If you have decent char cloth you should have a hard time putting it out, not keeping it lit. Just get some cotton t shirts and rip them up by hand. The stringier the better. Once you’ve gotten a decent size ball; put it in your metal container with a lid tightly on it. Poke a 1/16” size hole in the lid and put it down in your hot fire coals. Once it gets hot enough a candle flame will emerge from your pin hole, then it goes out. The flame turns into a stream of smoke. Watch carefully as when the smoke stream ends you must remove the container from the coals. You have just made grade A char cloth. Make sure not to open the container until it is cool to the touch, as introducing oxygen to hot char cloth will surely burn it up. Good luck!
Problems with Flint & Steel
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Trapper Scott
45 Cal.
You make it look easy
It is easy'r - when you understand materials, design and technique.
Snake Pleskin
54 Cal.
I always have one(bic) and also a small exacto ferocium rod. Pride won't save your life! IMHO
Snake Pleskin
54 Cal.
I carry one inside my coats and other garmets around my neck on a cord. I can tuck it anywhere to keep it warm.
I’ve done it a time or two, as shown it’s not super hard. It is a nice survival skill to know. As far as historical sense I bet the average frontiersman of the past was as innocent of having used one as a modern ultralight back packer.
Back in the day, I suspect that flint and steel was the norm and even the wives and children of frontiersmen were quite adept in its use. Flint and steel is one of the easiest and most reliable traditional non match fire starting methods. While its helpful to have a mentor to show newcomers how its done, I've taught Cub Scouters without too much difficulty. I performed my very first F + S demonstration in the fourth grade using a file and un-weaved burlap strands. When the nest flared it went into a Maxwell House coffee can with metal lid to be smothered. Still, looking back, it was fortunate that smoke alarms had not yet been invented....
I cheat. When you need a fire, you need it. I have a metal rod that gives off sparks when scraped with a hard knife and I use cotton balls with vaseline soaked into it as a starter, sometimes I use the dryer lint. Keep the cotton balls or lint in a small flat can. It ignites really well with few sparks. Easy and fast.
I experiment. The ferrocerium rods are effective. Poplar cotton and pine pitch responds pretty much the same as Vaseline and cotton and a flint chip can be used instead of a knife. beardedhorse
Pilgrim
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I now always plug the hole. Toothpick or magnet or if you put the hole through the lid and round can you simply rotate the lid so the holes no longer line up. Most students won't press the tinder against the char because it is hot. Gloves, green leaves, bark or the silicon oven gloves have been used with beginners. A blow tube made of a short brass tube with one end squished and flared or a piece of cane cut off at the joint and a small nail hole or hole drilled in the end makes a natural and more primitive blow tube. If you learn from trial and error to take the can off the heat source before the smoke quits coming out of the hole or edges (Altoid cans) you will get a better piece of char. Uncooked and the piece doesn't catch a spark. Overcooked it shreds easily and doesn't burn. Ideal charring of linen or pure cotton is a spark that radiates on the cloth from where it hits sort of like spilling wine on a white table cloth. Over cooked is where the red burning follows the weave of the cloth and looks like looking at cars on the street from a helicopter. Too much cloth crowded doesn't give you uniform charring. I use a new one quart paint can whose lining is burned out. Using propane grill as a heat source doesn't work well at all and my best char is made inside a wood stove or over an open fire with good tongs to rotate the can. Some people put a hole in the top and bottom of their round can. I ran the flint and steel contest at many Western National Rendezvous and state rendezvous. First strike and first breathe to get a flame is what it takes to win consistently. Timing starts when flint hits steel and stops when there is visible flame. Advanced contests require no cotton or linen charcloth and no sisal, jute or other manufactured tinder nests. There are many natural untreated materials to catch a spark - don't need charring and no cheating with lighter fluid or other girl scout juice.
The Appalachian
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@beardedhorse, good post.......
good video Tom a Hawk. Only problem is there isn't a pine tree probably within 150 miles. Maybe I'll try Lowes to see if a got a short 2x4 weeping some pitch.
I've used things like a stone with a dimple and a split limb from a hardwood, but my current favorite is a piece of moose antler.
Tom A Hawk, thank you for the reply to my question. and as I see even the antler also gets' charred from the friction / heat that is generated from the spindle? did you have to start a dimple in the marrow / pith, of the antler before you started using the spindle to center it.
Yes a dimple is necessary as there is no pith and moose antler is really hard stuff.
thanks', I thought so. did not know that the moose antler had a different center composition as opposed to deer antler. toot.
TDM
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Got the forge going this morning to make 1/2 dozen rebar hold down stakes for my Wife’s green house. And wanted to see if I could re harden my 2 store bought steels. Got them up to non magnetic and oil quenched. The junk steel file skated a little, but not much. The steel from Track hardened up better. I tested them side by side with my file steel on the same flint. The junk steel threw maybe one spark after 6-7 hits, the Track steel did better but it’s so small I kept hitting my finger on the flint. My file steel threw sparks a plenty and it’s comfortable to hold. Guess I’ll just add the other 2 to my scrap metal collection.
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Snake Pleskin
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