Wood species for charcoal

[woodlandgirl]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to charcoal making, did some with work years ago using a ring kiln but now I want to make it part of my business. The idea is to carry out habitat work (coppicing, thinning, glade creation, hedgelaying etc) and then using some of the materials to mill and sell and other bits to make charcoal to sell.

 

As word has got out in our valley that we have use of a mill, we've been gifted several storm blown trees, including some Black Poplar (always sad to hear of these going over) We currently have a couple of sizeable lumps for milling and the rest cut to make sitting logs/firewood lengths although everything that I've read says it isn't good as firewood. My question is - will it make decent charcoal? I figure that as other water loving species make good charcoal (Alder and willow) maybe this will to?

 

Appreciate any information!

 

[Stubby]

11 hours ago, woodlandgirl said:

Hi all,

 

I'm new to charcoal making, did some with work years ago using a ring kiln but now I want to make it part of my business. The idea is to carry out habitat work (coppicing, thinning, glade creation, hedgelaying etc) and then using some of the materials to mill and sell and other bits to make charcoal to sell.

 

As word has got out in our valley that we have use of a mill, we've been gifted several storm blown trees, including some Black Poplar (always sad to hear of these going over) We currently have a couple of sizeable lumps for milling and the rest cut to make sitting logs/firewood lengths although everything that I've read says it isn't good as firewood. My question is - will it make decent charcoal? I figure that as other water loving species make good charcoal (Alder and willow) maybe this will to?

 

Appreciate any information!

 

Hickory I think . 

[Excels1or]

Wouldn't imagine poplar would be any good, it's super light weight. You're better using dense hard woods

[Rob_the_Sparky]

wrt firewood: all wood has a similar amount of energy in it by weight (when dry) and all wood burns on a wood burner.  I often hear (not here so much) that xyz is not a good for firewood but if you have it and have no other use for it then any wood will heat your house as firewood.

[woodlandgirl]

On 30/06/2025 at 22:27, Excels1or said:

Wouldn't imagine poplar would be any good, it's super light weight. You're better using dense hard woods

Thanks for that info - The other species I've been wondering about is Rhododendron, we have a load in the same woodland which we are planning to clear out, it seems quite dense right now (unseasoned). Do you reckon it's worth giving it a go?

 

[woodlandgirl]

37 minutes ago, Rob_the_Sparky said:

wrt firewood: all wood has a similar amount of energy in it by weight (when dry) and all wood burns on a wood burner.  I often hear (not here so much) that xyz is not a good for firewood but if you have it and have no other use for it then any wood will heat your house as firewood.

 

We have a similar attitude to firewood, get it dry and then anything will go. Some may be better than others but it all generates heat at the end of the day.

[5thelement]

1 hour ago, woodlandgirl said:

Thanks for that info - The other species I've been wondering about is Rhododendron, we have a load in the same woodland which we are planning to clear out, it seems quite dense right now (unseasoned). Do you reckon it's worth giving it a go?

 

Rhododendron makes excellent charcoal as firewood it tends to spit so better for wood burners. 
 

[openspaceman]

On 30/06/2025 at 08:36, woodlandgirl said:

I figure that as other water loving species make good charcoal (Alder and willow) maybe this will to?

If you consider what these species were used for as charcoal  it may not be what you want charcoal for. Alder because it was soft and could be finely ground to make gunpowder and willow because it was used for drawing and left a black mark, again because it was soft.

 

There were two species that the guys I worked with avoided, poplar and sweet chestnut, both because the either crumbled or shattered in the ring kiln.

 

Having said that there should be a better market for fines now as biochar, we had to discard it.

[Steven P]

2 hours ago, woodlandgirl said:

Thanks for that info - The other species I've been wondering about is Rhododendron, we have a load in the same woodland which we are planning to clear out, it seems quite dense right now (unseasoned). Do you reckon it's worth giving it a go?

 

 

I haven't seen anything ever where species of charcoal is a thing - might be worth having some experiments and seeing what works well.

 

Supply issues though, if you are in a beech woodland than make charcoal out of beech, if your wood is willow then use willow.

 

I had a go a few years ago when The Smaller Boy was into charcoal drawing, there is a difference in wood types and the end product - apple did OK, pines not so good (as pencils). (golden syrup tin, in the log burner type of quantity not large amounts for example for BBQs)

 

For burning though, not sure it matters too much apart from perhaps pricing, sell a sack of more dense wood or the same volume of less dense wood... though back to my 2nd paragraph, all to do with what you have and pricing of that.

[Welshfred]

If you can pay for your Rhodie clearance work by making charcoal that would be fantastic but hopefully a relatively short term thing depending on the scale of the problem and the woodland. Otherwise, like SP says above, work with what you have , in other words what the planned management will be generating.

The poplar is a one off, don't plan too much around that...