Making charcoal while smoking/grilling?

[GQGeek81]

http://www.twinoaksforge.com/BLADSMITHING/MAKING%20CHARCOAL.htm

I stumbled across that page a while back while toying with the idea of making a forge. I had an epiphany today which may or may not have been discussed before.

I'm wondering if it might be possible to make a pit that directs enough heat to a barrel of some sort like in the link above that you could initiate a reaction and make a batch of lump while you cook.

This would be wildly efficient especially if you were able to collect the wood from the wild for free.

Once you get the wood inside baking to the point that its production methanol vapor it drives itself to completion burning on its own by product. So you really just need the wood around the barrels to jump start the reaction. If you could replace the starter wood with a grill somehow that would be really sweet.

I'm not sure how well his set up would work on green wood. I don't think I'd want to use charcoal made from treated lumber to cook food with. I have made charcoal in a cookie tin before. It had a single hole in the lid and did emit a blow torch like flame but I don't think it would have been enough to finish the job.


Anyone done anything like this before?

[wnkt]

That pit would have to be burning like a blast furnace to catch wood on fire from a distance. And if you had that hot a fire you might as well have made the fire ON the wood youre trying o make charcoal out of.
But Ive never made charcoal myself so disregard anything I say
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