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Making char
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Graybeard
posted
Saw an article interesting for making char for fire starting. Instead of pieces of cloth diaper n your tin wrap cotton rope like cloths line round n round to fill your tin, then cook it down same as usual. Tear off a piece n grab your steel. Seems like a good idea n ya have feet of char to use. Interesting idea n best of my knowledge there was cotton rope made so could be historically correct as well, don't know for sure but sure seems like it
 
Posts: 229 | Location: Southeast Pa. | Registered: 03 February 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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I just might have to try that. I have some hemp 3 and 4-ply twine that might do nicely. I make my char cloth on the grill nowadays. I got run out of the house last time I tried it inside. Mrs MountainRanger took umbrage at my work hehe


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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ROTFL yeah they can burn all those fru-fru scented candles but some good ol smoke scent is a BIG no no hahaha. A man's home is ahis castle until he gets home n his castle turns into HER nest. And they let us know it too!!! ;-)
 
Posts: 229 | Location: Southeast Pa. | Registered: 03 February 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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My Marie loves this plug in scent thing that is advertised to smell like Cedar. To me, it smells like the dung cans smelled like overseas when the houseboys would pull them out of the outhouses and then would pour kerosene in them and set 'em on fire. That ain't cedar hehe.


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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A masterpiece of marketing.....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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My wife is a heavy-duty quilter. A while back, I asked her about getting some 100% cotton batting (she normally uses a blend). I now have about 5 yards of leftover batting about 3/16" thick, and was wondering if anyone has tried using this to make char. I haven't had an opportunity as yet.


Part Man, Part Critter
Born under the watch of the Great Spirit
 
Posts: 71 | Registered: 26 April 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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Cotton rope does work good. Just beware of imported cotton rope. Must have oil or something in cotton. It said it was 100% cotton, but didn't work.


"I don't know where we're goin', but there's no sense bein' late." Quigley
 
Posts: 104 | Location: The Beehive State | Registered: 12 April 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Idaho Mountainneer
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Here's an interesting article on making char.
Haven't tried it my self.
http://www.rockymountainoutfit...es/char-without-can/
 
Posts: 330 | Location: Twin Falls ID | Registered: 29 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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I know in the deep South where there's ample Southern Red Ceder, The bark, dried & rubbed between the palms makes a very good fire starter.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Lots of cedar in this part of the country and I like to add some bark to my flint and steel kit (done up exactly as Hanshi suggested)


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I tried my hand at charring punk wood this weekend. It works great! I found some logs in my wood pile that had degraded to the "spongy texture" of punk wood. I broke it up and charred it in the grill in a steel paint can. It caught the spark just as easily as char cloth. You do have to hold it opposite of char cloth. I put it in a tender box and held the steel striker just over the tender. I struck the steel with the flint showering sparks down rather than striking flint with steel to shower sparks up onto char cloth. Give a try.
 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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quote:
Southern Red Ceder

There sure must be a lot of different kinds of woods called cedar.
Around my in the Arkansas Ozarks we have a lot of eastern red cedar and juniper. I'm told they are different but, except for the juniper growing like a bush and the tree like a well....tree, the woods appear identical. Western cedar is another thing altogether. But, I have never before heard of "southern red cedar". Wats it like?
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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quote:
Originally posted by Idaho Mountainneer:
Here's an interesting article on making char.
Haven't tried it my self.
http://www.rockymountainoutfit...es/char-without-can/

This is an interesting article. Thank you for posting the link to it.
 
Posts: 32 | Location: Southern Minnesota | Registered: 24 May 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Mountaineer,I followed your link about making char.Some very good ideas there...I've got a cottonwood stump that has gone to punk...Hmm.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Rifleman, I can't think of a definitive way to describe it but I'll try. Bark is very scaly/ papery. The wood has a lot of red in it and makes beautiful furniture. Small blocks of the wood are often put in drawers with clothes to discourage moths. The shavings are good for terrariums, doggie beds and other uses for better smell. The "bark" makes fine tinder. I grew up around it in Ga and it's also here in Va. Others may offer more descriptives.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I always preferred wild grapevine myself, or old dry wild rose. Wild grapevine is a vine hanging from a tree with a loose bark that appears to be peeling away in small pieces. Easy to peel, but BEWARE it will be hanging FREE of the trunk of the three. Wink

IF it's covered in what looks like fine tendrils grasping the trunk of the tree, and clings to that tree trunk as it goes upward, THAT is POISON IVY and leave it alone. Eeker

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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