Sawdust coal extender

[Brian Curnel]

Sorry if this is not new news to anyone here but since I did not see a post I thought i'd take the opportunity to bring it to light (so to speak).

If using char cloth do as normal but once you get a nice glow place it on top of some saw dust. Natural sawdust can be found by wood beetle bores and of course termite damage, but can also be made by rotten wood by rubbing between hands.

Just place the ember on top of the sawdust blow lightly until the dust glows then place on some duff or dried fungi.

For friction type embers the same rule applies...

Hope this helps

Brian

 

[Ed]

Thats an excellent tip, I tend to carry a little dried wood punk for this exact purpose, and perfect for me who only seems to produce a tiny coal from my hand drill....


Ed

 

[Nemisis]

I had a piece of 1/4" Dowel left over after doing a job about a foot long I placed it in my drill chuck and fed it into a pencil sharpener held in mole grips real fast tinder lol
Dave.

 

[Longstrider]

The pencil sharpener idea is a good one. I saw this tip somewhere before. Carrying a good pencil sharpener does not weigh the bag down much, but can provide good tinder from small sticks and twigs much faster than you can often do so with a knife (said the tipster). Don't know about it being quicker than a knife, but it's a good tip. My guess is that one of those aluminium sharpeners with one small and one large opening would be best.

I'm not exactly sure of what you mean by "wood punk", but I'm assuming you mean either pith from the inside of a tree (like you get loads of from the inside of an Elder twig), or semi-rotted wood.
The best material I have found for taking a spark and turning it into a good sized ember, then a flame all in one go is the fibrous layer of pithy material from inside a broken Willow trunk. As long as it's dry this stuff takes a coal or spark brilliantly and can often be all you need to heat a small billy over for a brew.

 

[Nemisis]

The twin hole type is the one I have and I like your idea to use it on small twigs etc the kind of thing you can do while strolling along the one advantage over the knife while might not be speed is even thickness of the tinder.Also good for putting a quick point on a stick.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

I'm not exactly sure of what you mean by "wood punk", but I'm assuming you mean either pith from the inside of a tree (like you get loads of from the inside of an Elder twig), or semi-rotted wood.

Yes, porous, rotten wood. Back when I was a smoker, I accidentally learned about the coal carrying properties of wood punk after attemping to extinguish a cig. I damn near could not extinguish the tree.