Flint and Steel - anyone tried bamboo and china?

[mick miller]

So, I'm reading an old book right now, and one particular sentence had me thinking.

"The Malays having neither flint nor steel ingeniously substitute for the flint a piece of broken chinaware, and for the steel a bamboo joint, and they produce a spark by striking the broken china against the joint of the bamboo, just as we do with the flint and steel"

Now I know that bamboo isn't found growing wild in the northern hemisphere so it's no surprise that this method isn't commonly used this side of the equator. But I'm intrigued to know whether anyone else had tried it, and if so how successful it was, or whether anyone else had read this too.

It's not a nugget of info that I've read about any place else. There is another potential gem of info that I have yet to read about elsewhere too, but that's for later tonight when I've done with my days pixel bashing.

 

[PatrickM]

Their are many alternative materials that can be used within percussion fire lighting apart from the usual culprits of flint & iron pyrites etc.
The bamboo and quartz technique is something I want to explore further when I go back to Borneo/Brunei at the end of November.

Drop me an email in February and I will share my findings

 

[mick miller]

Thanks Patrick, I'll make sure I do so. For my own part I'm going to try with a chunky piece of bamboo from the garden centre and a bit of broken crockery. I'm intrigued to find out how successful it is.

It might be a nice idea to compile a list of materials or combination of materials from which a spark can be created, I'll see what I can do my end.

 

[ZDP-189]

You're kidding? Bamboo and China/ quartz?

 

[mick miller]

That's what he wrote, bamboo and a piece of broken chinaware, no kidding.

It's in Daniel Beard's Campcraft book, I'm inclined to think the statement is correct as everything else in the book seems thoroughly researched or as used by the author frequently. Although I've never heard or read of this combo anywhere else.

It's a great book with some interesting fire lays described to boot.

 

[Wayland]

Sounds intriguing.....

 

[Mistwalker]

It sounds very interesting. I found something on it in the encyclopedia Britanica here

http://books.google.com/books?id=lv...&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

You'll want to zoom in a few times, just over half way down on the right collumn on page 399 which should be the page it takes you to

 

[mick miller]

Hmmm, doesn't work for me for some reason.

 

[Tadpole]

So, I'm reading an old book right now, and one particular sentence had me thinking.

"The Malays having neither flint nor steel ingeniously substitute for the flint a piece of broken chinaware, and for the steel a bamboo joint, and they produce a spark by striking the broken china against the joint of the bamboo, just as we do with the flint and steel"

Now I know that bamboo isn't found growing wild in the northern hemisphere so it's no surprise that this method isn't commonly used this side of the equator. But I'm intrigued to know whether anyone else had tried it, and if so how successful it was, or whether anyone else had read this too.

It's not a nugget of info that I've read about any place else. There is another potential gem of info that I have yet to read about elsewhere too, but that's for later tonight when I've done with my days pixel bashing.

There is a member (galemy) on the forum that posted a video of the sparks from a bamboo being struck with a flint, not sure if that counts towards that which you seek. flint and bamboo post 96

 

[mick miller]

Hah, a google search turned up this...someone else has tried before!

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10517&page=3

EDIT- Thanks Tadpole! Pretty much the same thing, a must try now!

 

[Ivan]

You must have missed the earlier Bushcraft thread which was posted with a fire thong thread. Both bamboo and flint and bamboo and porcelin were traditional used in Malasia in place of flint and steel. I have successfully started a fire with bamboo and porcelin. Very difficult. You need a certain kind of bamboo and the best possible tinder.

 

[Tadpole]

there is an BCuk article on the subject

bamboo and the quest for fire


temiang bamboo

 

[mick miller]

Thank you all, I must have missed that thread. Time to have a good read through now.

 

[Galemys]

Hi all,

yes, it can be done but not with just any bamboo. Normal bamboo has some silicate in it´s walls but there are some species that have a very much higher content of it.

Together with BOD and Ed4sobrevivencia I have been trying to do some research on this relatively unknown method. Ed harassed some bamboo specialists, BOD did the dirty work in the field (Borneo and Malaysia) and I just read some books

We found the method mentioned in several 19th century travelogues concerning SouthEast Asia. It is described from Borneo, the Southern Philippines, the Moluccan islands and the Western part of New Guinea. There are reports from the mainland of South East Asia as well. And also reports from the 20th century, in the nineties a tribe in New Guinea, specialized in making polished stone axes, was still using this method as was reported (and filmed and released on DVD) by the French scientists couple Petrequin.
There are etnological musea that have bamboo strike-a-lights in their collection but some of them don´t recognize it as such, describing it as a ´bamboo tube for keeping firestarting material´, ignoring the strike marks on the outside.

BOD found some tribal members on Borneo that still remembered this bamboo percussion method of firestarting and he was shown which special kind of bamboo was used. The bamboo genus Schizostachyum has thin walled culms with a long length between the nodes. Some of the species have a very high silicate content in the culms and this is probably the reason why sparks can be created when struck with a piece of flint or pottery.

Ed has got some bamboo from mainland Malaysia and managed to make fire with it, he has filmed a short clip of it. I have got some of the magic bamboo from Borneo and it took me nearly a year to make fire with it! The reason is that this method needs very sensitive tinder to work and that making sparks is easy but they are very hard to direct (they don´t ´fly´ with my piece of bamboo). My normal charcloth made of jeans wouldn´t work and I finally succeeded after making a fresh batch of charcloth with finer material.

So if there are any questions about this method, shout it out in this thread, maybe BOD, Ed or I can answer them.

Cheers,

Tom

PS I have the French article by Roussel on this firestarting method mentioned in the other thread and can send it to anyone interested (just PM your E-mail address).

PSPS PatrickM, if you are travelling to Borneo I suggest you contact BOD or Stuart for detailed information.

PSPSPS Ivan, where did you get your bamboo?

 

[mick miller]

Thanks for your reply Galemys. The question came about after reading Daniel Beard's book, where in one passage he described this method although the detail was lacking.

 

[Ivan]

>PSPSPS Ivan, where did you get your bamboo?

I found a US importer of bamboo poles of various types. They had some from the Philipines that proved to be S. lima. I bought a bunch. It makes a lot of sparks, but as it was said they do not fly far. I tried some char cloth which I use in my fire pistons and could not get it to work. Then I used some other tinder which Ed made using a secret recipe and struck a fire without much difficulty. Ed also discovered it's not a stricking motion as in flint and steel, but more of a long quick scratch. Truly amazing.

 

[Ed4sobrevivencia]

http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg128/depth-of-field/Primitive%20Fire/

The videos I posted may help explain things.

The source of all sources is Walter Hough's book 'Fire as an Agent in Human Culture."
Better are the people BOD is finding and interviewing!!! Great work BOD! I just may join you to help document the technique but I'd need to spend some time with a dictionary first

 

[BOD]

A timely reminder to send you the S. iraten DNA Ed!

 

[mick miller]

Thanks for that Ed!

 

[Oblio13]

I wouldn't have thought this was possible. Makes you wonder how it was discovered.