Char Cloth Recipes

Put torn up strips of denim jeans into a metal conatiner with a metal lid. Mine is an old loose tea tin. Punch a hole in the lid to let the gases and fumes out.
Put the can/tin onto some hot coals and let it smolder for 15 minutes. Let cool and check to see the cloth is totally black and your are done. If the cloth is still brown put it back on a while longer.
Real easy.
 
I agree with Billym's recipe, however here are a few pointers I have picked up while making it:


-Cotton t-shirts work well
-an altoid tin is a good container to make it in
-the char cloth is fully cooked when smoke stops coming out of the hole you poked in the metal
-don't open your container too quickly. Let it cool first, otherwise the sudden rush of air (oxygen) could cause the char cloth to ignite.
 
Good suggestions, all. I like to make up large batches. Start with 100% cotton, cut into manageable sizes, 4x4 inch patches for example. Stack like pancakes, wrap in tin foil, seal and poke a few small ice pick size holes on top, toss on the grill or other outdoor heat source and go about your business. No more smoke, you have grade A char-cloth son. You can tear the finished pieces into whatever size you want, doesn't take much to start a fire, good luck.
 
I have been making char cloth for many years, of various materials of 100% cotton. Old cotton sheets and pillow cases, wornout jeans, tee shirts, worn out flannel shirts, etc. Several years ago I found an ancient 100% cotton, terry cloth towel that had been in the back of our linen closet for years. It had a couple holes in it an my wife was going to toss it.

I grabbed it, cut a bunch of 3"x3" pieces and put them into a tin with lid I'd long used for making char cloth. Put it over my propane camp stove and "cooked it."

After everything had cooled, took one piece and struck one lick on my ferro stick and voila! A great "glow." Stuck it in some tender, blew on it a bit and immediate fire.



So, if you have an old 100% cotton terry cloth towel you're gonna toss, give it a try. You'll find it makes great char cloth.

BTW, I started making char cloth in the Boy Scouts many, many years ago, when our "char cloth cooking can" was a Prince Albert tobacco can. ;) We used real flint to strike a spark into the char cloth.

Good Luck.

L.W.
 
I like large batches as well. Keeps from having to do it again for awhile. Lots to practice with too. One important thing that might also help is not packing the material in too tightly. It just won't char as well.
 
I've heard and read about char cloth. How is it different from vasiline cotton balls or firestraws? those seem easier to make and carry. Why use char cloth?
 
altoid tin and cotton gun patches, cook in coals until smokes comes from hinge holes. Works great.
 
Stieg - char cloth does not produce a flame, what it does is catches and ember and just continues to glow. So it is perfect for use with flint or primitive methods of starting fires which produce small sparks/ embers which the char cloth is perfect for catching and making bigger.
 
I've never used char cloth. Next time one of you "char masters" is out can you take some pic's and do a write up on char cloth. I'd really like to see that.

Many Thanks,
Phxbigdog
 
How about making coal from some hard wood and then crambling it into powder. It would be an intresting thing to try. This way out in the woods you would always have a way to make fire. I been thinking to try it out but never got to it..

Sasha
 
Good charcloth will 'catch' sparks in a way that I've seen no other substance do. So if you can only get a few cool sparks from your firelighting device, chances are charcloth is one of the few simple things that might catch the spark....then you can try to ignite further tinder-like material (like tissue paper or fine, dry grass) from the glowing charcloth.

I too seem to have had best results by not packing the tin too tightly. I think that if it is packed tightly some of the volatiles have a hard job escaping and may stay behind looking like a layer of flakey shellac.

The last few batches I've made were in a simple food can. I tear up the fabric, and place it loosely into the bottom of the can....no more than 1/4 full say. I then squash the top of the can together...maybe by standing on it. I then get some pliers and fold the top half inch or so over at 90 degrees or more to partially seal the top. I place the can on the coals in my woodstove and watch to see the smoke coming out of it. The smoke will often ignite. When the smoke/flame coming from the can stops, or slows right down, I take the can off the coals and sit it on the hearth to cool so there is no danger of it igniting when I open the can.

The fabric has to be pure cotton for the best results in my experience. Polycotton is not good. And I seem to have had some batches that work better than others...so maybe some dyes or washing powders or fabric softeners left behind on the fabric affect it in some way.... but this may not be the reason for my poor results.
 
I use the foil method as well. I just cut my squares, fold the edges of the foil down tight and poke a hole. I lay it on a fire or camp stove burner and remove when the smoke stops. Mac
 
If you can get it, the most recent copy of wilderness way talks about using cattail fluff to make charcloth. Take any standard charcloth recipie and substitue tightly packed fluff for the cotton. Might try this next time I get some cattail on a hike.

Mike
 
So has anyone tried to make coal powder and throw a spark into it. What other ideas would any one have to make something like char cloth in the wilderness. In case your Char cloth got wet or ruined for any other reason.

Sasha
 
High temperature sparks from a ferrocerium rod (AKA "Fire Steel" or "Hot Spark") will catch untreated cattail fuzz, wasp nests, fine dried grass, . . .

With low temp sparks from natural "flint" and steel, the only thing I ever got to work was charred cloth and some fungus that grew all over a camp in northern Wisconsin on declining birch trees. One of the staff recommended it, and, sure enough, it worked - well. I can't seem to find it in this area.
 
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