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char cloth again

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I use Blue Jean material for most of my char cloth. As long as you fold your material and put the edges along the striking edge of the flint I have caught it many times on the first or second strike of the steel. I actually had a single thread catch on one piece, watched it burn back to the the main cloth, that was all it took to get it going. Jean material is thicker and will burn hotter. Something else that works really well is wash cloths or towels, actually the absolute best thing I have ever found :thumbsup: . DANNY
 
necchi said:
spudnut said:
Does blue jeans material work for char?
Nope. Any "clothing" fabric will not make good char cloth. New or used.
Clothing fabric is treated with "Flame retardant",, meaning that even if flame touches it,, it will extinguish,, or at least not spread quickly.
(it doesn't matter how many times you wash it,, it's a chemical treatment at production)
That's bad news when you wanna catch a spark.

You want the best fabric for char cloth?
,,the stuff that the guy's that always win the fire starting contest at vous use to win with?
Buy a 1/4 yard of Monks Cloth from a local fabric shop for $5 and be set for years.
p.s.,, don't forget to "char" it.

Well washed blue jeans material of 100% cotton may be used for char. It is not the best char or the easiest to light, but it can work. The best is non-flame retardant cotton of loose woven fleece texture.

We have an annual rendezvous match at our club and we must use the char material supplied by the club and the tinder. Our match planner got a great deal on a nice weight flannel material. He forgot to test it by the burn test method. No one was able to get it to take a spark and get a fire started.

So, the final word is this, take your blue jeans material and perform a burn test. It should burn cleanly leaving only ash. If there are any plastic beads, then look for a different char material.
 
SacramentoJohnson said:
Howdy!
A really fantastic thing to use to make char are the cotton rounds in the cosmetic section at Walmart. They come in packages of 100 or more and are dirt cheap. They are 100% cotton, slightly pillowed-like, char extremely easy, retain some flexibility (don't crumble!) and catch a spark amazingly quickly. Stuffed into a birds nest of jute, or ground pine needles, or pounded juniper tree bark or pounded old dried yucca leaves (the stuff I have here in the Mohave desert to make fires out of) some decent blowing and you're on fire!
(With the jute, I usually take several strands in a bundle, unravel the ends on one side and twist and dip the other ends in candle wax. This gives you a longer burn than just exposed jute. If you want to know more about this jute prep, let me know!)


That's really clever - gotta give that a try!

Thanks for the post! :grin: :bow: :thumbsup:
 
My question was if anyone used it,most flint and steel I do is in competition,I also carry punk for serious fire starting among other things.I guess I' ll just give it a try,the wife just retired a cotton flannel fitted sheet of about 20 years use, now that there is some handy old material
 
to all :

our bath towels at work are dry cleaned (see "naptha") and the folding machine tears about 1/20 of the towels, which find their way home in my work bag.

100% cotton......dry cleaned and shredded

they catch and glow beautifully BUT have to be watched like a hawk while charring as they don't smoke as much and only need about 1/2 the heat cycle of other materials
 
No. Denim is a hard, tight weave that does not catch sparks well at all. Plus, much of the denim on the market these days is a synthetic blend.
I like Monks cloth. Can be purchased at Walmart. It is all cotton and a very open loose weave that catches sparks like it is hungry for them.
 
necchi said:
spudnut said:
Does blue jeans material work for char?
Nope. Any "clothing" fabric will not make good char cloth. New or used.
Clothing fabric is treated with "Flame retardant",, meaning that even if flame touches it,, it will extinguish,, or at least not spread quickly.
(it doesn't matter how many times you wash it,, it's a chemical treatment at production)
That's bad news when you wanna catch a spark.
My experience showed otherwise...
The denim from a pair of well-worn Levi's worked just fine for me.
 
I don't argue that there is less than optimal denim (blend) out there for char but not all denim is that way. What I have IS 100% cotton (bought at JoAnn's Fabric) and washed to get the sizing out. Bought it originally for patching material it turned out to be to think for what I needed. Now if it will work for patching material (100% cotton) it will work for char.

Redstick Lee,

It may be the naptha from the dry cleaning that is not allowing the towels you use not to smoke much. Why do people dry clean towels :shocked2: ? The towels I have, have been washed in the washing machine and char just like any other cotton material I have charred. DANNY
 
I LOVE the finished product from the dry-cleaned towels.....just requires a lot more attention when charring.......

and now i've GOT to try some of that "Monks cloth" because I can't get but 1-2 layers of towel in my fire kit......but regular cloth I can double or triple that
 
Back in the 80s I bought a ”˜100%linen shirt’ copied from’a museum of the fur trade’ shirt, later I could not find a similar shirt before tha 1870s. I wore it to death. Finely when wore out I went to make rag tinder from it. When I opened my charring can I found a bunch of crumpled burnt plastic looking logs. I seem to have paid linen prices for synthetic fiber.
 
If you "wore it to death" and it was greasy, then charring the material will not yield good char and the charred material will look as you described. Been there, done that, threw it away and used clean cloth...
 
Rifleman1776 said:
No. Denim is a hard, tight weave that does not catch sparks well at all.

Bingo!...For those who haven't figured it out yet, surface area is key....You want a loose weave or in the case of punkwood you want as many microorganism holes as possible.

The more surface are you have the more area there is to catch the spark....It also means that there is more available fuel and more oxygen.
The 3 necessary elements of the fire triangle....

This is science folks....but it's not rocket science... :wink:
 
You will find jean material to be inconsistent in thickness if they have been worn much.
The front of the legs over the thighs tends to be thinner than the backs of the legs and seat area.
 
I didn’t say I didn’t wash it, I just wore it till it was threadbare.
What I got as a result was I have only got when I had ”˜tainted’ cloth. It wasn’t the first or the last shirt that went in to my char can.
 
Black Hand said:
necchi said:
spudnut said:
Does blue jeans material work for char?
Nope. Any "clothing" fabric will not make good char cloth. New or used.
Clothing fabric is treated with "Flame retardant",, meaning that even if flame touches it,, it will extinguish,, or at least not spread quickly.
(it doesn't matter how many times you wash it,, it's a chemical treatment at production)
That's bad news when you wanna catch a spark.
My experience showed otherwise...
The denim from a pair of well-worn Levi's worked just fine for me.


That's been my experience too. I'm not sure what the people claiming it doesn't work well are doing wrong. I have made many batches of char cloth with denim (inexpensive Wranglers). Its one of my favorite materials. It takes a spark easily and since the materials fairly thick it increases the heat compared to thinner materials. That makes starting a fire with less than ideal tinder materials much easier.

Since its thicker and tightly woven the center will often not "char" as much as the edges. The first time I made char with denim I tested a piece (as I do with any material) and as the smoldering edge came in contact with the less charred center the char cloth alone burst into flame. I've never had thinner material do that. Like I said before that can be a big advantage in less than ideal conditions.
 
just made another nice batch from old holey T-shirt.....about to cut up more of my old foundry shirt (100% cotton, untreated, meant to burn away clean from the wearer) because it made EXCELLENT C/C.
 
Wait a minute....are you sure it was a T-shirt?....Some guy was telling me you cant use T- shirts....they are flame retardant.... :haha:

Joking!..... :wink:

T- shirts work fine...Punkwood is """"awesome""""
I just made a barrel full of charcoal the other day.....Fire up the grill :wink: ....When July hits and the weather dries...I'll go looking for punkwood and harvest a bucket or two from a rotten tree...
 
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