Aloha Gang,
We just finished a long over due camping trip two weeks ago. Can you believe it has been almost six months since our last one? No wonder my wife was telling everyone I was having withdrawals. We have to get in as many outings as we can until soccer season starts up again. My daughter wants "Coach Daddy" so I gotta do what I gotta do. We can no longer skip the occasional game anymore to make our monthly camping quota.
Anyway, enough rambling. I just wanted to share something we tried at camp that I am very happy about. One of my buddies joined us at camp for the first time with his family. We of course, we had to initiate him and his wife. We showed him how to make fire with a ferro rod as well as flint and steel. His wife was also successful with the ferro rod. I showed him a speedy way to make char cloth. I cut out some pieces from a burlap bag, ignited them in the fire, let em burn for a little bit, then buried it in the ashes under the coals for about 20 seconds. Took them out and smothered them so they wouldn't reignite and we had quick expedient char cloth.
But that wasn't the discovery. The cool thing that we discovered was that cotton filler cord that you can buy at Walmart and other places made an excellent vehicle to catch a spark and build a coal. The cord has the exact (to my eye) same cross section as a tinder quick tab. I think the only difference is that the cord isn't coated or saturated with anything. In a future post, I will compare it with a tinder quick.
After we got back home, I took a few pictures. I didn't think to at camp since I was just enjoying my time outside. The cord easily took a spark from a sparklite. And once it was blackened, it took the smallest spark from a flint and steel and formed a large ember to transfer to a tinder bundle.
Here's a large ember from the cord.
At camp, I was putting the ember out by stepping on it which also removes a lot of the char, which hasn't affected performance. But I saw something similar before where the cord was run through a piece of tubing. Then when you are done with the ember, you pull the lit end into the tube and cover it with your finger to smother the coal. I fully intend to carve a tube from a branch of my dragon eye tree, but in the meantime, here it is in an aluminum tubing sleeve.
And an ember from a freshly made whatever you call this thing.
Four of the dads at camp tried it and were successful.
Sunrise at camp.
Goddess on a mountain top?
At one point we had 15-20 kids running around. We were too busy playing. I wish I took more pictures. And our newest camper is four months old.
Some kids playing.
We just finished a long over due camping trip two weeks ago. Can you believe it has been almost six months since our last one? No wonder my wife was telling everyone I was having withdrawals. We have to get in as many outings as we can until soccer season starts up again. My daughter wants "Coach Daddy" so I gotta do what I gotta do. We can no longer skip the occasional game anymore to make our monthly camping quota.
Anyway, enough rambling. I just wanted to share something we tried at camp that I am very happy about. One of my buddies joined us at camp for the first time with his family. We of course, we had to initiate him and his wife. We showed him how to make fire with a ferro rod as well as flint and steel. His wife was also successful with the ferro rod. I showed him a speedy way to make char cloth. I cut out some pieces from a burlap bag, ignited them in the fire, let em burn for a little bit, then buried it in the ashes under the coals for about 20 seconds. Took them out and smothered them so they wouldn't reignite and we had quick expedient char cloth.
But that wasn't the discovery. The cool thing that we discovered was that cotton filler cord that you can buy at Walmart and other places made an excellent vehicle to catch a spark and build a coal. The cord has the exact (to my eye) same cross section as a tinder quick tab. I think the only difference is that the cord isn't coated or saturated with anything. In a future post, I will compare it with a tinder quick.
After we got back home, I took a few pictures. I didn't think to at camp since I was just enjoying my time outside. The cord easily took a spark from a sparklite. And once it was blackened, it took the smallest spark from a flint and steel and formed a large ember to transfer to a tinder bundle.
Here's a large ember from the cord.
At camp, I was putting the ember out by stepping on it which also removes a lot of the char, which hasn't affected performance. But I saw something similar before where the cord was run through a piece of tubing. Then when you are done with the ember, you pull the lit end into the tube and cover it with your finger to smother the coal. I fully intend to carve a tube from a branch of my dragon eye tree, but in the meantime, here it is in an aluminum tubing sleeve.
And an ember from a freshly made whatever you call this thing.
Four of the dads at camp tried it and were successful.
Sunrise at camp.
Goddess on a mountain top?
At one point we had 15-20 kids running around. We were too busy playing. I wish I took more pictures. And our newest camper is four months old.
Some kids playing.
