The CampFire

[Orion]

Lately I've been practicing with my flint and steel. I've become quite proficient with it in fact.
I've been experimenting with different tinders but by far the easiest one to use is char cloth.

I made up some char cloth on the weekend to add to some of my fire kits.
Nothing catches a spark like it. Especially the dull red sparks from flint and steel.
All it takes is for one spark to hit it and you have yourself a nice ember.



The first thing you need is a tin with a tight fitting lid. A shoe polish tin works great. I used an energy mint tin. It's smaller than a shoe polish tin but no matter. I made three batches.
Poke a hole in the top of the lid with a nail and fill the tin loosely with (approximately 2 X 2 inch) squares of linen or 100% cotton. Denim works and is easy to find.
Find a small twig and whittle it down so it fits inside the nail hole in the lid.



Set the tin on a burner or in the coals of a campfire. I started out using the side burner on the gas grill but it got too darn hot in the sun so I moved to the shade and used my Brunton camp stove.
It won't be long before smoke starts streaming from the hole.



If you get a flame don't worry about it. It's just gas burning off that's created by the cooking of the cotton.



When the smoke quits, plug the hole with the twig and remove the tin from the heat.
You need to plug the hole to prevent oxygen from entering the tin and causing your charcloth to combust.
As well, wait a good ten minutes before removing the lid.



The char cloth should be black. Not brown or grayish black.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the finished char cloth in the tin but in the above picture you can see the colour it should be.
The gray on the edge is ash from the cloth burning after it was ignited by a spark.





The two preceding pictures show the ember on the char cloth.





One of my tinder boxes. It's just a Fisherman's Friend lozenge tin.
I keep a chunk of chert, a steel, some jute string and char cloth in it.
_________________
Orion

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DCMG #13

"I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks."

- Winston Churchill

I will appeal, not to the freedom of speech or religion, but to the sacred and inalienable right to be left the hell alone.


- Andrew Coyne

[Quill]

Good work Orion. It's nice to know how to use the flint and steel method. Not to say that a Bic lighter, matches or Swedish fire steel aren't what I use. But flint and steel is better than a bow drill.

[Wilbur]

Very cool thanks! you say to take it off the burner when the smoke stops coming out....how do you prevent the cloth from burning up? Or does it stop smoking first before combusting "again" or something? Is denim (being stronger than say Cotton T-shirts) better material as its more sturdy or does that matter?

Thanks!!
_________________
"A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him." -Winston Churchill

Wind and fire. Help you one minute and kill you the next. All depends on the time and place. -Richard Proenneke

[Orion]

Thanks guys.
I really should acknowledge a fella named British Red for his excellent tutorial on making charcloth.

Yep Wilbur, I find that denim makes a sturdier charcloth.

If you plug the hole as soon as the smoke quits and you remove the tin from the heat source, it will prevent any oxygen from entering the tin and the cloth won't burn up.
That's also why you need to wait until the tin cools before you open the lid.
_________________
Orion

........................................................................

DCMG #13

"I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks."

- Winston Churchill

I will appeal, not to the freedom of speech or religion, but to the sacred and inalienable right to be left the hell alone.


- Andrew Coyne

[Old Judge Creek]

Great pix, Orion. Heck, even I might could do it now.....


Nice to see a good post like this!!

Many thanks.
_________________
OJC - DCMG #1



Every time I see the Compass and Square I am reminded of the man I aspire to be.

[riverdog]

Shoe polish tins..................... Right under my nose..

Thanks for the tip.....
_________________
"The shallow-minded modern who has lost his rootage in the land assumes that he has already discovered what is important." Aldo Leopold

[Bajatacoma]

I use an Altoids tin. Interesting about the stick-I've never done that and mine has all worked. I'll have to try that in the future. Denim or old canvas is a great material as it's stronger but I used an old cotton dishtowel for my last batch. I think I posted some pics when I wrote about making a fire piston like the old described in an issue of Backwoodsman.

While I keep some in my kit, I'm partial to the vasoline cottonballs (or dryer lint) myself.
_________________
Kill your TV!

[Orion]

Dirttime Dude suggested using cottonwood fluff for char. We've got lots of black poplar around here and seeing as how it's poplar fluff season I figured I'd give it a try.

There's lots of it laying on the ground right now.



I picked most of the dirt, seeds and sticks out of a bunch of fluff and stuffed it into my char tin.



I ended up with this.
Worked great too although I needed to use a different technique to get an ember.
Instead of holding the char against the chert and striking the chert with the steel I made a little pile of the charred fluff and struck the flint on the steel in order to shower the char with sparks.



Thanks Dude!
_________________
Orion

........................................................................

DCMG #13

"I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks."

- Winston Churchill

I will appeal, not to the freedom of speech or religion, but to the sacred and inalienable right to be left the hell alone.


- Andrew Coyne