A Charcoal Experiment
Stage 2: Excavation and Extraction
The afternoon of the next day, I looked at the pile to see whether it looked like it had finished burning.
Since it was a small stack, I suspected it might have finished in 24 hours, so I got a rake and opened it up. It was still hot, and fragments of charcoal still glowed around the edges.
Since the pile still seemed to be smoldering, I covered it back up and let it finish burning and cool for two days (the next day being fighter practice, so I didn't get home until after dark).
After removing the very dried up earth covering, the pile yield up a couple of cubic feet of charcoal, which I consider pretty good for such a small initial stack. There were also some large "brown ends" from some of the large pieces of wood where the covering soil kept them from being fully heated and charcoaled.
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