Making your own artists drawing charcoal sounds intimidating, but the process is actually rather simple.
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You will need:
tins with tight fitting lids and no coating on the inside for 'kilns'
trimming/garden shears
sharp knife for removing bark
bendable wire to secure tins
bonfire
Grapevine (wild or cultivated) or Willow switches
tins with tight fitting lids and no coating on the inside for 'kilns'
trimming/garden shears
sharp knife for removing bark
bendable wire to secure tins
bonfire
Grapevine (wild or cultivated) or Willow switches
How to:
Harvest your base material. Observe ethical foraging practices. Grape vine and willow are the typical woods used for artists charcoal. Trim the sticks to a size that fits in your tin. Remove the outer bark carefully using a sharp knife. Set aside the bark shavings for now. You can prepare as few sticks as you want, but might as well fill the tin. Bark shavings may be stuffed in the free spaces to reduce the existing oxygen in the tins and give you an easily ground material for powdered charcoal without having to destroy any of your nice new charcoal sticks. You can peel your sticks a handful at a time and slowly build your stock with no impact to the quality.
Build your fire around the tins. You will need at least one hour of good burn time. Leaving the tins in longer won't hurt the final result. When you do remove them from the fire use sticks or tongs and let them cool. This shouldn't take long if the contents did not combust. If the tin remains hot for a long time too much air might have gotten into the tin and your sticks may be very brittle or gone.
That's it! Enjoy your new charcoal!
Tips:
-If you harvest green wood (currently living) let it dry for a day or so before trying to remove the bark. The natural drying and shrinking of the wood will help you in removing the outer bark.
-After you have stuffed your tins to capacity, you may want to wrap them with wire to keep the lids from falling off. I didn't do this and lost one tin when I accidentally knocked the lid off when adding wood to the fire.
-Old Altoid tins work well but result in very small charcoal sticks. You can also use tea tins, gift tins, canape bread molds, etc.
Harvest your base material. Observe ethical foraging practices. Grape vine and willow are the typical woods used for artists charcoal. Trim the sticks to a size that fits in your tin. Remove the outer bark carefully using a sharp knife. Set aside the bark shavings for now. You can prepare as few sticks as you want, but might as well fill the tin. Bark shavings may be stuffed in the free spaces to reduce the existing oxygen in the tins and give you an easily ground material for powdered charcoal without having to destroy any of your nice new charcoal sticks. You can peel your sticks a handful at a time and slowly build your stock with no impact to the quality.
Build your fire around the tins. You will need at least one hour of good burn time. Leaving the tins in longer won't hurt the final result. When you do remove them from the fire use sticks or tongs and let them cool. This shouldn't take long if the contents did not combust. If the tin remains hot for a long time too much air might have gotten into the tin and your sticks may be very brittle or gone.
That's it! Enjoy your new charcoal!
Tips:
-If you harvest green wood (currently living) let it dry for a day or so before trying to remove the bark. The natural drying and shrinking of the wood will help you in removing the outer bark.
-After you have stuffed your tins to capacity, you may want to wrap them with wire to keep the lids from falling off. I didn't do this and lost one tin when I accidentally knocked the lid off when adding wood to the fire.
-Old Altoid tins work well but result in very small charcoal sticks. You can also use tea tins, gift tins, canape bread molds, etc.
