Thistle seeds as tinder !!!!

[pitdog]

During a short walk today I picked up a handfull of Thistle seeds and decided to see how good they would be as tinder( I must have tried them before but couldn't remember ).

These are the seeds along with my edc key ring set-up....

They performed pretty much the same as I have found Cat-Tail seeds to perform, that is IMO pretty poorly ! They catch a spark easy enough but you would have to have a secondary tinder that catches easily mixed in with them as they just fizzle straight out !!!! Out of all the tinder I find naturally when walking Fatwood dust or very fine slithers still seem by far the best for catching a spark and then holding it !!!!!

 

[foxyrick]

Good pics and spot-on assessment in my opinion. I always found the same with bulrush heads as well. It's like a not-so-hot flash tinder.

Currently, my favourite is simple wood curls. Works a treat.

 

[grease-man]

Hey pit, I think the reason for this may be plant oils/juices that are in or on the "fluff". Every time I've ever felt milk weed seeds, thistle seeds or cat tail seeds, it seems that they are a bit oily feeling. Maybe if they were allowed to dry for a day or two before using, the results would be better? I'm curious. -Matt-

 

[pitdog]

Hey pit, I think the reason for this may be plant oils/juices that are in or on the "fluff". Every time I've ever felt milk weed seeds, thistle seeds or cat tail seeds, it seems that they are a bit oily feeling. Maybe if they were allowed to dry for a day or two before using, the results would be better? I'm curious. -Matt-

I would have thought that any oils would allow the seeds to burn for longer in much the same way as adding PJ to cotton balls.....you may be right though as I am only guessing !

 

[C_Claycomb]

Personally I don't think that they contain any oil at all. I reckon it is the incredibly fine texture that makes them feel silky smooth. If you look at any of these seed fluffs under magnification you find that they are made of a lot of very fine hairs which are meant to remain stiff and separate from their neighbors. This in unlike cottonwood down that kind of clumps readily. I would think that any oil would tend to make the fine hairs stick together and so perform less well at catching the breeze.

It is this fine texture that makes them so prone to flash-over. I prefer thistle to cattail since the kind we have here, the Spear Thistle, holds a flame just a little longer. You do still have to have it pre-positioned under some slower burnining tinder though.

On a recent course, Mors Kochanski showed us how to make charred tinder using a regular empty bean tin on the camp fire. He said that it wasn't really neccessary to have an airtight container and that you only need to exclude enough air that the material does not burn. The tinder material has to be tightly wadded into the can, then the end was hammered flat with a rock and the whole thing thrown on the fire. We tried it on both jute rope and punky willow wood. It worked great! Caught with a spark from a cheap hacksaw blade and natural flint from over 14 inches away. The thing that I can't quite get my head around was Mors' assertion that in a race to boil water, the folk using flint and steel and charred tinder need to be handicapped compared to those using matches 'cause the char will get the fire going faster. The man tends to know what he is on about, but I don't understand why the above would be so.

 

[sicily02]

I use that all the time and it works great I think. I even showed Rocket bomb when he came to where my knife making shop is I have bags of it saved up and showed him how I light it with the firsteel and I used abounch of different ones. The thing with thisle is not to bunch it up and compact it loosen it up and then strike your firesteel. I even lit a fuzzs stick with it to show rocketbomb how well it works.

Pit dog try that and see how that does it should work just fine.

Bryan

 

[DOC-CANADA]

I use that all the time and it works great I think. I even showed Rocket bomb when he came to where my knife making shop is I have bags of it saved up and showed him how I light it with the firsteel and I used abounch of different ones. The thing with thisle is not to bunch it up and compact it loosen it up and then strike your firesteel. I even lit a fuzzs stick with it to show rocketbomb how well it works.

Pit dog try that and see how that does it should work just fine.

Bryan

I agree with Bryan. I think the stuff (pappus) works great - better than Cattail (Typha spp.). Mind you I would use it with some good secondary tinder such as very fine Birch (Betula spp.) bark curls - its virtue is that it catches a spark easily and ignites. It's one of the few, easily found materials that will catch a spark from a fuel-deficient Bic (or any other brand, for that matter).

Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) pappus works similarly. This stuff doesn't have to burn like fatwood to be a valuable fire making material.

Doc

 

[sicily02]

Good point Doc I like to use shreads of birch bark to. that is one awesome bark. LOL

Bryan