Open burns really are the way to go. I thought about biochar for a long time and looked at all kinds of systems that I really didn't feel like building... then started making big fires and spraying them with the hose. Now I have lots of char.

I like your style. I have a big brush pile (in a city) and I'll be burning it quick to charcoal with little effort. I paid someone once to cut down a tree and haul off the brush pile but that was $400. At the same time I was buying soil amendments and wood chips that I now make myself.

The first time I heard about biochar? I wasnt told very much about it. I was blown away at just hearing about the micropores for life to dwell in, and how a composter will fill the pores. Then I learned carbon/nitrogen balance and how it affects decomposition. Holy moly. What a rabbit hole! Now I find out, worms eat it for grit, and it comes out same as it went in, but it's now charged with wormy guts inoculated into it. Now I learn it lasts forever when I see a film called "Terra Preta" The Search for Eldorado. I literally went into a panic attack... I NEED THIS NOW ON MY LAWN. I NEED TO MAKE THIS. I made some, its installed. I saw a hag of high carbon biochar for sale, and it looks like good shit, so I am going to add more in the fall. I am gonna relax, study the effects of what I did, and make some really nice, perfect size crush, finished biochar. Day 3 and my lawn is darkening, bigtime.

Damn that's a great video!!! I was just sent here because essential craftsman said to Check you out . I'm excited to start watching more of your videos

Thanks for the advice I have loads of timber but could not afford to take the time that other methods need need Your right context is king

Nice. Thanks. I'm between rainfalls,stacking up a pile of brush now to try the open burn. I'm eyeing the back yard for doing the pit. Done the barrel method before to make grilling charcoal a lot of work. Thai style to make cooking charcoal is a big pit with carefully stacked wood then a mound built over it.

I liked how you mentioned the pyrolysis. I seen a guy make charcoal with that method and he also make pine tar by having a hole in the bottom of the barrel. So that’s kind of cool. Ya context and efficiency varies.

We used an old barbeque grill it had most of the bottom rusted out but the rest of it was great and its pretty large. So we dug a hole not just for the bottom having a large hole but to cover the side that let's air in to fan the fire to further close off air. It has a temperature gauge. So once it gets so hot (for the size and scale is around 700-800 degrees) we close it down. Check periodically either to add more or to dowse with water. It works for us. We did charge ours only because we have to plant in the bed after applying the char but I definitely agree with the concept of adding it and letting it sit for a year before planting in the char amended bed if you can. We just charged ours with fish hydrolyze, seaweed powder, moringa powder with some blood meal. I did add a little bit of fast acting sulfur because I dont want it to alkaline the soil. I'll probably add some molasses to help with the microbes after I apply it. If I didn't have to use the bed a few weeks later I would have probably only added the sulfur to the charge because like I said the soil I have if I add anything alkaline I run a risk of having too alkaline of soil. My ph is pretty good but it could be tipped over the edge pretty easily I found out that one good general rule of thumb as to if your biochar is done is by how easily the black wipes off your hands. If you have to use soap and water then many of the oils are still in the char.

Love your explaining the context. I've seen all these fancy methods, but it wasn't until a friend used the pit method last summer that I thought, "I can do this". Now planning a social gathering with a group of growers this sunday.

I've tried scaled down versions of both the trench method and the TLUD method in a suburban backyard context. I found the trench method (in a large pot) probably produced more charcoal with less work because my TLUD tins are quite small and only gave quite fine stock long enough to char before the burn reached the bottom. Meanwhile, with the trench (pot) method, despite needing near constant attention, I could add bigger bits, prepare as I go, and tweek it as required. The problem was that the pot would occasionally flame out due to the burn not getting enough air in relation to the other burn factors and suddenly cause a real lot of smoke. I could get it to puff back into life again, with very little smoke, by blowing into it, but it could cause a problem with council and neighbours. For me an insulated retort with a super efficient rocket stove core would be a huge step up in practicality and suitability for the situation, especially if I could build a grill/oven/water heating capability into it. I am currently mostly burning bamboo cuttings from my old house. I am planning to plant bamboo again at my new place as a fuel forest/privacy screen.

thanks for sharing; ithumbs up for always thoroughly explaining your methods ....

Great system in your situation. In my situation I'ld have the fire brigade at my door. A bucket works for me at present. Thanks for the viewpoint.

Getting it done is 90% optimization is 10% when you are solving two problems: managing large amount of brush; making a use product from that brush.

I'll add this to the list of things to do after I get the scotch broom and himalayan blackberries under control and can finally get to select thinning and limbing up the trees I want to keep. It looks like a good way to deal with the residue, help the garden and the carbon equation.

Good video. I think your approach is the right why to go. No bullshit, simple, plentiful fuel, it's a good way to go for someone in your position.

I'm with you. It just boils down to volume units of charcoal per units of time. I burned a huge pile last month in about 4 hours while parenting a 3 yr old. I've used the charcoal for a whole bunch of things and still have LOTS left. Without your simple methods, I never would have gotten around to it. Almost all of our food is grown, collected, hunted, or fished by our family, so there is very little time for fiddling around with contraptions that produce a small return per unit effort. Thanks

It's good to review this. I had to check myself after I got a quick smackdown on a popular blog for linking to your videos on the trench pit system. What I found from the science is that open pit burns produce charcoal with significantly more surface area but less carbon that TLUD, pyrolitic systems or earthen mounds. But, the most important part of the process is to inoculate the charcoal, that's where we see awesomeness happening.

I like seeing what others do. I have tried several ways and in my humidity it was very hard it was hard and getting supplies took resources I don't have. The ground, a shovel, and some sticks and wood is what I have. My method is far quicker. I can have a pit of charcoal and have it in the garden in about an hour. I don't mind the ash because I use ash as well in the garden. I burn mine from the bottom. I make a grill out of sticks and cover the pit. I pile everything on top and light it off. In seconds it is a giant blow torch. The grill burns away allowing everything to fall in the pit at once. As it collapses I do one final batch on top and let it cook then I water it down. Process often takes 30 to 40 minutes it gets so hot and chars that quick. I made around 60 gallons today. Since I am doing an agroforestry type project I will go in the forest tomorrow to collect organic material and mix it with the charcoal then use it as top dressing in the spring.

I ended up using the pit a lot for the exact reasons you mentioned. I've also 'TLUD'ed several pyres in various ways, and while I do prefer the pit, it's not always feasible either (and I've tried to improvise a hybrid TLUD+pit,, both outdoors, and in the stove.. I was really surprised how much coal I could make with just a few adjustments to how I operate the stove). I am gonna try to cover a few points on the methods in cold regions, with snowy/wet brush, but they are sure winners as I am going conceptually(and contextually) with the same mindset on this. Btw; what you mentioned about having to fire up several pits, is why I like to make em' big. I see 3-4 hours x5, or 5-6 hours x1, for the same amount, since larger pit, more temperature, faster conversion. (not accounting for quenching-time though, which can vary somewhat unpredictably). Also, when you have a large pit, you can comfortably throw in even the bushiest ones (or throw in entire small trees and crowns), which save a lot of time+effort. However, pit of that size is only justified if there's a lot of brush nearby. Might as well fire a stack if the brush has to be dragged any significant distance. and yes! I also dig those methods because they enabled me to get a real production-rate going. I do have another thing in mind which may be interesting, but I need to run some tests first.

I normally just spread soil amendments on the surface and let them get worked in whenever I disc. What's the reason for burying biochar a foot deep compared to something like what I normally do with other amendments?

I'm with ya! I dug up some charcoal from my burn pit today. I added a considerable amount of it to my compost pile to inoculate. I also added some as an amendment to the soil in the raspberry patch that I'm expanding / taming. Like you, I do open burns; mainly due to the enormous amount of brush I gather from the property. It would take too long to retort all of it, for example

I dig yer style!

Just wondering if the quenching process is ever used to 'charge the charcoal' where the pit burn is utilised? I was in New Zealand a few years back and this guy had made a steel cone that he loaded and burned from the top down with a small opening in the bottom to allow air in from below via a shut off valve. When it was time to quench he attached a hose to the valve and quenched from below using either his own urine (collected) or weed tea, or manure tea. I collect all the charcoal from our wood heater in the house, and put it into buckets with water from our ducks bath. good stinky stuff. I'm new to the bio char stuff but a few folks told me over time that charging the charcoal up with a liquid full of nutrients before putting it into the soil means that micro organisms get straight in there.

Am I too late for this party? :) Context, definitely! Didn't know that soft and hard charcoal could be made, just assumed it was all fairly equal. But would soft or hard matter if the microscopic structure was the same, behaved the same way in the soil? For your context(setting & resources), the trench method looks like a good way to go. For my urban context, the retort method is best. I use an old perforated drum from a washing machine as a burn barrel. I use old cookie tins as the retort chambers, filling them with wood chips, pine cones, or whatever. Three 1/8" holes are poked in the snug fitting lids. I build a fire in the burn barrel, load three small tins on top of the fire, then wait for all gases escaping from the tins to burn off. After removing from the fire, the tins are allowed to cool for 20-30 minutes. If the lids are removed while the charcoal is still quite hot, the sudden inflow of fresh air could cause the charcoal to burn, and turn to ash. I simply crush the charcoal down to pea size, then mix into my compost pile. Hopefully this helps to charge(inoculate) the charcoal. The compost is used in raised beds and planting holes. I haven't been making charcoal long enough to notice a difference in plant growth, but imagine it doesn't hurt anything. At least I'm sequestering some carbon. Keep in mind that any wood ash(potash) you produce can be put to good use in the garden as well. Excerpt from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash "The old method of making potassium carbonate (K 2CO 3) was by collecting or producing wood ash (an occupation carried out by ash burners), leaching the ashes and then evaporating the resulting solution in large iron pots, leaving a white residue called pot ash.[5] Approximately 10% by weight of common wood ash can be recovered as pot ash."

I've watched a bunch of your biochar stuff this week. Thanks for putting your angle on this out there. I think your information is highly valuable. I wonder if the 'softer' char that you get will last as long in the soil as harder char. Perhaps it is more likely to become available to combine with nitrogen, thus breaking the char down to soil. Either way, it will break down into, or produce habitats for the things that will make, amazing humus. Just brainstorming out loud/in print. Do you figure that your char is 'softer' because it is not burned as hot as a TLUD or Retort, or becaue there are maybe a lot of volatiles left in it? I use a ridiculous little retort that produces an embarrassingly small amount of char. That said, my char particles clink against each other; I think this is because it is so hard. I notice that your softer stuff does not clink, or maybe it's because you have doused it with water so it doesn't clink. Not sure. As for the amount of ash you are getting, I think that a retort is not much more efficient, if at all. To get that amount of char in my retort would require a sh*t ton of wood burned to ash on the outside of the gasification/pyrolizing chamber. I think your system is very efficient. Steel drums also have a carbon footprint, as does the power used to drill holes or cut steel. Anyway, I think that you are bang on with your comments in this video. Context is, indeed, everything. You nailed it. I would sooner try out your method and then manufacture an efficient crusher with my metal working than to attempt to scale up/ my retort system. Kudos. Oh and I shared your youtube vid on Early Colonial and European biochar to the peeps lurking in the biochar forum { permies.com/f/190/biochar} at permies.com. Not sure if you go there, but there are a lot of biochar enthusiasts on there. The focus in the site seems to be more towards hugulkultur though. I get the feeling from your videos that you prefer the longevity of char based humus to that of rotten wood. On that topic, I would say that unless you have absolute sh*t tons of rotten wood, It might be better to throw some of the really rotten stuff in your biochar catch pits, then to burn it. Not sure. I would think that the fungal interface might be enhanced by including some of this, but I may be wrong. As for those catch pits, I have the sneaking suspicion that using larger chunk char in the bottom layers is not going to have any negative effect. The amount of inoculating nutrient rich crap you are throwing at it in that video is super rich; I figure it will get absorbed into the char regardless of you spending a ton of time and energy breaking it up into tiny bits. The bacteria and fungi will populate it and the plant roots will break it up over time.

as for the sequestering bit, ive seen wood chunkers running on woodgas. so theyre making biochar as they are sizing down wood to fit into a wood gas fuel system. sorta silly but pretty pretty practical.

With your barrels you have when you do, do a retort system the most efficient for hard charcoal for me is a rocket stove retort barrel. Having several of those setup is pretty good, but when I'm logging I do the same fields methods you do to produce the soft.

Just did a quick search on TLUDs. Seems you can turn one of your vertical open pile into a TLUDs relatively easily by corralling the pile with some sheet metal. Not sure if it'll be worth the effort, but maybe something to experiment on?

Looking at the trenches, they look like great starter beds... has anyone tried establishing new garden beds by burning brush in a trench and just piling soil and mulch on top? Or would that be way too much biochar quantity?

What if mixed you pit method with a hugelkultur method? Once you have burned it instead of watering it down just add more wood then smother the fire with a layer of dirt then add grass and other compost materials then top it off with more dirt to make a nice raised bed.

Just thinking out loud here. Not sure if you have a "fast" moving body of water near you, but would it be worth your while to make a water powered ball-mill to get charcoal powder?

I also have been getting the barrels together trying to make time to make the torte. Then burned a big pile of brush at my folks place , I kept stacking , not thinking with this concept i let it burn down 24 hrs later went to check on it realized there was still a ton of coal burning so hosed it down and was so surprised I ended up with 30 plus gallons and now it's getting inoculated . What your saying makes total sense we have too much slash to put it all in barrels, thanks..

EDIT: never mind, i found the answers here, in you newer video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nNmmdZdjx87HoXk.html what do you do after making biochar ? do you crush it into smaller pieces like no bigger than 1/4 inch, or 1/16th inch, and how do you bury it ? besides 12 inches deep, do you mix it with soil, or make it like a thick layer? p.s. i made a steel drum burner that recycles woodgas, i couldn't get the gas to stay alight without having a small fire burning under it all the time , it used more wood than i had in the drum and it dripped black tar.

I like the retort method for commercial application. It seems you would get a uniform product and could harness the energy. However, on a farm and permaculture stand point I feel your method is simple and easy.

I injoy it thanks

I have tried using a kiln. I made it from a paint can and filled it with all the poplar I could fit inside it. Very resource expensive method. I wasn’t solving a disposal problem like you are, I was just experimenting. I would like to see how the pit makes you charcoal and if you’re able to stop the burn and have it dry enough to cook over too or if charcoal production is solely for soil amendments. Also, I thought hardwood ash was good for the soil. If that’s the case is it a waste at all that every method produces ash?

Have you done anything on application of final product?

Maybe if you had a grove of coppiced trees, you could go for these ideal methods. I think you've got a pretty good method going there. You'd have to do a good deal of engineering, both in building machines and grooming your woodstock, to get more ideal burns. That's getting more into preparing the way for your children.

i would like to do what you are doing but will have to wait cause of burn ban.we got fires all over not good.will try your trick later.thanks S.D.

A possibility would be a split grate to support the burning, char falls thru onto a metal sheet to finish burning and heat the fire, and can be swept off to quench? Nice video, appreciate your thorough teaching!

6:30 minutes in now, retorts only make sense with a BioCharlie (I made my own from stainless steel stovepipe) like device in a fireplace that you are burning anyway to warm the house, just too turn that whole process a bit more 'green'. Or with a super advanced system like the guys at Living Web Farms run where they have 3 large retorts going and use the heat of one to get the second one going and then just run all 3 after one and other continuously using the heat for greenhouses.

On an off note, how's the Husqvarna ax coming along? Any progress on it?

I use open burn. I figure the south americans wernt using retort kilns back it the day and it worked out pretty good for them.

Isn’t The ash good for your garden too? Short lived yes but still a benefit right?

Yep cool. As you say, context is king. I have a 20 litre bucket under a tap that empties the ducks stinky poo water from a bath into a small amount of charcoal from the wood fire. Very easy, very mobile. Most times I'm using that water in a partly diluted method to water trees or empty over compost piles. I'm keen to do the trench method. Translates perfectly to our situation. Thanks steve.

You could harness the power of the gases released from the burning process if you used a gasifier and use that in a combustion engine like a generator or even a truck engine.

Good method and clear instructions. How do you process your biochar? How do you pulverize it and activate it? I plan to apply your methods of making biochar on my properties where I also have a lot of trees and brush to burn, and a certain season in which to do so. Right now we are in a drought, so have a burn ban, and who knows how long that will last. Much of my land is powdery sugar sand which definitely needs to be built up with more body. I am anxious and excited to get started just as soon as the burn ban is lifted!

OK I cannot understand the words you are using at 7:30 minutes. Top lit updraft. I would like to find out more info on this method but don't know what you call it and I'm finding nothing searching it. Thanks

I'm wondering if a piece of tin thrown over the pit would speed charcoal production, and reduce the ash? Or a trommel over a fire? Not any time soon, I guess, just thinking. Have to do some reading.

I love making bio char and the simple open pile is by far my favorite. Nothing wrong with the extra Co2. Its plant food. My bio char mostly goes into deep bedding for my animals, before going on the garden. Boom

SkillCult how many acres do you own because with all you do it looks like you have a lot?

Fill a 55 gal drum with wood. Turn the barrel upside down. Drill large holes in the top. Mound some dirt around the edges of the drum. Put wood around the barrel and start a large fire around it. Wait until no more gas burn off coming from the holes. Takes about 3 or so hours. No ash just biochar.

With that method,what ,then , is the difference between biochar and charcoal?

I bought a chipper that can handle around 1-1.5in limbs off amazon. Thing works fine, but its pretty slow. Burning works far better.

Byproduct of the hewing yard? for chips to char. From my boring machines, 2" holes, it puts out lots of thin half round chips, I have been saving them in large trash bags for wood chip clay infill that has not happened. perhaps bio char. I also have an over abundance of branch and trash trees that I should convert. Its interesting to see three thumbs down, I'm always curious why someone would dislike a video, do they leave comments then thumbs down the video?

Good one in certain condition.

Happy medium may be the #Dakota #fire #pit to bring air flow to the bottom of the pit. I’m thinking of using bricks , two rows that would be in line with the pit and then a layer of bricks running perpendicular over the two rows of bricks. The increased airflow improves the efficiency of burn reducing the amount of ash created.

you're exactly right. I have no time or desire to over complicate things being anal apt not getting any or as little as possible amounts of ash. open burn pile it is for me works fine and as long as I quench it before it turns to dust I'm good.

Ya using low labor methods is definitely more accessible for most people. I do remember when I lived in the Philippines i saw several times actual huge mounds and filippinos making charcoal. They’d use it then for their roadside bbq cooking. I do think though if someone is a farmer with several hundreds or thousands of acres it maybe cheaper to use the more intense operations if it can produce more charcoal from the wood. It’d be interesting to see how well charcoal could improve Baren land. In central Utah there’s thousands of acres of dry farms where they farm one year and the next year they just till up the land to kill everything to increase the soil moisture to farm in the next year.

TLUD's produce virtually zero ash but are difficult to scale up and like you said need very uniform feedstock. Can also be a bitch to get the airflow right.

whats the problem with too much ash just hose it down

We blacksmith's go for a 50 gallon drum with a mall hole in the top and burn the barrel till it stops smoking. But if you have the wood to burn your way looks good.

Hey man, I'm the guy that was hypercritical of one of your axe science videos. I've learned a lot from you and generally appreciate these videos. Can you tell me what the main difference in terms of chemical makeup that wood ash has versus biochar? I imagine the biochar, being of much larger particulate size than ash, releases the nutrients much slower into the soil. That much is obvious. However, I am interested in the chemical composition of these two; surely the ash is far more alkaline than biochar on a weight to weight basis, but what other differences are there? Thank you for answering back -Tad

I am under the impression that the rhetort burner using 55gal and 30gal drums lasts approximately 10 burns. Hmmm.

I have lots of wood I need to get rid of (to mitigate forest fires), but I never end up producing much biochar, even in pits and trenches. No matter how deeply buried the coals once the flames die down, they keep burning until there is only ash left. Short of wasting precious tank water dousing the fire, there seems to be no way to get a decent output of charcoal, so I've given up. And as you say, pyrolysis takes a lot of time and effort and while the quality is good, the output for the work involved just can't be justified.

I do not understand what is it about ash? Is ash bad, I would think it's fine.

Hey Skill i have sat back again and watched your video again, everyone does not have to like everyone's else way of doing things that is life, i am only a new starter in to different methods ( learner 40 years making charcoal, 6 months making bio char ), maybe i was a bit abrupt in saying things about your presentation not the burning, i gather you are in a greens group not sure what they call it in USA, but as you said you you are making charcoal, i was talking about bio char, sorry there is a difference i have found.

Wood Ash is good for gardens

I agree...there is a lot of waste with the charcoal retort method....save grief and just do a pit burn, with a cover if you can. It seems Ito waste a lot.a. The old world burners had it all figured out

Sounds like Gus ain't bacon yet. Good ole Gus.

This method is good for open space and single focusing on making one thing only. Not suitable for multitask at the same time activities such as doing gardening and making charcoal at the same time.

Context is king 😂

Open air isn't making biochar as biochar needs an absence of oxygen. What you're doing is combusting wood when you need to use the process of pyrolysis which only happens in the absence of oxygen.

Tail the loggers and collect from their burn piles.

Do not discount the Zen we can experience as we creat this gift to our earth and ourselves while we enjoy Fire? Not chaining ourselves to a hot smoking barrel.

100 gallons = 440kg

What you are making is NOT biochar and it is NOT charcoal, it is just burnt wood! This "burnt wood" that you are making will eventually decay and completely break down over time, char/charcoal will NOT! The reason that true biochar is so time consuming is because you must pack the container completely to displace all possible air and use all available space, and the container will not allow combustion to occur but instead pyrolysis occurs. When making char or charcoal the wood is "cooked" with NO oxygen and under constant heat until all that is left is a non-decomposable carbon-base material. Biochar - "The solid material obtained from the thermochemical conversion of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment". Pyrolysis - "The chemical decomposition of organic (carbon -based) materials through the application of heat. Pyrolysis, which is also the first step in gasification and combustion, occurs in the absence or near absence of oxygen, and it is thus distinct from combustion (burning), which can take place only if sufficient oxygen is present.

2nd video I see, in the first one you said "dont burn your whatever" 32 times. Going i to this, seeing the headline "context is king" and hearing you say it in the first 30 seconds, I just hoped it wouldnt be the same as the first vid. Too damn annoying to watch, for no reason at all.

pull your finger out and stop winging out about everyone else's or there method's and do your own thing, dont want to use barrels like you said you had but to lazy to try you said well be quiet and dont rubbish other people who want to try diff methods , sorry do mean to seem rude