thistle down

[mountainm]

Tried starting a fire with thistle down this weekend and it burns well, too well! Any tricks to slowing it down a little to give other things chance to catch? Blink and you'd miss it.

M

 

[Wayland]

Crumbling some beeswax into some of it might work.

I had a similar problem with cattail fluff and that did the trick for me.

 

[lannyman8]

or add some small bits of birch bark to the mix, or dead grass etc etc etc...

 

[mountainm]

or add some small bits of birch bark to the mix, or dead grass etc etc etc...

I had some dry grass in their but the flames just consumed the down then dwindled. Think ill double the quantity of both next time

 

[21st century pict]

It’s the same for bog cotton; dandelion seed heads or willow down, just tear some birch bark it in to small thin strips, mix it up together, works a treat every time.