Stef727 Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 You can also buy charcoal from ebay 1.000g costs around 25$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMounty Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Hi, Just made my first batch of cedar airfloat. Messy as all hell but had a blast My addiction is really beginning to grow. Thank you everyone for all of your information. I hope to have some video's up soon. ...Da Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braddsn Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 DaMounty, the Cedar is where it's at! That is of course my opinion though. I run a sawmill as a hobby and thus have access to all types of wood, all the time. When I got started in Pyro, I did a lot of digging and research, and kept reading good things about Palownia, Willow, and Eastern Red Cedar. I had just finished a big Cedar job for a guy and had a lot of it laying around, so that's the first charcoal I cooked. After that, I tried a lot of different woods. Having a sawmill, it is easy for me to just go out into my woods, cut down a few trees, and mill them up into planks in just a couple hours. I was surprised to find that there was quite a noticeable difference between the different species of wood. I never tried Palownia, but I tried Willow, Oak, Pine, Poplar, Locust, Hickory, and of course Cedar. The Cedar turned out to be my favorite. It is much more reactive than any of the hardwoods, and arguably as fast as the Willow. So that is what I have stuck with. This winter, the weather got so bad that I couldn't cook any charcoal for a couple weeks. So I went ahead and bit the bullet and ordered some hardwood charcoal from my pyro chemical supplier. I couldn't believe the difference. Yes, the charcoal worked, BUT the quality of everything suffered. My prime wasn't as hot, my TT stars did not spark as much, and my bp was noticeably weaker. I have experienced it firsthand.. good charcoal is one of the most important things you can have. Enjoy your new addiction! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackthumb Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I have 'cooked' pine, ash, willow, fir, alder, tree of heaven, cedar, maple......and last week...Newspaper!The newspaper rolls were about 1 1/2" dia and taped with gummed tape. They were 'cooked' as I do other wood coal. The result was quite amazing....can crumple by hand....little or no airborne particles...no grinding necessary. I weighed out the proper amount for a batch of Bp and crushed it ny hand and into the ball mill. Milled for appropriate time and was quite pleased with the result. Less than 10% of shell wt up to 3". Haven't tested larger shells as yet. Don't bad mouth it till you try it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I have 'cooked' pine, ash, willow, fir, alder, tree of heaven, cedar, maple......and last week...Newspaper!The newspaper rolls were about 1 1/2" dia and taped with gummed tape. They were 'cooked' as I do other wood coal. The result was quite amazing....can crumple by hand....little or no airborne particles...no grinding necessary. I weighed out the proper amount for a batch of Bp and crushed it ny hand and into the ball mill. Milled for appropriate time and was quite pleased with the result. Less than 10% of shell wt up to 3". Haven't tested larger shells as yet. Don't bad mouth it till you try it! Thanks for your testing BT, it's good to see the experiments continuing on your end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWJ Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 I have a lot of Pine Charcoal and now I bought some Cedar pet Bedding from Wal-mart and man is that ever fast. I won't be making any more pine and more ERC for now on. My pine is great stuff but the Cedar is faster. Pet bedding I don't have to cut logs up, remove the bark, bad rotten spots and limb knots, then split into 6" x 1" pieces then cook. I just have to empty into paint cans and cook, easier to powder too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparx88 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Thats what I'm talking about BT, this is how we progress right? --Speaking of this, I made a batch of charcoal with popsicle sticks for some willow and TT and well they work good. Couple hundred in the can and good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackthumb Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Just milled 2K this am with newsprint charcoal....Fast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braddsn Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 MWJ I have found that everything I make, (prime, charcoal stars, bp) benefits from ERC charcoal over most of the others. Although, I have not tried Paulownia. You will more than likely see an increase in performance in everything over the pine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I have 'cooked' pine, ash, willow, fir, alder, tree of heaven, cedar, maple......and last week...Newspaper!The newspaper rolls were about 1 1/2" dia and taped with gummed tape. They were 'cooked' as I do other wood coal. The result was quite amazing....can crumple by hand....little or no airborne particles...no grinding necessary. I weighed out the proper amount for a batch of Bp and crushed it ny hand and into the ball mill. Milled for appropriate time and was quite pleased with the result. Less than 10% of shell wt up to 3". Haven't tested larger shells as yet. Don't bad mouth it till you try it!All I ever used was "packing paper"..basically unprinted newsprint. Made some FAST BP indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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