How To Make: Fire Torches?

[iamjam]

Hello chaps!

I'm off into the wood this weekend to brave the cold.

Instead of whipping out the old Maglite i'd like to light the way with flame instead.

Do any of you have experience with building a Fire Torch in the past?

- What would be the best material for the wick?
- What flammable wax/liquid should the material be coated in?

Cheers

James

 

[Bushcraftsman]

I dont know about a full blown torch but you could make simple candles using the sap from pine trees? burns really well and smells good too

 

[_scorpio_]

Yep, made one when i was 8, methylated spirits and an old dishcloth. ended in a burning hedge. just use a torch, less forest fires that way.

 

[Daegurth]

made one a year ago in a "i'm bored, let's make something" kitchen raid from a wooden spoon, lamb and beef fat (drained from a couple of dinners' mince) and kitchen roll as a wick. burned bright for 10, maybe 20 minutes- we only used one layer of fatty kitchen roll too.

i fancy doing it again but impregnating an entire toilet roll with melted fat, and fashioning some kind of holder that goes through the tube.

they do lose a fair few flaming droplets though, i dunno if it'd be suitable for woodland unless it was a pretty wet day.

edit: found a pic, although the flash doesn't do it justice:

 

[Bushcraftsman]

i've had the exact "bored, make something" moment aswell, wierd how it usually involves fire especially when I got my firesteel for the first day! i've got about 3 burnt holes in the outside windowledge (looks alot like your windowframe actually...Barrat house?) and mum is definitely not best pleased

EDIT:and one of them is from a small piece of magnesium ribbon taken from the Science department at school

 

[iamjam]

Cheers guys.

It's pretty soggy everywhere so I think i'll be safe. I'll let you know how I get on...

 

[Toddy]

If you find a forked branch of suitable length, and if perchance it's got three branches coming from it, it's better. Then you might cake the top in clay to form a kind of safe 'cup'. Fill this with dry moss and piptoporus betullina. Pour melted wax or hard fat over these. Light the torch and it'll burn for oh at least twenty minutes.

Alternatively soak an old teatowel in whatever fat or wax you can get hold of and wrap it securely around and into a cleft green stick. Light it and again it'll burn fine for about twenty minutes or so.

The trick is to keep the flames and melted hot stuff at the end of the stick and not dropped off all over you and the woodlands.

Originally they were made with green sticks wrapped in pitch or tar soaked cloth rags. Hellishly sooty things.

Play safe

cheers,
Toddy

 

[dorkingbushcraft]

get a long thin stick split the top in half then get a load of birch bark and fold like a fan have it about 3 inches wide and as long as you can make it then the place in stick and bind the top of the split to hold then light