Grapevine charcoal

[Geezer]

I will be able to acquire a bunch of grapevine trimmings and have heard that they can make good charcoal. My limited experience has been with cedar shavings in a TULD and pine 2x4 splits in a 1 gal retort. Questions on using grapevine - Can I use pencil-size to finger-size diameter unsplit material? Do I need to let it dry/season before cooking? Do I use the entire part of the vine? TULD or retort? Thanks for any help.

[marks265]

I've made some as you describe. At that size the bark would be a real pain to remove. I cooked it whole. At the time I was just sampling charcoals so I never made a batch that large. I might be able to acquire a bunch of grape vine if I wanted it this next month or so. This would come from a grape grower that trims the vines as needed. Because it was so small I just cooked it. There was a video of the Maltese cooking grape vines that were trimmed. It was pretty spectacular. IIRC they had them all burning in a pile and loading them into a barrel while burning. There was quite a crew doing this with people tossing, stacking, loading and capping drums. All while flames and sparks were at full potential.

[FlaMtnBkr]

I made grape vine charcoal but it was from wild vines that were from 1"-1.5" in diameter and I took the bark off as I wanted to know how it did and not wonder if the bark had effected the results. It ended up being one of the least 'hot' charcoals I've made and I've tried about 15 different feedstocks. It was about like commercial hardwood airfloat charcoal from what I remember. But plenty of people have used grapevine charcoal over the years and it was supposedly good. It likely came from vineyards when they did their yearly pruning so maybe the small trimmings from plants that are taken care of produce a better charcoal?

 

I've found most of the woods I've tried make charcoal that will produce BP that is at least as hot as Goex with a lot of them hotter and a few that are substantially more powerful. If grapevine is what you have access to use it and you just may have to use a little more BP if it isn't real hot. But if you have access to other types of wood it might be worth trying a few different ones to see how they do. Usually fast growing plants with light colored wood that is lightweight and not very dense make hotter BP. It doesn't need to be a plant that is popular for making charcoal and doesn't even need to be a tree. Fast growing woody weeds and shrubs can work well. Just try to make sure it's not poisonous. If something is readily available to you then you might want to give it a try. And if it is grapevine then use what you have.

 

If you don't want to dry them out then you want to use a retort. If you have time to let them dry out so they will burn in a pile like a campfire then you can use a TLUD to cook it. A retort you will need other wood or a heat source to cook it while the TLUD uses the burning of the wood to convert itself. Both work and it's up to you which one.

[Arthur]

We have hobby available willow and vine charcoal in the UK. Both are fast enough for good powder.

[Geezer]

Thanks for the input. I may try some out as it wont cost me a thing. However, when thinking about it it seems like it will be hard to beat the simplicity, speed, and ease of cedar shavings in a TLUD.