I had to share this...
I got a fire going last night using my Firesteel and some charcloth.
I had some washcloths (12 for $3) that work amazingly well for making charcloth. I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to make some more charcloth.
I had an empty quart paintpan, and I thought, "I can make a ton of charcloth in one batch in that thing rather than using my Altoids tin!"
Side note: The Altoids tin works well.
I punched a small hole in the lid, burned off the detritus in the can, let it cool, filled it up with squares cut from the washcloths, and set it in the embers.
Smoke came jetting out of the hole, as usual. The can was on its side (so that I could roll it in the embers every so often to ensure even charring), and the jet of smoke coming out of it was shooting right onto a bed of embers. Initially, I thought that was intriguing - A sort of self-promoting fire. After about ten minutes or so, though.... BLAM! The lid popped off of the can and, you guessed it, the charcloth inside all caught a spark.
Rats.
I tried it again, this time, aiming the plume of smoke away from the embers. Again, after a short time, BLAM! Luckily, I caught most of the cloth inside before it could catch a spark.
I proceded to make the hole larger, and that worked the third time.
Oddly, the charcloth from my Altoids setup seems better than the paint can method.
Where do we stand on sealing the hole in the can whiel it cools? I've seen (and done) it both ways (leaving it open/closing it) and haven't seen much difference between the charcloths by either method. In my mind, if I don't need to jam a nail/wahtever into a small hole in a hot tin, then I'm not going to.
Doc
I got a fire going last night using my Firesteel and some charcloth.
I had some washcloths (12 for $3) that work amazingly well for making charcloth. I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to make some more charcloth.
I had an empty quart paintpan, and I thought, "I can make a ton of charcloth in one batch in that thing rather than using my Altoids tin!"
Side note: The Altoids tin works well.
I punched a small hole in the lid, burned off the detritus in the can, let it cool, filled it up with squares cut from the washcloths, and set it in the embers.
Smoke came jetting out of the hole, as usual. The can was on its side (so that I could roll it in the embers every so often to ensure even charring), and the jet of smoke coming out of it was shooting right onto a bed of embers. Initially, I thought that was intriguing - A sort of self-promoting fire. After about ten minutes or so, though.... BLAM! The lid popped off of the can and, you guessed it, the charcloth inside all caught a spark.
Rats.
I tried it again, this time, aiming the plume of smoke away from the embers. Again, after a short time, BLAM! Luckily, I caught most of the cloth inside before it could catch a spark.
I proceded to make the hole larger, and that worked the third time.
Oddly, the charcloth from my Altoids setup seems better than the paint can method.
Where do we stand on sealing the hole in the can whiel it cools? I've seen (and done) it both ways (leaving it open/closing it) and haven't seen much difference between the charcloths by either method. In my mind, if I don't need to jam a nail/wahtever into a small hole in a hot tin, then I'm not going to.
Doc
