Charcloth

Charcloth is a great tinder to be used for the traditional flint and steel method of firelighting. To make it you have to burn cotton and then cut off the oxygen to produce a fibrous, black material. The following tutorial will go into greater detail on how to make charcloth.

You will need the following:

• An airtight container with a lid. An old paint tin is perfect.
• A fire.
• A twig to plug a hole.
• A 100% cotton garment/tea towel etc.

First of all perforate a hole in the lid of the tin so that the twig will be able to plug it at a later stage.

Now pack the cotton material as tightly as possible into the container and press the lid on.  Now place your container into the hot embers of a fire and arrange at approximately 45 degrees. Every few minutes you need to rotate the tin to ensure all the cotton burns. You want thick white smoke to be coming from the hole in the lid and if at any timeyou hear a cracking sound or see black smoke coming from the container you must plug the hole immediately as the gases inside are on fire.

When smoke has stopped coming from the hole the material has burnt and the container should be taken away from the heat and the hole plugged with the stick, and left to cool.

 

The Finished Product!!