Premier charcoal, a product of highly developed technique and fine craftsmen <part2>

Each stage depends on with the highly refined technique and judgment of highly skilled craftsmen, and reflects their intense physical labours.
Depending on the amount of wood inserted into the kiln, the making of the binchotan charcoal, including the drying of the wood, takes 10 to 11hours. Carbonization takes place by reducing the amount of oxygen in the kiln to force a chemical change at the "low temperature" of around 300°C, but the refining process takes place at the much higher temperature of 1,300 to 1,500°C.
The finished binchotan charcoal is reduced to one third of the diameter of the original wood, three quarters of its original length, and one eighth of its original weight. High-quality binchotan can weigh one tenth of the wood it was made from. The wood used for making binchotan is the elaborately shaped holm oak, which is compressed at high temperatures to form charcoal sticks called binchotan charcoal.