Don't know how they did it!

[vthompson]

crockett, I enjoyed reading your post and I suppose that I will always use charcloth because that is the only thing that I can get to catch a spark. It has been interresting reading everyones post's though. I have enjoyed reading all of them.

 

[necchi]

Another I forgot till now, is the pith from the common Mullen plant.
The Mullen is a 2 yr plant, wide flat leaves the 1st year,then with a tall flowering stalk the 2nd. When the stalk goes to seed it dies and dries, it's the center of the dried stalk that when charred will catch a spark. A straight section of the stalk, scraped to remove the sharp stuff makes a great drill for a hand drill/wood hearth fire starter.
I think it's important to say that folk's didn't just walk out in the woods with nothing and then suddenly decide they needed fire making tinder. Needing fire was a daily issue and items where gathered in advance, stock piled or stored, as seasons allowed for prime harvest of favored techniques.
Traveling families (native and white) would carry a smoldering punk from the morning fire too lunch then too the evening camp, keeping an eye peeled for needed items as they travel.
Good thread, :thumbsup:

 

[vthompson]

Thanks once again on your input. I enjoyed reading it.

 

[crockett]

One more thing before we all quit on this. In the Marcy book he also speaks of putting a cap on a percussion lock and a powder rubbed rag near the muzzle (I assume a pistol) and firing the cap- enough flash to light the rag.
And on the bow and drill Marcy mentions the Indians use a hand rotated drill but this can be improved by putting a bow over the drill to rotate it a lot faster.

 

[vthompson]

I have never made fire with a bow and drill, but I hope to in the near future.

 

[Rod Lassey]

LaBonte---is the puffball reference from Buffalo Bird Woman? Also, I think the reference to trying to start a fire with the gunlock tied on with string is from John Tanner?

Not to quibble, mind you :wink:

Great thread---as I point out to my wife, firestarting was one of those skills that everyone knew---not everyone was familiar with firearms, or knew how to tan ahide, but everyone--man, woman, child--knew the basics of starting a fire.

Rod

 

[vthompson]

It's amazing to me how the simple things in life have passed our children and grandchildren by. I wish sometimes that I could go back in time and live the way that our forefathers did. I know that they had it rough, but they knew how to persevere and everyday life didn't bother them.

 

[Rod Lassey]

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but the importance of making a fire is noted by Kurz--he noted that a hunter was reluctant to leave the fort, as he had lost his firesteel. Oddly enough, there wasn't one available at Ft. Union (I really wonder why), and Kurz ended up giving his to the hunter. This is 1851-52, well into the era of matches, yet it shows how important firesteels still were.

Rod

 

[LaBonte]

LaBonte---is the puffball reference from Buffalo Bird Woman? Also, I think the reference to trying to start a fire with the gunlock tied on with string is from John Tanner?
Rod

Buffalo Bird Woman - yes - it's in the link I referred to.

John Tanner? Maybe he did too but the reference I have is for Alexander Henry - whether elder or younger I'm not sure.........

 

[pichou]

Another I forgot till now, is the pith from the common Mullen plant.

Mullein, Verbascum thapsis, is introduced from Eurasia, i.e. not a North American plant.

:v

 

[dave payne]

try using charred cedar bark......works good

 

[vthompson]

I have never used charred cedar bark, I am going to have to get some and try it out. I just made some more char cloth today as a matter of fact.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Cedar, like pines, and Birch, have combustible oils in its bark, but it has to be very dried out for it to catch sparks. Charring it requires some deft handling over an open flame, unless you can find a closed tin large enough to put bark in it, and char it over a fire, or in your oven.

I have used Bark from the Shag Bark Birch Trees commonly planted as decorative trees in suburbs, but which don't live all that long. The bark peels every Spring, as New Growth expands the old bark. If you peel the strips that are already separated from the tree, you do no harm. Or, it you get to the tree a bit late in the Spring, you can often pick the bark strips off the ground. They need to be dried in the sun, if they come off the ground, but they do work well as tinder. You would have to smear the bark with charcoal, or black powder, however, to get it to catch a spark easily. A piece of Charcoal " brickette" in your fire-starting kit can be a great help at times. It does NOT have to be the whole brickette.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

standing dead trees can be very dry particular in cold weather - freezing temps. some species the bark has some 'inner layer' that is very thin that can be wadded up when dry and will catch a spark. around this area poplar trees are like this.
may be called something else in other areas. 'larch' I think it is out west?

 

[vthompson]

Did you know that you can either chew the inner bark or steep the inner bark of a Poplar tree to get the aspirin out of it?
It has the same ingredient that aspirin is made from in the inner bark.

 

[boar]

I have done it twice. I run out of gas, young boyscout didn't have that trouble. Guess I had too many miles behind me. Dilly

 

[boar]

My book says quinine under white poplar bark . Willow has the aspirin . Dilly

 

[pichou]

White, red? Eastern, Western? :hmm:

 

[Lostrifle]

White, red? Eastern, Western? :hmm:

If you're looking for the salicylic(sp?) acid, AFAIK it's white willow bark. I once helped a friend of mine load powdered white willow bark into #3 gel capsules, which he then put into a bottle and put in his medicine cabinet, to replace the commercially made aspirin he didn't want to buy.

 

[pichou]

Cedar, for bark: white, red? Eastern, Western?