andyboy Posted August 24, 2009 Posted August 24, 2009 Andyboy: I think the main trunk splits into a few branches..or maybe only two, I can't remember. Of course, I'm not sure WHERE to plant them...The willow I found is behind my parents' house - I could certainly plant some there. But my parents are prolly going to move from that house once all us kids are gradumatated from college and have our own houses. Few years or so, maybe ~5. Would the trees grow fast enough to get useable wood in that time? It will start growing really fast as soon as it's rooted which may take a few weeks. You will have enough willow to last a life-time after 5 years. -"The Weeping Willow is a fast growing and majestic tree. Growth can be 6 to 8 feet or more a year." http://www.cdr3.com/nursery/nu00002.htm
laser200 Posted August 27, 2009 Posted August 27, 2009 I just made some bp with a huge Cottonwood tree I have here in my yard in Texas. It cooked real well and it does really good. I have been using willow which is in abundance here and its about the same. When i say "huge" one limb on this tree will make me a lifetime supply of charcoal. LOL...The trunk is about 6ft wide and its about 75ft tall. Biggest tree in about a 6 block area...Scares me when the wind blows hard or theres one of dem tornaders looming around...
50AE Posted August 27, 2009 Posted August 27, 2009 (edited) Alright, I tried my black powder from plum and it works great, it's fast and lifts greatly ! Here's a video of it ! http://pyrobin.com/files/movie%202009-08-27.mpg I strongly recommend the plum charcoal ! Edited August 28, 2009 by 50AE
flying fish Posted August 27, 2009 Posted August 27, 2009 I just made some bp with a huge Cottonwood tree I have here in my yard in Texas. It cooked real well and it does really good. I have been using willow which is in abundance here and its about the same. When i say "huge" one limb on this tree will make me a lifetime supply of charcoal. LOL...The trunk is about 6ft wide and its about 75ft tall. Biggest tree in about a 6 block area...Scares me when the wind blows hard or theres one of dem tornaders looming around...what kinda cottonwood is it? Is it the narrowleaf kind, delta-leaf kind or some other species? Around my house in Michigan we have some with the wide deltoid shaped leaves (eastern cottonwood) and I've been eager to make charcoal with it, but haven't had the chance yet.
laser200 Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Yes it is the Eastern kind. Its the kind that either male or female produces fuzzy stuff that flys around in the spring...Make me sneeze...
NightHawkInLight Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Alright, I tried my black powder from plum and it works great, it's fast and lifts greatly ! Here's a video of it ! http://pyrobin.com/files/movie 2009-08-27.mpg I strongly recommend the plum charcoal !Your video yields a 404 error...
flying fish Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Yes it is the Eastern kind. Its the kind that either male or female produces fuzzy stuff that flys around in the spring...Make me sneeze... Haha... Yeah. This year I mistook it for snow, it was so dense! I looked at the thermometer and it was like 60..."wait, that can't be snow!" Everyone at my house has allergies to them. I was talking to my parents just last weekend about how cottonwoods apparently made good BP...they ENCOURAGED me to cut one of them down! I don't have time for the cleanup associated with a cutting down a full tree, so I'll prolly just take a few brances next time I get the chance. Ours are much younger trees...sprouted up within the last decade prolly, but there are a crapload of them...4 of which are grouped very tightly, and many others scattered around. They are narrow but fairly tall, maybe 50+ feet. My supervisor had an giant old cottonwood on his property cut down a while back. Wish I woulda know it was good for BP, I would have requested some of it!
laser200 Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 LOL..yeah them things sure can put out the fuzzy stuff...I should take apic of this one...Its freakin HUGE....I also have one laying down that had the top cut out of it 6 years ago...Its a giant log and it fell over about 4 monthes ago...Its rotten though but I still am going to try some of it...If it works ill have enough wood for everyone on this forum....Maybe Ill build a huge retort and cook it and sale it cheap....LOL....
50AE Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Sorry, I edited it : http://pyrobin.com/files/movie%202009-08-27.mpg
andyboy Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Sorry, I edited it : http://pyrobin.com/files/movie%202009-08-27.mpg Plum is great, I made a small batch of plum many years ago since I heard it was good. Now I've been using willow plus that my BP-making skillz have improved a lot so the willow BP I make now is comparable (or better) to the Plum BP I used to make. But that was before I really knew how to make BP, I will have to make a batch of Plum charcoal to have around, there are loads of Plum and Cherry trees around here that nobody owns. If I recall correctly, stone-fruit trees (drupes) will behave well in BP so I'll try the Cherry as well.
ExplosiveCoek Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Sorry, I edited it : http://pyrobin.com/files/movie%202009-08-27.mpg The link still doesn't work for me.. Recently I've chopped down a small plum tree, think I'll be turning it into charcoal .. What kind of diameter should I use/how thick can the diameter be of the wood pieces for making charcoal? And how long did it took ya too cook the plum wood ?
50AE Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 The link should work. Or go to the pyrobin public files section. I baked the wood using hexamine and it took me approximately one hour. I got 150 grams of charcoal.
ExplosiveCoek Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 (edited) Ah, it's working when I use 'save as..'. It's not that fast burning actually? My bbq charcoal meal burns with the same speed .. Edited August 29, 2009 by ExplosiveCoek
Arthur Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 When the UK Ordnance factories produced black powder they had estates of willow trees, but all the trees were pollarded and the wood they used was the new young growth less than an inch diameter. Supposedly that produced the best product. Also they could harvest the new growth without felling a whole tree.
laser200 Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 When the UK Ordnance factories produced black powder they had estates of willow trees, but all the trees were pollarded and the wood they used was the new young growth less than an inch diameter. Supposedly that produced the best product. Also they could harvest the new growth without felling a whole tree. Fast enough for me.....I would like to see some burn that fast with BBQ charcoal.....Im not being a smarta-- seriously... I would like to see that because if i can get mine to burn that fast on BBQ then i wont even bother with making my own charcoal anymore. But yu gotts to tell us how you did it.... Do you have a video?
scarbelly Posted August 30, 2009 Posted August 30, 2009 laser200, I think you quoted the wrong post...?
flying fish Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 Finally got around to making some BP with Eastern Cottonwood. The meal makes a nice poof when lit in a small pile...seems quite fast! I'll do a side-by-side lift comparison of Mesquite BBQ charcoal, Willow from custom charcoal, and Eastern Cottonwood from my backyard. All were manufactured using the same technique - 8 hrs mill time, riced with 2% red gum. My guess: Cottonwood>Willow>Mesquite. Well, I already know Willow is much faster than mesquite...painfully obvious from lift tests. Anyhow, this will be interesting. The tree that I cut down & cooked was a very young, dead cottonwood, so I'm not sure how that compares to the full sized trees.
Twotails Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 Great news! i found a huge Willow behind my house ( on the Fish+gun clubs land, But i talked with them and they said i could chop some branches off it and plant it on my land) They said i could have the whole tree, in trade for some charcoal from it ( who knew, but some of the members are into pyro also) I now have 35 branches that im trying to root, each 8ft apart on my land. I also have a lot of White ash, and mountin ash, Infact that same club just got done clearing a feld of it. Is it good for BP? Any one try it?
Mumbles Posted October 10, 2009 Author Posted October 10, 2009 Willows grow pretty big and spread out. If you want them to gain any size suitable to harvest, 8 feet is probably way too close. I have no idea about the ash. I'd be interested in your results though. Someone asked me about lilac bushes recently. Ash trees and lilac bushes are related, and belong to the same class as the olive tree.
Ralph Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 i know olive makes terrible bp once i finely managed to hack it into pieces small enough to fit in my retort and charred it for ages (very difficult to char) i ended up with something that resembled a light weight black rock which was very hard to break. threw it in the mill with kno3 and sulfur (al weighed of coarse) and never got to test that as after a few days it was stlll fairly much kno3 and sulfur with chunks of charcoal. i than decided to put the olive charcoal through a meet mincer and than milled that with kno3 and sulfur made really poor bp anyway it sucked dont use olive
Mumbles Posted October 10, 2009 Author Posted October 10, 2009 Yeah, I wasn't expecting good things from olive. I was pretty sure it was shit, but ash and lilac may be better. Ash is hard and dense too, but I think it's cleaner than olive. They use it to make Archery bows, and professional baseball bats.
Arthur Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 Great news! i found a huge Willow behind my house .... ....I now have 35 branches that im trying to root, each 8ft apart on my land. 35 willows 8 ft apart seems rather close! However on the assumption that some may not grow to maturity it's quite fair. As soon as they are rooted (and willow roots very easily!) start thinning them out, -there is the first crop for charcoal. Pollarding is the removal of branches to force the branch stump to put out several thin soft branches. If you keep this up for years the trunk is clear and healthy and the head of the tree is a dense fan of thin branches all ready for cropping easily for debarking and coaling. If you can pollard at a sensible height you get a crop that is at a height for easy cutting.
Sambo Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 I use ash charcoal, it makes fast bp - comparable to willow in my experience.I use it for all fast bp applications, lift burst etc.
AdmiralDonSnider Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 Yeah, I wasn't expecting good things from olive. Olive charcoal indeed is hard as obsidian, but I still wonder if it´s good for sparks.
Ralph Posted October 10, 2009 Posted October 10, 2009 if it made the best sparks i doubt it would be worth the effort it is such a pain
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