Alban declared:
<<< Make charcoal? I've never seen anyone make it outside of professionals
and long-time re-enactors of the sort who work full-time at Williamsburg.
I suspect it'd take more than one or two days to make the stuff. >>>

You know, some of those SCA guys do the weirdest things. . .

In the CRAFTS section of the Florilegium:
Mkng-Charcoal-art (20K) 1/ 2/10 "Making Charcoal" by Viscount Sir Corin Anderson (KSCA, OP).
http://www.florilegium.org/files/CRAFTS/Mkng-Charcoal-art.html

Still, this need not be a sheep-to-shawl type thing. I would find a source of good hardwood charcoal and buy that for your iron smelting experiment(s). Then at another time, do a charcoal making experiment and write it up for the Florilegium, so we have two to compare against. :-)

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas [log in to unmask]
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****