Charcoal clamp

A charcoal clamp was a stack of cut wood built on a levelled circular hearth in woodland, stacked around a central stake, covered with bracken and then sealed with earth or turf so that the wood charred slowly rather than burned. A burn took a day or more and had to be watched constantly. Charcoal was the only fuel used for smelting iron until the 1700s, and bloomeries were sited near woods because the fragile charcoal travelled badly.

Caveats (confidence: high)

Burn times and construction details come from modern reconstruction of traditional methods rather than 12th-century description.

Sources: regia.org · historicengland.org.uk

Built from

Charcoal clampfrom Turf, any wood (oak timber, ash timber, elm timber and 10 more)

Made here

Charcoal burngives Charcoal, Wood ash; from any charcoal wood (poles, ash poles); at charcoal clamp; by charcoal burner

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Charcoal burner

Caveats (confidence: high)

Built from

Made here

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