Making Torches

[tomtom]

Abbe... did you get this to work?

did we decide in the end that ray used pine resin.. does anyone have it on tape and can watch it and give us instructions..???

 

[jakunen]

Ok, for another traditional, but less 'do it in the woods' version...

1. Take a load of old rags and cut into strips (if you can get old 3 inch bandages, these are very easy to use and the perfect size).
2. Wrap cloth around end of stick.
3. Soak end of torch in pitch/tallow & oil mix) for a few days.
4. Leave to cure overnight.
5. Light.

Can be a bit smoky, but it adds to the feel.

 

[bambodoggy]

As luck would have it...I happened to watch it on DVD the other day and yes he does use pine resin and a few pine needles (I'm guessing to help act as a wick)...

hope that helps....

 

[tomtom]

thanks guys..

Jak for the ignorant could you explain what "pitch/tallow & oil mix" is?

 

[jakunen]

thanks guys..

Jak for the ignorant could you explain what "pitch/tallow & oil mix" is?

Sorry.

Pitch - either pitch-pine resin harvested from the trees or bought from jewellers suppliers.

Tallow - old form of wax used for candle making. STINKS to high heaven but I use a vegetable tallow from Japan similar to that used for centuries, harvested from the Tallow Tree. The tallow is VERY hard so if you mix it with a light oil such as cooking oil, you get a semi-liquid mixture that burns like animal tallow but a lot less aromatic...using shea (peanut/groundnut) oil gives a pleasant perfume to the smoke.
(I make candles, including historical ones for re-enactors etc, so I've had to do a LOT of research into this...)

 

[Viking]

Abbe, look for what we in sweden call "töre" it´s like maya sticks it will burn a long time and make good torches and take no time to make.

Look in "sumpmark" or on a "mosse" and there you will find pine tree´s where all the barks has fallen of and the tree´s are all grey. Just push them down and collect or find an old pine "stubbe" that is all rotten and that you kick uo from the ground and then cut away all the rotten part and you will only have "töre " left. If you scrape som of it you can even light it with a firesteel.


Sorry about the swedish word, but I don´t know the english ones for them but I hope Abbe understands.

 

[Abbe Osram]

Abbe, look for what we in sweden call "töre" it´s like maya sticks it will burn a long time and make good torches and take no time to make.

Look in "sumpmark" or on a "mosse" and there you will find pine tree´s where all the barks has fallen of and the tree´s are all grey. Just push them down and collect or find an old pine "stubbe" that is all rotten and that you kick uo from the ground and then cut away all the rotten part and you will only have "töre " left. If you scrape som of it you can even light it with a firesteel.


Sorry about the swedish word, but I don´t know the english ones for them but I hope Abbe understands.

thanks for the tip mate, and yes I understood the words.
cheers
Abbe

 

[DOC-CANADA]

cool,
birch bark we have a hell of a lot up here in the north, would be interesting to know how he kept it going for an extended period of time otherwise it will die very soon, and I am running around with the headlight again. I believe too he must have soaked it into something.


//Abbe

If you have a lot of Birch bark available, use it as is. Take a sheet, roll it up into a tight cylinder shape and secure it along its length with bits of cordage. A 18 " torch burns for 15-20 minutes. If you need an hour's worth of light, 4 torches will do it. (When the torch starts getting short, stick it in a split stick.
These torches were called, by some, 'trail torches', presumably because they could be used in the dark to see the trail.

Another type of Birch bark torch, used by First Nations people here in North America, was a 'fishing torch'. Once again, it was just a sheet of Birch bark, this time, folded and stuck in the split of a stick. This whole assembly was then stuck in the gunwales of the canoe sticking over the side of the canoe. They did this because there are always burning bits coming off of the torch and they didn't want to end up with a 'Birch bark CANOE TORCH'

The 'fishing torch' did a couple of things. First, the flames attracted fish to the canoe and, also, provided enough light for the fisherman to see and be able to accurately throw his spear.

When the bark burned down, another piece could easily be inserted into the split stick or another assembly (stick and bark) could be used.

Cherry (Prunus spp.) bark can also be used as torch material as in the first example (trail torches). Ironically, I learned about using Cherry bark from a Ray Mears book. Works well, just a little harder to light.

Hope this helps,

DOC-CANADA

 

[Walkabout]

When you are using cherry bark for the torch, put it in the stick so the top and bottom of the bark (as you look at it on the tree) are sticking out of the sides of the split. Otherwise it curls round and puts itself out. The best bark to use is from dead branches that have fallen and rotted within the bark.

 

[Toddy]

I don't really know about flaming torches; these are really just moveable candles. Patrick Cave-Brown did a fair bit of experimental archaeology on lighting. He ended up using rushes, (the *Not Bullrush* but known as, ones) stripping most of the outer skin off but leaving enough on to act as a spine, and soaking the wick in fat to act like a candle. The best light, and the one that smelled best too, was sheep suet...that's the hard fat that's found around the kidneys, stip the caul off and crush the waxy fat. Haven't tried any other beast's suet, but I can't see why it wouldn't work. A 2' length lit a room for about 25 minutes.
I made a torch from a roll of birch bark stuffed with these rushes and tied tightly around a dead branch. I poured in melted old wax and the whole thing burned for about 45 minutes. By the end it was dangerous to move it though.
Another attempt was clay mouded into a cup in the 3 way fork of an apple branch (it's what I had) lined with moss and beeswax chunks dropped into. I used fomes for the wick. Sort of worked...I could see it working with resin too.
If you're burning cherry be careful, the bark contains cyanide...I fumigated the kitchen boiling some up for dyeing :roll:
Toddy

 

[Kath]

Great idea Toddy. That's a new one on me.

(Used to walk around with flaming torches all the time as a kid! Those were the days... )

 

[Toddy]

Uhuh, Wrapped with polythene that went "zip, zip" as it dropped it's little fiery bombs everywhere :roll: Oh well, we grow up.......and we'd give the kids hell if we saw them playing with things like that now. :?: Just as well, too, that turnips didn't burn very well, wasn't it?
Toddy