LambentPyro Posted October 26, 2013 Posted October 26, 2013 (edited) I just finished cooking a batch if Charcoal, but a lot of the pieces have brown surfaces. All the Charcoal I've cooked actually has a little brown, last batch just a few pieces had some. Now this time a lot of it is brown surfaced, and it's got me concerned. Could this be a possibility why I couldn't use 10% for my shells? All of my lift used BP that had homemade, slightly brown surfaced charcoal. It's also on the walls of my crucible. Like it chips off too, and kinda looks like rust, to be honest. I also waited until the flame was completely out on the holes from the lid of the crucible, so it looked to me as it was fully cooked. Edit: never mind Edited October 27, 2013 by LambentPyrotechnics
pyrokid Posted October 27, 2013 Posted October 27, 2013 Brown surfaces on charcoal are an indication of incomplete cooking. A little bit is fine of course but if too much is brown you don't really have charcoal. When I process charcoal out of the retort, I break off the brown parts and save them for the next batch.
LambentPyro Posted October 27, 2013 Author Posted October 27, 2013 (edited) Brown surfaces on charcoal are an indication of incomplete cooking. A little bit is fine of course but if too much is brown you don't really have charcoal. When I process charcoal out of the retort, I break off the brown parts and save them for the next batch.It is 100% cooked, the flame went completely out. It was the rust from the crucible. It oxidized because it got red got from the fire. As it was forced to cool, the inside oxidized and the enamel that I thought burnt away chips off and tarnished the charcoal. I can just run it off with my fingers. Not a problem. Not only that, wood burns from the outside in. If it was undercooked, it would of been brown on the inside. It was uniform black throughout. Edited October 27, 2013 by LambentPyrotechnics
LambentPyro Posted November 3, 2013 Author Posted November 3, 2013 So, apparently it wasn't fully cooked. I made some balsa charcoal and a ton came out brown patched in the surface. So I took a piece and threw it on the leftover fire and it crackled and made a flame!! I threw it back in the crucible and recooked it to where there was absoposotivalutely no more smoke. Sure enough, no more brown patches. I wasn't going to waste my 50 grams yield of Balsa charcoal!! I'm going to redo all of my other lump charcoal and recook it.
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