Canadian_Pyro Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 My Fastest charcoals: Black Willow, Blasa, Red Alder, and Poplar. I have yet to get ahold of Paulownia. Balsa and Poplar are both faster than Black Willow.
hashashan Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 Oh okay, thanks. Darn, there goes my easy possible source of charcoal. dont you have any trees nearby you?i have heard people making from various types of trees. the trees mentioned here are the best for the purpose and the easyest to work with. but i believe that for simple not very good BP you can use almost any tree.
ltf Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 I get 100% pure charcoal from the home depot.. i found it today. its 3 bucks. http://i1.tinypic.com/xf8660.jpg Can you please let me know how this charcoal performs?ICQ 256727984EMAIL o_liberman@icqmail.com
Douchermann Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 dont you have any trees nearby you?i have heard people making from various types of trees. the trees mentioned here are the best for the purpose and the easyest to work with. but i believe that for simple not very good BP you can use almost any tree. I do have trees near by me but they are either A) Too small to chop a nice ammount of wood from On someone else property I am thinking about "pruning" the willow tree by the park near my house at night sometime though.
kwstag Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 ltf, it performs well so far from what I can see. You just need to let it dry because after grinding it gets slightly moist. Once dry, great. Easy air float right there.
Canadian_Pyro Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 Has anyone tried using charcoal made from easily available woods for BP? By easily available I mean wood you can buy at lumber stores as 2x4s and other sizes. I may pick up some Spruce or White Pine to see how they perform.
BigBang Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 I have yet to use my white pine in BP, but in other comps it performs alright. I have a kilo of poplar I need to cook. Poplar is rumored to make some fast BP, and if it is easily avaliable, it should be very promising.
Canadian_Pyro Posted May 19, 2006 Posted May 19, 2006 Poplar is very fast, slightly faster than Willow in my experience.
Canadian_Pyro Posted May 27, 2006 Posted May 27, 2006 I just aquired 7 8ft long spruce (aka white pine) 2x4s, and I will be cooking some up tomorrow, and I should have some BP made using this wood ready by the end of the weekend. I am told it will beat weeping willow in burn rate and shell lifting ability, but not black willow.
Pretty green flame Posted May 27, 2006 Posted May 27, 2006 I just aquired 7 8ft long spruce (aka white pine) 2x4s, and I will be cooking some up tomorrow, and I should have some BP made using this wood ready by the end of the weekend. I am told it will beat weeping willow in burn rate and shell lifting ability, but not black willow.Just thought i'd say that Spruce is not white pine. Spruce is another type of tree. White Pinehttp://oregonstate.edu/trees/con/spp/big/wwp74.jpg Sprucehttp://www.borealforest.org/trees/white_spruce.jpg See the difference?
Canadian_Pyro Posted May 27, 2006 Posted May 27, 2006 True, but the properties of the actual wood are so close, that there really is no point attempting to differentiate between them when attempting to make charcoal. I split some of the wood up and it is sitting in the cooker right now, but I am not going to cook it until tomorrow, seeing as though the cops are patrolling the neighborhood due to a party down the road, and I dont have my campfire permit yet. Dont want to attract any unnessesary attention.
psymon Posted May 27, 2006 Posted May 27, 2006 I recently cooked some of my own charcoal using local weeping willow. There are two in my village, one in the church and one outside a school. They have pruned the church one so I just go along and take some branches from the pile beside the tree. Its damn fast. The only thing I will say is that after granulating it through a sieve I do have to use quite a large amount to get decent performance. If something says use 25% I will have to use 33%.Saying this I do get good breaks on shells and they launch really high. Soon I will try out some Alder. The council grow it in cities - I just need to find some branches on the ground. There also is a red maple just around the corner from my house. I will give that a try. I shall do some burn tests on both of these trees and post the results I get here in the next couple of weeks.I would reccomend to anyone that the cook their own charcoal from the beginning of this threed. It only takes 30 mins to an hour and you get enough to last you months. I used to use shop bought lump wood hardwood charcoal. Its ok for BP rockets and fountains but at around £3 for 5 kilos I am not sure its worth it. Just buy some charcoal and use it to cook some of your own!
lacrima97 Posted May 28, 2006 Posted May 28, 2006 Lately when I've made charcoal, i've been using this type of long grass/hay type stuff that grows around the property. Soon i'm going to compare it side by side with some willow that i'll be ordering. Comparing it from memory though, to my older willow made bp, this grass has actually done a very very nice job. Me and a buddy were just being random and used about 50g of some meal powder of mine and made a very nice salute. It tore the break fluid container that we used in half. Usually, with the willow, the cap would simply have just flown off. I also found it to be more fun making bp with my own charcoal.
AreteVeteran Posted June 13, 2006 Posted June 13, 2006 I get 100% pure charcoal from the home depot.. i found it today. its 3 bucks. http://i1.tinypic.com/xf8660.jpg i love you stag..... im goin over there later have you ever seen scotts sulfur? ~Arete
justanotherpyro Posted June 13, 2006 Posted June 13, 2006 I have made a lot of BP out of 2x4's scrounged from construction sites. It makes very good BP, but it can definately be beaten. Newspaper C is my best so far.
Baralheia Posted June 28, 2006 Posted June 28, 2006 It appears not all Home Depots carry Scotts Charcoal - at least the one near my house does not. I'm going to try Lowes here in a few days when I have the time. I got my bag of Green Light dusting sulfur there last year. EDIT 07/03/2006: Lowes in my area does not carry Scotts Charcoal either. Finding this product may depend on your region. I'm going to try to hit up a true gardening store and see if they have any.
xxNAMTTIDxx Posted July 13, 2006 Posted July 13, 2006 Another charcoal alternative: Activated Carbon. I made some BP with this and it was a pretty fierce burn, but it wasn't very flame-sensitive and it wasn't fast enough to make a bang with a water bottle, just melted through the side.Of course, I've been having trouble obtaining charcoal, so I don't have anything to compare it to.
Pretty green flame Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 I think it was said many times that activated charcoal is crap for BP. And as you found out for yourself it won't make a bang in a bottle salute when BP made with other charcoals almost certanly will.
Swany Posted July 24, 2006 Posted July 24, 2006 Normal charcoal contains hydrocabon goodies and such. Activated carbon is roasted and toasted beyond recognition. No goodies to speed the burnrate. Activated is no good for anything remotely fast, though it can be used as a retardant or a very slow charcoal, I suppose.
ApocalypsePlease Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 I don't know if I made it wrong or what, but my newspaper charcoal sucks hard. In my container though, some of the packed newspaper turned black and other parts barely turned yellow... Back to homemade willow it is.
d4j0n Posted July 25, 2006 Posted July 25, 2006 When I made newspaper charcoal, I had pretty much a tight roll that fit snugly in the can. All of it turned black. The thing is that it will still spew a tiny bit of smoke for a long time when cooking before finally stopping. the smoke stops VERY gradually.
BPinthemorning Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 i just made a ton of balsa charcoal and some BP. its the fastest ive ever seen
pudidotdk Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Gee you don't have to write that in every thread existing But actually, blasa is no good alternative due to the price.Balsa = expensive, Willow = free.
Tweetybird88 Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 I don't think balsa is too expensive. I got 10 pounds of it for $20 shipped. I don't know where to get willow for free.
BPinthemorning Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 im gonna try willow today, my neighbors are out of town, and they have a willow tree
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