Charcloth is nothing more but a piece of charred cotton cloth that can be used to start a fire.
I have been doing this many times and here is how you can make charcloth..
Items needed; I piece of cotton cloth, scissors to cut it into pieces and a tin can of some sort with a hole punctured into the top to let the smoke/gas escape.. I use an old airgun pellet tin.. an Altoids tin will do fine... Make sure the cloth is 100% cotton!
Putting the cotton in the tin can
Putting it on a small fire on the kitchen stove and just wait for the smoke to come out of it
In the outdoors it can be put on any campfire
Once it stops smoking it is done..
After we open up the can we can see all the cloth has turned black
After using a Firesteel, flint or any other firestarting divice on the cloth it starts to glow
Now with the help of some tinder we can start a fire.
With wood you can also use this process when making charcoal
With wood you can also use this process when making charcoal
You can use many kinds of tinder for this, natural or unnatural. Yesterday I also took the time to make some tinder out of yute twine.. excellent material when combined with smuldering charcloth
Please help: My char cloth is 100% fireproof
ReplyDeleteWhen I make char cloth it is completely fireproof.
I use a tin, poke a small hole on top of lid with a small nail.
I remove about 20 seconds after the smoke stops and seal the hole with the same nail.
I let it cool completely before opening the tin.
The char cloth looks great – all black, not crumbly or sooty (fingers stay clean)
I can NOT even get it to burn holding a lighter directly on it!
I have tried all 100% cotton:
white t-shirt material cut into 2x2”
white sheet material cut into 2x2”
cotton balls squashed
cotton balls fluffed up
cotton wipes squares squashed
cotton wipes squares fluffed up
I thought maybe the material to begin with could have been treated with a fireproof chemical (not on label) so I tested if it would burn before charring it: went up in flames instantly.
Thank you