Making charcloth...

[CrackStock]

Use the BBQ grill outside. Makes Mama happy and you do not have to smell the burnt smell or hear the fire alarm.

CS

 

[fort fireman]

I usually make up a bunch when I have some limbs to burn at the house. make alittle fire( with flint and steel, it good practice) burn up the limbs and when I have a decent ember pile throw the tin with the cloth on it. I'm gonna try my hand at charring some punk wood here soon. I'm ready for a new fire starting challenge. :grin:

Oh the tin I use is just and empty mink oil or shoe polish tin. When that one burns up to the point it doesn't work anymore I'm ussually about done with a new tin.

 

[S.Kenton]

I found a fairly large piece of fungus growing off the side of a hickory tree, while hunting the other day. I am drying it out and hope to try and char it later.. Because of it's size I will probably have to cut the fungus up into smaller pieces. Any thoughts on the fungus?

 

[fort fireman]

I know fungus was and still is used to catch a spark. However I've not really gotten to that point so I'm probably not the best to advise on that. However i to have a couple chunks of horse hoof fungus I found during spring turkey that I grabbed and threw in my bag. I think Im going to give it a try one of these days to advance my skills.

 

[necchi]

That Horse Hoof stuff has to be scrapped to get a powder,
Then the Powder catches the spark.

Powder in a pile, steel stationary in hand and the stone struck too the steel with a downward motion, to throw the sparks down onto the pile of powdered horse hoof fungus.
Kinda backwords of the technique I use for char cloth,,
True tinder fungus off a Birch tree is the cat's meow,, :wink:

 

[S.Kenton]

Im still drying my fungus.. Ill let ya all know how it works when I get back from my Hunting trip. :v

 

[nit wit]

Up here in Maine I use punkwood from sugar maples.
Nit Wit

 

[lonewolf465]

I haven't been to the site for awhile and just stubbled into this thread. Thirty plus years ago, an old flintlock shooter got me interested in the sport. Flint and steel was my first toy I got. He taught me to use an old bulk 35mm film can with a small hole punched into the top. Once the can, filled with old cotton dish towels was heated and started to smoke, he took a match and lit the fumes.I have used this method every since with great results.

 

[JohnN]

But, do you all know how to make char without film cans or Altoid containers ? There were none back then. I learned that if you cut your linen or cotton into long strips and wind it around a green stick and put it into a fire and when it begins to burn you put it out and then cut that piece off and continue the process. Punk wood can be "roasted" and when it begins to burn put it out and it will catch a spark. Thicker material works better.

 

[Billnpatti]

Obviously there were no film cans nor Altoid cans but they were not without metal containers that they could use to make charcloth. They had tin cups, old boilers, and many different metal containers such as old snuff cans or other cans with press fit lids. The list of possibilities goes on and on. So, while your methods may work quite well, they wouldn't be the only way charcloth could be made in the day.

 

[George]

But, do you all know how to make char without film cans or Altoid containers ? There were none back then. I learned that if you cut your linen or cotton into long strips and wind it around a green stick and put it into a fire and when it begins to burn you put it out and then cut that piece off and continue the process.

The old boys figured that out early on. From the Lucar Appendix, 1557:

"But when you will make tinder for a Gunners tinder boxe, take pieces of fustian, or of olde and fine linnen clothe, make them to burn and flame in a fire, & suddenly before the flame which is in the cloth die, choke their fire, & keep their tinder so made in a box lined with clothe, to the end it may not be moyste at any time.'"

Spence

 

[JohnN]

Don't think I said it was the only way and I didn't say there were no other containers to use but most modern re-enactors use film or other modern containers.When I explain to the public how it was made at a demo or event I like to use PC methods.I should clarify that I am talking mid 18th century and before. Were not most of those containers (cups,etc...) tinned ? Would not putting a tinned container without liquid in a fire ruin it ? But it's just another way it can be done without using a container.

 

[boar]

My best tin is a bag balm can with a wire around the middle. Hole in lid& bottom. Put in fire, smoke will come out holes, then the smoke will catch fire, when fire dies out, put plugs in holes. When cool check the cloth, if black and tears, done. If brown cook some more. :thumbsup: Dilly

 

[Claude Mathis]

Were not most of those containers (cups,etc...) tinned ? Would not putting a tinned container without liquid in a fire ruin it?

You won't ruin it if all you use it for is to make and store your charcloth. :wink:

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Use the BBQ grill outside. Makes Mama happy and you do not have to smell the burnt smell or hear the fire alarm.

CS

I char willow in a cookie tin in the BBQ, after about the 3rd time (to get the paint burnt off the tin) I just cover the tin with a loose sheet of tin foil and even cook over it. foil moves the smoke away from the food, willow aint hickery :nono:

 

[JohnN]

You have a point there. I have a few old tin cups I don't think I want to drink out of unless the proof level is high enough.