Rainy day char cloth.

[Mr Mac]

I had a visit from a friend of mine who is studying ancient cultures.
​

Lucy has recently returned from a dig out in Texas and is keen on carrying out some hands on experiments with stone tools.​

Next week we will take a length of Birch, and using fire, shorten it to a length suitable for a long bowl, much like a sour dough bowl, long and shallow.​

Her professor will make up some late stone age flint tools, an adze and blades.​

With these tools we shall see what can be carved and how.​

I am going to have to set a good fire on Monday morning.​

I want to use a technique that I have not tried before.​

Flint and steel...​

Although this technique has nothing to do with the time period we are studying, it is a technique that I have not used before.​

To coax a relatively cool spark from the steel into life, I will need something called char cloth.​

I ripped my knee through my best (100%) cotton trousers last week, so I have an abundance of suitable material to make plenty of charred cloth.​

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The weather is pretty grim at the moment, so instead of using a conventional fire out doors, I decided to process the cotton in the firebox of my old range.
Full story at:- http://spooncarvingfirststeps.blogspot.com/












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[Gotte]

Those are beautiful spoons. Wish I had your skill.

 

[Mr Mac]

Thank you Gotte...It takes time...J;-)

 

[Toddy]

I really like using flat ended spoons like that for cooking That's a useful looking stash

I have a bowl made like the one you describe. Warthog1981 made it for me a few years ago. It's absolutely sound.
I used the same technique when working with children (iron & bronze age activities) I burned the bowl the night before and gave the children an assortment of tools to use to scrape out the charring. Surprisingly we found that the flint scraper was most effective

It's fun to do, but incredibly messy

cheers,
Toddy