6 ms·

Making Charcoal [video]

82 points by rfreytag 11y ago

ethana 11y ago
That whole channel is amazing. Thanks for this.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  This channel led me to seek for bootstrapping technology from scratch: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638073 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638073 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/printthread.php?t=638073&pp=200 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/printthread.php?t=638073... http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562880 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562880
  - tinco 11y ago
    Very fun topic to think about. My $.02: Together with the genetic diversity you need food, lots of food. I bet if you look up the average hunter-gatherer village size, that's about the maximum size of a population you can support on just hunter-gathering and perhaps some basic farming. To get a civilization that could support even a modest town large enough to support small mining operations and general trade you need the most important technology we've spent the past 10.000-40.000 years developing and which I don't see any technological shortcut to: The potato, banana, the chicken, the cow, etc. Superfoods, without which a civilization won't get very far and which will definitely not just exist on a planet that's never seen human cultivation. (There's a fun survivorman episode where he gets dropped in a jungle, and after a day or two of hardship he stumbles upon an abandoned farm, instantly the whole 'surviving' aspect is gone and the rest of the episode is about him trying to live comfortably (i.e. not being eaten by ants at night), the difference between a bleeding edge modern mango and sucking on a wild berry is stark (the episode is called "Grenada Jungle"))
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      I was more interested into technology rather than society. I'd love to see that episode of survivorman. ps: random collision, I was just watching this http://typotalks.com/berlin/2012/speakers/single-speaker/?tid=376&et=TYPO%20Berlin%202012 http://typotalks.com/berlin/2012/speakers/single-speaker/?ti... when I realized it's similar to your vanished survivor mindset.
  - joshvm 11y ago
    One of my supervisor's colleagues wrote a book on bootstrapping which I've been meaning to read: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Knowledge-Rebuild-World-Scratch/dp/1847922279 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Knowledge-Rebuild-World-Scratch/... He also gave a Google talk a while back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdRV8ccyEE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdRV8ccyEE0
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      Oh the title sounds familiar, on the other hand no talk in mind .. great. ps: his fire starting example reminded me of this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEl-Y1NvBVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEl-Y1NvBVI (no supermarket involved though)
- akavi 11y ago
  It really is some of the best content on youtube. To further convince anyone reading this: He has videos on making huts, axes, drills, baskets, and more, all completely from scratch and all with (to my taste, at least) extremely good, no wasted time editing. Well worth your hour to watch them all.
atemerev 11y ago
Bronze making will come soon? However, I don't think he'll find copper and tin ores in the same place, and trading stuff kinda ruins the entire premise of the project. So he'll have to get right to steelmaking, skipping bronze. First, he'll have to obtain iron ore (since he's in Australia, it will be easy enough). Then, he needs coke — he can make it from charcoal by using beehive oven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_oven https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_oven Then, he can build bloomery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery) to produce sponge iron, and then wrought iron. Then, cementation furnace (much harder to build) to make steel.
- geon 11y ago
  You might enjoy Cody's Lab: http://youtu.be/2epi6xRFKFE http://youtu.be/2epi6xRFKFE He makes a lot of stuff from scratch. He successfully makes gunpowder from manure and refines gold chemically.
  - digler999 11y ago
    Most of his stuff is great, but his nitroglycerine video made me cringe. He's dealing with fuming acids inside, WITHOUT a fume hood, and (IMO) doesn't have respect for the danger or the repercussions of that substance. Other than that, I like his videos.
dEnigma 11y ago
I always find his videos extremely relaxing for some reason. Since I love the outdoors and the woods I'm definitely going to try some of the techniques on his channel, but only as soon as it gets a lot warmer around here, I don't need to experience hardcore Stone-Age wintertime survival to be honest.
- bertil 11y ago
  Absolutely. The minimal editing, the close-ups to the camera when technical decisions happen and his absolute selfless-ness give it a very pure tone. You can tell he knows what he is doing, and has done research, but this is just you witnessing a hobby that needs not to be sold or advertised — just enjoyed. If you liked those, try to get your hands on Dersu Uzala: it’s a Soviet-Japanese movie from 1975 (I know…) that has hours of forest scenes with the same peacefulness and purpose.
  - cellularmitosis 11y ago
    You will also enjoy the videos of "myfordboy" on YouTube. Same silent editing style, but the subject is always aluminum casting.
  - dEnigma 11y ago
    Thank you for the suggestion, I will see if I can get the movie somewhere (Even if I don't enjoy it at the very least it will improve my hipster level ;) )
agentgt 11y ago
I have actually contemplated trying this. In the last couple of years I have gotten hard core into Kamado BBQing/smoking and one of the challenges is getting really good charcoal (there is also huge argument to the degree of how much this really matters ala audiophiles on wires but most say it does matter).
- bane 11y ago
  If you live near an Asian grocery store, it's likely they'll have various kinds of high quality charcoal. http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/korea-oak-charcoal.html http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/korea-oak-charcoal.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeontan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeontan
sharkjacobs 11y ago
I really enjoy watching him smash those sticks up with rocks
ghostDancer 11y ago
In Spain in some villages they still make charcoal like in old times.https://youtu.be/n_k74Kohudk https://youtu.be/n_k74Kohudk . You can even visit and watch them. There was a movie sometime ago that brought it to public again : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088230/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088230/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
jasonlaramburu 11y ago
If you're interested in higher efficiency DIY charcoal production methods check out the tlud design made from repurposed 55 gallon drums. The output is pure enough to be used as fuel or soil amendment: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13OcuoJWYpo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13OcuoJWYpo
cies 11y ago
See all of this hero's videos, they're awesome. I really hope he continues sharing his effort to re-explore the barehands approach at making a living. :)

82 points by rfreytag 11y ago

ethana 11y ago

That whole channel is amazing. Thanks for this.

agumonkey 11y ago
This channel led me to seek for bootstrapping technology from scratch: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638073 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638073 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/printthread.php?t=638073&pp=200 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/printthread.php?t=638073... http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562880 http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562880
- tinco 11y ago
  Very fun topic to think about. My $.02: Together with the genetic diversity you need food, lots of food. I bet if you look up the average hunter-gatherer village size, that's about the maximum size of a population you can support on just hunter-gathering and perhaps some basic farming. To get a civilization that could support even a modest town large enough to support small mining operations and general trade you need the most important technology we've spent the past 10.000-40.000 years developing and which I don't see any technological shortcut to: The potato, banana, the chicken, the cow, etc. Superfoods, without which a civilization won't get very far and which will definitely not just exist on a planet that's never seen human cultivation. (There's a fun survivorman episode where he gets dropped in a jungle, and after a day or two of hardship he stumbles upon an abandoned farm, instantly the whole 'surviving' aspect is gone and the rest of the episode is about him trying to live comfortably (i.e. not being eaten by ants at night), the difference between a bleeding edge modern mango and sucking on a wild berry is stark (the episode is called "Grenada Jungle"))
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    I was more interested into technology rather than society. I'd love to see that episode of survivorman. ps: random collision, I was just watching this http://typotalks.com/berlin/2012/speakers/single-speaker/?tid=376&et=TYPO%20Berlin%202012 http://typotalks.com/berlin/2012/speakers/single-speaker/?ti... when I realized it's similar to your vanished survivor mindset.
- joshvm 11y ago
  One of my supervisor's colleagues wrote a book on bootstrapping which I've been meaning to read: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Knowledge-Rebuild-World-Scratch/dp/1847922279 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Knowledge-Rebuild-World-Scratch/... He also gave a Google talk a while back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdRV8ccyEE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdRV8ccyEE0
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Oh the title sounds familiar, on the other hand no talk in mind .. great. ps: his fire starting example reminded me of this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEl-Y1NvBVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEl-Y1NvBVI (no supermarket involved though)
akavi 11y ago
It really is some of the best content on youtube. To further convince anyone reading this: He has videos on making huts, axes, drills, baskets, and more, all completely from scratch and all with (to my taste, at least) extremely good, no wasted time editing. Well worth your hour to watch them all.

atemerev 11y ago

Bronze making will come soon? However, I don't think he'll find copper and tin ores in the same place, and trading stuff kinda ruins the entire premise of the project. So he'll have to get right to steelmaking, skipping bronze. First, he'll have to obtain iron ore (since he's in Australia, it will be easy enough). Then, he needs coke — he can make it from charcoal by using beehive oven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_oven https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_oven Then, he can build bloomery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery) to produce sponge iron, and then wrought iron. Then, cementation furnace (much harder to build) to make steel.

geon 11y ago
You might enjoy Cody's Lab: http://youtu.be/2epi6xRFKFE http://youtu.be/2epi6xRFKFE He makes a lot of stuff from scratch. He successfully makes gunpowder from manure and refines gold chemically.
- digler999 11y ago
  Most of his stuff is great, but his nitroglycerine video made me cringe. He's dealing with fuming acids inside, WITHOUT a fume hood, and (IMO) doesn't have respect for the danger or the repercussions of that substance. Other than that, I like his videos.

dEnigma 11y ago

I always find his videos extremely relaxing for some reason. Since I love the outdoors and the woods I'm definitely going to try some of the techniques on his channel, but only as soon as it gets a lot warmer around here, I don't need to experience hardcore Stone-Age wintertime survival to be honest.

bertil 11y ago
Absolutely. The minimal editing, the close-ups to the camera when technical decisions happen and his absolute selfless-ness give it a very pure tone. You can tell he knows what he is doing, and has done research, but this is just you witnessing a hobby that needs not to be sold or advertised — just enjoyed. If you liked those, try to get your hands on Dersu Uzala: it’s a Soviet-Japanese movie from 1975 (I know…) that has hours of forest scenes with the same peacefulness and purpose.
- cellularmitosis 11y ago
  You will also enjoy the videos of "myfordboy" on YouTube. Same silent editing style, but the subject is always aluminum casting.
- dEnigma 11y ago
  Thank you for the suggestion, I will see if I can get the movie somewhere (Even if I don't enjoy it at the very least it will improve my hipster level ;) )

agentgt 11y ago

I have actually contemplated trying this. In the last couple of years I have gotten hard core into Kamado BBQing/smoking and one of the challenges is getting really good charcoal (there is also huge argument to the degree of how much this really matters ala audiophiles on wires but most say it does matter).

bane 11y ago
If you live near an Asian grocery store, it's likely they'll have various kinds of high quality charcoal. http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/korea-oak-charcoal.html http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/korea-oak-charcoal.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeontan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeontan

sharkjacobs 11y ago

I really enjoy watching him smash those sticks up with rocks

ghostDancer 11y ago

In Spain in some villages they still make charcoal like in old times.https://youtu.be/n_k74Kohudk https://youtu.be/n_k74Kohudk . You can even visit and watch them. There was a movie sometime ago that brought it to public again : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088230/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088230/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

jasonlaramburu 11y ago

If you're interested in higher efficiency DIY charcoal production methods check out the tlud design made from repurposed 55 gallon drums. The output is pure enough to be used as fuel or soil amendment: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13OcuoJWYpo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13OcuoJWYpo

cies 11y ago

See all of this hero's videos, they're awesome. I really hope he continues sharing his effort to re-explore the barehands approach at making a living. :)