Is this normal for Rockwood?

Looks good to me. My bag of BGE lump is 80% tiny pieces. 

that looks about right to me. 

ckali7 said:

The way folks go on about Rockwood I expected to have fist sized hunks of lump in there.... Granted it could have gotten busted up during shipping. 

bags of lazzari mesquite lump at RD for .28 cents a pound have log sized pieces in the bags. I have to break them up with a hammer just to get them to fit in my Egg. Half of them are unburned and it smells like an ash tray but the pieces are huge! 

lousubcap said:

@ckali7 - What you have is about what I have seen in the great majority of bags of Rockwood.  I moved to Rockwood when Wicked Good went thru a serious quality issue a few years ago.  At the time, the Rockwood pieces were definitely smaller (like your pics) but burned just fine.  I have stayed the course and, believe it or not, the Rockwood that I get via firecraft arrives with larger pieces than what I used to get from a dealer.   At the end of the day, its all burns.  FWIW-

I've found the same thing. Pieces range from OP's pics above to a little larger.

ckali7 said:

show previous quotes

buzd504 said:

Why did you put it all in the garbage?

Lol, it's a charcoal caddy. Looks like a trash can though. 

Exactly the point... It's all relative ... Maybe the guys on here refer to fist size lumps... As elf fists... Like magic elf charcoal...

That looks about right for a bag that has traveled the distance it has.  I can tell by the color and reflection that it's probably 80%+ carbon like it should be.  That makes it brittle and it's going to break everytime the bag is moved.  If you ship a bag of potato chips or box Frosted Flakes, if doesn't matter how much bubble wrap you put around it, the agitation break it down.

In the US, you're going to be hard pressed to consistently find chunks of charcoal that are big and round because this industry uses slab wood.  You'll get some cord wood or thicker slabs, but a majority is thinner slabs.  Take a magazine and fold it in half longways--that's about the biggest piece you'll get on average.  You can thank the saw mill's technology, EPA, and DNR for limiting this.  In foreign countries they can afford to harvest trees to make charcoal, then slow burn in a kiln without the pull of a smoke burner.  So you get the big grapefruit sized chunks.  But I would wager the insides are not fully carbonized with the wood being as dense as it is.  I could be wrong, but I've never seen any testing results from independent labs on any other charcoal product.

We could guarantee larger chunks, but I'm going to be selling you a bag of
"charred wood" rather than "charcoal".  It will take less time to kiln, produce less fines, and use a small bag since it weighs more per volume.  Win-win-win for profits, but everyone is going to hate it since it's going to smoke like crazy and not achieve high temps until the wood burns out.

You'll do just fine with what is pictured.....you have a better fire grate, and that's all you need in the end.  Have fun!

I will take that all freaking day long. A neutral burn, any size is better than crappy taste from other lower quality stuff. 
Problem for some, not for me. Send it to me.
Not being harsh, and please don't think so, just used so much lump bull ****, I have learned to appreciate quality lump. Use what you got. It is difficult to beat.

I'm not on the Rockwood bandwagon. That looks similar to the bag I did purchase so I could have a reference when posting. I'd be happy with that as I was with my purchase. I've had bags of RO that were better and bags there were worse. I got a bag last month of Frontier. Not my go to. But there is a lot of big pieces on top. Only a 1/4 way down so I'll be interested what the bottom 1/3-1/4 has. Now If I can only remember what Ace store I bought it at?

I don't mind if the bottom 10% is small pieces if I pay 50% less for the bag. I can use it or chuck them and still wind up ahead of the game.

Size isn't everything.  

Never understood why huge chunks are supposed to be good. 

I actually prefer smaller sized stuff for a nice bed of coals. And especially for a low, lots of contact and bridging for the fire to move and find new fuel

Since you are regulating air flow rather than fuel, the size of the pieces doesn't matter. 

jtcBoynton said:

Generally true, except if you have lots of charcoal dust and many small pieces it is possible that the lump can pack together so that it impacts air flow.  Larger pieces allow for air flow through the lump pile.  Charcoal dust burns fine if it can get air.

Absolutely. I was thinking in general. 

jtcBoynton said:

Generally true, except if you have lots of charcoal dust and many small pieces it is possible that the lump can pack together so that it impacts air flow.  Larger pieces allow for air flow through the lump pile.  Charcoal dust burns fine if it can get air.

I don't worry to much about the size unless I am doing a long L&S cook.  Then I clean out the old, put in larger pieces in the bottom, then old on top.  Seems to work just fine that way for me on XL.