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Mr. QB is dead keen to learn how to make charcoal and as his birthday is coming up I'd like to get him a course. Has anyone here attended a course or does anyone know of a reputable organisation offering such courses? I've found a few on the 'tinerweb but I don't know how to judge between the different course providers. I'm in Surrey but I don't mind traveling.

Thanks,

QB

Hi QB depends where you are and how far you can could travel; here in East sussex there are quite few local courses, wilderness wood springs to mind, Bentley wild fowl have a wood fair each year where there are country type courses advertised, if you were further over in Hampshire at the back of Manor Farm in Hedge End we used to watch the charcoal making for free; how about National trust and woodland trust they might be good places to start such a search. Sorry bit garbled, good luck
Bx

I could receomend a few of the folks here in Scotland but that is probably not quite what you meant when you said travel from Surrey
You could try http://www.smallwoods.org.uk/ - lots of good info on courses and woody people

All you need to make charcoal is to heat wood hot enough without air for long enough.

If you want to make small quantities here's how I do it (in the winter).

Take an empty Illy coffee tin (or 1-litre metal paint tin) and bash 3 holes in the lid with a 5" nail.
Fill it with sawdust /twigs / bits of wood /other woody stuff.
Refit lid.

When wood-burner is going well open the door and place tin (upright) inside with tongs.

After a while you should see gases coming out of the 3 holes (and round the poor lid seal) and igniting.
An hour or so later the flames will have stopped coming out of the holes.
Remove with tongs and allow to cool somewhere safe. Do NOT open the lid - the charcoal will ignite in contact with air!.

I've seen gypsies make oak charcoal in Bulgaria - that looks like a real skill.... like building a small house out of 6" diameter logs, setting fire to it and covering with soil... or something. They make multiple tons at a time... takes weeks of careful tending. Probably ends up in sacks in B+Q for your barbie.

Also somewhere on the net there is a home forge knife-making guy showing how to make charcoal out of scrap lumber in old oil drums where the escaping gases are fed around to supply more heat to continue the combustion...

I would recommend joining a coppice network in your local area, there are loads of activities to participate in as a volunteer (usually in public woodland where the understorey has become overstood and needs thinning out). Most of the removed timber will go to charcoal burning. My local group....http://www.malvernhillscoppicenetwork.org.uk/

Here's a link to one of our local woodsmen who runs courses using produce from these activities...http://www.hillsarts.co.uk/wildwoodcraf ... rcoal.html

Surrey does have its own group but doesn't appear to have updated its website, there are numbers to contact and enquire though. http://coppicegroup.wordpress.com/events_calendar/

Good luck!

Here is nearly everything you need to know
http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37313

What an impressive and neat method !

This is rather interesting too
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/a ... -slideshow

I like the smokering method, but oildrum kilns do tend to burn out after a few goes. If you have a good supply of oildrums, maybe this is not such a problem. For someone producing a small amount for themselves, it does save the cost of a kiln.

If anyone wants to see how we make charcoal without comming on one of our courses, one of our outlets has usefully put some pictures online.
http://www.planetbarbecue.co.uk/charcoal.html