Making charcloth

[Everything Mac]

Hi all - had a go at making some charcloth today.

I used an old tea towel and a steel I had left over from my last batch. (throws very good sparks)

However - the stuff does not catch. period.

I know the sparks are landing on the cloth, they take for a split second and then go out. - it even struggles with sparks from a ferro rod.

So...wrong material?

Andy

 

[milius2]

Not enough charring?... I have had different results with the same shirt. Maybe that's the case. The thinner and blacker it gets the better...

 

[mountainm]

Was the tea towel cotton? I did it with a 100% cotton t-shirt and got brilliant results. I stuffed a small round tin (with a hole) packed full and left it in the edge of a fire for about 15 minutes

 

[launditch1]

Maybe wrong material..was it 100% cotton?Could also be you didnt cook it for long enough?Was it totally black or a sort of burnt brown colour?

*must type faster!*

 

[Everything Mac]

It was totally black, I thought I hadn't done it long enough so I gave it another 5 minutes.

I'm not sure about the material. I reckon it must of had some man made material in with it.

I'll give it another go with some 100% cotton.

 

[roy1]

Hi Andy when I make it in bulk for using with groups I use yellow dusters which you can buy from B&M for under a quid x 10. Cook it till the smoke stops then plug the hole, it takes the smallest of sparks, good luck.

 

[Everything Mac]

Good idea roy - I'll give that a go.

Andy

 

[gregor-scott]

denim makes awesome charcloth, I bang my tin on the fire until I see a flame come out the hole then plug it and take it off the fire, I leave it to smoulder till it's cold, it should be totally black and I would describe it as brittle?! mostly I use 100% cotton but like i said denim is excellent if you have some spare. oh and also don't fill the tin with too much cloth.

 

[HHazeldean]

My preferred material for charcloth is dish cloths. They work a treat and are very cheap to get hold of (like 30p for 5).

I also make mine in an old lyles golden syrup can with a hole punched in the top, these are great.

 

[Silverhill]

I'll let you into a little secret here, although I'm sure someone will have stumbled to a similar conclusion:

Firstly, as others have suggested, any 100% cotton will do although the final texture of the charcloth will resemble the initial cloth. I find old denim jeans to be very good, although cotton towels and old cotton shirts work very well too.

I use Twinings Tea tins, with a single central hole, placed in a fire, with coals all around and also-on top of the tin. I usually allow the exhaust gases to ignite and have never found the cloth burnt inside the tin.

Once I'm confident that the cloth is charred, I 'don my smithing gloves, remove the tin from the fire and remove the charcloth and place it in a larger tin (small biscuit tin) to cool. Be sure not to decant the charcloth in windy conditions or the cloth will glow dark cherry red, and your hard work will be undone!

My theory behind the last step is that by placing the cloth into a larger tin allows the product to breathe a little, possibly completing charring of the cloth in areas previously untouched by the charring process.

Give it a try and see what you think!

 

[JohnC]

I've had a go and found the same problem, but if I tear the edge of the charcloth to leave a ragged edge with threads, it seems to catch easier..

 

[Bushwhacker]

I 'don my smithing gloves, remove the tin from the fire and remove the charcloth

Ha, I read that as 'smiting gloves' and wondered where I could get some.

 

[nic.]

Hi Andy,

Dusters seem to make the best char cloth,

Other cloths will work but in general If it is black and crispy it won't work to well- I think this is contaminants collecting on the surface. Sometimes if you roll a bit of cloth up the outside bits will be crispy - the good stuff is in the middle it will be slightly grey and flexible like real cloth. This doesn't alter by how much you heat it. In fact the cooking procedure and all variations possible made no discernable difference when I tried it.

Nic

 

[Ogri the trog]

All good stuff here but (to me) one glaring ommission....

Depending upon the previous treatment of the material in question....

By which I mean - if it has been washed repeatedly in hard water, treated with fabric softener, used as a polishing cloth along with silicone polish or used as an "oily rag" in the garage. All will have confusing effects on the resulting charcloth and can either enhance or retard its spark catching ability.

Hope this helps

Ogri the trog

 

[Samon]

I know char cloth is cool and very effective at taking sparks but I've used a different method alot. I grate egg boxes with the zester side of my cheese grater, gets it super fluffy if you have the older type grey boxes. Takes a spark beautifully, is light weight and doesn't smell of anything. just a though if any of you get bored, hope it helps!

 

[markie*mark0]

I know char cloth is cool and very effective at taking sparks but I've used a different method alot. I grate egg boxes with the zester side of my cheese grater, gets it super fluffy if you have the older type grey boxes. Takes a spark beautifully, is light weight and doesn't smell of anything. just a though if any of you get bored, hope it helps!

Thats a really good idea

All good stuff here but (to me) one glaring ommission....

Depending upon the previous treatment of the material in question....

By which I mean - if it has been washed repeatedly in hard water, treated with fabric softener, used as a polishing cloth along with silicone polish or used as an "oily rag" in the garage. All will have confusing effects on the resulting charcloth and can either enhance or retard its spark catching ability.

Hope this helps

Ogri the trog

I didn't think of that, so surely there is something (soaking in Oil) that would help the sparks? we just have to find out what haha

 

[ged]

I find that sacks, old shopping bags etc. made from natural fibres all work well for me, and I even use some old furniture stuffing (probably 50% horsehair I think!) which takes a spark from a firesteel first time every time even if it's been sitting outside for weeks with little more shelter than a tarp. I think the common feature with the materials that have worked best for me is that they've been washed very little, if at all. But not so long ago I sent a sample to someone in the post and he had a lot of trouble with it. The postal service had probably run it under a steamroller or something and it was badly crushed when it got there. Make sure that the cloth is fairly open where the sparks land, not a dense mat, so that plenty of air can get to it. You might need to experiment, because you can go too far. If it's too open the initial heat will just escape, and not propagate into the rest of the fabric.

 

[ged]

... so surely there is something (soaking in Oil) that would help the sparks? we just have to find out what haha

Cotton wool rubbed with a little Vaseline works well. Cotton wool on its own is absolutely fine.

 

[nic.]

All good stuff here but (to me) one glaring ommission....

Depending upon the previous treatment of the material in question....

By which I mean - if it has been washed repeatedly in hard water, treated with fabric softener, used as a polishing cloth along with silicone polish or used as an "oily rag" in the garage. All will have confusing effects on the resulting charcloth and can either enhance or retard its spark catching ability.

Hope this helps

Ogri the trog

Yes Fire retardent fabrics aren't going to be a good starting point! What can enchance the catching properites- I had always had thought that anything that wasn't organic would have a detrimental effect- hence dusters- with the exception of a bit of yellow dye there is no need for anything to be added in manufacture. I did mean new ones, 10 for a pound for guaranteed success seems to good to pass up.

 

[mountainm]

Yes Fire retardent fabrics aren't going to be a good starting point! What can enchance the catching properites- I had always had thought that anything that wasn't organic would have a detrimental effect- hence dusters- with the exception of a bit of yellow dye there is no need for anything to be added in manufacture. I did mean new ones, 10 for a pound for guaranteed success seems to good to pass up.

Funny reading back through this - when I tried it, I stuffed the tin full with cut circles of 100% cotton T-shirt in layers (perhaps this helps?) to ensure there was little oxygen. I thought this means the cloth won't burn but will just char. However I see different advice on here? I also didn't bother watching for the exhaust fumes to stop flaming, neither did I plug the whole in the tin. The tin was small (between shoe polish and travel sweets tin size) and we just chucked it on the fire at the edge in the embers and left it - forgot about it - then returned 15 minutes later and left it to cool.

At the end of the day it worked - So was I just lucky?