Making Char Cloth

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Maverick

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What is Char Cloth (Primarily use with flint and steel)

"Char cloth (also called charpaper)
is a swatch of fabric made from vegetable fiber (such as linen, cotton or jute) that has been converted via pyrolysis into a slow-burning fuel of very low ignition temperature"

Making Char isn't difficult but some attention is needed when making, storing and using char.

You are going to need 100% cotton, such as a t-shirt, socks, underwear or cotton balls, a tin can preferably with a lid that has a hole in the middle (needs a tight lid), a nail or coin and a fire (kitchen stove works good)

1) Take one cotton ball and pull it apart as illustrated and place it as flat at possible to the bottom of the tin can.

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2) Now, place the lid on the can and place on a small fire (make sure the fire doesn't rise above the can) or place the tin can on an electric burner, you will shortly start to see smoke come out of the hole on the lid, once the smoke stops coming from the hole put a nail in the hole or a coin over the hole, remove can from heat source and let cool (do I really need to tell you the can is hot?), if you don't plug the hole the char will turn to ash or if you plug the hole too soon the cotton will not have had enough time to turn to char, the timing is from the smoke not a clock.

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3) Once the can is at ambient temperature open the lid, the char should look like this all black and not ash, now place the char in a special holder similar to the picture below.

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Char making is complete. Keep char dry!
 
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Char making is complete now what

You are going to need dry tinder (char is low heat) jute and moss works very will with low heat ignition, flint and steel.
I am going to use Jute, Jute is a vegetable fiber, you never heard of Jute?, I am sure you heard of twine (made from Jute) burlap or a gunny.

1) This is twine made from Jute (practically any hardware store sells it), now cut a piece 2 feet long and begin to unravel it making a bird nest.

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CAUTION: Flint edges are extremely sharp, use caution!

2) take a piece of char and place it approximately 1/16 from the edge of the strike edge of the flint, hold the flint at roughly a 45 angle striking the flint in a downwards motion like you are allowing the flint to shave the surface of the steel (don't strike hard or bluntly) the sparks will land on the char, watch for glowing amber's on the char.

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3) Now drop the slightly glowing red char in the middle of your birds nest then slightly close it (like a taco) leaving a slight opening, easily start blowing in the hole till you see smoke and start to feel heat, lay it down on a dry surface continuing to blow on the nest and gently place very small dry twigs on the birds nest, if the ground is wet peel bark from a tree and place the nest on the inside surface of the bark, once the tender flames up, start building your fire as you would with any fire.

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I generally have 3 birds nest in my tin can ready to go, this is how I have it set up.

Place 4 feet of twine, 2 birds nest at the bottom of the can, extra cotton, flint, steel and char can on top, place the 3rd bird nest over the top (Keeps it packed and quiet) and put the lid on, use a little tape to cover the hole, we have about 5 of these kits as our emergency backups, there is enough room to keep lighters, magnesium, swedish firesteel and zippo in this kits.

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Really interesting. Thanks for that, Maverick. I've wondered about char cloth for a long time and just never took the time to figure it all out. I like the bird's nest idea, too. I wouldn't have thought to take that twine and make tinder out of it. Makes sense to me though! I have a tin from Carhartt that I'm thinking of using for supplies, and a small kit like this would be a great idea. I have quite a bit of fire starting goodies, but not this. I use a cotton ball concept(I call flame-pons), and pretty much everything else in the kit except the char cloth and the twine tinder. Those look like really good additions to my kit. Thanks again for the good info, pics, and write-up.
 
this is something for tomorrow, I'd hate to fall a sleep on my couch and wake up to the sound of firedept. storming through my door.

found one place here in Fin that sells flint and steel..nice prizetag 70 euros/92 dollars
 
this is something for tomorrow, I'd hate to fall a sleep on my couch and wake up to the sound of firedept. storming through my door.

found one place here in Fin that sells flint and steel..nice prizetag 70 euros/92 dollars

$92 ? oh lord, that's an awful lot, I am asking my contacts now if they ship to Europe, waiting to hear back because here Flint and Steel is $9.99usd and the Flint and Steel w/kit is $15.99usd wonder why so much in Finland?
 
it's hand made by a blacksmith,and anything handmade here is some what expensive ;)
one reason might be that we have so few blacksmiths left, it's hard work in hot conditions, it doesn't appeal to young people who wan't some office job from 9-5

that's very kind of you Maverick to do that, really appreciate it. really do :)
 
it's hand made by a blacksmith,and anything handmade here is some what expensive ;)
one reason might be that we have so few blacksmiths left, it's hard work in hot conditions, it doesn't appeal to young people who wan't some office job from 9-5

that's very kind of you Maverick to do that, really appreciate it. really do :)

I posted a link under "Full fire starting Kit" above they also ship to Europe :)
 
I posted a link under "Full fire starting Kit" above they also ship to Europe :)
That,s useful. I'm going to make some char cloth. thanks. I've never had to use the flint method or the friction method but there may be a time when it's needed. I used to carry a small baggie of candle wax for when it's rainy & wet. Any little flame You start will expand and burn hotter with it on a rainy day when it's hard to start a fire. You only have to use small pieces of it at a time till the wood catches. If You use too much it will drown the flame.
 
Jontte: DX.Com


fire stick less than US$5. buy some stuff first to see the outcome. I've bought some stuff from them. They turn up eventually. but they're very cheap.
 
This is awesome. I've also been wondering about char cloth. Not exactly what I expected though I was thinking it was going to be a different process or even just a product type. Nonetheless an awesome tut!
 
this is something for tomorrow, I'd hate to fall a sleep on my couch and wake up to the sound of firedept. storming through my door.

found one place here in Fin that sells flint and steel..nice prizetag 70 euros/92 dollars
Seriously?! Man... Let me know if Mav's link doesn't work out. Worse comes to worst, you can tell me what you want and we can check shipping prices. I'll ship it to Finland!
 
made my first batch of char cloth today :)
gonna make some more..have a few old t-shirts I can use...this is fun

yup, in some goods Fin is seriously expensive...
 
now I wish that there would be a real winter..it would simply be great to go skiing with my kids,make a fire with these things ( ok, I'll take a lighter and matches too for back-up) and have some warm drinks and food with the kids
 
@jontte

A proper fire kit should have fire starters like char cloth, cotton balls and fire tools like fire steel, bic lighters and matches. Magnifying glass if you can too!

No harm carrying a few more methods of starting fires.
 
@jontte

A proper fire kit should have fire starters like char cloth, cotton balls and fire tools like fire steel, bic lighters and matches. Magnifying glass if you can too!

No harm carrying a few more methods of starting fires.
That's 1 area of my preps I've overlooked. Am making it a point to put together a 'just-in-case' kit. I've done pretty well so far though considering the few times I was without matches or lighter I always found a way to start afire. a spark from a battery over a cap-full of fuel works wonders. The battery can even be a low voltage one.-those square small 9v radio batts work very well. A magnifying glass has saved the day a time or 2. That candle wax I always carried made any fire easy lighting.
 
an update from here; yesterday I had a thought,my national museum has an exhibition about stoneage living in Finland..made a phone call to their giftshop...I'm looking at my latest purchase right now; steel and the prize was right, flint's in the mail also...
never thought in the begining of my search I would find this product so close to me
 
search MCQ Bushcraft on Youtube. his fire kit is awesome. even though its mostly firesteel/firebow and fat wood, man... its awesome
 
never in my past life did I think it's this fun :)
ok,my life doesn't depend on it right now which could explain it..
 

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