The Campfire! My home away from home.

Char cloth is one of the essential tinders that a lot of the old time mountain men carried with them as an emergency fire starter to go with their firesteel or flint and steel, essentially it is charcoal, and not only an incredible tinder but so very simple to make. Start with an old worn out t shirt, one made from 100% cotton, the natural fibres work best, although you could use the manmade fabrics, they tend to burn or melt...you want the fabric to char...there is a big difference.  The key is to control the rate of burn in order to make charcloth (charcoal). You want the fuel to smolder but not burn, you accomplish this by adding extreme heat and eliminating the oxygen that causes combustion. Sounds very complicated doesn't it....its not.

Here's the materials.....

Some 100% cotton

Some aluminum foil

Scissors

And of course a heat source.

Thats it..... So very easy....cut the t shirt into small squares, roughly 2"x2", or 2" x 3" or whatever size you think will work for you...this is a science, but its not rocket science....place the squares of cotton onto a piece of aluminum foil leaving a margin of about 2 inches around the edge of the foil.

Now place a second piece of foil on top of the first and fold each edge back 3 to 4 times to form an airtight seal...remember, oxygen will cause the cotton to burn, you want a tight seal!

Now we get technical.....use a bamboo barbeque skewer or toothpick and poke a single small hole in the center of ONE side of the packet...this will allow the expanding superheated gasses to escape. Now fire up your barbeque and place the packet onto your cold grill, lower the cover and reduce to a medium heat for about 10 minutes...this isn't a delicate steak you are cooking...feel free to open the bbq and look as often as you want...you will know when you are finished when the packet has expanded like a balloon and the smoke escaping from the vent is nearly clear...roughly 10 minutes or so.

Remove from heat and let cool....the finished product will have turned a nice deep black and you have your charcloth ready to go....I store mine in old 35mm film canisters..I can get about 8 peices to a canister.

The best thing is you now have a fully warmed up grill ready to cook your favourite meal on! Double duty served!

Kirk

On a cold, rainy day in Awenda I did this test with my kid, testing firestarters for their suitablity under 'perfect?' conditions, after two days rain, temps down around 9 degrees celcius and some damp firewood, 'perfect' conditions to test a range of both commercially sold, homemade and natural firestarters....

The suspects are....

Coughlins fire paste, charcloth and swedish firesteel, fatwood, egg carton cups of sawdust and parafin wax, vaseline soaked cottonballs, methyl hydrate and (not shown) birchbark.

First up, Coughlins Fire Paste, purchased at LeBaron's Outfitters for $6.99.... this is a very good firestarter...it burns fairly hot with a somewhat oily smoke, catches alight whether wet or dry (yes we poured water on some and put a match to it and it lit up no problem), a dollop the size of a dime burned for 43 seconds, adequate time to get some fine, dry tinder burning, under these damp conditions it required a blob a bit bigger than a nickel to actually provide enough heat to start our fire. Rating, 3 out of 5 the low rating due to its relatively low (compared to the other starters) heat output. Another drawback is that the tube, if ruptured in your pack will make a heck of a mess of your gear!

Next was the Fatwood, purchased at Canadian Tire, this is the stuff Maya Dust  http://lightmyfireusa.com/mayadust.html is made from and is billed as a great firestarter, I am gonna disagree with that. Subjected to an open flame from a lighter, the wood itself did catch with no hesitation, when doused in water it was more difficult to light, after feathering it down with a knife tho it did catch rather easy with an open flame, burned hot and for quite a while ( around 10 minutes) as the resins gave off a lot of oily smoke, however, it burned quite hot due to the resins. This product is sold with a firesteel to use as an ignition source but try as I might I could not get this to light with sparks from my steel. This product worked ok, but for those of us in the Great White North we have birch bark which I've found to be a better alternative....rating...2 out of 5...this does work, but there are much better alternatives for the money.

Next...lets try vaseline soaked cotton balls. This is the first time I had tried this method, take some cotton balls and liberally rub vaseline into them...its that simple to make, these burned fairly hot, similiar to the Fire Paste, however a dime sized cotton ball lasted 1 minute 56 seconds as opposed to the 43 seconds of the fire paste. With an open flame from a Bic lighter, it lit whether wet or dry and I did, after a little work, get one to light with sparks from the firesteel, I was impressed, this is actually a very good firestarter, 4 out of 5! If it burned a little longer to aid in drying damp tinder it would have gotten full marks.

Then we tried the eggcarton cups, I made these with sawdust from my workshop and melted parrafin wax, a little more work than the cotton balls but well worth it. These would not light with a firesteel and required a driect flame to light whether wet or dry, but once going they burned hot and each lasted well over 7 minutes, due to their large size, lots of time to dry fine tinder to allow ignition under damp conditions. A light breeze will put these out as they are, essentially, a candle, but once the flame established itself over the entire surface it held even in light winds. Great firestarter, would get a 5 if  it could be lit just with a spark, therefore, even tho the best so far, it rates a 4 of 5!

Methyl Hydrate, we decided to test this as a firestarter simply because it was available, I had brought 3 ounces of methyl hydrate along to use with my popcan stove so why not throw it to the test as well. It lights immediate with an open flame and I regularly got it to catch with a spark. It burns the hottest of all the firestarters I tried but also the fastest when used this way. The major drawbacks are it blows out easily and goes out with just the tiniest amount of water, decent under dry conditions, not so great under these conditions, however, once you have an open flame a few drops of this will roar it into a small inferno instantly. Rates a 2 of 5.

Charcloth and Firesteel....this is my favourite way of making fire, using birch bark and dry duff from the forest floor as tinder, I can more often than not start a fire using this with just one or two strikes from the firesteel. Bear in mind tho that I have been using this method for decades so am quite well practised. The major drawback here is that if the cloth gets damp or wet it absolutely will not work. It WILL take a spark and create an ember that will only grow bigger and hotter with the more wind that blows across it! On average I can get a flame using charcloth in about 10 to 12 seconds. I will rate this 3 out of 5 simply because with a little moisture you are frigged, you will not get this to work if the cloth is wet. Other than that, it is still my preferred method of lighting a fire, if for no other reason than it gives me a sense of sticking to age old skills. Although being a smoker I always have several lighters stashed throughout my gear so I guess I also have an advantage of knowing that I can produce an open flame when necessary.

( birch bark as tinder for a charcloth ember)

Last but not least...Birch Bark, easily available in mixed forests, it catches somewhat easily with an open flame, finely shredded it catches just with a spark, although I have found I need more than just a few strikes to get a spark to catch and to start an ember. This burns hot and fast with a very oily smoke, but if you found a little then you probably have found a lot so quantity is not a question here. Overall I rate it a 3.5 of 5.