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Char cloth from twisted material

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DPMARTIN

Pilgrim
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At the Eastern at Slippery Rock this past year, an old "Greybeard" showed me how to make char cloth by twisting material into a rope type fashion. Then "cook" it in a tin without a hole for a short while. When finished he just pulled off a short piece and it could hardly wait to burn. It was great but I don't quiet remember all of the procedure. If any of you out there happen to know please advise. Thanks heaps! Traveler
 
I second that. Would like to know the fine points, one more possible addition to the ole bag-o-tricks! :wink: :haha:
 
DP- there is something similar called a tinder tube. Wick knows a lot about them but apparently they were long used in the eastern US- kept beside the fireplace and yet the mountain men only mention them as something "new" they found in use among the New Mexicans. It may be that they were used in only certain places in the east- unfortunately I don't know.
A cheap, easy tinder tube is to buy a 6" piece of copper tube (about a 3/8" inside diamter) at ACE hardware for 25-50 cents and then head over to Jo-Ann fabrics and buy some 100% cotton rope in about a 1/2" diameter. You have to squeeze the rope through the tube. Get about 12" of this cotton rope.
To start the thing you need to light and get burning one end of the rope. Then pull the burning part inside the tube and put your finger over the end of the tube to cut off the air and put out the flame. The end of the cotton is now charred.
To use. push on the tail end of the cotton rope and force about 1" of the charred end out the tube. You can use a flint and steel to put a spark on the charred end and it will hold.
Even better is a magnifying glass, on a sunny day you'll get an ember almost instantly- say 2-3 seconds once you get the "dot" of sunlight down to a fine point.
Give credit for this one to Wick. He's the one that put me on to tinder tubes and I use them as my "go to"- they are that good. Wick also makes some nice tinder tubes from brass- they look a lot better and if I recall the price is really reasonable.
Most folks on this site think of Wick as a knife maker- sure enough he is- made the Bowies for the Alan Ladd movie, etc BUT he does a lot of other stuff as well. I saw a rifle he brought to Rondy- work of art with all sorts of inlays, etc. Good guy and a treasure of information on all things muzzle loading.
 
DP...I saw the guy too (his catch phrase was "we got time" because of how long the charcloth would hold a spark.) i dont remember the tin not having a hole in it though.
 
I also spent a bit of time with him, even gave me a nice shard of flint. Start off with a square yard of pure cotton cloth. Cut into 3 inch strips, fold it in half then start twisting and it will qurill upon itself. I cooked it in a can witha hole. Once cooled I waite several days to try starting my fire with flint an steele. IT WORKED firstbfire with flint. Now I have to make more. Thanks to that greybeard......
 
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