Too lazy to make charcloth?

[match]

Well then have a look at this ebay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7133355012

Well, its certainly enterprising! ):

I'll be watching it to see if there are any buyers...

 

[Paganwolf]

People will buy it you can bet on it :roll: !!!!! unreal eh :shock:good find perhaps we should have a silly deal thread, that ones top of the pops IMO :rolmao:

 

[Kim]

Perhaps you could sell, 'pre charred' charcloth, and then charcloth 'charred'.

):

 

[Squidders]

we should go in and undercut them!

 

[bambodoggy]

No doubt I'll get shouted at for this.....but.... I've never seen the point in char-cloth.....

I mean....if you've gone to all that trouble to make the darn stuff and then carry it in a waterproof container and kept it dry.... why on earth would you not have bought yourself a box of matches as well....?? ?? ?? :?:

I can see from a re-enactors point it would be used but that's about it....

Right....better run for cover now.... :tapedshut

 

[Goose]

You seen what else the seller has sold in the past?

POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE

AMMONIUM NITRATE

POTASSIUM NITRATE

ACTIVATED CHARCOAL

SODIUM NITRATE

I dont know a lot about chemistry but with that stuff you wouldnt need charcloth!

 

[bambodoggy]

Typicle Ebay....you can sell enough chemicals to blow up a small town but not an air rifle....in case you go mad and shoot people!!!! :?: Nice :biggthump

 

[Goose]

Oops, disregard my last, it was a seller to her I was looking at. Need to read things twice before making a pillock of myself!

 

[Squidders]

I'm not with Phil :sulkoff:

But its practicality does confuse me a little, there's plenty about that is just as easy to light and matches and lighters. Charcloth just seems to be stuck in the middle blushing in between friction fire lighting and firesteel/matches.

 

[bambodoggy]

I'm not with Phil :sulkoff:

Go on.....admit it....you're with me 100% on this! lol :Crazy_071

 

[arctic hobo]

I'm not with Phil :sulkoff:

I am I mean, bushcraft to me includes fire by friction because when say you woke up in the middle of Siberia with nothing but what you stood up in then you'd have to use this or a similar method; but it's not about using old/outdated/inefficient/useless (gone too far now haven't I) methods... as he says, if you're going to bring things with you then bring matches or a lighter :?:
I'm sure to be shouted at but it's just my point of view :wave:

 

[steve a]

Flint and steel + charcloth is a reliable way of making fire ( try putting a piece of charcloth out after you have lit it), you also need to learn what tinder to use, how to buff it up, and how to blow an ember to fire from the tinder bundle, so its a bit more skillfull than matches or lighter and more to the point it's a lot more Fun.
Kids love sparking too, my lad learnt at Ashdown how to blow a flame from a bundle after sparking his charcloth on flint and steel and added another first to his weekend list, I don't think we would have got such a silly grin if he had used matches or a lighter.

 

[khimbar]

Isn't this missing half the point of charcloth, which to my mind is the making of it.

It's an excuse to have a fire and when SWMBO asks why you're having one you can actually supply a reason for once.

 

[zambezi]

Ashdown was my first opportunity to try the steel, flint and charcloth routine. Beginners luck perhaps, but the stuff ignited on the 2nd or 3rd strike! I have purchased matches that defy ignition for longer.

I may have to invest in a steel and flint next...

 

[match]

A lot of the time we bushcrafters make charcloth and carry it around with us because we'd prefer to use alternatives to matches/lighters - it somehow seems more fitting to achieve fire by a more traditional technique to me! :?:

However, charcloth is exceptionally useful even if you have matches, as it is effectively windproof, and the heat from a match that might go out very quickly is usually enough to get it glowing. Bear in mind also that once you have a fire going you can make charcloth very easily with little or no materials - simply take scraps of material from clothing etc, surround with some leaves to keep it clean and bury it in the ground next to the fire, then move the fire over it - the heat should pass through the soil and create charcloth - the ground acting like the tin we usually use.

 

[Furface]

IMHO going straight to friction fire can be very demoralising for someone just learning, so charcloth can be a great way to keep their entheusiasm, while they learn to transfer an ember to a tinder bundle.
The fact it is so easy to make (especially with the copper pipe mentioned in another thread) is another bonus which can really build confidence.

Either way, buying ready ready made char is hmmmmm...... :rolmao:

 

[bambodoggy]

Certainly some very valid points there....so just to be a pain I'm going to be pedantic.....

Steve, it's great that your young-un did that but wouldn't it have been just as great to see him use the firesteel to light a natural tinder....birchbark for example or some other natural type, fungus maybe? (Please understand, I'm not distracting from your lad's success...just saying that he could have had the same success with a natural tinder and maybe been even more chuffed with himself).

Khimbar, I am very lucky in that I have a wood burning stove at home (actually I'm not lucky...I paid for it and I installed it coz I wanted it..lol) and as I've disconnected the central heating.... SWMBO is the one chasing me to light the fire whenever possible! lol

Furface, very fair point but neither me nor Hobo are saying to go straight to friction (well I wasn't anyway)...just that you can use natural tinder (see my reply to Steve above)

Match, if I'm in the middle of knowhere and need a fire the last thing I want to do is start ripping up my clothes to make charcloth!!! Ok, apart from that I haven't got a response to your other points....lol... it is usefull for practicing the ember blowing to a flame thing...

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm well impressed with how charcloth works and think it's a great idea in principle.... I just have issues with it being neither one thing or the other:
1)If it's a back to basics things then use natural tinder too.
2)If it's a get the fire started at all costs thing use a lighter.

Hope that wasn't too pedantic.....I am playing devil's advocate a wee bit but it is more or less my opinion.

I carry a firesteel and use it to light my fires pretty much all the time, I can bow drill a fire but I'm no expert and lets face it, it can be hard work (see...I'm really not an expert)... but I have never used charcloth...

Oh well, that's me....time to duck again... :wave:

 

[Andy]

I use it becasue it last so much longer then a match. The wind just makes it glow hotter and it works better in rain too.

Often it's just a case off

BECASUE WE CAN

 

[Pict]

Charcloth to me is one of those traditional things that most people have forgotten about, like the fire piston. I'm afraid historically speaking that the match did them both in.

I sealed a piece of charcloth in plastic and taped it inside my binocular case. It lights easily with an unscrewed lens. I left it there more for demonstration purposes than any real survival need. It is kind of cool to start a fire with your binoculars though. Mac

 

[steve a]

Bambodoggy, I agree that using the firesteel and natural tinders gathered from the area is important, in fact he did that as well, using birch bark scrapings and also shedding bark, the fact is he , like many kids and adults is a pyromanic and the more methods he has in his skill base the more able he will be. Apparently and I have no idea where he got this from, if he continues to learn and learns well he is going to grow up and be an instructor for a bear ??????????? or so he reckons he was told.
At the end of the day, its just fun, having more than one method of firelighting is just skill building, I always carry a lighter, firesteel, matches,flint and steel, and yet often I will make myself a bow drill, go figure :shock: :rolmao: