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Step 4Start a Fire
Here's my version of the gas mask. I need to filter paint fumes and sanding dust, not phosgene, so I didn't bother adding soda lime to my filter.
Start a fire. That's the first step in making charcoal.
Coconut shell charcoal is standard for gas masks. I wanted to try coconut husk charcoal.
So I husked some of the driest, lightest coconuts I could find.
Three of them were starting to sprout. Yay! I ate one of the sprouted coconuts.
I started a fire. It was horrible. I couldn't get the coconut husks to burn properly. It smoked a lot and wanted to smolder. In Mexico the husks had flamed out and burned down to a nice bed of coals in minutes. I guess they were a lot drier than the husks here in Maui.
I tried all my fire making tricks. I ripped the husks into strips and stacked them like a log cabin.
I added tinder of various kinds. I finally dumped paint thinner on the burning pile. That flamed for a while but then it went back to smoldering. I finally gave up and decided to let it smoke. Eventually the heat would make some of the stuff in the middle into charcoal. I piled a whole lot more husks on and after an hour or so it looked like the final picture, ready for my coal mining operation.
It's a calm day and the smoke followed me around everywhere.
I needed a gas mask.
Start a fire. That's the first step in making charcoal.
Coconut shell charcoal is standard for gas masks. I wanted to try coconut husk charcoal.
So I husked some of the driest, lightest coconuts I could find.
Three of them were starting to sprout. Yay! I ate one of the sprouted coconuts.
I started a fire. It was horrible. I couldn't get the coconut husks to burn properly. It smoked a lot and wanted to smolder. In Mexico the husks had flamed out and burned down to a nice bed of coals in minutes. I guess they were a lot drier than the husks here in Maui.
I tried all my fire making tricks. I ripped the husks into strips and stacked them like a log cabin.
I added tinder of various kinds. I finally dumped paint thinner on the burning pile. That flamed for a while but then it went back to smoldering. I finally gave up and decided to let it smoke. Eventually the heat would make some of the stuff in the middle into charcoal. I piled a whole lot more husks on and after an hour or so it looked like the final picture, ready for my coal mining operation.
It's a calm day and the smoke followed me around everywhere.
I needed a gas mask.
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For this step, would it have been possible to use a 'charcoal maker' over a regular wood fire to turn the coconut husk into charcoal? I would think that even propping a metal coffee can over the flame with the husks inside it would work to cook off the wood gas and leave you with a lovely bit of charcoal. Of course it may need to be activated, but that's nothing a muriatic acid bath wouldn't solve.