Traditional charcoal making method

Burning a large pile of firewood and covering it with dirt to insulate it from oxygen is the simplest method of charcoal burning

Covering the pile of still-burning firewood with sand and dirt and letting it smolder

To make a disposable charcoal kiln, you find a clearing for charcoal burning, and then you stand the first large piece of firewood in the clearing (using a broadleaf tree that has a tightly packed wood), which will be the initial foundation that will hold up the rest of the firewood. This one will be the initial foundation to support the other firewood, so it is important to bury part of this large firewood in the earth to keep it secure (very important).

Stack the other firewood around this "pillar" until you have a conical pile (one meter in diameter), any larger than this will be difficult to use, and it is best to use hardwood trees for charcoal burning, as this will produce high quality charcoal.

ps: I've burned charcoal twice before using this method, and I think the most troublesome part is this step, because the wood pile always collapses easily!

Built-up woodpile

Next, you'll cover the built-up woodpile with a layer of straw or dry leaves to insulate the dry wood from the wet mud you'll be gluing on later, and to prevent the wood from burning unevenly when it gets wet.

Covering the woodpile with dry leaves

Then mud is applied to the woodpile (the mud will stick to the dry leaves, which incidentally adds to the strength of the structure), leaving only one large hole at the top of the woodpile.

Top hole

Evenly dug eight ventilation holes in the bottom of the finished "mound" are used to provide oxygen to the interior of the charcoal kiln.

Ventilation holes

When all eight holes have been dug, you can light the fire in the large hole at the top of the mound, without waiting for the wet clay to dry. When green smoke begins to rise from the mound, it means the fire is lit. The heat inside the charcoal kiln can dry out and crack the mound, so keep some additional wet mud on hand to wipe up any cracks in the kiln to prevent air from messing in.

Smoke from the grave, this is the rhythm of the hair!

Wiping the cracks on the earth cone with mud

I have personally tested this disposable charcoal kiln, and overall its principle is still very simple!

When the top of the cone of earth is the first to ignite a fire, the flame located at the top will draw oxygen into the interior of the charcoal kiln for its own combustion from the eight ventilation holes dug at the bottom of the mound of earth, which creates an upward airflow, and the flame will continue to burn downward against the airflow, which retains the burned charcoal from the upper layers!

From the picture, you can see that the wood in the upper layer of the charcoal kiln has turned into charcoal and is not burning anymore

After the fire is started in the earth cone, the charcoal burner will have to keep observing the eight air intakes at the bottom of the charcoal kiln. Through the air inlet to observe the burning condition inside the charcoal kiln, to see whether the flame is against the air flow burned to the air inlet, once the flame burned to which air inlet holes should be plugged which air inlet holes, cut off the supply of oxygen, do not let the air inlet near the wood continue to burn.

And until the eight air inlet holes are blocked, but also the top of the charcoal kiln to the big hole is also blocked, and then slowly wait for its cooling can be.