Any Charcoal Alternatives yet? (2023)

[J.Leon_Szesny]

I'm probably going to ask this again next year so..

Only asking for charcoal-forges

Price of charcoal is mad right now.

 

are there any new, viable, cheaper, alternative "fuel things"?

[Joshua States]

Have you considered making your own charcoal?

Scrap wood is usually easy enough to find and it doesn't take much to turn it into usable charcoal.

If you have a location where you can use a charcoal forge, you have a location where you can set up a charcoal kettle.

 

[Don Abbott]

You can forge with wood, but you have to treat it like coal. You let it burn around the edges of your fire then rake it in as it chars.

 

You are effectively making charcoal on the fly.

 

A lot more smoke and sparks, but cheap ain't always easy.

[Gerhard Gerber]

9 hours ago, Don Abbott said:

You can forge with wood, but you have to treat it like coal. You let it burn around the edges of your fire then rake it in as it chars.

 

You are effectively making charcoal on the fly.

 

A lot more smoke and sparks, but cheap ain't always easy.

I did quite a bit of that first few times with my first "forge", all scrap wood including palm tree leaves was fair game.
I would say our local Acacia hardwood does a reasonable job in a forge, sparks and smoke for sure.  
Palm tree leaves gives a nice thick yellow plume of atmosphere destroying smoke for a while 

[John Ricks]

Bituminous coal is my “Go To”

 

 

 

Edited November 8 by John Ricks