Charcoal Making at Wattle Wood farm.

Another bi-product of Black Wattle  is charcoal. Here we cut the wattle trees into appropriate sizes which are load into a charcoal kiln.The Kiln is then fired up and the burn controlled to produce quality charcoal.

Charcoal should be viewed by volume as weihgts can vary depending on the burn.

Charcoal is sold in at competitive prices :

• 4kg paper bags. Normal type bag typically found in garages and supermarkets.
• +- 17 kg's of charcoal packed in normal 50 kg feed bag. Charcoal is lighter thus only wieghing less

The Charcoal making process starts by chopping wood into appropriate sizes for the kiln. The wood is left until it is adequately dried, it is then loaded into the charcoal kiln. This is done in two stages first a charge or firewood to make the charcoal is packed into the kiln. Then the wood to be turned into charcoal is systematically loaded into the kiln until the kiln is full.

Once packed the kiln is ignited and the charge begins to raise the tempreture inside, once the tempreture inside the kiln is sufficently hot the airflow in the kiln is altered to form what is called a "reverse draft". This essentially turns the kiln into a baking oven where the wood is the "food" so to speak. This has the affect of driving all moisture out of the wood and is obvious because of the billowing white smoke (white smoke = water).

When this stage of the process is complete the wood carbonisation begins this is evident by the change in smoke colour to a whispy greyish colour. All air enetering or leaving the kiln is now stopped, by blocking all holes with mud. The kiln is left overnight to cool.

Charcoal & WattleWood Prices