We were approached by the manufacturer of NamibFire asking us to review their NamibFire Camelthorn Lump Charcoal.
Obviously the word "camelthorn" caught our eye and we wondered what type of wood this is. First let us point out
that this charcoal comes to us from Namibia, so we'll show you a map of Namibia to the right.
We recently reviewed The Good Charcoal Company charcoal which also comes from Namibia and is made from Acacia,
but this charcoal is made from a different species of Acacia commonly known as Acacia erioloba.
From Wikipedia:
"Vachellia erioloba, the camel thorn, also known as the giraffe thorn, mokala tree, or Kameeldoring in Afrikaans, still
more commonly known as Acacia erioloba, is a tree of southern Africa in the family Fabaceae. Its preferred habitat
is the deep dry sandy soils in parts of South Africa, Botswana, the western areas of Zimbabwe and Namibia. It is also
native to Angola, south-west Mozambique, Zambia and Eswatini. The tree was first described by Ernst Heinrich Friedrich
Meyer and Johann Franz Drège in 1836. The camel thorn is a protected tree in South Africa."
There's that word "camelthorn" again. Where does it come from? Also from Wikipedia:
"The name 'camel thorn' refers to the fact that giraffe (kameelperd in Afrikaans) commonly feed on the leaves with their
specially-adapted tongue and lips that can avoid the thorns."
And one final interesting fact about the camelthorn tree is that it is commonly associated with the long running
PBS wildlife program Nature, as the tree is used in the title sequence and program logo.
So, let's take a look at this tree called the Camelthorn. To the right, you see a photo of a typical Camelthorn
Namibian Camelthorn (Acacia erioloba)
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tree. The tree can grow up to 20 meters high. It is slow-growing, drought resistant and
somewhat frost-resistant. The tree can survive drought because its
light-grey colored thorns reflect sunlight, and the leaves close when it is hot. The wood is dark
reddish-brown in color and extremely dense. It is good for fires, which leads to widespread clearing of
dead trees and the felling of healthy trees. It also produces ear-shaped seed pods, favored by many herbivores
including cattle. The seeds can be roasted and used like coffee beans.
One last thing before we proceed with the review, the manufacturer was kind enough to send us some samples
of the raw wood. Here are some photos. In this photo, the three pieces shown are about 6" in length and
1-2" in diameter. Their weight averaged 115g or about ¼ pounds:
In this photo we see a number of slices that show the endgrain of the acacia wood:
So now (finally), it's on to the review. NamibFire charcoal is double bagged with a translucent plastic
bag enclosed by a white plastic bag that is made from woven plastic strips. This outer bag is very similar to the
ubiquitous blue tarps you find in every hardware store. When we dumped the bag out onto the ground for
inspection, we did find two strips of the white plastic which makes up the fabric of the bag. Otherwise,
we found no scrap, no uncarbonized wood, and nothing else that didn't belong in a bag of charcoal.
As you can see from the following table and the photo of the sorted charcoal,
the overall distribution of sizes is somewhat disappointing due the low percentage of medium and large pieces:
| Large |
1.5 pounds |
9.7% |
| Medium |
3.0 pounds |
19.1% |
| Small |
10.4 pounds |
66.3% |
| Chips/Dust |
0.8 pounds |
4.9% |
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| Total |
15.7 pounds |
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However, most of the small pieces are usable for mixing with the larger pieces to build a fire. If you
happen to own an Ooni pizza oven or some similar brand, that entire pile of small pieces is ideal for
making pizza. The 4.9% chips and dust is
Very Low ( ) compared to all other brands of charcoal.
The percentage of large and medium pieces, though, is
Low ( ) compared to all other brands of charcoal.
After we have sorted the charcoal and inspected it, we do our lighting test in which we see how many sheets
of newsprint it takes to get a fire going in a Weber chimney starter. NamibFire took 6 sheets which is
Average ( ) compared to all other brands of charcoal.
The smoke produced while the charcoal is starting is mild and pleasant. Also, while starting, the
charcoal produced no sparking and no popping. Once the fire was raging in the chimney starter, there
was only moderate sparking.
Next is the maximum temperature test where we let the charcoal burn in a medium Big Green Egg cooker
with the vents wide open. NamibFire was able to reach 946°F which is
High ( ) compared to all other brands of charcoal.
While the charcoal was burning, again there was only a small amount of sparking and no popping. The
fire was relatively slow to spread, so it took a while to reach the maximum temperature that we
observed.
Finally, we burn a measured weight of charcoal to see how long it burns and how much ash is produced.
We light the charcoal with a MAP/Pro torch and we observed only a moderate amount of sparking and no
popping. However, we always recommend that you use appropriate protection when using a torch of any
kind to start lump charcoal. So the length of time that NamibFire charcoal burns is
Average () compared to all other brands of charcoal.
The amount of ash that was produced was
Very High ( ) compared to all other brands of charcoal.
So to summarize, the size distribution of this charcoal overall is somewhat disappointing in that there is
a low percentage of medium and large pieces. However, the small pieces are all perfectly usable and the
amount of chips and dust is very small. Lighting NamibFire was average and the maximum temperature was
above average. However, the burn time was only average and the amount of ash produced was very large.
All in all, we give NamibFire our Average rating.
One last word about availability. You can buy NamibFire charcoal on Amazon, but due to the
fees that Amazon charges, it is far more expensive ordering from Amazon than ordering from the NamibFire
website. About twice as much, in fact. If you are interested in ordering any Namibfire
charcoal, it is probably best to visit
www.namibfireusa.com.
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To the left is the rating that our readers have given this charcoal. If you have used this charcoal and would like to rate it and leave your comments, Click Here
To view reader ratings of all brands, Click Here.
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