The first attempt on a small scale was promising and made good charcoal. But the second experiment failed catastrophically as the method failed to scale up due to the large pot breaking. I've fired large pots before but it was in a solid wall kiln that probably let in less cold air. It still made some charcoal but the mound method is still the better choice as it produces charcoal on scale, or the pit method for quicker low quality charcoal.
Very interesting to see this process. It proves that charcoal is made in truly chemical process of incomplete combustion. Nice from you to share this experiment even if it didn't work out completely :D
maybe I missed something but I was wondering how come you didn't fire the pot first before trying to make charcoal with it. I'd assume that the wood off gassing would increase the pressure in the vessel (probably what the hole you left was for) but not really sure. It feels like firing the pot first would have been better.
Another reason might be due to the thermal stress from the gap at the top. Every time I've ever seen charcoal made in this way, be it with crockery or with a metal bin, the opening has always been on the underside, similar to the mound method.
i really appreciate you uploading videos where something doesnt work as intended or fails, your stuff is always great to watch. cant wait for the next one mate.
How much extra work was making a bigger pot? Was really cool to see and I would love to see you make the big pots work. Potentially useful for batch processing other products too.
meh he dropped of years ago and just cant hold to the same standard as what he used to it literally just making charcoal that's all he does now...... where as primitive skills yeah its a copy but the guy has a whole farm going on and actually has metal tools.
I'm so glad you show everything that doesn't work and not just show everything working perfectly. It shows how much work this actually is and how impressive our forefathers were for figuring it all out.
Have you tried out doing the thing he’s doing though? Mostly kidding bc I know life gets in the way and it seems like it would be much much more difficult to do than to watch. I sure as hell haven’t. But who’s stopping us? 😮
Everything he does, including making fire, is incongruous with the idea that we are viewing this through high-tech cameras on site. His videos are so entrancing that they just keep you coming back for more.
My son and I were just speculating about how he either harvested or made the cameras, computer and internet connection from the rainforest around him. Congruity.
I would love to see a non-standard video just exploring the local geography, plants, animals, etc. I've always been curious where all the structures are in relation to each other.
You made charcoal in a closed pot because you need a reliable heat source. I made charcoal in a closed pot because I forgot to turn off the stove. We are not the same.
I once made charcoal in the pot. Mom was not impressed by it in the slightest when she came home from work. I tried my best to scrub the pot but alas. To anyone who wants to try: soup makes bad charcoal.
@@AlleonoriCat when I was... probably nine... I, for whatever reason, closed kitchen door while playing PC and forgot buckwheat in a pan on small fire for approx six hours. That was best charcoal I ever seen - glossy anthracite. Pan was bent though.
I love it that after so many years I still find it very exciting and soothing at the same time when he ignites a fire with friction. It also shows that all the advancements he made still requires the one key element done the same way!
he has repeatedly shown unedited fire-by-friction to millions of people that have never seen it, who come from unbroken lines of ancestors who could all do it
One thing I love about this channel is how he never hides his failures. He always shows everything he does, whether or not it works, and is willing to test new ways of doing things.
I actually really enjoy the failures, its so nice that you just post them as a lesson learned rather than an actual mistake. Learn move on, do better, repeat. Good life lesson right there. Bravo
One thing the imitators lack, even the good ones, is the sense of scholarship. John is partly replicating ancient techniques, and partly exploring them in order to understand them. All of the various attempts to turn his poor ore into iron have been about exploring the possibilities.
It would be interesting to know the Nationality of all these commenters eager to use the word "failure". I assume it is from a country with a low I.Q. and/or an insular outlook. If the man wants charcoal, he can buy 12 Kgs at his local Bunnings, for A$ 39.95. People from a Rationalist Society, understand that he makes interesting popular videos for a living. And has NEVER, will NEVER "fail".
@huehuecoyotl2 to each their own! I know a lot of people prefer no subtitles, but every time I post it, it is new for someone who is ecstatic that they are Available, so I keep up the reminders.
@psicologamarcelacollado5863 I'm so glad! He's been doing this, I believe, since the beginning, so it's a great opportunity to rewatch a lot of his older videos! He explains a lot of things in great detail, and I learned a lot more when I went back and watched them all again after finding out about the captions.
@@tulipalll definitely. A lot of people don't realize there even are subtitles. Thanks for letting them know. I urge people to watch it first without, then with. You get twice the entertainment.
During WWII, many people converted car and truck engines to run on wood gas. Very potent, as shown in this video. Great stuff as always. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Tbh, I think that's what makes these videos, because it really shows just how difficult this is. Like, there were at least four updates on the different fans he was building for his kiln blower.
I am so glad a friend shared this channel with me years ago. I'm buying a house and a bit of land in an area with heavily clay laden soil, and I plan on making my own levigation trench to make stuff out of clay, just for fun. Thank you, for that knowledge.
It is almost decade since I start to watch this channel and in those years this guy managed several thousands of years of progress. From mud hat to brick house, from handmashed pottery to ten gallon pot. From stick tool to iron. It is amazing journey and I am glad I can watch it happen.
THE REAL ONE has returned!! I love when the REAL GOAT of the Primitive Technology videos return with new lessons :3 Do not forget to turn the subtitles to see the full explanation of what he is doing.
7:54 we went camping this weekend and we struggled for 30 mins to light fire with match sticks and a cigarette lighter, just because we forgot to carry starter fluid - and this guy just flexes with 2 twigs.
Last winter I got into sitting outside at night with a little fire in a big way. It was soothing and cozy. Holy hell can making a fire be hard, even with a lighter. You really have to give it effort.
The trick is to get very small kindling (fibrous materials, leaves, very thin twigs broken up) and lighting that, and progressively adding larger and larger pieces of fuel. You never want to add something so big it'll absorb all the energy of the fire you've currently got going without burning. It takes time and patience!
@@static_motion I second this. And also don't underestimate how fast the small stuff burns. Keep adding more until you get to the big stuff otherwise it'll burn out.
Do the "hut" method. Make a floor out of some medium pieces. Then get some Ys made of twigs and make a little hut on top of the floor, you know, like an indian hut. Leave a "door" open. Then get some kindling, like dry leaves, paper, very small twigs and the sort and fill the hut with it. Light the kindling and presto, easy fire. Keep adding stuff because the hut burns rather quickly. No need for starter fluid. It's the method John uses. Of course, he uses two sticks. We have to make do with lighters and matches.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time in Southern Missouri Norther Arkansas where a lot of charcoal was made. I remember seeing setups as small as your big pot up to giant metal kilns the size of connex containers. I actually mad a few pots and tried it with a few of my cousins. What my uncle taught me was to let the clay vessel dry for almost a week before using a low heat fire to further dry it. He said it could take 10 days to 2 weeks to fully dry the clay, then it was fired in one of the big kilns to fuse it or they would place several in a large bonfire. Also in addition to grog, he had us add some sand to our clay mix. I know I only used 2 handfuls of washed fine river sand to a pot about the size of your small one. That was a childs hand, I was only 8 at the time. I would think it would be 1 adult handful.
@MrCh0o for sale. A lot of charcoal is made in Southern Missouri northern Arkansas. I know some of it was sold to a distillery yet a lot was also sold to blacksmiths and also for people to use for cooking.
@2:45 thank you for laying out the result of the first firing so that we were able to see the proportion of good versus undercooked. That attention to detail is very much appreciated.
i love that you still put experiments online that don't work. The scientific method ensures that, regardless of the result, we learned something from it. Its quite impressive just how much gas from the wood was released and demonstrates just how flammable it is. Love your work as always
I’m sorry to see the pot didn’t work out, but glad that you posted the video. It makes for a great learning experience and there’s still plenty of scrap pieces to use. It was also cool to see the wood gas coming out and igniting.
I watch these videos with my young daughters. It is really nice to be able to show them that even "the builder" (as we call you) will try new things and they don't always work.
I love how even and symmetrical all of the stuff he builds is, even the pit where the clay was collected. I dug a fire pit in my backyard and it turned out so crooked I couldn't believe it.
I think the most important thing I've learned from your videos is there is no need to rush when starting a fire. I think every TV show and RUclipsr, other than you, I've seen has made it seem like it was a difficult process that you had to rush once you see smoke. Watching you, you are calm and relaxed about it, no need to panic, no need to rush. For the making of charcoal would stacking multiple smaller pots, like the first one, provide the better charcoal without the hazards of the large pot?
I find it impressive to rewatch and realize John is extremely methodical and calculated. Utilizing multiple processes at once in his planning for each other element. Using smaller experiments inside of larger ones to create tools into further iterations of developments. All while planning out the video process and content creation. "32 handfuls for one hour" - seems like a casual calculation but then if that same logic has been applied to everything? Personalized measuring system. I do hope that at the end of all this, John writes a book. With paper and tools he's made. I'd like to see still images of each page with his plans and process then compiled into an E-Book. Would be a phenomenal capstone to this amazing decade long journey, when it eventually does end. Thanks for all the hard work.
Turn on closed captions for detailed video descriptions. Love watching these videos and with descriptions makes it even better! Can't believe I never noticed this before.
You learn more through failure than success. I always drop everything to watch your uploads. It's entertaining to watch and learn the processes you go through.
Thank you for every last one of these. Each one is both a window into the past, and a guide to rebuilding if the worst should happen. Thank you and good luck.
The dedication and perserverance you put into making your projects is such an inspiration. How you casually made the biggest pot ever with that technique is just awesome.
It works on 'mice.' (Quotes included because it's not technically a mouse but a southern hemisphere marsupial that's basically a mouse to non-biologists.)
Dear John, I have always had the pleasure of watching your contents and this time you also proven to be one of the best creators in terms of originality and effort. I liked how you purify the clay by suspending it in water. Very clever approach and always a time used worthy when I watch your videos.
The people who annoy others with the sound, dust and pollen released when shredding pruned tree limbs could place the limbs in a pile, through a wet season, and picking out the remaining wood, when the weather can dry them, to make charcoal like this and get high quality leaf compost, too.
Контент наивысшего качества!! 👍🏻 Честный и бескомпромиссный, достойный уважения!! Благодарю за то что на протяжении многих лет, проводишь для всех Нас экскурсии в мир примитивных технологий!! Без сомнения, Ты Наш герой!! 🙂
I learn more from these videos than any other channel, simply because they don't just show what works, they include the entire experimentation process.
I know! Half a meter in diameter and height seems like a very big pot! Too big for the structure it had, it turned out, but still an impressive creation considering the manufacturing facilities. Now I'm wondering what else he might create if that could be made a practical size.
yes a slightly longer nose and a tuft of fur on the end of the tail. They like to nibble on hard plastic which is a pain when you go to get your 25 liter water jerry and they have chewed out the bung.
Very Australian animal. The males get too excited when it is mating season, and the ones who do find a willing female, go at it with such hormone-driven fury, they frequently die after the act, from exhaustion and blood-poisoning. Then their fellow males, who missed out on the jump, gather around the corpse for a snack.
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 yeah i found six dead ones in a bucket , it wasnt that big and or high , we figured that they couldnt find a female . any port in a storm I guess.
Yeah, the boys go on a mental rooting binge and then die, leaving only pregnant females in the population for part of the year. The girls like to give birth in draws for some reason, I’ve found them with babies in my workshop. Open a draw to get out tools and there’s a bunch of gum leaves and a stroppy mum with a load of little ones hanging on her.
This channel is comfy and one of the few remaining channels with little or no talking. You arent gonna suddenly tell me about nord vpn, raid shadow legends, you arent going to tell me your milquetoast opinions about a recent event, you arent going to tell me someone was unaliving themselves, you arent british, etc. I just wanted to say thanks.
Dig anywhere in England and you're moderately likely to find old pottery. I've pulled up a bunch digging in my garden, though it's all been 18th and 19th century stuff.
@@stukker it is an aggregate (made from crushed fired pottery) added to clay to make it stronger. Think like gravel in concrete. It also makes working it much easier, less fatty. And though not obvious in this video, it reduces the chance of cracks.
Charcoal is made in a furnace on the floor, which introduces the wood with logs vertically, has a door and about 6 vents, which are open at the start of the flame, then closed and wait up to 8 days to cool down.
Two things : -I'm absolutely amazed at the difference in strength between wood and charcoal, even when heated in the same pot. - Random question : how thick is your Aussie accent?
@@wallacechui9857 the volume of the gas is many times larger than the volume of the wood, and the chamber is full of wood to around 70% to 80%, which means that as soon as the gas is produced, it starts to displace all the remaining air, which exits through the bottom hole. Once the inside atmosphere is 100% wood gas, there is no oxygen left to burn it or cause an explosion, so it wouldn't really happen. This applies to any pressurized vessel, such as a gas tank with a hole in it, as long a the tank can hold the pressure without rupturing, the exit velocity of the gas is high enough to not let oxygen in, and in some cases it's high enough to blow the flame out, hence the usual need for a larger flare at the end of a burner, following Bernoulli's equation. I have designed and built quite a number of burners throughout my life, using different fuels and you always need to account for burnback velocity of the mixture to properly size both the mixing tube and the exit area. So, as long as you keep this particular exit hole below 3/4 of an inch in diameter, you should have enough exit velocity to make a nice jet, a larger hole will also not cause an explosion, but it will give you a "lazy" flame.
Wouldn't work. Gas rises. And the hole would burn the would-be-charcoal wood to ash. Charcoal is made by heating wood to high temperature in an oxygen free atmosphere. That is why he has to seal it in. It carburizes the wood, evaporating all the water in it and leaving the carbon in the cellulose walls of the wood cells. That water and some of the carbon react under the high temperature to make wood gas, which is mostly Methanol. You can condense it to make Wood Alcohol, which is really really poisonous, very small doses can cause permanent blindness and even death. Breathing it is also dangerous. Beter to burn it. Fun fact: PURE methanol flame emits light only in the infrared range. It's literally invisible fire.
I rarely shed tears, but I wept as I imagined the steady efforts of mankind in the past. How much time must have been required to create this large pot? Even while I was making it, I felt that this was an incredibly difficult undertaking. The moment it broke, I was in tears.
It might be easier to fire something that large as 2 separate halves that you can join together with mud for making charcoal. Then, once your charcoal is finished, you can simply break the mud seal and pull the pot open like a book to access all of it more easily. Then you won't need to rebuild most of a mound each time!
it's amazing the quality of the charcoal in the first pot, Gonna be interesting to see what he can do to reinforce the large pot, perhaps relief cuts to allow for expansion of the clay, reducing the chance of random cracks? great video!
For very tough refractory we mix together ceramic fibres with the main refractory compound. Not sure if you could do that with primitive technology short of liquifying rock with some kind of coke and air blast furnace to make rockwool. The easier option is to have a more even temperature distribution, that being a draft kiln with solid walls and a ton of thermal mass.
@@K0wfaceIt was but he needs to add some fiber into the clay like shreded dry grass so it helps bind all the clay together and he just needs to let the clay fire for longer since it obviously didn't fully dry thus why it cracked. I'd say a full 24v hour burn then letting it slowly cool down for another day. Generally how people do porcelain.
@@WyvernYT It doesn't need to last forever, it's merely to act as a binder as the clay dries. Yes it will carbonize when fired but you aren't using a lot of it in the mix either, just a few percentage of the mass. It's a common insulation method in making your own bronze and early iron age smeltery and used in adobe siding too.
There’s something so grounding and redeeming about seeing even a “catastrophic failure” go into the grog heap to later be used in bigger and grander projects. • Love this content! Keep up the great work!
Shame it was a failure, but great to watch as always. I imagine the first person to get flames like that would have thought it was witchcraft with how intense it was 🤣
@Agar-agarpowder Seriously, when he was building it I was thinking, "this thing is huge. It's going to weigh a ton. How in the world is he going to move it?" Then it cuts to him hulking out trying to carefully place it lol
Now I'm thinking about the giant pot more than the charcoal! Maybe you just have to fire that thing much much slower? Also I imagine the shrinkage (thinking in horizontal cross-sections here) would be wildly different between the bottom and the sides. Maybe a narrower bottom and sloping the sides in to meet it would help with that.
You should try Bisque firing your clay before the high-heat firing! Idk if you have covered this before, but it could help increase the heat and thermal shock resistance! 1. Shape your clay, with your grog mixture (20-30%) 2. Bisque fire your clay 3. Add a glaze of some kind to reduce porous property. You could do this with clay + wood ash. Skip this step if you want a porous clay product! 4. High-heat fire your clay
Thankyou for showing the ups and downs of your trialling of different processes. Do be careful lifting though! That was a very heavy lift to do solo! I have made biochar for the garden, its the same pyrolysis your working towards but aims for pure carbon so needs 650c to be achieved. I have a rounded bottom steel firepit, no airholes, with a floating steel plate below to act as a heat reflector to keep the base hot (also prevents cracking/burning whatever the firepit is on). I stack a pile and then drop some tinder in and feed it fast. I achieve an open flame cap fire and in 30 mins I can burn my pile fast and hot. Hot enough you have to step back if your not loading it as its radiates so much heat, the gas that burns keeps the fire 3 feet tall easy. Once it slows I hose a hose to put it out. I get next to no soot/ash and as long as it is all dry wood I get very little to no uncharred material, most is glass sounding when breaks and sooty, not leaving residue like cooking charcoal that has not gone through the pyrolysis. In three hours I can do 3-4 batches and fill a decent size barrel. not as much as your big clay dome charcoal fire's but easier and quicker. The water left in the firepit once I pull out the coals has such fine black soot I could add some fats to it to make homemade ink. Though I water it into the lawn, which loves it as it improves nutrient exchange, water retention and all sorts of good things.
Bro, I'm using premium to download all your videos on to a HUGE thumb drive in order to protect me and my son in the event this knowledge will keep us alive. No joke
You would do better to buy his book. A thumb drive requires not only a computer, but the power to run it. Unless you are a survivalist with mini-hydro and/or solar power, the videos will be useless. The book, if you have to, can be read by campfire light. It's good that you are thinking ahead, but you have to consider what conditions you'll be in if your lives depend on this knowledge.
I think it could be very useful for you to look into traditional korean pottery, especially how they produce Ongi. there is a specific splapping technique used to densen the clay and align the particles to reduce damage during drying
Can we just take a moment to commend this man for sharing his failures as well as successes? This is how true science is supposed to be done. You're a credit to the human race.
I wonder if the spewing burning wood gas might out of a small hole like what happens with the failed attempt might be able to be used as a sort of primitive stove for cooking on top of, if utilized correctly.
P.T is the best. Watching this, an idea sprung to mind: Try the opposite of a charcoal mound. dig a fairly deep pit, start a fire at the bottom, fill the entire pit with wood, then place a lid over the pit (When the fire reaches the top). Alternately, a small ceramic pipe (made from short interlocking sections) could feed in air at the bottom of the pit, and the fire instead lit on top. The lid could then be put on fairly soon after, and when the fire matures, plug the draft pipe and surface vent.
The first attempt on a small scale was promising and made good charcoal. But the second experiment failed catastrophically as the method failed to scale up due to the large pot breaking. I've fired large pots before but it was in a solid wall kiln that probably let in less cold air. It still made some charcoal but the mound method is still the better choice as it produces charcoal on scale, or the pit method for quicker low quality charcoal.
Very interesting to see this process. It proves that charcoal is made in truly chemical process of incomplete combustion. Nice from you to share this experiment even if it didn't work out completely :D
maybe I missed something but I was wondering how come you didn't fire the pot first before trying to make charcoal with it.
I'd assume that the wood off gassing would increase the pressure in the vessel (probably what the hole you left was for) but not really sure. It feels like firing the pot first would have been better.
Another reason might be due to the thermal stress from the gap at the top. Every time I've ever seen charcoal made in this way, be it with crockery or with a metal bin, the opening has always been on the underside, similar to the mound method.
i really appreciate you uploading videos where something doesnt work as intended or fails, your stuff is always great to watch. cant wait for the next one mate.
How much extra work was making a bigger pot? Was really cool to see and I would love to see you make the big pots work. Potentially useful for batch processing other products too.
Often imitated... NEVER duplicated.
Best channel on RUclips.
The original is always the best.
Literally skill issue.
This channel and Escape to Rural France- my two favorite channels.
You a World of Outlaws fan too?
meh he dropped of years ago and just cant hold to the same standard as what he used to it literally just making charcoal that's all he does now...... where as primitive skills yeah its a copy but the guy has a whole farm going on and actually has metal tools.
I'm so glad you show everything that doesn't work and not just show everything working perfectly. It shows how much work this actually is and how impressive our forefathers were for figuring it all out.
Our forecavemen
It also adds to his authenticity, which I am inspired by the most
@@KandiKlover the cavefathers
The little dose of primitive technology every now and then keeps me from deleting my youtube app. There's just nothing comparable.
Have you tried out doing the thing he’s doing though? Mostly kidding bc I know life gets in the way and it seems like it would be much much more difficult to do than to watch. I sure as hell haven’t. But who’s stopping us? 😮
@@kenyonb As for me, it's my beloved ones with special needs. Trust me, I couldn't just go for it like there's no tomorrow.
@@_InTheBinStrap said loved ones to a chair and then go build primitive things
Everything he does, including making fire, is incongruous with the idea that we are viewing this through high-tech cameras on site. His videos are so entrancing that they just keep you coming back for more.
Imagine we are viewing him as a spirit guide would - congruity restored.
My son and I were just speculating about how he either harvested or made the cameras, computer and internet connection from the rainforest around him. Congruity.
I'm always happy when the episode takes a moment to feature a special guest animal. Primitive Technology knows what's really important.
I would love to see a non-standard video just exploring the local geography, plants, animals, etc. I've always been curious where all the structures are in relation to each other.
Don't think it was a mouse, though, looked like a dunnart or something similar to me.
@@BrianDamageYT a dunnart you say?
❤
"Multiple cracks appeared and luminous flames now shoot out of them" might be the most relatable sentence I've ever read.
Very relatable. That's how a party at my place ended up after an evening of spicy Mexican food.
I think it will not beat "slowly blow the smoking punk", which until now is my favorite, but yeah, very relatable sentence indeed.
Seeing that made me go "yeah of course people saw this and thought that wood had ghosts or spirits or whatever"
Biblically accurate charcoal making
i am literally in the comments section for that very caption. 😁
You made charcoal in a closed pot because you need a reliable heat source.
I made charcoal in a closed pot because I forgot to turn off the stove.
We are not the same.
😄👍
😂
Was it a good quality?
I once made charcoal in the pot. Mom was not impressed by it in the slightest when she came home from work. I tried my best to scrub the pot but alas. To anyone who wants to try: soup makes bad charcoal.
@@AlleonoriCat when I was... probably nine... I, for whatever reason, closed kitchen door while playing PC and forgot buckwheat in a pan on small fire for approx six hours. That was best charcoal I ever seen - glossy anthracite. Pan was bent though.
I love it that after so many years I still find it very exciting and soothing at the same time when he ignites a fire with friction. It also shows that all the advancements he made still requires the one key element done the same way!
he has repeatedly shown unedited fire-by-friction to millions of people that have never seen it, who come from unbroken lines of ancestors who could all do it
One thing I love about this channel is how he never hides his failures. He always shows everything he does, whether or not it works, and is willing to test new ways of doing things.
he doesnt show everything but there has to be some success to the initial theory
What about the pants he made?
I actually really enjoy the failures, its so nice that you just post them as a lesson learned rather than an actual mistake. Learn move on, do better, repeat. Good life lesson right there. Bravo
Same, I learned to not go too big and make your clay thicker for something big. That was too fragile to fire without a professional oven.
One thing the imitators lack, even the good ones, is the sense of scholarship. John is partly replicating ancient techniques, and partly exploring them in order to understand them. All of the various attempts to turn his poor ore into iron have been about exploring the possibilities.
It would be interesting to know the Nationality of all these commenters eager to use the word "failure". I assume it is from a country with a low I.Q. and/or an insular outlook.
If the man wants charcoal, he can buy 12 Kgs at his local Bunnings, for A$ 39.95.
People from a Rationalist Society, understand that he makes interesting popular videos for a living.
And has NEVER, will NEVER "fail".
It takes very thick skin to sink that much time into a project, and to see the inevitable failures as lessons and recycling opportunities.
You wouldn't learn much if you don't make mistakes .
Every video feels like a newly unlocked portion of a tech tree
it's the small tutorial video showcasing what you can do before you pick the perk
Don't forget to turn on subtitles / closed captioning!!! He uses those to tell everyone what he is doing.
@@tulipalll NOW YOU TELL ME
😂
@@satormus8263 Think of all the videos you can watch again, reading the subtitles!
Don't forget to turn on subtitles / closed captioning!!! He uses those to tell everyone what he is doing.
I like watching it without subtitles, it's more engrossing and most of what he's doing is pretty clear.
Thank you, I didn't know that and it made the video more enjoyable the second time around!
@huehuecoyotl2 to each their own! I know a lot of people prefer no subtitles, but every time I post it, it is new for someone who is ecstatic that they are Available, so I keep up the reminders.
@psicologamarcelacollado5863 I'm so glad! He's been doing this, I believe, since the beginning, so it's a great opportunity to rewatch a lot of his older videos! He explains a lot of things in great detail, and I learned a lot more when I went back and watched them all again after finding out about the captions.
@@tulipalll definitely. A lot of people don't realize there even are subtitles. Thanks for letting them know. I urge people to watch it first without, then with. You get twice the entertainment.
You videos never get old. I simple love that it does not shy away from showing the failures too.
During WWII, many people converted car and truck engines to run on wood gas. Very potent, as shown in this video.
Great stuff as always. Thanks for sharing it with us.
watching you pour that clay onto the grog and then fold it all together was so satisfying
Interesting how much it immediately looked like dough.
Like a giant thick tortilla
Humbled by failure, like everyone is. Love to see it put on display.
Tbh, I think that's what makes these videos, because it really shows just how difficult this is.
Like, there were at least four updates on the different fans he was building for his kiln blower.
Humbled means something slightly different in English, friend.
Trying is a necessary component to success.
I wouldn't call it failure, but experimentation. Even if he didn't end up with a new way to produce charcoal, he gathered data.
Not a failure. Look at all the material he made to mix into the next project.
I am so glad a friend shared this channel with me years ago.
I'm buying a house and a bit of land in an area with heavily clay laden soil, and I plan on making my own levigation trench to make stuff out of clay, just for fun.
Thank you, for that knowledge.
hell ye
It is almost decade since I start to watch this channel and in those years this guy managed several thousands of years of progress. From mud hat to brick house, from handmashed pottery to ten gallon pot. From stick tool to iron. It is amazing journey and I am glad I can watch it happen.
they fake their videos lmao
THE REAL ONE has returned!! I love when the REAL GOAT of the Primitive Technology videos return with new lessons :3
Do not forget to turn the subtitles to see the full explanation of what he is doing.
7:54 we went camping this weekend and we struggled for 30 mins to light fire with match sticks and a cigarette lighter, just because we forgot to carry starter fluid - and this guy just flexes with 2 twigs.
Last winter I got into sitting outside at night with a little fire in a big way. It was soothing and cozy. Holy hell can making a fire be hard, even with a lighter. You really have to give it effort.
The trick is to get very small kindling (fibrous materials, leaves, very thin twigs broken up) and lighting that, and progressively adding larger and larger pieces of fuel. You never want to add something so big it'll absorb all the energy of the fire you've currently got going without burning. It takes time and patience!
@@static_motion I second this. And also don't underestimate how fast the small stuff burns. Keep adding more until you get to the big stuff otherwise it'll burn out.
Do the "hut" method.
Make a floor out of some medium pieces. Then get some Ys made of twigs and make a little hut on top of the floor, you know, like an indian hut. Leave a "door" open. Then get some kindling, like dry leaves, paper, very small twigs and the sort and fill the hut with it. Light the kindling and presto, easy fire.
Keep adding stuff because the hut burns rather quickly. No need for starter fluid.
It's the method John uses. Of course, he uses two sticks. We have to make do with lighters and matches.
@@static_motion I save dryer lint, to assist with starting campfires.
I appreciate that we also get to see the failures, which makes this all the more genuine.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time in Southern Missouri Norther Arkansas where a lot of charcoal was made. I remember seeing setups as small as your big pot up to giant metal kilns the size of connex containers. I actually mad a few pots and tried it with a few of my cousins. What my uncle taught me was to let the clay vessel dry for almost a week before using a low heat fire to further dry it. He said it could take 10 days to 2 weeks to fully dry the clay, then it was fired in one of the big kilns to fuse it or they would place several in a large bonfire. Also in addition to grog, he had us add some sand to our clay mix. I know I only used 2 handfuls of washed fine river sand to a pot about the size of your small one. That was a childs hand, I was only 8 at the time. I would think it would be 1 adult handful.
What was the charcoal made for?
@MrCh0o for sale. A lot of charcoal is made in Southern Missouri northern Arkansas. I know some of it was sold to a distillery yet a lot was also sold to blacksmiths and also for people to use for cooking.
@2:45 thank you for laying out the result of the first firing so that we were able to see the proportion of good versus undercooked. That attention to detail is very much appreciated.
Каждый раз поражаюсь, как он умудряется уместить столько работы в десятиминутное видео, от которого невозможно оторваться! Обалденный мужик!
Полностью с вами согласен !
Ну ему некуда спешить. Сначала снял то что нужно, потом оставил то что будет логично понятно и смонтировал
@@ВиталийЧураков-й8ч Так и есть - тоже так делаю !
Да пздц))
Меня только вгоняет в грусть, что он всегда один, молчит и без женщины...
i love that you still put experiments online that don't work. The scientific method ensures that, regardless of the result, we learned something from it. Its quite impressive just how much gas from the wood was released and demonstrates just how flammable it is. Love your work as always
I’m sorry to see the pot didn’t work out, but glad that you posted the video. It makes for a great learning experience and there’s still plenty of scrap pieces to use.
It was also cool to see the wood gas coming out and igniting.
But the small pot worked very well.
Primitive Tech videos are the only quiet time I get as an adult
That doesn't make sense
I watch these videos with my young daughters. It is really nice to be able to show them that even "the builder" (as we call you) will try new things and they don't always work.
I love how even and symmetrical all of the stuff he builds is, even the pit where the clay was collected. I dug a fire pit in my backyard and it turned out so crooked I couldn't believe it.
The evenness and symmetry of the giant pot!
You win some and lose some. I think your ratio to winning and losing is much greater than most folks. Great video as always!
Even if the ratio was bad, if each loss doesn't cripple you and each win brings you closer to a goal, that's still progress.
@@r3dp9 Very true!
-Pie, BFB 1
I think the most important thing I've learned from your videos is there is no need to rush when starting a fire. I think every TV show and RUclipsr, other than you, I've seen has made it seem like it was a difficult process that you had to rush once you see smoke. Watching you, you are calm and relaxed about it, no need to panic, no need to rush.
For the making of charcoal would stacking multiple smaller pots, like the first one, provide the better charcoal without the hazards of the large pot?
Methanol acetic acid and tar can be obtained from deciduous trees
@@Колорад-д9й Australia doesn't have many deciduous trees, our trees keep and drop leaves year round.
@@phaunaThen what does he make charcoal out of? Made of hardwood trees.
@@Колорад-д9й turn on captions.
Not all charcoal is made of hardwood.
He used olive
@@DH-xw6jpolive is not an Australian tree species.
I known your failures probably aren't your favorite experiences but knowing why one method was so popular when a "better" method exists is so cool.
I find it impressive to rewatch and realize John is extremely methodical and calculated. Utilizing multiple processes at once in his planning for each other element. Using smaller experiments inside of larger ones to create tools into further iterations of developments. All while planning out the video process and content creation. "32 handfuls for one hour" - seems like a casual calculation but then if that same logic has been applied to everything? Personalized measuring system. I do hope that at the end of all this, John writes a book. With paper and tools he's made. I'd like to see still images of each page with his plans and process then compiled into an E-Book. Would be a phenomenal capstone to this amazing decade long journey, when it eventually does end. Thanks for all the hard work.
Turn on closed captions for detailed video descriptions. Love watching these videos and with descriptions makes it even better! Can't believe I never noticed this before.
You learn more through failure than success. I always drop everything to watch your uploads. It's entertaining to watch and learn the processes you go through.
John re-invented the gas stove! 🤗
Also, RIP big pot 06:20 - 11:00 🙏
Was so sad the big pot ended up in the grog pile, such an anticlimax end
RIP big pot, May you forever store items in a heavenly warehouse
Achei que iria explodir 😅
Thank you for every last one of these. Each one is both a window into the past, and a guide to rebuilding if the worst should happen. Thank you and good luck.
The dedication and perserverance you put into making your projects is such an inspiration. How you casually made the biggest pot ever with that technique is just awesome.
I get so much peace watching these. Thanks for posting. Thanks for your channel.
Indeed, kind of a letdown when his videos end
that hut shot at 11:16 is a masterpiece
It seemed like a moment of mourning. As though he went to go rest after an emotional setback.
Traditionally, fires in Japanese houses did not have chimneys, as the rising smoke helped evict bugs and criiters from the thatched rooves.
It works on 'mice.' (Quotes included because it's not technically a mouse but a southern hemisphere marsupial that's basically a mouse to non-biologists.)
Same with iron age Irish roundhouses. It worked well for that purpose.
Dear John, I have always had the pleasure of watching your contents and this time you also proven to be one of the best creators in terms of originality and effort. I liked how you purify the clay by suspending it in water. Very clever approach and always a time used worthy when I watch your videos.
To all the people who are unaware, add closed captions to get an explanation of what is going on.
Great video as usual! Keep up the good work!
Watching primitive technology is is how i pay respect to my ancestors
The people who annoy others with the sound, dust and pollen released when shredding pruned tree limbs could place the limbs in a pile, through a wet season, and picking out the remaining wood, when the weather can dry them, to make charcoal like this and get high quality leaf compost, too.
This Primitive channel expands my vocabulary - this time it's "levigation". The irony! (And sometimes the iron.)
2:25 without any subtitles i was able to understand that he was showing the wood on the right wasn't burned through enough. he transcends language.
Контент наивысшего качества!! 👍🏻
Честный и бескомпромиссный, достойный уважения!!
Благодарю за то что на протяжении многих лет, проводишь для всех Нас экскурсии в мир примитивных технологий!!
Без сомнения, Ты Наш герой!! 🙂
I learn more from these videos than any other channel, simply because they don't just show what works, they include the entire experimentation process.
Primitive technology getting my ass to go "Woah! That's a big pot!"
I know! Half a meter in diameter and height seems like a very big pot! Too big for the structure it had, it turned out, but still an impressive creation considering the manufacturing facilities. Now I'm wondering what else he might create if that could be made a practical size.
0:51 I think that's an antechinus, a little carnivorous marsupial, not a mouse!
yes a slightly longer nose and a tuft of fur on the end of the tail. They like to nibble on hard plastic which is a pain when you go to get your 25 liter water jerry and they have chewed out the bung.
Very Australian animal. The males get too excited when it is mating season, and the ones who do find a willing female, go at it with such hormone-driven fury, they frequently die after the act, from exhaustion and blood-poisoning.
Then their fellow males, who missed out on the jump, gather around the corpse for a snack.
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 yeah i found six dead ones in a bucket , it wasnt that big and or high , we figured that they couldnt find a female . any port in a storm I guess.
Yeah, the boys go on a mental rooting binge and then die, leaving only pregnant females in the population for part of the year. The girls like to give birth in draws for some reason, I’ve found them with babies in my workshop. Open a draw to get out tools and there’s a bunch of gum leaves and a stroppy mum with a load of little ones hanging on her.
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 That's some extreme aussie heat.
May not have been the success you would have liked, but that was a spectacular display. Those yellow flames were vibrant and gorgeous.
The precision this man has achieved when you see how round his pots are, is very impressive. Practice makes perfect
I love how you post your successes and failures. Thanks for coming back to RUclips.
This channel is comfy and one of the few remaining channels with little or no talking. You arent gonna suddenly tell me about nord vpn, raid shadow legends, you arent going to tell me your milquetoast opinions about a recent event, you arent going to tell me someone was unaliving themselves, you arent british, etc. I just wanted to say thanks.
Everything is fine when primitive technology uploads :3
Somewhere in an alternate universe, there's a stoneage guy making youtube videos about advanced technology.
And there's you, making iron age/blacksmithing videos. nice channel!
probably a proto-vietnamese making the first hd cam
yea its called joe rogan
I love watching his YouRock -videos- moving stone pictures!
Don't forget to turn on subtitles / closed captioning!!! He uses those to tell everyone what he is doing.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Genuinely appreciate that you're showing failures along with successes. Really interesting video!
Thank you for coming
Imagine how much grog remnants there are in the ground from failed pottery projects throughout history.
Dig anywhere in England and you're moderately likely to find old pottery. I've pulled up a bunch digging in my garden, though it's all been 18th and 19th century stuff.
@@jake-rg3fd thats cool. I wish we had that kind of history in america
What is the meaning of grog. I couldn't find other meaning than some kind of alcoholic drink.
@@stukker it is an aggregate (made from crushed fired pottery) added to clay to make it stronger. Think like gravel in concrete. It also makes working it much easier, less fatty. And though not obvious in this video, it reduces the chance of cracks.
I'd rather wonder how many "mountains" and "hills" were once bricks and stonework.
The jet of flame coming out of stone-age materials is great
The original clay dragon.
Charcoal is made in a furnace on the floor, which introduces the wood with logs vertically, has a door and about 6 vents, which are open at the start of the flame, then closed and wait up to 8 days to cool down.
Seeing the process and learning from failures is so inspiring! Can't wait for the next experiment! 👏🔥
Two things :
-I'm absolutely amazed at the difference in strength between wood and charcoal, even when heated in the same pot.
- Random question : how thick is your Aussie accent?
Doesn't he live in New Zealand? So it would be a New Zealander accent?
@@LoganChristianson northeastern australia, actually. I've been watching for about a decade now and look forward to the next one.
His accent is so thick, you can walk on it while it mocks you.
He doesn't have an accent, he is still centuries away from inventing spoken language
He's in Queensland, Australia
if you put a hole at the bottom of the charge pot the gas would be direct into the fire - less wood as fuel input needed
I lke how you think, put all that "wood gas" to good use.
Might make it difficult to seal off the vent at the end of the firing?
I think the gas would be trapped in the top, accumulating until the flames ignite it and causes an explosion.
@@wallacechui9857 the volume of the gas is many times larger than the volume of the wood, and the chamber is full of wood to around 70% to 80%, which means that as soon as the gas is produced, it starts to displace all the remaining air, which exits through the bottom hole. Once the inside atmosphere is 100% wood gas, there is no oxygen left to burn it or cause an explosion, so it wouldn't really happen.
This applies to any pressurized vessel, such as a gas tank with a hole in it, as long a the tank can hold the pressure without rupturing, the exit velocity of the gas is high enough to not let oxygen in, and in some cases it's high enough to blow the flame out, hence the usual need for a larger flare at the end of a burner, following Bernoulli's equation.
I have designed and built quite a number of burners throughout my life, using different fuels and you always need to account for burnback velocity of the mixture to properly size both the mixing tube and the exit area. So, as long as you keep this particular exit hole below 3/4 of an inch in diameter, you should have enough exit velocity to make a nice jet, a larger hole will also not cause an explosion, but it will give you a "lazy" flame.
Wouldn't work. Gas rises. And the hole would burn the would-be-charcoal wood to ash.
Charcoal is made by heating wood to high temperature in an oxygen free atmosphere. That is why he has to seal it in.
It carburizes the wood, evaporating all the water in it and leaving the carbon in the cellulose walls of the wood cells. That water and some of the carbon react under the high temperature to make wood gas, which is mostly Methanol. You can condense it to make Wood Alcohol, which is really really poisonous, very small doses can cause permanent blindness and even death. Breathing it is also dangerous. Beter to burn it.
Fun fact: PURE methanol flame emits light only in the infrared range. It's literally invisible fire.
1:27 looks like the sickest Mortal Combat arena
I almost forgot about your channel after having to set up a new RUclips account, glad to see you are still making content. Keep it up mate!
I rarely shed tears, but I wept as I imagined the steady efforts of mankind in the past.
How much time must have been required to create this large pot?
Even while I was making it, I felt that this was an incredibly difficult undertaking. The moment it broke, I was in tears.
It might be easier to fire something that large as 2 separate halves that you can join together with mud for making charcoal. Then, once your charcoal is finished, you can simply break the mud seal and pull the pot open like a book to access all of it more easily. Then you won't need to rebuild most of a mound each time!
Even better would be an open cylinder with two lids. That way, the expansion isn't being constrained.
Who else plays these videos at reduced speed to fully appreciate the work?
Also, I was sad when that giant pot fell apart.
@Tooling-Around Same! just watching the work is so soothing
My default is 3x but I watch these at regular speed
it's amazing the quality of the charcoal in the first pot, Gonna be interesting to see what he can do to reinforce the large pot, perhaps relief cuts to allow for expansion of the clay, reducing the chance of random cracks? great video!
I think the conclusion was that it's not worth the extra work and he will instead just pile wood up then create a clay mound around that then cook it.
For very tough refractory we mix together ceramic fibres with the main refractory compound. Not sure if you could do that with primitive technology short of liquifying rock with some kind of coke and air blast furnace to make rockwool.
The easier option is to have a more even temperature distribution, that being a draft kiln with solid walls and a ton of thermal mass.
@@K0wfaceIt was but he needs to add some fiber into the clay like shreded dry grass so it helps bind all the clay together and he just needs to let the clay fire for longer since it obviously didn't fully dry thus why it cracked. I'd say a full 24v hour burn then letting it slowly cool down for another day. Generally how people do porcelain.
@@SilvaDreams I have doubts about the lifespan of grass fibers inside an active kiln.
@@WyvernYT It doesn't need to last forever, it's merely to act as a binder as the clay dries. Yes it will carbonize when fired but you aren't using a lot of it in the mix either, just a few percentage of the mass. It's a common insulation method in making your own bronze and early iron age smeltery and used in adobe siding too.
pretty much the only channel i watch on youtube with captions on. 10/10 always!
There’s something so grounding and redeeming about seeing even a “catastrophic failure” go into the grog heap to later be used in bigger and grander projects.
•
Love this content! Keep up the great work!
Shame it was a failure, but great to watch as always. I imagine the first person to get flames like that would have thought it was witchcraft with how intense it was 🤣
7:03 - "Don't break. Don't break. Don't break. Don't break!"
@Agar-agarpowder Seriously, when he was building it I was thinking, "this thing is huge. It's going to weigh a ton. How in the world is he going to move it?" Then it cuts to him hulking out trying to carefully place it lol
@@jackinthebox301 it's an absolute monster of a pot. It's gotta weigh at least 50kg the way he's straining- dude is a beast.
Now I'm thinking about the giant pot more than the charcoal!
Maybe you just have to fire that thing much much slower? Also I imagine the shrinkage (thinking in horizontal cross-sections here) would be wildly different between the bottom and the sides. Maybe a narrower bottom and sloping the sides in to meet it would help with that.
In the glass industry while making the clay pot of that size they have much thicker walls. Pot have to dry longer too. Maybe that's the way
You should try Bisque firing your clay before the high-heat firing! Idk if you have covered this before, but it could help increase the heat and thermal shock resistance!
1. Shape your clay, with your grog mixture (20-30%)
2. Bisque fire your clay
3. Add a glaze of some kind to reduce porous property. You could do this with clay + wood ash. Skip this step if you want a porous clay product!
4. High-heat fire your clay
It’s always great to see this holdover from the long gone ara of real content on RUclips still showing us these fun ancient tech videos.
My dude accidently invented a primitive gas cooker!
Isn't it just the process a rocket stove isolates?
very nice
I agree
you're quite right
@@MrAdman44 all is fake
@@fanaticdude1629 its all faked and staged
its fake lil kid
STOP doing whatever, new video uploaded !!!
C'est exactement ce que je me suis dit, mais en français.
Unless you're John Plant, then keep doing what you're doing 😆
Or in this case maybe not bc it didn't work out, but you know what I mean lol
But I am cooking for my child
Don't forget to turn on subtitles / closed captioning!!! He uses those to tell everyone what he is doing.
@@tulipalll really ?
Thankyou for showing the ups and downs of your trialling of different processes. Do be careful lifting though! That was a very heavy lift to do solo!
I have made biochar for the garden, its the same pyrolysis your working towards but aims for pure carbon so needs 650c to be achieved. I have a rounded bottom steel firepit, no airholes, with a floating steel plate below to act as a heat reflector to keep the base hot (also prevents cracking/burning whatever the firepit is on). I stack a pile and then drop some tinder in and feed it fast. I achieve an open flame cap fire and in 30 mins I can burn my pile fast and hot. Hot enough you have to step back if your not loading it as its radiates so much heat, the gas that burns keeps the fire 3 feet tall easy. Once it slows I hose a hose to put it out. I get next to no soot/ash and as long as it is all dry wood I get very little to no uncharred material, most is glass sounding when breaks and sooty, not leaving residue like cooking charcoal that has not gone through the pyrolysis. In three hours I can do 3-4 batches and fill a decent size barrel. not as much as your big clay dome charcoal fire's but easier and quicker. The water left in the firepit once I pull out the coals has such fine black soot I could add some fats to it to make homemade ink. Though I water it into the lawn, which loves it as it improves nutrient exchange, water retention and all sorts of good things.
Your videos are very stimulating for my cat, Rocco. We love watching every episode together. Thank you 💜
You've gotten good at making clay.
Edit: You have gotten very good at working clay.
What a time to be alive! Witness a brave man who truly pursues his dream of making a proper lump of coal! 😅😅
Bro, I'm using premium to download all your videos on to a HUGE thumb drive in order to protect me and my son in the event this knowledge will keep us alive. No joke
Do you live in the wilderness months at a time or something?
Buy his book, I have it and it has pictures and diagrams and everything is so clearly explained
Goofball do you even live near a jungle/rainforest environment?
1) buy his book.
2) you actually have to practice it before hand, a heap of untrained knowledge won't help you.
3) best of luck.
You would do better to buy his book. A thumb drive requires not only a computer, but the power to run it. Unless you are a survivalist with mini-hydro and/or solar power, the videos will be useless. The book, if you have to, can be read by campfire light.
It's good that you are thinking ahead, but you have to consider what conditions you'll be in if your lives depend on this knowledge.
I think it could be very useful for you to look into traditional korean pottery, especially how they produce Ongi. there is a specific splapping technique used to densen the clay and align the particles to reduce damage during drying
Can we just take a moment to commend this man for sharing his failures as well as successes? This is how true science is supposed to be done. You're a credit to the human race.
That's an awfully hot charcoal pot
PLEASE LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU HAVE CAPTIONS WITH EXTRA INFO I FEEL LIKE NOBODY REALIZES THAT ITS SUCH A WASTE
@@hfbdbsijenbd sure but people should be in the know about them so more people can at least know it’s an option and make a choice
R.I.P. big pot
BRO! Spoilers!
I wonder if the spewing burning wood gas might out of a small hole like what happens with the failed attempt might be able to be used as a sort of primitive stove for cooking on top of, if utilized correctly.
Thanks
Much appreciated.
Even in the primitive ways, they recycle.
HE
that brick hut would cost 5 million in canada
More than that in U.S.
Oh we dream of the old days when you could get a hut for 5.
I like the way you recognize the natural surroundings and take advantage of what is around you. Good
Your videos have really made me appreciate the amount of energy, like raw physics energy, we use to do things. Thank you
P.T is the best. Watching this, an idea sprung to mind: Try the opposite of a charcoal mound. dig a fairly deep pit, start a fire at the bottom, fill the entire pit with wood, then place a lid over the pit (When the fire reaches the top).
Alternately, a small ceramic pipe (made from short interlocking sections) could feed in air at the bottom of the pit, and the fire instead lit on top. The lid could then be put on fairly soon after, and when the fire matures, plug the draft pipe and surface vent.
CANAL RELAXANTE, CULTO, PRODUTIVO, FOCADO E EDUCATIVO.