Natural Tinder Bundle

Necchi, I think you jinxed me.... :haha:
Just came in from starting a fire. I left my tinder box sit out over night and it got rained on. The tinder was mostly dry and took a spark and then went out...the kindling was also damp enough to be problematic. Luckily I had another box that didn't get rained on... After 3 attempts and some snickering from the wife, I grabbed a small ball of nest material and blew it into flame......Success!!! :grin:

Ever tried cattail fuzz?

No. There is a bunch growing a couple miles from me but the location is not the best for harvesting.

I have some drying (got it during a rain) and have not tried it, yet.

CC, while I was reading your post about leaving your kit in the rain, I looked out the window and saw that I had left my fire kit out on the porch and it's been snowing all darn day. Dang it.
Anybody try to light a candle with just flint and steel and char? My project for tonight.
Doug T

good luck with that. You roll you char and get itwaxxed while puffing...pia, done it a few times never in the field.

Anybody try to light a candle with just flint and steel and char?

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Yep, I've done it using charred punkwood and by leaving all the char in my tinderbox......If you let it get hot enough and then blow on it.... It will ignite long enough to get a candle lit then you can cover you tin and save some tinder/char.

If you let it get hot enough and then blow on it.... It will ignite long enough to get a candle lit...

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Melt enough wax and bring to flash point, from what I understand. Have to try this too.... :surrender:
(Thanks for the responses to this post, it helps us all!)

necchi said:

Ever tried cattail fuzz?

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The stuff Explodes!

I've had very little experience with cattail fluff, but did try it because I had heard good reports of it. I must have not used it correctly, because it did what you describe, exploded. More like a flash, I dropped sparks into a little wad of it and it flashed and burned up, but didn't last long enough to set my tinder on fire.

How do you use it? Can it be lit with a burning lens?

Spence

I tried cattail fuzz one time and the cat did not like it one bit. Took me a while to heal up from all the scratches she gave me.

I won't be using that again.

I take a block plane, then some dry pine, i.e. 2x4 and set the blade to a fine cut and it makes perfect starting bundles.


Beaver T

Yeah, could see how that'd work good.

I tried the "lake grass roots", no go on a couple attempts. Blew the glowing char right through and never caught

Just returned from a rendezvous using cottonwood cambium for tinder. It worked great. Look for a downed cottonwood tree or branch and peel back the dry bark. There will be a thin layer of hairy material between the bark and the wood. It pulls apart easily and can be wound into a nest.

Anybody try to light a candle with just flint and steel and char? My project for tonight.
Doug T

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I do it a lot just to show it can be done. It's one of those skills, you learn but need to stay practiced at. I double my char cloth, make sure I have a 1/4" wick to work with. I catch the spark, I roll the charcloth tight, insert the wick into the glowing heat (Candle upright). I blow into the glow and back off the air and withdraw the candle wick slowely. Time it so you stop the air flow as the wick comes out and the flame should jump on the wick. In time, I can usually do just under 20 seconds. My best was 12.+ seconds and I was second place to a 9.+ second time. Practice and it gets easy. It's the same as with any skill done in our passion. :wink:

I just start with a tinder box full of charred punkwood.....strike a spark and blow on the box full until it bursts into flames....light the candle and close the lid...snuffing out the tinder and saving for later.....

Just grabbed a whole bunch of smoke bush blooms will give it atry,little bit of a surprise ,there was a hornet nest in the bush, :haha: go back for it after the frost

spudnut said:

Just grabbed a whole bunch of smoke bush blooms will give it atry,little bit of a surprise ,there was a hornet nest in the bush, :haha: go back for it after the frost

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Sounds like a wise choice!

In the Northeast dwells the white birch. The bark must have oil in it because it burns when wet (to some degree) and, it burns long enough to get a fire going. I've heard some other barks are similar. I know on the birch just look for dead trees and peel from them.

I made some charred tinder tonight ...I used a species of wood I had never used before....High bush cranberry... :shocked2:
I grabbed two sticks...what was punky enough twist off with my hand went into the can to be charred. the rest was split and used to make the fire...worked like a charm...and the burnt down fire left the most beautiful bed of glowing coals.
The charred tinder worked perfectly...