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Debarking wood-Is it necessary for a good BP Charcoal?


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Posted

Hey all

 

 

Yesterday I took a walk in the woods and found a lot of alder buckthorn wood, already chopped off.

I collected most of the wood and the result was 40kg of Alder Buckthorn, for nothing :D

The rest of the wood laying there is around 50Kg, so like 90kg of alder buckthorn wood.

Now I want to make charcoal out of it :P

I ask myself the question wether the debarking is important to get good charcoal.

 

What do you think, is debarking of the wood really necessary to get an excellent charcoal or can the wood be charred as it already is?

 

Greets,

 

Stinger

Posted
I ask myself the question wether the debarking is important to get good charcoal.

No, it's not.

 

is debarking of the wood really necessary to get an excellent charcoal...?

Yes, it is.

 

Assuming reasonable sized chunks of timber, the bark makes up a relatively small percentage of the overall mass and so it doesn't contribute greatly to the final product...but it does contribute a small amount.

 

I have tried using just the bark from a couple of trees and it doesn't perform terribly well, so my opinion (a couple of trees is hardly enough to call conclusive evidence) is that bark doesn't work as well as the actual timber.

Posted
You need to remove the bark before making the charcoal. Unless of course its not for high quality black powder. In making BP rockets it doesn't matter quite as much, but personally I would still remove it. There is silica, dirt, and other abrasive and unwanted particles in the bark. First this will wear your media faster, and second, it will reduce the quality of your powder. And most importantly it will make it harder to get reproducable results because: some trees have way thicker bark, some trees will haver high concentrations of contaminants in the bark due to location and so on... Therefore it is always in your best interest to remove it first.
Posted
i have done very extensive testing with so many diferent types of wood and organic matter and from my tseting the bark will only have an effect on the quality of your bp if you mill it for less than 2 hours or make it in a coffe grinder it is slightly harder than the wood once charcoaled on most woods but is in many cases more reactive if you have a ball mill and run it for more than 2-3 hours than leave the bark on though it does take slightly longer to char your wood if left on
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