Making Charcoal

      Some Time Back I had the Knack of Making Lump Charcoal in a 55 gal Drum. The kind with clamp on Lid.     Lids had a large and small bung hole plugs.   If I remember right I would pack the barrel full of smallish blocks of oak or hickory firewood.  Take out the big plug and the next time I Had a pile of brush to burn, I put the barrel of wood where the hottest fire was all around the drum.

I read about similar ways as yours on some of my blacksmithing pages. I’ll see what I can find tonight. You can google I forge iron and read as a guest as well

Old Henry Ford made Charcoal using scrap oak wood left from building Model Ts and As.

That was only what he had left over after making floorboards. He speced the pallets ordered parts came in on and glory be they just happened to be the same width as his cars.

The train that hauled the coke out of the Indianapolis Power and Light plant ran behind my father-in-law's house in Indy, and every nite a 100 car load of coke was hauled to the Gary steel mills until they closed up.  I think this was coal mined around  Terre Haute. It was a pretty good system,,,,,,,,, Indy burned the coal gas off for power, and the mills used the coke!

ya know, Walker, I can remember when the PennDOT strategically placed receptacles of ashes from the steel mills along hills in the winter time just for that purpose.

I was too little to remember what type of receptacle, or if they left shovels, but I do remember dad making use of them on occasion

In Oh they just dumped them, no shovel no receptacle. You are very lucky you don't remember carrying them, if you can imagine trying to keep balance in a 10 or 12`inch deep narrow tire track in the dark and covered in snow yourself. Almost as fun as laying in the middle of the road on your back under a car in snow or ice putting on tire chains and hoping a car didn't top the hill from the other direction before you had a chance to slither into the ditch.

And when it first rained to open the festivities you would find a nice coating of ice to chip through before you got to cinders.

Ray you can still see the remnants of a kiln out on 46 west near York Mountain Road.  North side of 46 East of York mountain. It was built into the side of the hill on a ranch that a friend owns.

At one time a LOT of years ago, the city of La Crosse used to put all the cinders down the alleys.  I still have scars from them on my knees.  Bicycles didn't fare very well down those alleys.

About all sold around here is tops after logged a area. The limbs will run from 2 or 3" to around 6" where splits easy, cuts quick and uses up what takes DECADES to rot down. Smaller brushy crap is cut down where will lay flat if not pushed to large piles where does rot fast while still making a decent hide for small game.

Ken, sorry for hijacking your post!

I'm north central oh. I've seen most of the piles I speak of in northern Knox county and I would hesitate to rule out them still using them today on occasion though I haven't noticed any for some years.


Edited by Walker - 10 Jan 2019 at 1:28pm

I was at a track meet in OH about 10 years ago and the track was cider.
After so many races, they would re-chalk the lines.

tadams(OH) wrote: Some township still use cider around here in Ohio the last I knew they were getting them from Rittman

   I'm surprised you don't remember the piles along rt3 between Jelloway and Amity. They used to pile them along rt97 on what they called Chilco Hill many years ago in Ashland county too. I think I remember pappy saying they came from the mill in Mansfield that was Cyclops steel at the time.