Thank you again Graham, Top man. Also thanks Grumit and clcuckow for the link to see what they can do....
chartube tutorial
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g4ghb said:
In general. I've never heard of a 'char tube' before.
EDIT: It's OK - I've seen grumit's link. What a smart idea! I'm definitely going to make one of these. I wonder why I've never seen it mentioned anywhere before - it's such an elegant process.
Request to webmaster: can we get this pdf'd and placed in the 'Tutorial' section?
Great tutorial Graham :You_Rock_
And I have to say that I have used mine, from your first batch, quite a lot - really is a fantastic piece of kit to play with "in the field".
Cheers,
Phil.
And I have to say that I have used mine, from your first batch, quite a lot - really is a fantastic piece of kit to play with "in the field".
Cheers,
Phil.
Hi Graham
Thanks for the great tutorial
.
Got me thinking. I have a fairly large piece of seasoned elder. It is to big for a hand drill but I thought it could be ideal for a Char tube.
Cut up a few pieces and hollowed them out. Then spent most of the night trying to find some decent cotton material.
After a few hours I got some of that yellow cotton cloth you shine your shoes to work. Made up 4 sets with the elder and the cleaning cloth. After priming them they took a spark very easily with the flint & steel. It did take me a while to realise that the wick material needs to lie on top of the flint so as to stop the charred end being broken up by the steel. I will try and get some pics of the sets and post them when I figure out to do that.
Also got some spare pipe and made one to your specs. Very easy to make and worked well with the cloth. Will try it with the wick when I get my hands on some.
Finaly tested it all out on a jute tinder bundle. The thing went up in flames in about 45 seconds. Very impressed
Look forward to trying this out in the field.
I am training up some cadets for their Bronze D of E exped at the end of this month and their project is on Fire making and Shelter making. This will be a good skill that the cadets can learn and use very quickly.
Thanks again for this.
George
Thanks for the great tutorial
.Got me thinking. I have a fairly large piece of seasoned elder. It is to big for a hand drill but I thought it could be ideal for a Char tube.
Cut up a few pieces and hollowed them out. Then spent most of the night trying to find some decent cotton material.
After a few hours I got some of that yellow cotton cloth you shine your shoes to work. Made up 4 sets with the elder and the cleaning cloth. After priming them they took a spark very easily with the flint & steel. It did take me a while to realise that the wick material needs to lie on top of the flint so as to stop the charred end being broken up by the steel. I will try and get some pics of the sets and post them when I figure out to do that.
Also got some spare pipe and made one to your specs. Very easy to make and worked well with the cloth. Will try it with the wick when I get my hands on some.
Finaly tested it all out on a jute tinder bundle. The thing went up in flames in about 45 seconds. Very impressed
Look forward to trying this out in the field.
I am training up some cadets for their Bronze D of E exped at the end of this month and their project is on Fire making and Shelter making. This will be a good skill that the cadets can learn and use very quickly.
Thanks again for this.
George
Just to say thanks very much Joe, mine arrived this morning, got to ignite straight away with my fire steel. can't have had enough protruding, as I couldn't manage to light anything, even cotton wool!! 
Obviously doing something wrong here... The "Wick" what is it? Just cotton tape? Want to match it before I run out. But anyway, enjoyed the snow today, huffing and puffing tryiing to get my new toy to work!!! Thanks again, Andy.. :You_Rock_
Obviously doing something wrong here... The "Wick" what is it? Just cotton tape? Want to match it before I run out. But anyway, enjoyed the snow today, huffing and puffing tryiing to get my new toy to work!!! Thanks again, Andy.. :You_Rock_
Thanks for that, will get some at the weekend, and hopefully get it right this time.. Apologies Graham, Joe? Don't know where my mind is tonight! Thanks, Andy
Hi Graham
Just to let you know that I ran a D of E Bushcraft training expedition at the weekend.
One of the activities involved your Char tubes. I made up 8 sets for the cadets to use.
Sets included:
1) Copper tube (as per your specs) with flat wick
or
Elder tube with yellow duster cloth
2) A couple of pieces of flint
3) Striker (old file or part of a magnesium block with rod)
4) Spare Char cloth in foil
5) 1 shoe polish tin to hold it all
The class was a success with everyone managing to get the charred wick/cloth glowing. From this they used sissal nests with some crumbled cramp balls to get a flame. I used the sissal as it was so wet on the weekend.
This gave the cadets a lot of motivation when it came to the Bow drill class.
When they do their assessment weekend next month they will be using the Char tube for all their fire lighting.
The spare Char cloth was very helpful in a couple of cases where the charred end of the wick was destroyed (it was dark at the time).
Thanks again for an excellent tutorial. As I work for the Seacadets I could relate this to the Slow matches used on warships to fire of cannons.
Cheers
George
Just to let you know that I ran a D of E Bushcraft training expedition at the weekend.
One of the activities involved your Char tubes. I made up 8 sets for the cadets to use.
Sets included:
1) Copper tube (as per your specs) with flat wick
or
Elder tube with yellow duster cloth
2) A couple of pieces of flint
3) Striker (old file or part of a magnesium block with rod)
4) Spare Char cloth in foil
5) 1 shoe polish tin to hold it all
The class was a success with everyone managing to get the charred wick/cloth glowing. From this they used sissal nests with some crumbled cramp balls to get a flame. I used the sissal as it was so wet on the weekend.
This gave the cadets a lot of motivation when it came to the Bow drill class.
When they do their assessment weekend next month they will be using the Char tube for all their fire lighting.
The spare Char cloth was very helpful in a couple of cases where the charred end of the wick was destroyed (it was dark at the time).
Thanks again for an excellent tutorial. As I work for the Seacadets I could relate this to the Slow matches used on warships to fire of cannons.
Cheers
George
I use a bullet case saw off back one has a 1/2 in. wick the other 3/4 wick i pull it inside tube and its got a wood dowel to keep from falling out not very good picture if need a better one p. m. me
I've been wondering if something like that was possible!
Got some copper piping at work too.. and wick.. and all the tools I need.. y'know what... work will be fun tommorrow
Got some copper piping at work too.. and wick.. and all the tools I need.. y'know what... work will be fun tommorrow
Love the idea of the dowel oops! - might have to give that one a try.... I'm always worried that the wick will get pulled completely out if I make it too loose but there is a fine line between being 'safe' and being easy to use and this is probably the answer!
:You_Rock_
:You_Rock_
Found this thread while browsing through my 'continuing education' here
It reminded me of something I bought back in 1986 in Kuwait which I finally dug out and took some pics of. At the time, these were common and could be bought in small sizes (about the width of a cigarette) as well as the larger one I bought which were used to light the communal 'hubble pipes'
It works on the same principle, but I thought it was an interesting variation and worth sharing.
So this is the 'firething'
As you can see there is plenty of 'wick' which has been tied back on itself to shorten the dangle length - there's plenty here and it will last a long time.
This shows the mechanism in more detail. The flint wheel on the side takes a standard lighter flint and the snuffer lid is attached to the outer webbing by a simple hook. This outer webbing seems to be heat resistant and you need to trim it back from time to time.
And again from the side. The wick slides fairly freely in the metal chamber so you just pull it down to bring the lid closed. This starves it of oxygen and extinguishes the glow.
I found it really hard to get a good photo of this glowing, but once the spark has landed on the wick (one or two strikes usually) you simply blow to get it glowing. The windier it is out the easier it is to make fire! This photo doesn't really show just how much heat you can get but it sort of shows the glow...
That's all really - thought I'd share and hope someone found it interesting. If nothing else it will have bumped what I thought was a great thread
It reminded me of something I bought back in 1986 in Kuwait which I finally dug out and took some pics of. At the time, these were common and could be bought in small sizes (about the width of a cigarette) as well as the larger one I bought which were used to light the communal 'hubble pipes'
It works on the same principle, but I thought it was an interesting variation and worth sharing.
So this is the 'firething'
As you can see there is plenty of 'wick' which has been tied back on itself to shorten the dangle length - there's plenty here and it will last a long time.
This shows the mechanism in more detail. The flint wheel on the side takes a standard lighter flint and the snuffer lid is attached to the outer webbing by a simple hook. This outer webbing seems to be heat resistant and you need to trim it back from time to time.
And again from the side. The wick slides fairly freely in the metal chamber so you just pull it down to bring the lid closed. This starves it of oxygen and extinguishes the glow.
I found it really hard to get a good photo of this glowing, but once the spark has landed on the wick (one or two strikes usually) you simply blow to get it glowing. The windier it is out the easier it is to make fire! This photo doesn't really show just how much heat you can get but it sort of shows the glow...
That's all really - thought I'd share and hope someone found it interesting. If nothing else it will have bumped what I thought was a great thread
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