I found out today that one of the Mexican fellows, who occasionally helps me here on the farm, made charcoal for a living before he came to the U.S.
When he told me he said he'd be glad to show me.
Well, today while I was working the FW processor he began to cut and lay out wood in a circle around the area for the fire. The wood is mostly locust and cherry, and is 8"-14" in diameter and varies in length from 3' to 6'. He stacked the wood radially about 30" high and in a circle having a diameter (nearest the radius) of about 20'.
This method of stacking (temporary storage) is to facilitate the movement of the wood into the center of the circle for building the burn pyre.
As the pyre is built he will leave a small opening on one side to allow fueling of the fire, etc.
At some point he will cover the pyre with grass (old hay from broken round bales) and leaves...and then some dirt.
He estimates it'll generate about 900 lbs. of high quality charcoal, and told me to round up some bags made of burlap, or plastic feed bags. I sure hope he's right because we're using quite a bit of locust that I could otherwise process into very good firewood for my cookstove, not to mention the cherry.
