How Is Charcoal Made

The never-ending tale of charcoal business

The next morning, communities around the offices and others coming from as far as Che Somba, Manje, Chigumula and Chilobwe gather outside the fence of the offices.

Passers-by may mistakenly think that they are waiting to receive the much-wanted Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme (Fisp) coupons.

“The charcoal has arrived at Forestry...” so the people communicate with each other and the news spreads like wild fire.

This is the case since confiscated charcoal sold at the office is cheaper than elsewhere.

“A bag of charcoal is sold at K800 regardless of its size and the buyers get a General Receipt (GR) afterwards,” says Blantyre district forestry officer (DFO), Geoffrey Kanyerere.

There is a common belief that charcoal is cheaper than electricity which is unreliable because of frequent power outages.

“I can only manage to have electricity for lighting and ironing but not cooking. Otherwise it would mean using my wages for paying electricity bills only,” says Ellen Bonowuli, a Mbayani resident.

All this is happening at a time the country is crying foul over trees lost to charcoal burning business.

Malawi Poverty and Environment Initiative (Mpei) Economic Analysis Report on Sustainable Natural Resource Use in Malawi says firewood provides 95 percent of rural households’ energy supply while charcoal provides around a third of urban households’ energy needs.

The report also says evidence suggests that forestry resources are degrading at a faster rate, officially estimated at 2.6 percent per annum.

“The additional annual economic costs of excess roundwood use for firewood and charcoal in the major urban catchment areas were estimated at K6.1 billion ($42 million),” reads the report.

Despite massive awareness and forestry confiscation exercises, people are still producing thousands of charcoal bags each day, destroying a lot of trees in the process.

Kanyerere says charcoal making and selling is illegal in Malawi and there is no one who is licensed to indulge in the trade.

“We have tried to stop the trade by confiscating trucks loads of charcoal even that which is along the main roads of the country,” he says.

The DFO is, however, quick to point out that charcoal confiscation is not a solution to the problem.

DIY blacksmithing and knife-making

On youtube that walks you through how to make a Brake Drum Forge.  By simply taking an old brake drum & some metal piping you can create a working forge.  I called around the local auto repair shops and was offered 3 drums in just 5 minutes, but selected the largest for ease of work.  After installing the simple black pipes to the bottom and attaching a hairdryer for air supply I was off and running.  On other youtube videos that Trent at Purgatory does, he also shows you how to make your own charcoal, a great thing for a beginning blacksmith to know how to do. So once I got my forge built and my charcoal made, the next step was to make an anvil.  I visited our local scrapyard and bought not only a 24" piece of railroad track, but a 1" thick 6x15" piece of plate steel and a 2" square tubing piece to weld onto it.  By welding the plate steel and the tubing on the track, I was able to get a smooth flat surface with a hole to be used for driving holes through red hot metal. With my charcoal going, I simply turn my hair dryer on, get the fire and coals nice and hot, and put my metal in to begin.  The metals I usually use are old hand files that are now dull and have little value to most people, so they can be obtained pretty cheap from a flea market or garage sale.  I also use alot of old railroad steel found near local tracks by my parents.  Most of the time it's railroad spikes but every so often there are other random pieces of steel.  The railroad spikes are then divided into 2 piles, the regular spikes and the high carbon spikes (you can tell by the HC on the head of the spike).  The high carbons are used on tracks in places of stress or curves. From the forge, the metal is extremely hot and usually an orange to red color.  I then take my tongs and put the piece on the anvil, then using my 3# Cross Peen or my 2# ball peen hammers, I start to shape, draw out, and work the metal to my desired product.  It does take many heatings and repeated sessions on the anvil, but in the end the product is then Once the metal is out of the oven, it's usually set in a handle, I make a leather sheath, and it's done.  The only thing I'm actually paying for now everytime I use my forge is the little electricity to run the dryer/blower, and if you're worried about that you can use a hand bellows just like in the 1800s.

Life drawing in charcoal

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Handbook of charcoal making, the traditional and industrial methods