This is the traditional round coal/charcoal used for bakhoor. To light it; most people hold it over an open flame i.e. on a gas cooker hob (it will work with some electric cooker burners as well but not the ceramic type I don't think) using a larger tweezer or metal cooking tongs; until it starts to glow red-hot around the edges and develop some white or grey ash; then it is ready to place in your bakhoor burner and use. It can happen if you have a fierce cooker flame that it becomes quite firey and sparks and smokes quite a bit; if this happens be careful and just wait until the coal becomes smouldering again before adding it to the burner and adding your bakhoor. Try to avoid this if you can as the coal will still work fine but will burn out considerably more quickly.
You do not need any coal for electric incense or oil burners. This type of coal can get quite smoky and messy but many say that they prefer it; as it burns at just the right speed to bring out the full fragrance of the incense, also the newer types of coal are pretty impossible to get going on an electric cooker whereas this one it can be done. And finally this is the cheaper option at 50p for a pack of approx 10 pieces (I will additionally place the package securely inside a ziplock bag; as some coal dust always manages to escape these packets)
