
Making Charcoal [video] - rfreytag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzLvqCTvOQY&feature=youtu.be
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dEnigma
I always find his videos extremely relaxing for some reason. Since I love the
outdoors and the woods I'm definitely going to try some of the techniques on
his channel, but only as soon as it gets a lot warmer around here, I don't
need to experience hardcore Stone-Age wintertime survival to be honest.

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bertil
Absolutely.

The minimal editing, the close-ups to the camera when technical decisions
happen and his absolute selfless-ness give it a very pure tone. You can tell
he knows what he is doing, and has done research, but this is just you
witnessing a hobby that needs not to be sold or advertised — just enjoyed.

If you liked those, try to get your hands on Dersu Uzala: it’s a Soviet-
Japanese movie from 1975 (I know…) that has hours of forest scenes with the
same peacefulness and purpose.

~~~
cellularmitosis
You will also enjoy the videos of "myfordboy" on YouTube. Same silent editing
style, but the subject is always aluminum casting.

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atemerev
Bronze making will come soon?

However, I don't think he'll find copper and tin ores in the same place, and
trading stuff kinda ruins the entire premise of the project. So he'll have to
get right to steelmaking, skipping bronze.

First, he'll have to obtain iron ore (since he's in Australia, it will be easy
enough). Then, he needs coke — he can make it from charcoal by using beehive
oven:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_oven](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_oven)

Then, he can build bloomery
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomery))
to produce sponge iron, and then wrought iron.

Then, cementation furnace (much harder to build) to make steel.

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geon
You might enjoy Cody's Lab:
[http://youtu.be/2epi6xRFKFE](http://youtu.be/2epi6xRFKFE)

He makes a lot of stuff from scratch. He successfully makes gunpowder from
manure and refines gold chemically.

~~~
digler999
Most of his stuff is great, but his nitroglycerine video made me cringe. He's
dealing with fuming acids inside, WITHOUT a fume hood, and (IMO) doesn't have
respect for the danger or the repercussions of that substance. Other than
that, I like his videos.

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ethana
That whole channel is amazing. Thanks for this.

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agumonkey
This channel led me to seek for bootstrapping technology from scratch:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638073](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638073)

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/printthread.php?t=638073...](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/printthread.php?t=638073&pp=200)

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562880](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562880)

~~~
tinco
Very fun topic to think about. My $.02: Together with the genetic diversity
you need food, lots of food. I bet if you look up the average hunter-gatherer
village size, that's about the maximum size of a population you can support on
just hunter-gathering and perhaps some basic farming.

To get a civilization that could support even a modest town large enough to
support small mining operations and general trade you need the most important
technology we've spent the past 10.000-40.000 years developing and which I
don't see any technological shortcut to: The potato, banana, the chicken, the
cow, etc. Superfoods, without which a civilization won't get very far and
which will definitely not just exist on a planet that's never seen human
cultivation.

(There's a fun survivorman episode where he gets dropped in a jungle, and
after a day or two of hardship he stumbles upon an abandoned farm, instantly
the whole 'surviving' aspect is gone and the rest of the episode is about him
trying to live comfortably (i.e. not being eaten by ants at night), the
difference between a bleeding edge modern mango and sucking on a wild berry is
stark (the episode is called "Grenada Jungle"))

~~~
agumonkey
I was more interested into technology rather than society. I'd love to see
that episode of survivorman.

ps: random collision, I was just watching this
[http://typotalks.com/berlin/2012/speakers/single-
speaker/?ti...](http://typotalks.com/berlin/2012/speakers/single-
speaker/?tid=376&et=TYPO%20Berlin%202012) when I realized it's similar to your
vanished survivor mindset.

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jasonlaramburu
If you're interested in higher efficiency DIY charcoal production methods
check out the tlud design made from repurposed 55 gallon drums. The output is
pure enough to be used as fuel or soil amendment:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13OcuoJWYpo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13OcuoJWYpo)

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ghostDancer
In Spain in some villages they still make charcoal like in old
times.[https://youtu.be/n_k74Kohudk](https://youtu.be/n_k74Kohudk) . You can
even visit and watch them. There was a movie sometime ago that brought it to
public again :
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088230/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088230/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

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agentgt
I have actually contemplated trying this.

In the last couple of years I have gotten hard core into Kamado BBQing/smoking
and one of the challenges is getting really good charcoal (there is also huge
argument to the degree of how much this really matters ala audiophiles on
wires but most say it does matter).

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bane
If you live near an Asian grocery store, it's likely they'll have various
kinds of high quality charcoal.

[http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/korea-oak-
charcoal.html](http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/korea-oak-charcoal.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeontan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeontan)

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cies
See all of this hero's videos, they're awesome. I really hope he continues
sharing his effort to re-explore the barehands approach at making a living. :)

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sharkjacobs
I really enjoy watching him smash those sticks up with rocks

