Charcoal briquettes

**Philip Davies** · Aug 18, 2021, 02:07 AM

I make my own charcoal for forging. This is very small scale, since I use broken furniture which I am given. Since it is possible to do SOME forging using firewood only, in the winter I am keeping warm AND forging AND making charcoal, by raking out the glowing embers between heats, and sealing them in a steel box. But I am also busy with drilling, sawing, chopping, buffing WHILE that’s going. I am not standing there waiting for the iron to turn red.
When I have a chest full of charcoal, I sieve it. The briquettes are made from the fragments which remain, plus sawdust, pine needles, paper pulp, mixed with jam specially boiled up from damsons picked a fortnight ago.
The briquettes are still a bit damp, but they resemble peat. They will burn.

Charcoal briquettes-46cbec98-46ad-461f-8595-5e10987f1c9b.jpeg

Charcoal briquettes-e8eba9d2-c3c8-4cce-87ae-2a97e4068254.jpeg

This is the formwork I made for the experiment. From old furniture. The ribs are tapered and were smeared with molten wax.

**DIYer** · Aug 19, 2021, 05:01 AM

Thanks Philip Davies! We've added your Charcoal Briquette Former to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: Philip Davies's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Charcoal Briquette Former by Philip Davies

tags: forging

**wizard69** · Aug 19, 2021, 10:02 PM

interesting idea. As for that Jam, is it a real jam or just ground up plums? If a jam what do you use for a sweetener?

**Philip Davies** · Aug 22, 2021, 02:12 PM

Thanks, Wizard! I have just made up a second batch. I simmered the plums for twenty minutes, poured it hot into the charcoal/sawdust/pine needle mix adding nothing else except paper pulp, using a power mixer/stirrer in a power drill, as you would to mix plaster. This resulted in a mouldable mass which I shovelled into the formwork, tamped it down with a paddle or pestle, then clamped the ladder in place. I shall leave it now 10 days, but it will come out in complete cakes, that can be crumbled or burnt whole, with or without drought, hopefully not too smoky, but I shall wait for rain. The damsons are in season, nearby, and nobody else picks them. Other fruits may work just as well. Elderberries will be tried next.

**wizard69** · Aug 23, 2021, 06:27 PM

Thanks for the reply. I need to read up a bit on making charcoal in a more general sense. One use is grilling but I've also have considered building a micro forge of some sort. I'm just not sure making charcoal in the traditional way would work well on my small lot.

Originally Posted by Philip Davies

Thanks, Wizard! I have just made up a second batch. I simmered the plums for twenty minutes, poured it hot into the charcoal/sawdust/pine needle mix adding nothing else except paper pulp, using a power mixer/stirrer in a power drill, as you would to mix plaster. This resulted in a mouldable mass which I shovelled into the formwork, tamped it down with a paddle or pestle, then clamped the ladder in place. I shall leave it now 10 days, but it will come out in complete cakes, that can be crumbled or burnt whole, with or without drought, hopefully not too smoky, but I shall wait for rain. The damsons are in season, nearby, and nobody else picks them. Other fruits may work just as well. Elderberries will be tried next.

**Philip Davies** · Aug 23, 2021, 06:40 PM

You can make a micro forge from a coffee can. But you need an iron tube, about 3 yards plus from which it is suspended. A 4” dia. Can, say 8” deep, with lots of holes in the bottom and a hole in the side. The vertical tube will draw the fire sufficiently to get an orange heat for shaping small tools. You have to drop the fuel down the tube, though, and the process is slow. More pictures later.