How to make Flame Torches

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L

longmd00

Guest
I was watching Ray Mears, Bushcraft last night and he was wondering around with a massive flame torch (not sure if that's the correct terminology but it was a flame on a stick).

It seemed to burn for ages, can anyone tell me how I can make one of these?

Cheers
Dave
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Realgar said:
I'll get some pitch forks and we can head on up the castle.
You never get a decent mob these days.....

I'm working there....and they use gas powered ones now :cry:
Seems you can even buy the fittings quite easily....the LRP people love them :?:

Toddy
 

match

Settler
Sep 29, 2004
707
8
Edinburgh
tomtom said:
if your guys are after a non too bushcraty one.. you can just bind a stick in oil lamp wick and soak it in a flamible liquid!

Much experience of making these for the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh (shameless plug) :)

Some important things to remember:

Firstly, always use a natural material for wicking, such as cotton - don't use plastic materials such as nylon :yikes:

Secondly, its often worth covering the material with something like chicken wire to hold it in place - if its not too windy, a torch with a head of football size cotton, and a stem diameter of 6-10cm will burn for nearly an hour if soaked overnight beforehand in paraffin - however, if you don't bind the materail on with something non-flammable the head just drops off after your knots burn through :)

Thirdly, don't use a wooden stem less than 6cm in diameter for a torch, for the same reason as given above!
 
match said:
Much experience of making these for the Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh (shameless plug) :)

Some important things to remember:

Firstly, always use a natural material for wicking, such as cotton - don't use plastic materials such as nylon :yikes:

Secondly, its often worth covering the material with something like chicken wire to hold it in place - if its not too windy, a torch with a head of football size cotton, and a stem diameter of 6-10cm will burn for nearly an hour if soaked overnight beforehand in paraffin - however, if you don't bind the materail on with something non-flammable the head just drops off after your knots burn through :)

Thirdly, don't use a wooden stem less than 6cm in diameter for a torch, for the same reason as given above!
Not sure I'd fancy carrying that around for an hour though, must weigh a fair bit :yikes:

By the way, if you're not going down the bushcrafty route, but you just want a torch, you can get kevlar wick from various sites like home of poi it's used for fire staffs and poi. If you have a look around the site, you'll find some plans for staff and poi that can be adapted very easily for a torch
 

match

Settler
Sep 29, 2004
707
8
Edinburgh
Motorbike Man said:
Not sure I'd fancy carrying that around for an hour though, must weigh a fair bit :yikes:

Yep - they're fairly heavy, although not as bad as you think... and if you're sticking them in the ground to light a campsite then they're fine.

By the way, if you're not going down the bushcrafty route, but you just want a torch, you can get kevlar wick from various sites like home of poi it's used for fire staffs and poi. If you have a look around the site, you'll find some plans for staff and poi that can be adapted very easily for a torch

Ahh, you're stumbling onto my other hobbies now :) Remember that theres a general rule of max 3 minutes per foot burn time for torch wick - i.e if you wrap a metre or wick around a torch head, you can expect it to burn for at most 10 minutes. And thats if its not being spun round your head... cue blatant opportunity to post a pretty pic of me

mattpoi.jpg
 

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