Another solid bag of Rockwood

I've gotten plenty of dust from Rockwood bought at Ace stores. Just ordered a batch of Rockwood from Firecraft. With no shipping and tax + $5 less per bag. 

Lecky said:

I received 5 bags from firecraft and 2 were ripped open with lump all over the box, and there was a lot of dust from it being crushed. 

Sorry about that, hopefully it wasn't as bad as this bag.  LOL, a little R&D when an idea popped into my head about two hours ago......don't ask.

In all seriousness, I wish we could better control the quality during shipping, but in the 900 miles those bags travel to Firecraft, plus whatever to you, the mere agitation breaks them down.  Imagine a bag of Lay's Potato Chips or a box of Corn Flakes.  You could put them in a refrigerator box full of Styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap and they would still break down every time the truck went over a bump.  Gyro-stabilized pallets is my next endeavor!

DoubleEgger said:

 

Ever seen a grown man cry? 

Ever seen a grown man.........

Oops, that was different.

theyolksonyou said:

 

I was thinking it, didn't go there...

C'mon man.....10 seconds on google and you could had it:

.

Same here.   I've bought a lot of Rockwood. While it's very good lump, I've found far more foreign pieces of metal, concrete and rock than any other brand.   The last bag that contained what appeared to be a 2 lb. iron spike and numerous rocks has me looking for other brands.  The weight of the spike dropping from the bag knocked a chunk out of my firebox.  I'm trying Wicked Good again this afternoon.

Added my two cents based solely off my own experience.  All lump has some added, unwanted objects.  I've just found more in Rockwood than others, and this instance caused damage to my Egg.  So, with no resolution from Rockwood, I changed brands. The owner was very responsive... Just didn't have a reasonable resolution. It's quality lump, no doubt.  Wish I hadn't had the negative experience at all.  This is what was found in the latest bag.

islanderegger said:

Nice railroad tie spike, that should put some weight in the bag.

Railroad spikes weigh between 5-12 oz per http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/mechanics/American-Mechanic/8226-Weight-Of-Railroad-Spikes.html#.VQXTgdPTD4Y

Each bag of Rockwood is filled with 20.5-20.7# of charcoal to account for any rocks, foreign material, machine error, etc so we don't get in trouble with the State's weigh & measures division.

Nails, bullets, barbed wire, arrowheads, rocks, etc can all become lodged in a tree from 50+ yrs ago.  It forms a knot--which is rejected by the mill.  We get the scraps and turn them into charcoal.  Some of these items are completed encased in charcoal it burns away.  Other may come down the chute, yet they are covered in char dust and are not discernable from a chunk of charcoal.

I take full responsibility for anything in the bag, but 99 out of 100 times you're getting extra charcoal in the bag to account for these objects.  Guaranteeing they are not in the bag is not an option for us.  We would have to pick every piece up one by one and hand stack into the back......and then weight or xray(?!?) each pieces that's big enough to encase a rock.  No charcoal company is ever going to do that.

South American lump is going to have less of this because of the absence of all of these metal pieces and not using concrete kilns.  But you're more apt to find mud balls from the "beehive" kilns.

For a completely foreign object free charcoal, you're going to spend several hundred dollars a bag to have someone hand stack it for you, or have to go with a manufactured product like briquettes.