AlexanderTheLate wrote:Really all I am trying to do is think up ways to earn a living from the woods
Is any one doing that in Canada on the sort of scale you plan?
Have you got Ray Tabor's books? e.g.
A guide to Coppicing - google "Ray Tabor" and see what else he has published. I have 3 of his books and ALL are worthwhile. Since you seek to get your living from this, you may as well profit by the knowledge of someone who does already earn from this and writes well about it.
Do you sell at shows? Can you sell ? If you will get skills in these areas, your income will go up vastly. Mine has

- but then I am good at and enjoy sales. If you don't want to learn selling and presentation of your wares - and go to shows where you can sell stuff, your income will suffer.
If your birch is like UK birch, presumably you can sell besom brooms or pea sticks from the twigs.

Whilst I don't sell these myself, I have seen them sold at shows for good profit.
I suggest charcoal is NOT the way to go for large production. I spent several years in the early 90's attempting to live on charcoal-making. It's a fun way to go broke. I found was competing with any other charcoal supplier in Indonesia, Borneo and could not differentiate my product enough to get a living on it - unless I stood behind the bag and sold it. You cannot do that with 500 kg of charcoal per week!! That's about 4 tonne of timber you must load and unload from the kiln(s) grade and bag, store and deliver and it is not kind to your lungs. By all means footle about with oil-drum production, and read Walter Emrich
Handbook of Charcoal Making: The Traditional and Industrial Methods if you want to go all the way to understanding the chemistry and more.