Certainly some very valid points there....so just to be a pain I'm going to be pedantic.....
Steve, it's great that your young-un did that but wouldn't it have been just as great to see him use the firesteel to light a natural tinder....birchbark for example or some other natural type, fungus maybe? (Please understand, I'm not distracting from your lad's success...just saying that he could have had the same success with a natural tinder and maybe been even more chuffed with himself).
Khimbar, I am very lucky in that I have a wood burning stove at home (actually I'm not lucky...I paid for it and I installed it coz I wanted it..lol) and as I've disconnected the central heating....
SWMBO is the one chasing me to light the fire whenever possible! lol
Furface, very fair point but neither me nor Hobo are saying to go straight to friction (well I wasn't anyway)...just that you can use natural tinder (see my reply to Steve above)
Match, if I'm in the middle of knowhere and need a fire the last thing I want to do is start ripping up my clothes to make charcloth!!! Ok, apart from that I haven't got a response to your other points....lol... it is usefull for practicing the ember blowing to a flame thing...
Don't get me wrong guys, I'm well impressed with how charcloth works and think it's a great idea in principle.... I just have issues with it being neither one thing or the other:
1)If it's a back to basics things then use natural tinder too.
2)If it's a get the fire started at all costs thing use a lighter.
Hope that wasn't too pedantic.....I am playing devil's advocate a wee bit but it is more or less my opinion.
I carry a firesteel and use it to light my fires pretty much all the time, I can bow drill a fire but I'm no expert and lets face it, it can be hard work (see...I'm really not an expert)... but I have never used charcloth...
Oh well, that's me....time to duck again... :wave: