Activated carbon is also called active charcoal, active coal or White Charcoal. It’s a form of carbon that has been processed to make it extremely porous – this is where its usefulness lies.
Active charcoal has countless micro cavities that, together, create a very large surface area; just one gram of active charcoal is equal to about 250 m2 (the surface area of a tennis court!). This huge surface means active charcoal (or, the moniker we use, White Charcoal) just can’t help but attract substances to it.

It’s confusing isn’t it? Adsorb means to gather gases, liquids or dissolved substances through a form of chemical reaction. Carbon is especially good at this. Materials that adsorb hold particles on their surface – in our case, onto the very large surface area of the charcoal. Absorption is a very different process. This means to soak up substances, like a sponge does, through capillary action and suction. You can get rid of water from a sponge by squeezing it, but that doesn’t work with activated charcoal as the substances it attracts are bound to it, not just temporarily constrained.

Yes, you are perfectly right and this is the question we get asked the most often. White Charcoal is black but its name comes from the unique way in which it is made and as point of difference to regular ‘Black Charcoal’. White Charcoal is made by charring wood at a relatively low temperature for several days then, near the end of the process, the kilns temperature is raised to a super-scorching 1000ºC. The charcoal is pulled out of the kiln whist red hot and quickly smothered with a covering of powder to cool it. The powder is a moist mixture of earth, sand and ash, and it gives a temporary whitish hue to the charcoal surface – from which the material gets its name.

During the charring process there is a rapid rise in temperature, followed by a rapid cooling that incinerates bark and leaves behind a smooth, very compact, very hard surface. We often describe White Charcoal as having properties similar to porcelain; it will shatter and splinter rather than crumble and if you strike it you’ll hear a clear, metallic sound.

White Charcoal generates negative ions and these have many benefits to the human body; they project an infrared radiation that helps blood circulation and are even said to be helpful in putting people in a better frame of mind and lifting spirits. When White Charcoal is in contact with the human body, as it is with our jewelry collection, it is bolstered by the electrical energy from the body and that makes the negative ions super-charged. You can test the presence of the ions in the charcoal by laying a nail next to your jewelry – it will soon become magnetic.

Much of the leading information on White Charcoal comes from The Korea White Charcoal Institute. Mr. Kang and intellectual leading this Institute is dedicated researching this material and its benefits. The engagement of Mr. Kang has been an important inspiration for us. Many of our products have also been tested by Euro Fins in Denmark and the Danish Technological Institute to ensure their viability.

Low-grade ‘Black Charcoal’ is the most common kind of charcoal and you’ll find it used for everything from fuel to pencils. This is the substance most people think about when they hear the word ‘charcoal’. White Charcoal is the highest grade of charcoal achievable; it is a very different kind of material to Black Charcoal and is made using artisan methods. There are varying grades of White Charcoal to be found but the variety made from Holm oak, a very hard wood used predominantly in the southern Kishu area of Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, is considered to be the best of all. This is because the Holm Oak grows slowly, making the charcoal heavy and stable, with very fine pores (i.e. it is super-adsorbent) and the artisans of Kishu who turn the wood into charcoal are considered amongst the most skilled. Many of Sort Of Coal’s products are Kishu Binchotan – without question the best quality charcoal available for water purification.

Well, where do we begin?
We are great fans of this material as you might have realised. Charcoal is best known as a fuel; across the globe, factories, households and BBQ’s rely on it to keep going.
Charcoal is familiar as a tool for drawing too – remember those childhood art classes where you’d get covered in the stuff.
Perhaps you know of its use as a dietary supplement for gastric problems (even the Red Colobus monkeys of Africa are clever enough to regularly eat charcoal, thereby solving their monkey indigestion).
Less obvious are the charcoal filters that are widely used but often hidden away inside vacuum cleaners, air filters or gasmasks. But here at Sort Of Coal we don’t produce any of these things – we are trying to find new, modern ways of using charcoal that take full advantage of its very special qualities.
White Charcoal is less well-known that low grade, black charcoal and has specific applications because of its special qualities: If you strike a piece of White Charcoal and hear its clear, metallic ring it makes sense that this material is traditionally used to make wind chimes and a musical instrument called the ‘tankin’ (charcoal-xylophone).
In Asia it is used a fuel in the best Yakitori restaurants and during the tea ceremony where a special charcoal called ochazumi is very prized. It is usual to add a piece of Binchotan when cooking rice to improve texture and White Charcoal powder is commonly added to foods in order to boost their nutritional value; charcoal cakes, cookies and snacks are popular.
Charcoal can even do you good while you sleep, adsorbing toxic substances, regulating moisture levels and getting rid of odors; mattresses and pillows made with charcoal aid a restful nights sleep. Remarkable stuff isn’t it?

Binchotan turns tap water into mineral water. It will adsorb up to 75% of chlorine from regular tap water and will also successfully attract, and contain, any other impurities in there making it taste better too. Minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorus are all present in the White Charcoal, they have been absorbed from the earth and become trapped in the wood when it is baked at such high temperatures. These minerals will escape from the Binchotan into the water. 100g of charcoal will efficiently mineralise 1 litre of water for a month. The Binchotan will continue to remove impurities for a further two months.

The better question is what isn’t in our soaps and shampoos. All of our body products are entirely organic and natural. They SLS/SLES, paraben and DEA free. In fact, our body products are so pure you could eat them, if you really wanted to of course. Char essense is perhaps the most important and effective ingrediant in our collection of body products.

Char Essence (sometimes called Chikusaku or Charcoal Vinegar) has been used in Asian medicine for centuries. It is valued for its detoxifying, deodorising and sterilising effects as well as for its skin softening potential. The essence is a liquid that occors during the production of White Charcoal and consists of 80-90 % water and 10-20 % organic compounds. The liquid has a Ph makeup similar to that of household vinegar. But the Char Essence that Sort Of Coal uses is made from oak and is so highly refined so that the liquid is pure enough to drink or add to your food (it has a deliciously smokey scent and flavour). Sort Of Coal’s Char Essence is FDA certificated.

Placing a Hakutan or Kuro Cube in a room can seem, well, too easy. But cleansing the air in your home really is that simple. White Charcoal acts as a humidity regulator, (attracting moisture to it and then releasing it when the air is dry) a climate controller and rids the air of toxins and odours. Sort Of Coal Hakutans and sculptures need only be placed in a room for them to do what comes naturally and optimise the surrounding air. Our Kuro Cube works brilliantly in small spaces, is effective at keeping food fresh for longer when placed in the fridge and has been tested by the Danish Technological Institute who have proven its adsorbing and deodorising abilities. They say; ‘Ethylene is a potent plant hormone. It stimulates the ripening of fruit and flowers. In order to prevent fruit ripening in refrigerators, a cube seems to be highly effective since it readily adsorbs the ethylene gas produced by the fruits. The cubes also seem to be highly effective when it comes to eliminating bad smell from refrigerators.’ So there you have it.

The production of White Charcoal is an inspiring case study. Local craftsmen have carefully managed the forests that produce the raw material for White Charcoal for centuries. The way in which the wood is harvested promotes rapid and fertile regrowth and maintains a healthy ecosystem. The craftsmen have become the caretakers of the forest and by protecting it they maintain an environment that profits both man and nature. In Japan, the forests adjacent to human settlements are known as ‘Satoyama’, meaning a border between the village and the untamed nature beyond. These areas have become threatened due to a shift in demand away from firewood and charcoal. Sort Of Coal’s White Charcoal is produced in the most traditional way and in doing so helps to keep the craft alive, support the charcoal artisans, their communities and their habitat.

Our edible Kuro Powder is intended to be added to foods – it might seem weird at first but we promise you’ll like it. In the West we associate the ingestion of charcoal with medical care, as a cure for poisons or, less dramatically, for indigestion. Yet in Asia, charcoal is widely used as a healthy addition to food. Edible charcoal has a high nutritional value and is a rich source of fibre. It aids digestion, is said to be particularly beneficial for the skin and can even help relieve pre-menstrual syndrome and menopausal symptoms. It is most usually added to delicious baked goods such as cakes and biscuits, often turning them black. But this, we think, only adds to the appeal.

1. Rinse the Binchotan under running cold water.
2. In order to sterilise the Binchotan and to remove possible ash residues, it should be boiled once before use: Place in a pot of cold water and boil it for five minutes.
3. Take it off the heat, drain the water and let the Binchotan dry and cool in the pot. The Binchotan is now ready to use.
4. Fill the bottle with tap water and slide the Binchotan into it, holding the bottle almost horizontally in order to avoid breaking the fragile Binchotan.
5. Refrigerate Bincho for a minimum of two hours before serving. Kishu Binchotan must be left in the water for two hours each time to purify the water efficiently.
6. The bottle is dish-washable. You can dry and store the Binchotan in a container when it is not in use. It is recommended to boil the Binchotan for one minute, once a week, to refresh it and optimise its adsorbency.

The Binchotan is effective for one month of daily use. After one month (or when it develops a dull, greyish, surface), it is time to replace it with a new, mineral-rich Binchotan. If your Binchotan breaks, it does not loose its ability to purify.
You can buy individual Kishu Binchotan to replace used White Charcoal.
How to recycle?
A used Binchotan makes an excellent fertiliser. Just crush it and mix it with potting soil where it will add nourishment regulate PH level.

A calculation, simple and good.
Just one unit of our white charcoal, ”Kishu Binchotan”, costs € 23.50 / kr. 175.00/ $30 a unit, and that one Kishu Binchotan will purify 2-5 liters of water, turning ordinary tap water into fresh, great tasting mineral water - enough to enjoy daily at an average cost of about $1 a day for your entire month of hydration needs.