What would our ancestors have used instead of charcloth?

[Stanleythecat]

We were out playing in the wood yesterday and James (FreddyFish, from this site) made some charcloth for use with flint and steel. So we started wondering; what would our ancestors have used instead of charcloth?

Are there naturally occuring materials that can be easily sourced (maze gill for instance, whilst good, does not appear often in our locality) that would either take a spark or could be charred successfully and kept?

I would like to ban matches and lighters from our!

Leo

 

[Bushwhacker]

Probably fungi like horses hoof or Alfred cakes.

 

[Shewie]

Probably birch bark and dry grasses too

 

[JonathanD]

I bet they used small pieces of charcoal from old fires too.

 

[Toadflax]

I asked the self-same question some time ago. Here's the thread: http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22252&highlight=charcloth

I'd suspect any time after the invention of woven cloth, as the simplest charcloth is just cloth that has been scorched over a fire (and stamped out if it flares up).


Geoff

 

[forestwalker]

Fomes fomentarius is the one I use most. Even fairly late woven sloth was fairly expensive (imagine growing the flax, retting, "breaking" and combing the fibres, spinning the yarn, finally weaving the fibres, just in order to burn it. Assuming that linnen will work. Chopping up a F. fomentarius, soaking it it urine or boiling in lye, drying and softening is *easy*.

On this note I managed to waste some of my tinder the other day. I somehow got a spark into the bag with flint, steel and tinder, and only noticed after a moment that there was smoke comming out of the bag...

 

[Hedgehog]

Well dried Cramp ball, Birch Polypore & Artists fungus (without boiling in lye - this just improves it by de-naturing the carbon) will all ember from flint/chert & Iron Pyrites as well as traditional steels given the right technique & a little patience.