Vigen Tigen

Good point!

Good point!

The trouble is the oil has soaked right through to drench the whole glove so not very pleasant at all from a wearing point of view. they are good working gloves so will wash in as hot water as I can stand with fairy liquid et cetera as advised

Hi, could anybody recommend a UK tree species app please?

Have a pair of leather work gloves that are covered in chainsaw bar oil. My wife wants to throw them out, but before doing so, can anybody advise on how I can clean/restore them?

During a typical burn it will often hit the 350° C, staying around mark that for a couple of hours during a 6hr burn, and maybe that's enough to turn it into charcoal and as you can see from the pic, it's pretty much there! Having said that resulting charcoal feels a bit heavy and doesn't have that classic 'chandelier tinkle' that I'm trying to achieve, but is that something I should actually be worried about? (The burn contains a mixed stock of 50 - 75mm dia seasoned hardwood nuggets)

Well, that's why I'm here, looking for insights that will make me a better cooker of wood, so any that you are willing to share will be much appreciated 😊

Feeling a bit of a numpty! I've been talking about temperature in Fahrenheit so from the sounds of it, I haven't been getting the temperature high enough, even though I am getting charcoal?

To clarify, the thermometer on the outside of the retort has a long probe, the end of which hangs in the void containing the fire, and measures the ambient temperature within the main chamber (inside the main chamber is a separate sealed oil drum (with small holes to release the VOCs) which contains the wood to turn into charcoal. Hope I'm painting a clear picture?

I understand the optimal temperature for turning wood into charcoal within a retort set up is around 500° but my question is how long should I cook the wood to burn off the VOCs and turn into charcoal? Would like to do 2 - 3 cooks a day if possible. I guess from my experiments so far with timings is that you can't overcook as the charcoal within the retort never touches a flame so can't be burnt out but I may be wrong here?

I'm monitoring the heat using a barbecue style gauge with a long probe that goes through the insulation and is towards the top end of the retort as you can see in the image. It's interesting what you say about the pyrolysis process as there are definitely no brown ends but some of the charcoal has a brown/bronze tinge, mainly on some pieces of bark. My last burn (third so far with this retort) lasted around 10 hours. Each of the previous two burns were around 5 to 6 hours. There was no noticeable difference in terms of quality of charcoal by extending the burn time which was really interesting as I was expecting to achieve that crystal light tinkle sound, which none of the burn so far has given me. Should I be concerned about this?

Hi, if it's not too late to pick up this thread, it would be great to get your thoughts on the following as I have recently made my own charcoal retort and struggling a little bit with understanding working temperatures. We currently cook the mixed batch of wood at around 500° and after about five hours get a reasonable looking barrel of charcoal, although there are some brown tinges to the resulting charcoal. Should I be burning longer and is it possible to start the burn at a high temperature say around 700° and then reduce to around 450 to 500° (similar to cooking root veg on a stove ie bring up to boil, then simmer to cook)

a tad esoteric methinks 😏

I had professional indemnity in a previous consultancy based business so is something I would naturally explore at the start. Great if I don't need as no point adding unnecessary overhead. Just need to understand what I will need to make sure my customers, freelancers and myself are covered so any pointers greatly appreciated.

Looking to set up a small local Garden maintenance business which will carry out lawn mowing, garden clearance, hedge cutting and low-level chainsaw work. Any opportunities which require a proper qualified arborist, I shall pass to professional friends. In setting up this business I will need professional indemnity, public liability etc and would like to understand where are the best places to go for this sort of product. Also would like to understand what, if any, courses/training are out there for people looking to enter this line of work?