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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2008 14:21:06 GMT
Haha! Finally got sick of paying $8/bag for charcoal.
Soooooo....
I rounded up a bunch of spare firewood from my parent's place (yeah...people actually have fireplaces, and use them...in Arizona lol) to make me a barrel of charcoal with.
Man...I read it would make a lot of smoke...but...wow lol. Good thing I started at 5am...so the majority of the really smokey stuff was done before dawn.
First guy that guesses correctly what time the Fire dept gets here gets some (char)coal for his stocking lol =). Bonus lump if you can guess which neighbor calls them!
More seriously though...since this is my first time trying this...I'll let you guys know how it goes lol. It's supposed to take 6-8hrs or so. Now it's just to wait and see if it's worth the hassle!
Cris
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Post by Matthew Stagmer on Dec 23, 2008 15:35:21 GMT
Awesome. We went through like 25 bags or so during our tamahagane smelt at our hammer-in last year. I was thinking about making some myself. Let me know how it goes.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2008 17:13:17 GMT
Awesome. We went through like 25 bags or so during our tamahagane smelt at our hammer-in last year. I was thinking about making some myself. Let me know how it goes. Actually, it's all done now =). Went quite well...I probably got a 50% return by volume. I might have done better had I been paying more attention. I was told it had to burn 6-8hrs lol. Mine stopped smoking after about 3hrs or so (I actually noticed after about 3.5hrs...but there was NO smoke by then so I figured I should have shut it down a bit earlier). It took me half an hour to get out there, get it soaked down, etc etc. I ended up with about 1/3 of a 55gal drum as a final product...so I'm figuring I didn't fill it full enough to begin with. I mean, it was dark, raining, and I still have no contacts so I'm about blind as a bat lol. I figure I probably got the barrel 2/3 full, including air gaps and the like. I may make more tomorrow, and if I do...I think I'm going to fill the barrel cold first...and get it relatively tight...then see what happens. Anyhow, thought I'd let you guys know how it turned out. I think it was worth it (other than getting up extra early lol)...it sure seems better than blowing $25+ for the amount I got. Cris
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Post by Matt993f.o.d on Dec 23, 2008 17:34:04 GMT
There's nothing quite like home brewed charcoal. You'll smelt your own steel next. ;D
But I still think you should just buy some coke breeze, for your general forge use at least.
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Post by Dan Davis on Dec 24, 2008 22:52:00 GMT
Cris, Filling the crucible (drum) full will make more charcoal but it will slow down the reduction rate quite a bit. 2/3 of a drum should finish up in about 3-4 hours, so that actually sounds about right.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2008 4:50:00 GMT
It smells like... victory.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2008 4:52:18 GMT
It smells like... victory. That...and more cash to fill what seems to be a neverending need for sandpaper lol. Actually, I'm saving up for some jewelers pitch and free abrasives. Sand paper be damned, I'm going to built me a pitch lap system to polish these things =). Cris
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2008 5:21:38 GMT
when u do please take some pics of it and how u built it
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2008 5:26:52 GMT
when u do please take some pics of it and how u built it I will for sure DS...also some photos of the results of course. Wish I had the extra cash to use it to polish out this tanto =/. Jerry Bennett said that it truly brings out the hamon with no need for an etch. Pretty cool thing if I can make it work as well as he does. Cris
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