Campfire Blowtube

[NW Territory Woodsman]

Just wondering if any of you have used a blowtube to start and mend your fires.I sure bet it beats getting on all fours and blowin on that fire and useing your hat as a fan that gets scorched.
Townsends has one for $23 and looks pretty handy with the hook and all, sure I'll be getting one soon. I'm just curious if any of you have experience with them and if such tools ever existed in the mid 18th century?

 

[Scott_C]

I hollowed out a sumac branch that I use. I had to paint an end of it so no one thinks it's firewood though!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yes as a matter of fact I use them all the time, since I tend to be the "company cook" or the cook's "lovely assistant".
There are "blow pokes" aka "blow-pokers".

But these are heavy, and though they are great when making a cooking fire when cooking for 25 or more folks, they are awkward outside of a fixed camp. So good when lugging about in a car going to and from a rondezvous or a market fair, but otherwise...,

I use a ½" copper tube about 18" long, with the tip that goes toward the fire pinched down a bit to concentrate the air flow, on smaller fires. It's much lighter and does the job just as well. A small fire doesn't need you to wrestle logs around like a cooking fire for a company of infantry.

LD

 

[Treestalker]

A way to make a lightweight one would be to use the Native American way of making a stem for a pipe, split a straight grained piece of wood, (cedar?) and cut a groove in each side. Then glue the two sides back together, leaving a hole down the length. You can add beadwork, inlays, feathers, scalp locks, etc.to make it personal. It would be stouter than Scott C's sumac branch (which is a great expedient idea) but I would think more permanent. If you pack a native pipe, you could use the detachable stem.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

This is another option, but you have to feed them and they tend to make noise.....


LD

 

[Tb54]

Got two of them

Carry a 3’length of 1/4” vinal tube in case they’re grumpy, or I need a long straw, or a short siphon tube, or whatever.

 

[rich pierce]

I use a hollow thistle stem about 16” long.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Go to your local hardware store, buy a 1/4 in. 3 ft. steel tube and a brass wheel bushing that will fit tightly on one end of the tube, it is best if you have to drive the bushing on with a few light hammer taps. About 12 to 15 dollar investment, no waiting, shipping costs. Plus it is another piece of your gear that you made. Been using one like this for years. A short piece of leather lacing formed into a loop up near the bushing ( now known as the mouth piece) and you can hang it at your fire pit or just lean it on the fire pit cooking set.

 

[MN284]

2-3' of 3/8" ID rubber tubing from a SCUBA supply store, fitted with a 6" length of toilet riser tubing. Easy to pack and use. Takes up little space in the pack.

 

[Bighorserider]

I've built several from half inch copper tubing. I put a cap on one end with a small hole drilled in it and a half to 3/4 junction on the other end for a mouth piece.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

My blow tube is a section of 160 year old Japanese bamboo, taken from a rafter of a relocated/reconstructed traditional Japanese house. The middle web section has been removed leaving an internal bore diameter of about 1 1/4" and the hole in the end is about 1/8". This results in a large volume of air being forced through a small orifice and it works great. You boys down south can do the same with river cane.