Start burning a 1/2 barrel

I tried this Monday. It was partly inspired by the likes of Trace Oswald and others' experiments.  I didn't tilt the barrel, but I started it half full.  I couldn't really replicate Trace's version, because his had no holes in the bottom of the barrel.  Mine has holes.  Holes in metal are hard to put back.  

The main motivation was that it seemed that often, I will start a biochar burn and at some point, the fire wants to choke and go out.  My main interpretation of this is that there is condensation that builds up too much and the combo of water vapor and smoke makes the fire go out.  

I have made some steps to decrease this effect. I went from a 5" wide chimney to a 10" one. That helped a lot.    When I have the chimney on, I also now usually lift the chimney to place the wood in quickly. Then I let the chimney down quickly and let it start to burn before adding another one.  I also took Douglas Alpenstock's idea of a metal bar connecting the bottom to the top, so that air can always travel from the bottom to the top and vice versa.  All of those helped but I would still get sputtering after awhile-maybe 45 minutes to an hour.  

My theory was too much smoke and condensation at that 45 minute time.  For my new experiment,  I would start with mostly skinny sticks and only about 1/2 full.  There is less condensation in skinny sticks and they burn quickly.  I have done this a few times now.  Because they burn quickly, I have to actively add a lot more wood at the beginning.  There is a period of about 45 minutes now, when I am adding wood, a bit by bit, until I can actually fill the 55 gallon barrel.  

It is more work, but so far, I have not experienced a choking from smoke and condensation.  It seems that starting this way may prevent the sputtering from condensation and smoke.  

John S
PDX OR

Not sure where the holes are in the bottom, but if they're close enough to the bottom, could you create a soil berm high enough to cover them once you have a coal bed developed?

I'm not sure what a coal bed is. I could put soil underneath it, but it would be a hassle.  I burn biochar in my driveway. I live in the suburbs and it's the only safe place to burn it.  Everywhere else would be too close to trees or the fence.  I have a densely planted food forest.   I would have to haul in soil and then remove it afterwards. Doesn't seem like it's worth it.  Thanks for the suggestion, though. It may help someone else.
John S
PDX OR

When I start a burn in a kontiki (a cone-shaped vessel for making biochar) I build a platform with long sticks about 2/3 of the way from the bottom and lay tinder and kindling on this. Lighting this way has been 100% reliable for me and this avoids the fire smothering itself with its own smoke and CO2 at the bottom of the container. By the time the sticks collapse and the whole thing falls to the floor, it's going strongly enough to create turbulence and keep itself oxygenated.

Doing this in a drum is a little more tricky, because the sides are vertical. But you could just load up with loose small-diameter branches and build your starting charge on top of that. This is also the method I use to get a pile burn going in the open: light the top.

That's exactly what I'm talking about in this thread. Great minds think alike!
John S
PDX OR