Milkweed ovum and fluff. F&S natural firechain. Knife content.

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Jun 3, 2010
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Milkweed ovum and fluff. F&S natural firechain.

What came first? The chicken or the egg. Like many who enjoys traditional flint and steel that very question reared it's ugly head soon after the first reassuring charcolth glow. I need charred materials to make flint and steel work to it's full potential but how do I get char when that takes flames in the first place? Appears it takes fire to get fire. Also what happens if I didn't pack any charcloth or ran out? What happens if I lost my flint or chert? What if I run out of jute? For practice could I ever walk into the woods with just high carbon steel and get flames to create char? Ok there is the option of friction fire but the fantasy of the pure flint and steel firechain remains. Goes without saying all of this is old, very old hat. There are few new things under the sun and fewer still when you're relearning old methodology.

First problem was the rocks. Easy enough as there are a few types in my area that worked. Not English flint good but sparks are sparks. Gravity plus a larger rock took care of the knapping thing. Charred natural tinder also wasn't so difficult. Punk wood, various tree barks, cattail fluff etc etc etc. In fact many IMHO work better than charcloth. There are natural tinder bundle materials which work about the same as jute. These include but not limited to fluffed up cedar bark, fluff stuff, yellow/white birch bark, dry grass etc etc all ready to be mixed together or some used solo. Making fire can be easy but a sustaining fire is either a success or failure before the ignition occurs. Prep work is the determining factor in my experience. The last part of the equation is the coal. I tried mullein pith but failed. Going to revisit that. I tired punkwood without success. Works great for a bunch of other firecraft uses, maybe one day I will get a coal with uncharred punkwood. Various fluffy things didn't work. Chaga was a grand slam. Took a coal from a flint and steel spark holding it for a long time. When turned into dust it worked even better. But there was a problem. Chaga in my area tended to be have a moisture content that was often too high for catching a marginal spark. The goal was to find natural tinder that day then ignite it with carbon steel and a rock also gathered during the same outing. Maybe during a hot day I could dry some out on a rock but that combo of weather and chaga discovery so far has never occurred. Odds are the vast majority of chaga fires with flint and steel are done using dried chaga. This is perfectly fine however problematic to my goal. Earlier this week I found some Milkweed, removed the ovum which took a spark on the same day. Bingo.

All that remained was to tie it all together to make an all natural flint and steel firechain with materials found that day. I really enjoy firechains because they're great practice. I have one running from last winter started by chaga ignited with chert and steel. If the char runs out before more can be created with natural materials the chain will die. The personal vested interest grows with each link. This forces me to do the proper prep for each fire. To gather and create tinder bundles more often. Skills are perishable. For this skill practice I wanted to focus more on the entire milkweed pod in all of it's late fall glory. Therefore would forgo my usual Yellow birch bark within the process.

Everything other than the knife, simple C striker and tin would have to be gathered that day. The ground was frozen but it is early in the cold weather. A kick would dislodged any stuck quartz. The leaf littler however was a pain. I had to clear that first to see any ground at all. Along a river bank would have been better for this time of year but the erosion area produced enough.



I gathered some milkweed pods, dried grass, dried fluffy weeds and cedar bark but this caught my eye. Not sure if the wood was hickory or oak, guessing maybe oak. Luckily the bark was stringy. Perfect for tinder or potential charring. Into the mix it would go.



Everything ready to go. I was only looking for enough fire to char the cedar bark.



The 1/2 or 2/3rds fire ring is my preferred setup when looking for easier access to the coals. The ground was frozen therefore put a small platform on the bottom with raised backing to prevent my tinder bundle from being crushed. In keeping with the milkweed theme extra fluff from the pods was spread out on the platform. Not sure if that did anything but couldn't hurt. It is hard to see from the photo but the tinder, kindling and progressively larger wood was resting on two long sticks. I didn't want to expose the tinder to the frozen ground or accidentally scoop up frozen dirt some of which developed that ice crystal effect.

The knife, simple C striker and quartz crushed up a few minutes before.



The milkweed pods gathered that day. The mini Altoids tin from my larger flint and steel kit with just added cedar bark ready to be charred. My intent was to ignite a secondary tinder bundle to complete the first link in the chain then return the tin to the traditional kit with remaining char ready to go for the next fire.



Fluffed up cedar bark with milkweed fluff mixed in. I added an extra milkweed ovum in the center as coal extender. It won't last like a chunk of punkwood but should expand the initial coal increasing my chances of success.



It was time to get that initial coal, blow it into flame making a sustaining fire to char natural materials. To see that you will have to watch the video. Watch in HD if yea can.

[video=youtube;d9iQGOa-OJQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9iQGOa-OJQ[/video]

For those who want to see flames but don't have time for Youtube.




The ovum removed plus local quartz. I found the pod to be a nice little holder. There was a great deal of fluff still in the pods. Guessing that would make for nice flash over tinder.



My larger traditional fire kit has two carbon steel strikers, MP knives 1095 colonial and Wolf Creek Forge O1 simple C. The MP is my primary because it tosses good sparks and is the most comfortable. The WCF is the UL backup. I tired using the MP for maybe an hour. I got some near success but nothing that held. Decided to change out the ovum and try the WCF. Within a few minutes I had a coal.



O1 seems to toss very good sparks but really think changing to a new ovum is what did the trick. In any case if WCF offers up a striker made from O1 my advice is to get it. The coal burned fast. Personally I think it would be best to add punkwood or even another ovum into the mix for a larger coal. I didn't have a natural tinder bundle ready but there is jute cordage within the fire kit. The light was fading, wind and cold increasing tossed another ovum on yet another rock with jute tinder bundle ready



Got a coal in a few minutes. Added another ovum to the tinder bundle to make a larger coal.










 
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