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I found a stump (cedar) with a rotten core and grabbed a handful of the spongy material. This was shredded by rubbing between my palms then charred in a tin until black. I strike my sparks directly into the tin with the charred material. Other types of punky wood will work, but I haven't yet needed to replace my stash made years ago.

If your sparks aren't catching, try charring some more. Sometimes it looks done, but really isn't.
 
Thank you for your advice I will get out to my buddies cedar forest and look for some of that kind of material and also take the material I already have and char it more so I can maybe get it to char.
Thank you again Blackhand. I hope to become very proficient ant making fire the old way.
 
At a 3 day weekend living history event last month,I demonstrating fire making among other things. Over the 3 days, I used only punk wood and it worked great even though it was a damp weekend. I lit 50-60 "bird nests" with no trouble.
Find the right wood, get a good char and it will work.
Mike
 
Being a welder by trade i wear denim, shirts everyday under my leathers. When these shirts get thin and ratty, i cut them into 2" squares to make charcloth. My tin is an empty mink tallow container that i got from TOTW for patch lube. Small hole in top and wrapped with wire(otherwise it will pop open) and it goes in the fire. As the cook for my ml club i can sit and watch the steam. When it starts to blow intermittingly, i pull it off and it's done. Good luck!
 
It seems like we all follow the same process here regardless if we use cloth or punk...create the char in a tin that goes in the fire, then transfer it to our "fancy" carry tin with our flint and steel...

Traditionally did they also carry two tins, or do you think they used their carry tins to also burn in????
 
I use a single tin for charring and carrying. Nothing fancy. I never carry may char in the same container as my flint and steel (any more). It gets destroyed and becomes useless.

Wood (and cloth) was charred by setting it on fire then burying it in ashes/soil. No fancy tin was needed. When cool, it was transferred to some carrying container.
 
VTdeerhunter said:
Thanks for the info BH...I'm gonna try the bury in ashes method...will let you know how it goes
I'm curious to try the method myself. Others have used it with success.

I had a friend strike sparks onto an uncharred punky piece of wood. They caught hold and he used it to start a fire. In winter under somewhat damp conditions. Lots of ways to skin this particular feline....
 
Making charred material is really the same concept used to make char-coal, the PC way. Start a fire, burry it leaving a vent and exhaust hole, and let it burn down. The result is the charcoal blacksmiths used before coal mining.

I carry my char in the same tin as I cook it in. With the hole in the side method, it still keeps moisture out of it.

I also cary two sets of fireworks. The full set inside my haversack, as well as a smaller set inside my shooting pouch in case I get seperated from my haversack. I buy into the theory of not taking off ones horn and pouch, knife and axe, in case of Indian attack. Having a smaller flint and steel set in my shooting pouch still allows me to carry all the essentials on my person, all the time.
 
I bet they had a plain tin and a fancy tin and maybe even a third mediocre tin for events of modest importance, this is subject to the time period that you can find reference to them making char cloth in tins and carrying it thusly and using it to start fires. Anyone have any info on the historical usage/making of char cloth in the 18th or 19th century?:idunno:
 
tg said:
Anyone have any info on the historical usage/making of char cloth in the 18th or 19th century?:idunno:
Nothing from the hardy frontiersmen, but a couple from the townies might interest you. From this country:

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, INCLUDING MORRISANIA, KINGS BRIDGE, AND WEST FARMS, WHICH HAVE BEEN ANNEXED TO NEW YORK CITY. J. Thomas Scharf, A.M., LL.D. L.E. Preston & Co, 1886, p. 457.

Chapter VII MANNERS AND CUSTOMS DURING THE COLONIAL AND PROVINCIAL PERIODS.

Matches were not known; so the tinder-box, with its flint and charred linen rag, did duty.
And from England:

Retrospect of a long life: from 1815 to 1883, Vol. 1, Samuel Carter Hall

Tinder Box was a household god. The “Tinder Box” was the precursor of the lucifer match that can be lit in an instant, and, when quiescent, is enclosed in a case so pretty, that it may be accepted as a graceful gift. Fifty years ago the tinder box was as indispensable as was, and is, the tea-kettle that still sings on the hob---of the kitchen.
As an old acquaintance the tinder box is worth describing. It was, more or less, coarsely ornamental, and of varied forms. Ordinarily, it was an oblong wooden box some six or eight inches long and three or four in width, and was divided into two parts by a partition. In one of these was fitted a loose lid with a central knob, to drop in as a “damper” on the tinder; and in the other were kept the flint, steel, and bunches of brimstone matches. The “tinder” was scorched or half-burned linen rag. The flint and steel being struck together emitted sparks, and then, as soon as a spark had fallen upon and ignited the tinder, the brimstone end of a “match” was applied to it, and lit. The matches were thin slips of deal [fir or pine wood], five or six inches long and, perhaps, a quarter of an inch wide, cut to a point at each end, and dipped in melted brimstone [sulfur]; they were hawked about the country by itinerant vendors. The fumes of the sulphur emitted a scent by no means pleasant to the olfactory nerves: in fact, the stench was strong enough to find its way from the kitchen to the attic of a lofty mansion! From the match thus ignited, a candle was lit-- of mutton fat usually, of “moulds” where greater cost could be afforded.

Spence
 
tg said:
Anyone have any info on the historical usage/making of char cloth in the 18th or 19th century?
Do Gauchos count?

Voyage of the Beagle, published as "Journal and Remarks", by Charles Darwin, describing his stay in the Falkland Islands in 1833:

“The best fuel is afforded by a green little bush about the size of our common heath, which has the useful property of burning while fresh and green. It was very surprising to see the Gauchos, in the midst of rain and everything soaking wet with nothing more than a tinder box and a piece of rag, immediately make a fire. They sought beneath the tufts of grass and bushes for a few dry twigs, and these they rubbed into fibres; then surrounding them with coarser twigs, something like a bird’s nest, they put the rag with its spark of fire in the middle and covered it up. The nest being then held up to the wind, by degrees it smoked more and more, and at last burst into flames. I do not think any other method would have had a chance of succeeding with such damp material.”

Spence
 
Spence, I copied and saved both those primary sources. I think they'll come in handy. Thanks!!
 
Hey Skagan...have you noticed that there is a better time of year to collect the birch tree fungus for fire starting???? I was out this weekend trekking about and broke off a piece...it was mostly black and dried out, very little orange??? Tried about 6 more pieces and saw the same...In the same area back in February they were all filled with orange looking stuff that took a spark great??? We have been really dry here for months, maybe the lack of water?
 
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Ive got a big chunk of the orange stuff but I'll be derned if I can get it to take a spark.Do you pulverise it ?or just try to get a chunk to take?
 
From my research I have found that there are at least four types of fungus that grow in my area on dead birch trees. All of them can be used to catch a spark and are processed the same way.

Break the fungus off the tree, cut off the top hard shell and the lower spores leaving the "meat" of the fungus. Drying it is best, but it will catch a spark right off the tree. You want to fluff up the surface with your knife so it is rough and "fluffy" then spark away. This stuff once caught will smoulder very well for a long time, unlike char cloth that burns quicker, might be a better option for those really wet days when you need some extra heat and time to get your birds nest going.....
 
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