And so, we empty the charcoal kiln…

Assembled, the usual suspects.

‘Now, we must open this.  It is time.  Pull those metal rods away from that board down there and we can remove the wooded slats.’

‘Wow, there is a lot of dust.  It reminds me of a huge disco, but without the lasers’
‘Yes, the dust is from the layer of ash between the wooden slats and the brick inner wall.  Don’t inhale that.’
‘This is exciting isn’t it?  I feel like Indiana Jones, or at least that English bloke called Marcus.  I guess Higashitani san is Indiana Jones’

‘It’s just like Indiana Jones.  Now we’ve got to break into this vault.’
‘Any ideas Indi?’
‘Let’s just pick carefully at the mortar with a small pick’

‘Like this?’
‘Yes.  Slowly does it’

‘Now here we go.  I can see something inside!’
‘Look, hang on a minute, don’t start getting all twitchy ok?  Let’s do things carefully’

‘Oh hello’

‘Look here, you can see the imprint of the straw matting in the fired clay ceiling.’

‘The volume of the charcoal is substantially less than the volume of wood put into the kiln at the beginning.  Why is that?’
‘It’s the loss of water and other things from the wood as it burns.’

‘It’s quite beautiful this charcoal isn’t it?  What do they call charcoal in Japan?’
‘Sumi.  And you are right, cut charcoal is particularly beautiful.’

‘What’s this?’
‘This is straw matting burned to pure ash.  It’s so delicate.  If you blow on it it is going to disappear…’

‘What’s happening now?’
‘We need to sort out the left over scraps into the good stuff and the allotment-worthy stuff.’

‘Wowzer, this looks good doesn’t it?’
‘These A-grade pieces will be cut down slightly and sold.  The other good, but broken bits will be sold in bags and the scraps and dust put on the allotment’

‘What happens now?’
‘Well, now the oven is empty we’ve got to refill it and get it lit again – make some more charcoal!  So, we’ve got to fit as much of this oak as possible into that oven!’

‘This thing is like a Tardis’

‘Ok, that’s it for today.’
‘See you next time.’