Why are charcoal bags sewn shut? Is this a ploy to make me feel doubly manly by cooking with fire and using a knife as a legitimate tool or is there a more sensible reason?

Pull the string. No need for a knife.

Unless of course you are a violent fantasist 😉

aren’t you supposed yank aggresively on the thread and tear the top from the bag in a manly way?

you can resort to impliments if you need to though 😉

I like to create a neat chute so I can pour and store! (before cooking in a stone sink with the back of a fridge as a grill!)

There aretwo reasons i can think of as to whythey’re sewn shut. either becausr it isn’t very sensible to use hot glue to seal a paper bag full of flammable charcole not to mention the glue wouldn’t work due to charcole dust preventing the bag to glue together. Other than that seems like a great excuse to get a few mates to gather round with beer to discuss!

Use a knife…. grrrrr man!

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knife by Timlittle, on Flickr[/img]

Bags of animal feed are also sewn closed. Cheapest most reliable method of sealing paper derived bags perhaps?

It’s a very strong method of sealing the bag, which is ideal if you have a lot of weight in there eg animal feed and 25kg bags. It’s also probably pretty cheap to automate.