Making Char?
- Thread starter KHickam
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Desert Ratxx
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KHickam said:
The easiest to locate is punk wood. The secret to it is find the stuff that feels spongy. Char it like you would cloth and you are in buisness.
Black Hand
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Desert Rat said:
You can also char the fibrous inner bark that you use for your tinder (in a tin like cloth).
I've only made char a couple of times. I'm still trying to perfect my flint and char technique without lopping off a finger in the process.
Anyway, it's pretty easy to make. I've only used cotton cloth, but I'm sure other natural fibers will work too, some probably work better than cotton. I use an altoids tin with a nail hole in the top. I put the cloth in and set it on hot coals at the edge of a fire. Soon smoke will come out the hole. Ignite it if it doesn't ignite on it's own. As soon as the flame goes out, the char is ready to be taken from the fire. Let it cool down before you open it though, or it'll burst into flame and ruin the char.
Anyway, it's pretty easy to make. I've only used cotton cloth, but I'm sure other natural fibers will work too, some probably work better than cotton. I use an altoids tin with a nail hole in the top. I put the cloth in and set it on hot coals at the edge of a fire. Soon smoke will come out the hole. Ignite it if it doesn't ignite on it's own. As soon as the flame goes out, the char is ready to be taken from the fire. Let it cool down before you open it though, or it'll burst into flame and ruin the char.
Rod Lassey
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Get some punky wood--some varieties work better than others, cottonwood and elm work really well. Light one end on fire, blow on it so it's smouldering good, then get it out of the air. I drop mine into the tin I carry my char in, you can also bury it alongside the campfire, etc. Deprive it of oxygen, and it'll char and go out. Ready to use.
Rod
Rod
kansas_volunteer
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Cattail fuzz will sometimes ignite from a spark without the use of char. With char it will practically explode into flames, although it burns out quickly. My secret recipe is a small nest of the inner bark of a cottonwood, nestled into that a small wad of dry buffalo grass, covered with a packed layer of cattail fuzz and then a little bit of char cloth just for extra measure. Dry, it's guaranteed to make fire. The cattail fuzz will ignite almost as well without char when hit with a good shower of sparks. I'd think buffalo grass or cottonwood inner bark could be made into char in the same manner as cloth and provide a very good fire starting material.
paulvallandigham
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When the steam stops rising out the hole in the can, remove it from the heat, and put something over the hole. You are letting air get into the tin, and that allows the punk wood to burn to ash.
Watch that hole during the heat.
If it begins flaming, like a candle, you have the tin too hot.
If it stops steaming( the white " smoke " is mostly steam, or water vapor from the cloth or wood), cover that hole with a damp rag, a spatula, a plug made from a twig, or whatever else you can make handy. When the tin is cool to the touch- a half hour or more- you can speed this up by putting the can on a wet surface, to draw off the heat-- then, and only then, should you open the tin to examine the contents. Don't hesitate to separate out char, from pieces that haven't cooked long enough. Put the lid back on and put the tin in the fire again to finish these pieces.
This is a project to do over a campfire, when you are done for the night, and have nothing else to do. If you try to do this during your day, its likely that you will be under some time constraint, to be somewhere, or do something, and that distraction will lead to incomplete cooking of the materials, or Over cooking them to ash!
Take your time and do this right. Cooking char, while someone else is making a fruit cobbler on the fire in a dutch oven is a pleasant pass-time.
Watch that hole during the heat.
If it begins flaming, like a candle, you have the tin too hot.
If it stops steaming( the white " smoke " is mostly steam, or water vapor from the cloth or wood), cover that hole with a damp rag, a spatula, a plug made from a twig, or whatever else you can make handy. When the tin is cool to the touch- a half hour or more- you can speed this up by putting the can on a wet surface, to draw off the heat-- then, and only then, should you open the tin to examine the contents. Don't hesitate to separate out char, from pieces that haven't cooked long enough. Put the lid back on and put the tin in the fire again to finish these pieces.
This is a project to do over a campfire, when you are done for the night, and have nothing else to do. If you try to do this during your day, its likely that you will be under some time constraint, to be somewhere, or do something, and that distraction will lead to incomplete cooking of the materials, or Over cooking them to ash!
Take your time and do this right. Cooking char, while someone else is making a fruit cobbler on the fire in a dutch oven is a pleasant pass-time.
Troy Allen Christianson
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I use my old tattered work jeans to make char cloth. Works pretty dern well. :grin:
I usually make my char from an old t-shirt, works great but is quite fragile.I tried some pillow-ticking and could not get that stuff to take a spark to save my soul,I washed it thinking it might have had a flame retardent in it, no avail, just cannot get it to light.
Then i went looking for some tinder fungus, finally found some on an old injured birch.Got it home and put a lighter to it to see if it would smoulder, it did.Could not get it to take a spark from flint & steel,steel didnt seem to be sparking well either so that might need a little work.
Still experimenting with punk wood, i can get it to char,but getting a spark to land on it and catch is another story,that might have to do with my steel also.Thats my saga, the t-shirt is great but some events want you to use non-manmade char, so the experiments go on.I did try charred cedar bark it works but is real fragile, almost turns to powder when carried in a tin.
Then i went looking for some tinder fungus, finally found some on an old injured birch.Got it home and put a lighter to it to see if it would smoulder, it did.Could not get it to take a spark from flint & steel,steel didnt seem to be sparking well either so that might need a little work.
Still experimenting with punk wood, i can get it to char,but getting a spark to land on it and catch is another story,that might have to do with my steel also.Thats my saga, the t-shirt is great but some events want you to use non-manmade char, so the experiments go on.I did try charred cedar bark it works but is real fragile, almost turns to powder when carried in a tin.
Find dry milkweed pods in the fall, if you char just the edge it'll catch a spark.
I've had better luck with the fungus and punk wood by pulverizing it then sending a shower of sparks onto the pile of dust.
Thistle Down, and Cattail pod make darn good nest material,,Cattail explodes! into flame if you can get dry stuff in the fall
I've had better luck with the fungus and punk wood by pulverizing it then sending a shower of sparks onto the pile of dust.
Thistle Down, and Cattail pod make darn good nest material,,Cattail explodes! into flame if you can get dry stuff in the fall
paulvallandigham
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With any tinder, you have to be totally aware of the relative humidity in the environment. Dry that tinder fungus in the sunlight, or in your oven on low heat( 200 degrees) for an hour. Put it spread out on a cookie sheet, then store it in a ziplock bag to keep moisture from the air away from it. Those thick patches are difficult to light, even when you have charred them because they too take on moisture from the air, and hold it. The thin T-shirt( 100% cotton) work so well BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO THIN TO HOLD MUCH IF ANY MOISTURE!
You can light milk weed, but again, it needs to be charred, and kept dry. Starting a fire with flint and steel and charred anything is hard work when its humid over overcast out. When the sun is out to dry up everything- even hemp rope that has been sweated on by your hands when you pull the strands apart will Light with a bit of effort, after drying in the sun on a stump or rock, or log. I Have actually had better success getting my char cloth to light with a pile of embers I generated using a Bow and drill fire starting tool, on wet days.
If there is a lesson to be learned its to use the thinnest charred material you can have, or make, and to dry any kind of natural tinder you pick up in the woods. I collect strips of bark off of White bark Birch trees, because the bark is thin, and contains natural oils that burn hot very quickly. But you have to live in northern latitudes, or have access to ornamental birch trees on private properties to get the stuff. Same for the tinder fungus, as its most often found growing in a bruised area of a birch tree.
Assume that anything that is picked up off the ground is too moist to light.
Tinder for building fires should be taken from dead limbs of trees and bushes, where air dries the wood, and the bark keeps moisture from penetrating into the core. If a twig bends, rather than snaps, leave it. Its too moist, and will only burn with lots of steam and smoke, if you can keep it lit. If you do dry that tinder fungus, you will easily find out how brittle the stuff becomes when you break off a piece to use.
You can light milk weed, but again, it needs to be charred, and kept dry. Starting a fire with flint and steel and charred anything is hard work when its humid over overcast out. When the sun is out to dry up everything- even hemp rope that has been sweated on by your hands when you pull the strands apart will Light with a bit of effort, after drying in the sun on a stump or rock, or log. I Have actually had better success getting my char cloth to light with a pile of embers I generated using a Bow and drill fire starting tool, on wet days.
If there is a lesson to be learned its to use the thinnest charred material you can have, or make, and to dry any kind of natural tinder you pick up in the woods. I collect strips of bark off of White bark Birch trees, because the bark is thin, and contains natural oils that burn hot very quickly. But you have to live in northern latitudes, or have access to ornamental birch trees on private properties to get the stuff. Same for the tinder fungus, as its most often found growing in a bruised area of a birch tree.
Assume that anything that is picked up off the ground is too moist to light.
Tinder for building fires should be taken from dead limbs of trees and bushes, where air dries the wood, and the bark keeps moisture from penetrating into the core. If a twig bends, rather than snaps, leave it. Its too moist, and will only burn with lots of steam and smoke, if you can keep it lit. If you do dry that tinder fungus, you will easily find out how brittle the stuff becomes when you break off a piece to use.
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