Home made charcoal

Well I have read about this on the web, and decided to give it a go. I'm going to build a charcoal forge for knife work when my hand heals up. Most of the guys that use charcoal forges make their own charcoal because the store bought is chemically made and doesn't burn as well in a forge as home made. I decided I liked the retort method so I made my own retort out of a couple coffee cans. I drilled some 1/4 inch holes in the bottom. I cut up some 2 inch chunks of our poplar fire wood. I filled the can up to about an inch from the top. I put a cut off lid on top of the wood and then piled dirt on the lid to help seal it. I threw it on a firepit that I made out of bricks and let it work. Here's a picture of it working. You can see the vapors being driven off around the rim of the can on the right.



This actually works like a wood gas stove because as it was cooking, I could see the wood gas vapors shooting out of the bottom of the can. When they get done cooking, I'll bury the can in dirt to block off all air flow. I found out that if a piece of charcoal is white that means "Don't touch" because the white is an ember. I've got a small burn on my right index finger to scientifically prove it's hot. So the charcoal I made first today I had to bury so it would extinguish itself. I'll post some pics of the charcoal when it is done and safe to dig it up. I need to do this on a bigger scale with a 55 gallon drum for a fire pit and a 15 - 30 gallon drum for a retort. It'll take a long time like this to get a garbage bag of charcoal. At least this project keeps me away from the dremel! :jump: