What kind of charcoal is black charcoal?
Let's take a look at its features and uses!

What is black charcoal?

Charcoal is often sold at home improvement stores, so it is a fuel that is commonly seen by the general public, and is mainly made from wood such as oak, chestnut, and chestnut.

Black coal is defined as follows:

Soft charcoal is charcoal made by carbonizing wood in an earthenware kiln. Its main component is almost entirely carbon, with a very small amount of alkaline salts. (From Wikipedia)

In fact, up until the stage of "carbonizing wood in an earthenware kiln," it is the same as white charcoal (binchotan), but the difference lies in the subsequent refining method.

White charcoal is baked at a high temperature of nearly 1200°C, then extinguished and refined with extinguishing powder (earth, ash, and water).The name comes from the white appearance of the extinguishing powder ash.

In contrast, charcoal is sealed at a temperature of 400° to 700°, and is allowed to extinguish by blocking out air and cool naturally.

It is called "black charcoal" because no eraser powder is used and the charcoal remains black.

Even if the charcoal is made from the exact same logs, different refining methods will result in differences in heat output, burning time, hardness, etc.

Characteristics of charcoal

We will introduce you to the characteristics of black charcoal.

Easy to obtain and relatively cheap

As mentioned at the beginning, charcoal, which can be purchased at home improvement stores, is cheaper and easier to obtain than binchotan charcoal.

Since it is commonly seen, the general public's image of charcoal is often black charcoal.
To sum up the characteristics of black charcoal in one word, it can be said to be "reasonable and standard charcoal."

High maximum firepower

Because it is easy to obtain, black charcoal is often thought to have a weaker heat output than binchotan charcoal, but in fact it has a very high heat output.

Its maximum heat output is so high that it is sometimes used in blacksmithing.

Another feature of charcoal is that it easily catches fire, creating a strong, distant flame that is ideal for grilling.

It is effective when you want to cook food using a strong flame.

Easy to catch fire

Compared to other charcoal, black charcoal is significantly superior in terms of its ease of lighting. Soft and light, black charcoal is very easy to light.

Have you ever had the experience of coming to a BBQ and having trouble getting the charcoal to light? In such cases, it's often because you don't know what type of charcoal you're using and have ended up using a fuel other than black charcoal.

Charcoal starts burning in one spot, like incense, so it can be easily ignited using an ignition agent or burner.

There's no big explosion

Have you ever seen Binchotan charcoal explode with a loud "bang bang!" at a restaurant?

This phenomenon is called explosion, and it occurs when the gas and water vapor inside the charcoal expand due to heating and have no way to escape.

However, because black charcoal has a low density, it only makes a slight crackling noise, making it relatively safe to use.

With binchotan charcoal, which tends to explode, it is not uncommon to experience painful burns.

A major advantage of charcoal is that it can be used relatively safely by anyone and there is no risk of splinters getting stuck in food and ruining it.

Easy to adjust heat and easy to use

Another feature is that the fire spreads quickly and the heat is easy to adjust.

The reason for this is that many of them are cut after being made into charcoal, so they are uniform in shape and size.

Handling charcoal such as Binchotan requires some knowledge and experience, but black charcoal, on the other hand, is easy to handle even if you have experience with charcoal, so it is used in a wide range of situations.

Burn time is somewhat short

The burning time of black charcoal is about 2 hours, which is shorter than that of binchotan or sawdust charcoal. Therefore, if you want to maintain a fire for a long time, you will need to frequently add charcoal.

Although the burning time is short, it is cheaper than other fuels, so it is not a bad value for money.

In restaurants and other establishments where it is necessary to maintain a fire for a long time, we use sawdust charcoal or binchotan charcoal.
If short-term maintenance is not a problem, use charcoal

By using different methods depending on the situation, you can achieve high cost performance.

There is a lot of smoke and an odor

One drawback of charcoal is that it produces a lot of smoke and has a strong odor, so you need to be careful when using it indoors.

This can be reduced by using high-quality domestic charcoal, but even high-quality charcoal will still leave a slight odor.

The difference between black charcoal and white charcoal (binchotan)

We have introduced the characteristics of black charcoal, but we would like to briefly summarize the differences between it and white charcoal (binchotan).

Black charcoal
Ignition: Easy to ignite
Firepower: Quite strong
Burn time: Short
Explosion: Just enough to make a crackling noise
Properties: soft and light

White charcoal (binchotan)
Ignition: Easy to ignite
Firepower: Strong
Burn time: Long
Explosion: A big explosion
Properties: Hard and heavy

In short, the differences are as follows:
Rather than deciding which is better or worse, it's important to choose the right charcoal for the occasion and purpose.

Recommended uses for charcoal

We have explained the characteristics of sawdust charcoal and how it differs from white charcoal, but in what situations can you use black charcoal to take advantage of its characteristics?

BBQ

Black charcoal is recommended for use in barbecues as it is inexpensive, easy to obtain, and does not explode easily.

Black charcoal is lightweight, so it's great for other uses besides BBQs when you need to carry charcoal around.

Although the burn time is short, you can maintain sufficient heat by adding more charcoal, making it suitable for barbecues with a large number of people. The biggest advantage is that it is easy to light.

Room dehumidification and odor removal

Although it is a little different from its original use, charcoal has dehumidifying and deodorizing properties, and by leaving it out, you can remove unpleasant odors and moisture.

Each type of charcoal has its own odors that it is good at absorbing, and black charcoal is good at absorbing alkaline odors.

It can be used to remove odors and dehumidify rooms and refrigerators, but it is even more effective when placed in the bathroom or closet.

Robatayaki

Charcoal, which creates a strong flame from a distance, is ideal for grilling seafood and other dishes.

In addition, its features such as not exploding, quick heat spread, and easy heat adjustment make it perfect for use in robatayaki izakayas.

In addition to seafood, if you want to grill food over high heat (flame), you can use black charcoal to create a delicious result.

Blacksmithing and Forging

Charcoal with high heat output is also used for blacksmithing, forging, pottery, etc. Pine charcoal, chestnut charcoal, and miscellaneous wood charcoal, which have particularly high heat output, are also called "blacksmith charcoal."

Blacksmith charcoal can reach temperatures of over 1000°C, making it too dangerous to use for cooking and other purposes, so it is not very common.

For all your charcoal needs, visit Nakasho Shoten

In this article, we have introduced the characteristics and uses of charcoal.

Now you know that charcoal is easy to obtain and very easy to handle. With features such as ease of lighting, quick flame spread, and high heat output, charcoal is useful in many situations.

Nakasho Shoten sells high-quality charcoal, including binchotan and black charcoal. Nakasho Shoten's charcoal is ideal for long-lasting flames, offers competitive pricing, and a stable supply. Please try the charcoal produced by an eel wholesaler with over 90 years of history.