- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Okay, this challenge was one that was stimulated by discussions taking place in another thread. The challenge is another fire skill set, but one that is a bit different then what I have seen in the past. Here it goes.
Rick Marchand always recommends that its great to have some charcloth (he also recommends having fine steel wool) in your kit. Charcloth, as everybody knows works great with flint and steel to catch a spark. You then wrap the embered charcloth in jute or a flash tinder and blow it into flame. I think charcloth always gets the short end of the stick when talking about flint and steel because people get excited and focused on generating the spark more so then the real technical advantage of being able to blow an ember into flame. In fact the real advantage is that wind is your ally rather than your enemy in this endeavor.
So, neglecting the flint & steel part, this challenge is to document use of (ignition by alternate method e.g. firesteel or use the sparker from a dead lighter) to ignite charcloth into an ember and then blow wood shavings into flame with that charcloth. Yep - this one is a bit of a bigger challenge and I haven't done it yet but I plan on doing it tomorrow during my walk. So, to clarify, I'm not asking you to blow jute or phragmites fluff or any of the usual natural tinders into flame. I want you to blow wood shavings. This will require a larger swatch of charcloth than you would use for the above mentioned flash tinders. I'm pretty sure it can be done because I have successfully blown fine wood shavings into flame from a bowdrill ember before.
Don't forget to document your achievement (or lack thereof) and consider the question.....Would you now consider taking along a little bit of charcloth in a waterproof container in your kit to help you with those windy situations where a lighter and match might fail?
Good luck and I'll put up my trials tomorrow afternoon.
Rick Marchand always recommends that its great to have some charcloth (he also recommends having fine steel wool) in your kit. Charcloth, as everybody knows works great with flint and steel to catch a spark. You then wrap the embered charcloth in jute or a flash tinder and blow it into flame. I think charcloth always gets the short end of the stick when talking about flint and steel because people get excited and focused on generating the spark more so then the real technical advantage of being able to blow an ember into flame. In fact the real advantage is that wind is your ally rather than your enemy in this endeavor.
So, neglecting the flint & steel part, this challenge is to document use of (ignition by alternate method e.g. firesteel or use the sparker from a dead lighter) to ignite charcloth into an ember and then blow wood shavings into flame with that charcloth. Yep - this one is a bit of a bigger challenge and I haven't done it yet but I plan on doing it tomorrow during my walk. So, to clarify, I'm not asking you to blow jute or phragmites fluff or any of the usual natural tinders into flame. I want you to blow wood shavings. This will require a larger swatch of charcloth than you would use for the above mentioned flash tinders. I'm pretty sure it can be done because I have successfully blown fine wood shavings into flame from a bowdrill ember before.
Don't forget to document your achievement (or lack thereof) and consider the question.....Would you now consider taking along a little bit of charcloth in a waterproof container in your kit to help you with those windy situations where a lighter and match might fail?
Good luck and I'll put up my trials tomorrow afternoon.
The knife he was using for his wood prep was an Iz Turley Green River.
Ken. If that were to ever happen don't post about it lol lol.
