Sift and Reburn

[FlyingDutchman]

My stove leaves a fair deal of debris and charcoal in the ash. I've always sifted my ash taken out the metal and reburnt the charcoal and clinkers left behind. It's kind of cool some of the stuff you find in there afterwards.

It's not usually much energy gained from the reburn, usually just one stove load of wood usually. And a huge mess, but it gives me nail free ash to spread on the field and the driveway and what goes through the hardware cloth but not the screen makes a very heavy duty traction aid and ice melter. I can get a drag car out of my driveway with this stuff.

 

[CentaurG2]

Sifting clinkers is common around here. Frugal Yankees aint about to let something that can burn get away. Ash goes on the compost or directly into the garden.

 

[jimdeere]

I ruined my garden plot by dumping ashes there. The soil compaction made it nearly impossible to get a tiller through it.

 

[066blaster]

I have just been dumping mine on a pile. After about 25 cords of burning I have a pile equivalent to about 3 big wheelbarrow loads. Of course the rain has settled it down. I am just going to use it as fill at some point. I knew a guy that use to run a big old speaker magnet through his ash to get the nails out, but he was burning mostly pallets.

 

[CentaurG2]

I ruined my garden plot by dumping ashes there. The soil compaction made it nearly impossible to get a tiller through it.

Use the ash like you would lawn lime. Random raindrops, not concrete. It will increase the pH of your soil and ad potassium. Good stuff, if used in moderation.

 

[svk]

I don’t sift. I do not get much for charcoal in the boiler just compacted ash. It is amazing how many nails show up from trees that you wouldn’t expect to see nails in.

My property is littered with “test pits” from back in the days when they thought there was mineable gold up here. There was one gold mine on the lake that never did much. Anyhow there’s one below my parking area and I put my ash and lawn clippings in there. I suppose one day it will be full.

 

[kevin j]

I made little ‘rake’ to push under the ash, shake and lift up, to bring up the coals to the top, or to one side so I can scoop out ashes from the other side.
I did it mainly to get more burn from the stove (quite small), and so I am not putting hot coals into the ash bucket. Also dramatically reduces the volume of ash I have to cool and send through the garbage service (very small lot and no garden).
1/4 inch round rod.

 

[Cowboy254]

We bought our current house 5 years ago and it had an open fireplace with a drop through grate that is emptied from outside. I installed a slow combustion heater to replace a pot belly that was also in there. We were short on wood that year and I shovelled out the open fireplace and sifted the ashes with a wire basket then burned them in the wood heater. It worked pretty well. I found that putting the charcoal in would cool the heater temporarily and take a little while to get back up to temperature. Put a lot in and it would bog it down significantly but if left with the air full open would in time become incandescent. Probably not good for the heater to do that too much.

I figured in the end that to put a smallish amount in at the side was the best option. Didn't cool it off much initially and then didn't burn holes in the heater once it got going.

 

[cantoo]

We burn out our old oil filters in our OWB before they go to scrap steel. An old belly pan full goes onto the hot coal bed when its firing. It's taken out the next day. This is the result of a piston or two, I put pop cans in once in awhile too.