Fire from wood punk

[Jeff Wagner]

I did the unassisted ( meaning, no blowing involved ) fire from punk today. The coal was lit from punk using a fire piston and then tranferred to larger pieces of punk. The amount of punk used was about two handsfull. While it took 11 minutes for the smoldering pile to finally burst into flame, the amount of skill, effort and attention required was actually rather minimal. Once the coal is established, its merely a matter of feeding it while the coal grows. With training and a little experience I think a child or an incapacited adult should be able to do this. I have done the same in the dead of winter, building the fire directly on packed snow using punk collected from a dead stump.

I have new video management software and will attempt to get this into a viewable format. Simon - I may require your expertise....

 

[Simon E]

Can't wait. I have never had much luck with punk, but I suspect that the stuff I was handnt broken down enough.

Do you have experiece with all sorts of wood and do some perform better/easier that others?

 

[Ogri the trog]

Jeff, Simon,
This, I can't wait to see!

Nice going both of you.

Ogri the trog

 

[OldJimbo]

It's usually too damp here to use directly - but wood punk charred in a sealed can is super.

 

[British Red]

Yup, I'm with Jimbo on this one. I'm sure its possible from found punkwood but the rot that creates it leaves it damp as rule (for sure you can dry it in the airing cupboard or whatever). My trusty kiwi tin comes with me now though and as I run short of tinder, or if I'm in a "no birch bark or clematis" area, I kick a few fallen logs till I find a nice soft one. Baby charcoal burn later and I have some really fine, airy charcoal which will catch flint and steel sparks as well as ferrocium. The one thing I have noticed is that it can be difficult to manage the coal as it is very powdery. When using charcloth, I tend to clamp the cloth to the flint. When using charred punkwood, I put the charcoal straight into the nest (on a dry leaf often to contain it) and strike sparks onto it. Little bit more tricky, granted, but almost infinitely extendable.

Red

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Punk collected from the ground will be too wet to use as is. Look instead to standing trees and stumps. Even in a downpour its possible of find punk dry enough to carry a coal from the heart of a standing dead tree. While my area may not be a rainforest its far from a arid environment.