Making pimento wood charcoal at home is simple and easy. You only need a couple of simple basic items and you can do this at little cost.
Prep Time: 5 Mins
Fire Time: 1-1.5 hours
Items needed: Paint cans, drill, pimento wood
Step 1: Preparing your paint cans
Get a couple of paint cans. In my example I am using never used paint cans. It is recommended that you set them in fire for a few minutes to get any factory chemicals burnt off the paint can etc. I do NOT recommend using used paint cans, you can buy empty never used cans at any hardware or paint store for $2-3.
Get a small drill bit and drill 2-3 holes in the top of the paint cans. Once you do this you are now ready to put your pimento wood into the cans. You can use pimento wood sticks that have been used a few times to make charcoal as long as you wash them well and take care of them during uses. If you are going this route just simply use a saw and cut 3-4 inch pieces. In my demonstration I will be using unused pimento wood. These are pimento wood chunks that you see below and you can purchase these by clicking here
Fill the paint cans with pimento wood packing it nice and snug. Once you have the cans filled you can then put the tops back on and hammer or mallet the lids closed tightly.
Step 2: The Fire
You will want to get a nice fire going. It is important that you wait about 45 minutes after you start your fire before you put the paint cans on the fire. I like to use a fire fork with a hook on the end of it or any long item that is fire proof will do so you can carefully hook the handles of the paint cans when needed. Once you strategically place the paint cans in your fire within about 10 minutes you will notice smoke starting to hiss out of the holes of the paint cans. Let those cans roar. They look like monster sized smoke bombs in your fire pit!
You will start to notice about 30 minutes or so after you place the cans in the fire that fire will start to emit from the holes and top of paint cans. You can see this effect on the can on the left in the fire in the picture above. This is perfectly normal. After about 1 hour to 1.5 hours at the most you will notice that both smoke or fire are no longer coming out of the top of the paint cans. When this occurs your charcoal is ready to take out of the fire! Carefully take the paint cans out of the fire. Once the cans are out of the fire make sure the lids of the cans are still on tightly, then carefully tip them upside down with the lids facing down on the ground and let them sit to cool overnight. It is important the lids stay on the cans because you do not want much oxygen getting into the cans or it will turn your charcoal into ash. Once the cans have completely cooled your charcoal is ready! You can see the finished result is 100% pure pimento wood charcoal ready to go for your next charcoal or kettle grill cook! Enjoy!