Home-made lump

Botch

This month's issue of Popular Mechanics magazine is the "How to make Anything" issue, and included how to make your own hardwood lump by none other than Adam Perry Lang.

The furnace you use can be either a Big Green Egg or a "cast-iron smoker" (whatever that is, all smokers I'm familiar with are made from sheet steel).  Fill the furnace with softball-sized chunks of hardwood (source) interspersed with crumbled-up newspaper and paraffin-starting blocks.  Light the fire, close everything up, "leaving a small air vent to allow steam and smoke to escape.  The fire should be smoldering, smoky, and very, very hot".  Never crack the lid.  When the furnace is cool to the touch, 12 hours, you should have lump.  

I don't know what keeps the lump from continuing to burn, as it would in a low-und-slow, however.  Is this outlined in any of his later books (I only have Serious Barbeque)?  

buzd504

I have "charred and scruffed" and "bbq 25" and I don't recall either of them mentioning that.

stlcharcoal

You have to kill the fire at some point by starving it of O2.  Knowing when to do that is the secret of making good lump charcoal.  It will need to sit for quite a while to cool down, otherwise it will begin burning the second the O2 hits it again if it's above the kindling temp.  BTW, if you don't stop the fire, it will keep burning and you'll have a kiln full of ash. 

The yield is about 1-lbs of charcoal for every 5 or 6-lbs of wood.  Seems like a waste of time in such a small quantity.  If you're going to cut, stack, and season it, you would be better off using that wood in the fireplace or stove where you could use ALL the BTU's and not worry about the smoke, ash, and uneven burning.  If you had a bunch of season wood and no where to use it, it might be fun to build you're own "beehive" kiln out of earth and stone--would be pretty easy with a front loader.