FeatherSticks · Fire
How to Make Charcoal at Camp: The Tin Can Method Step by Step
A tin can, a nail hole and some offcuts: your own charcoal by bedtime.
Quick facts
- Time
- Typically 20–60 min in the fire, plus cooling
- Difficulty
- Easy — patience and reading the gas jet
- Best for
- Pitch glue, filter layers, drawing, fire practice
- You need
- Steel can with lid and a 3–5 mm hole, dry hardwood, fire
What you need
- Steel can or tin with a snug lid and a 3–5 mm vent hole
- Dry hardwood offcuts
- Small saw for cutting the pieces
- Nail and pliers for punching the hole
- Stick, tongs or leather gloves
- Green twig to plug the hole
- Two stones and a cloth for crushing
- Closed tin and zip bag for storage
Step by step
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1 Cut dry hardwood pieces
Saw dry, dead hardwood into pieces about 1.5–3 cm thick and a little shorter than your can. No painted, treated or glued wood.
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2 Pack the can, one vent hole
Stand the pieces upright in a steel can, snug but not jammed. Press on a lid with a single hole of about 3–5 mm.
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3 Set it into the embers
Push the can into a bed of hot embers with a stick, hole facing up, and keep a fire going around it.
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4 Watch the gas jet
Steam, then smoke and gas stream from the hole, and the gas often burns as a jet of flame. Keep your face away and wait, typically 20–60 minutes.
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5 Plug the hole, cool it closed
When no more gas comes out, lift the can out, plug the hole with a twig and let it cool completely. Opened hot, the charcoal can reignite.
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6 Check it and store it dry
Good charcoal is black right through, light and clinks when tapped. Store it cold and dry in a closed tin or bag.
Common mistakes
- Using painted, treated or glued wood, or pallets, whose fumes and residues end up in the charcoal.
- Making the can airtight with no vent hole, so the lid blows off and the batch burns.
- Taking the can out while gas is still burning at the hole, leaving brown cores.
- Opening the can while it is hot, so the fresh charcoal glows up and burns to ash.
- Using thick, damp wood that takes hours and still stays brown inside.
- Making charcoal in a tent porch or bringing glowing charcoal inside for warmth.
- Bagging charcoal that is still warm or storing it where it gets damp.