Uses For Wood Ashes & Charcoal.

Charcoal is a fundamental element that any prepper should know how to properly use it. Is readily available since there is plenty of wood out there. Besides of its general uses as fire sustenance, It also has great anti-fungal, anti-viral, and antibacterial properties if 'activated', because It behaves somewhat like an esponge, except for the 'absorb' part of course, It just traps them within it . Thus, It will not directly injure or kill these organisms, but will attract them in the same manner as other toxins and facilitate their elimination.

 

White wood ash soaked in water creates a mild lye solution that can be strained and used to launder undyed natural cloth. It can also be added to oil, fat and grease to make soap. I use it on a damp cloth to deep clean the surface and ovens of my wood fired range each spring after it's been burning all winter. It doesn't just remove burned on grease it actually turns it into soap and cleans the iron and enamel surfaces to a high shine without abrasion or scratching.
Beware of burning charcoal in any enclosed space, it gives off a disproportionately large amount of carbon monoxide gas and will continue to do so even after it becomes cool.

 

We use our woodstoves ashes for fertilizer in our gardens. It is a good source of lime and potassium. And the stuff needs to go somewhere.

 

Charcoal and wood ashes sure does have a lot of things it can be used for, the few i have tried out are using it to dry food and testing wind direction too, it couldn't have been anymore effective trust me.