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<DIV>Dear Stovers, </DIV>
<DIV> I started reading this latest series of posts, just to
catch up on what is new in the world of charcoal making. It seems when I start
to play with the welding torch there is no end to all the configurations of
various successful designs of kilns which can be built. . The question is: how
can I quickly make cash money making charcoal here in Southwest Ohio on a small
scale? Where is the cash market to sell into? </DIV>
<DIV> I accidentally started making a good quality
of VERY hard char while hardwood brush clearing. I'm doing
this on my new 5 acre farm lot for my nearly dormant landscaping business.
All it took was a discarded 30 gallon galvanized trash can with the bottom
rusted out. I used it to contain burning brush over the tops of small
stumps to get rid of them, but the system really likes to produce
charcoal, burning very cleanly once hot. Currently after charring, I just
allow the charcoal to continue to burn for several days to get rid of it. Then I
use the ash as fertilizer for my new garden and newly grass seeded areas. Simply
placing a lid on the can would quench the char, or shoveling it into a sealed
can would do even better and quicker.</DIV>
<DIV> I just don't see any ready available market for
unscreened mixed hardwood charcoal made of mostly smaller pieces. I can use it
later in soil mixes for container stock when I rebuild the greenhouse and
nursery. Right now I just need to raise any cash I can to keep the land
payments and fuel bills paid until landscaping picks up again. In a year or
so the housing market will start up again and there will be plenty of
landscaping work. Most of the landscapers I know have gone out of business.
Selling off several hundred yards of charred brush could really help my slim
budget. Who do I sell to though? Especially the powdered char? </DIV>
<DIV> I have probably 100 yards of cleared brush piled
up, dry, and with the current drought it has been a fire hazard all summer. I
have nearly as much to clear in the next year. Nearly all of it is as dense or
harder than oak. The primary woods are Amur Honeysuckle, Walnut saplings,
scrub Redosier Dogwood, and Hedge Apple saplings. Those last two woods are
denser than oak. I get a lot of requests to do clearing of the Amur Honeysuckle
which is a non- native very invasive species around this region. My tree shear
can cut it off at the stump very fast and load it on a trailer. Sometimes I
just dig it out of the ground with the Bobcat loader bucket teeth, roots
and all, because it is very shallow rooted. Most of the residential brush
is chipped in stump grinders at city run facilities and given away as free mulch
around here. </DIV>
<DIV> I know of many firewood cutters who produce many
cubic yards of hardwood cut- offs and just burn the stuff off. The Emerald Ash
Borer is killing all of the Ash trees around here now, and so there is a
huge demand to cut down large ash trees. The wood waste needs to be destroyed
immediately to kill the pest.</DIV>
<DIV> I'd like to sell the mid sized chunks to
blacksmiths, but I couldn't even afford to go to the blacksmiths show this year
to show it off. There are nurseries and growers around but everything is going
huge scale. We have a very mature market for nursery stock so only the largest
growers survived the recession. They don't take to new ideas very well. I need a
broker to buy this off of me so I can focus on producing it. </DIV>
<DIV> Thanks, </DIV>
<DIV> Dan Dimiduk
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