From artists charcoal to spoon carving - all in a days work for countryside students!

Countryside management lecturers Jonny and Paul have recently been experimenting with producing fine artists charcoal, the results of which are seen below. A long term plan put forward by the duo is for students to produce charcoal from both lump wood for BBQ's and coppiced willow for boxes of artists charcoal with the countryside management students.

Creating charcoal is a specialist skill and air dried oak gives the best return by weight. Indeed, 6 tonnes of air dried wood will give about 1 tonne of charcoal. The secret to producing charcoal is in controlling the amount of air fed into the burn - the kiln needs to be hot enough to drive out moisture and impurities but not too hot that the contents is reduced to pile of ash!

A few years ago we inherited a charcoal kiln for Hazel Woodland Products (http://www.hazelwoodlandproducts.co.uk/) for which a controlled burn is planned in the summer term. Such is the size of the kiln that this will require 24 hour surveillance!

 

In his greenwood craft sessions, Jonny has also been instructing students in the noble and skilled craft of spoon carving. Check back to the blog to see the results soon!