Char Cloth. Lessons learned.

[2die4]

Fun with char cloth.


On the quest to keep expanding my practical survival skills, I decided to spend the first half of my Friday morning making my very first batch of char cloth.

http://s21.postimg.org/w7yh3o7o7/char1.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

Creating fire. The easiest part (so I thought) of the operation turned out to be the hardest. I gathered enough dry wood, and tinder and got to work.

http://s11.postimg.org/z38uvslxv/char2.jpg (http://postimage.org/)
http://s14.postimg.org/dks49n8wx/char4.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

I could not get the fire to stay lit to save my life. After awhile, I got impatient and utilized a bottle of hand sanitizer to “get things going”
http://s10.postimg.org/gioo7y72x/char5.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

[2die4]

With the fire lit, I threw on my first batch of char cloth. Simple enough. Watch the hole in the can. Once it stops smoking take it off and let cool.
http://s7.postimg.org/q460wy93v/char6.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

Finished product took a spark quickly.
http://s14.postimg.org/nr5b6diox/charclothresults.jpg (http://postimage.org/)





Sparked another one up and wrapped it up in my tinder bundle. I blew and blew, all that happened was some singed tinder and me getting bit dizzy.


http://s10.postimg.org/fo6pznom1/charfail.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

Cloth that was used were gun cleaning swabs.





After action report:

Fire making, is not so easy as I thought.
Char cloth is VERY easy to make.
Creating a fire with char cloth, not easy
Practice fire making skills.
Practice even more fire making skills.

[Xzaniel]

Nice post and pics... I use muslin cloth for my char medium. I tried denim before but it didn't work well. I have a 1 qt paint can (bought it empty at home depot) that fits nicely in a field pouch on my web belt, within it I keep my fire starting utensils (flint, steel, wet fire, blast master, matches and cloth charred and uncharred) I'd post a pic but not sure my account is able.

[2die4]

Nice post and pics... I use muslin cloth for my char medium. I tried denim before but it didn't work well. I'll be trying out various types of cloth in the upcoming experiments. Don't want to totally dismiss cotton swatches until I tried another technique with the tinder.

[ElevenBravo]

I *think* cotton is the best? Ive never messed with CC...

Keep us up to date, and dont get dizzy! HA HA! Been there, done that...

EB

[Sniper-T]

Isn't cotton a flame retardant?

[ElevenBravo]

This sheds a little light...

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=char+cloth+best+material&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

HTH,
EB

[Gunfixr]

I've been saving dryer lint for at least a couple years now. Didn't know you could char it.