The following is something I posted back in '99 at the Blacksmith's Virtual Junkyard (
http://www.keenjunk.com/ ). I still use ricked charcoal, and after the hurricane, I have plenty of stock about the farm for further fuel needs. Ricking is not as efficient in terms of fuel consumption, but in terms of man hours, minimal equipment, and convenience it works quite well.
"ADVENTURES IN CHARCOAL (AND OTHER FUELS):
I recently ran short of bituminous coal and, lacking good suppliers, I turned to my stash of charcoal, which I had carefully hoarded for reenactments using our Viking style side-by-side bellows and stone forge.
I had three types of charcoal available: store-bought hardwood chunk charcoal, some pit-fired charcoal that we had run a year or two back, and some rick charcoal that I cooked up this Autumn.
As discussed in a previous post above- to make pit charcoal you dig a 3'X 3'X 3' pit, fill it full of leg size logs with the brush and branches as kindling, fire it up, cover it over with tin and turf until it's air tight, and be patient. The next morning CHARCOAL (maybe, or maybe ashes if the air got to it, or maybe scorched wood if you covered it over too soon). Then you just shovel it out, make sure there are NO LIVE COALS, and bag it for future use.
Rick firing is the lazy man's method. It's my favorite because it solves two problems around our farm: it gets rid of tree limbs and brushwood and whatever sections of felled trees too gnarled or knotty or tough for fire wood or lumber, and it provides a useable product for the forge. On top of that, it gives you an excuse for a bonfire! (Please note that I'm doing this in low, swampy, verdant Southern Maryland. Do not try this in high, dry, windy Southern California!)
You take a core of brush, then pile on larger limbs and chunks, then more brush, more larger stuff until you have a dome shaped pile about 4' high. If you have more stuff, keep it in a separate pile to fuel the fire as it burns down. HAVE YOUR WATER HOSE, GARDEN RAKES AND SHOVELS READY! Hose down the surrounding grass, light the pile and stand back. Add wood and brush as needed. Don't catch fire yourself.
Shovel and rake until your satisfied that you have the tidy pile of coals you want and then hose the whole lot down. Rake it a bit. Hose some more. Wake up three times during the night, find the hot spots, and hose some more. Then all you do (once it is truly out) is to rake it out, let it dry a couple of days, and sieve it through a couple of grades of rat wire to get rid of the ashes and finer flecks. Yes, it is more wasteful than pit or kiln firing, but the primary objective was to get rid of the brush pile! Besides, the recently deceased Japanese maple coaled up very nicely.
BURNING the STUFF I think Moxon in his Mechanics Exercises (1703?) warns against the fire "breaking out". Well with a bottom draft forge, you get "blowouts". I spent a lot more time tending the fire, using the slice and water sprinkler (ladle, actually)" (...these days I use the traditional broom whisk)... "to keep the charcoal heaped up. Consumption was nothing short of amazing, and when it did burn thin, you'd goose up the blower and be faced with a blowout in which a spectacular shower of pea to BB size yellow hot coals would blow towards the chimney, left, right or towards me! Yep, there's nothing more attention getting than a hot coal down the gauntlet cuff of your work glove! As stated by others, it is a very clean fire but ashy. After a few weekends the forge looked a little snowy, especially after a blowout. Welding is tougher, due to the consumption rate, but maybe I should keep the charcoal wetter. Experience will tell." One trick (adapted from colonial period smiths, is to put a sheet or plate of iron over the mound to hold it together and reflect the heat for welding.
"...The charcoal is back in the bags waiting for our next Viking or Anglo-Saxon reenactment with the side draft forge. (At a reenactment if you make a nail or a pot hook the public is awe-struck, since they know that their ignorant ancestors dressed in skins and beat each other's horny helmets in with clubs!)
OTHER FUELS When I started out a few years back, I used anthracite. It stayed lit with the electric blower on low, and you could get it hot enough to easily faggot weld. The problem was, it coked as individual pieces and had a lot of unconsolidated clinker, so that you would spend a lot of time sorting and cleaning the fuel afterwards. It was also hard to start, and that's where I discovered the perfect use of the "Readylite" style charcoal briquettes! Pop a few of those suckers in the tuyer, light 'em up, turn up the blast, shovel on the coke and anthracite, and you're on your way. And if that doesn't work for you, you can always cook a hotdog with the remainder!"
I hope this is useful.
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Full time civil servant, part time blacksmith, and seasonal Viking ship captain.
Visit your National Parks:
www.nps.gov Go viking:
www.longshipco.org/ Hit hot iron:
www.anvilfire.comMarkland Medieval Mercenary Militia:
http://www.markland.org
