Charcoal Burners

I had a day off from normal life today and went off to Cherry Wood to lend a hand on volunteer Thursday. The main event today was chopping wood, loading and lighting the charcoal kiln. I've done a number of green woodwork courses in the wood before but this was the first time I've visited to give a hand with other work - and a fine day out it was too.

This picture shows the kiln lit and smoking steadily - the half hour before this we had a lot more smoke as the wood caught light and the kiln lid was put into place. Here the lid and chimneys and in place and it'll burn like this for about 12 hours until the all the water vapour has evaporated and the smoke turns from grey to blue. Then all the air vents are covered and it burns in reduced oxygen for several hours more, after which the fire goes out and it's left for three days to cool before the very dirty job of unloading and grading the charcoal.

Fortunately the work of checking the kiln overnight and regulating the burn will be left to the experts, as will all the mucky work of unloading. The end product is sold for barbecues and some is kept for firing the metal work forge.