shoveling the coals out of a campfire and extinguishing them into a tub of water would be less wasteful of resources, time and effort.

If you'd like some good information Re. charcoal production there's plenty in the solid fuel forge section of Iforge.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Interesting idea. Though I agree that there are more efficient processes. 

The part I'm confused about is that you mention "cutting" charcoal, several times. The charcoal I make, if it's too big, I can just snap it in half right at the forge with 0 effort. 

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Will W. ,

Before I used the pyramid kiln, I cooked split wood in a closed container to make charcoal.
Sometimes, there were some charcoal lumps that were almost completely charred but they were not easy to break. (This charcoal had a blackish look, not the silvery look.)

I have to admit that it was probably the method that i used that made some of the charcoal hard to break.

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Admittedly, I'm just beginning to experiment with solid fuel, usually using a propane forge. There are times when what I'm working on simply doesn't fit inside the propane forge.  Coal isn't readily available locally, at least not to my knowledge so I've done some forging with charcoal, though I still have a experimental and rudimentary forge to burn it.

I've forged using small chunks of raw wood, which works, all charcoal, and a mixture of each.  I've got plenty of wood with which to make charcoal but thus far my procedure has been to build a fire in the firepit and shovel coals into a bucket of water and then spreading on a screen to dry.  Not the most efficient means but it works. If I can find some coal, I doubt I'd go to the trouble of making charcoal. Even without, I cannot envision building some type of retort to make charcoal. 

I've read that "way back then" a full time forge would employ as many as 6 full time charcoal makers just to feed the forge. I can believe it as the small charcoal forge I have is a hungry little devil.  I can also see where the local tree population around communities with multiple forges could start to become a bit "sparse"!

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