How Embarrassment!

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 6:27 am

OK, so I'm doing a demo to the public on how to light a fire with flint and steel. I open the container and get a piece of charred cloth.

I get out my tnder and lay the charcloth on it. I get out my flint and steel and make some sparks , until one falls onto my piece of charcloth and starts to glow.

I wrap the tinder around the charcloth, blow like crazy, and get a nice little flame going.

I stomp out the flames on the grass, and then look back at my charcloth container, only to find a gentle curl of smoke rising from it - my nice new pieces of charcloth are softly glowing. AAARGHHHH!

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

Lost half my pieces of charcloth.

Note to self: When making fire - PUT THE LID BACK ON BEFORE HITTING THE FLINT AGAINST THE STEEL!!!!

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Egfroth

"I hope all your chooks turn to Emus and kick your dunny down."

see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos

ushumgal · Post by **ushumgal** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 1:51 pm

At least you got it to start! Long, long ago when I was in Boy Scouts, I had to try to make a small fire and light it with a match. Went through one and a half books of matches. Never got the damn thing to light... Especially embarrassing since I was a country boy, and all the city kids did just fine with their fires...

Kalba

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Barkalba bar Shalamsin
m.k.a. Jamie Szudy
LU2.DUB.SAR

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 1:59 pm

It's all about having the fire set up correctly with good tinder and kindling. Char cloth is great stuff, particularly for flint and steel. But definately cover up what you dont want to burn. Yikes!

Checking grammer in subject lines can save some embarrassment, too.

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:49 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jacob:

Checking grammer in subject lines can save some embarrassment, too.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not in this case. It's an Aussie joke, based on a TV character here known as Effie.

She's a 2nd generation Greek-Australian girl (we have a VERY strong Greek community here - Melbourne has something like the second biggest concentration of Greeks in the world, after Athens) who mangles the language beautifully (and before I get accused of prejudice, our Greeks love Effie the best of all!).

"How embarrassment!" is one of her favourite sayings . . .

You Yanks really miss out, sometimes.

Speakig of which, have any of you seen Kath and Kim?

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Egfroth

"I hope all your chooks turn to Emus and kick your dunny down."

see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos

Thomas Powers · Post by **Thomas Powers** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 9:26 pm

Eggy, self igniting charcloth is right out!

hmm commercial possibilities....just takea smidge out of the nitrogen purged container and set on your tinder, as it is exposed to air it starts to smolder and burn, so it looks like your steel is doing the work...

At real viking a fellow whose name will remain a secret as long as the checks don't bounce spent a considerable ammout of time trying to light a fire with a commercial flint and steel kit and finally gave up. My home made one lit 3 fires that weekend and within a minute on all of them---good char cloth and a good sparking steel (forged it myself from a file---next year I will be using one I forged from blister steel just to be obnoxious (as usual)

Thomas

sedric · Post by **sedric** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 6:49 pm

Ah, Forgive my ignoance here, what's charred cloth? Is there somwhere I can get a good flint and steel kit(one that looks good not the magnesium stick things)? I've always wanted one , but lighters are so easy to get.

Bob H · Post by **Bob H** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 8:37 pm

Charred cloth is just what it sounds like it is. A common method is to get an airtight metal container (a clean empty paint can works good, as long as there is NO paint in it), punch a small hole in the lid and make a wooden plug to fit the hole (a golf tee works fine). Fill can very loosely with pieces of pure cotton or linen cloth, and set on the fire. In a bit smoke will start coming out of the vent hole. When the smoke stops, remove from fire and plug the hole - if any outside air gets in, the cloth will reduce to ash. Let cool, and store in an airtight container.

For steels, try http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/firefromsteel/

Dixie Gun Works at http://www.dixieguns.com usually has flint spalls, wear eye and hand protection and whack them with a hammer to produce sharp shards. The object is to use the sharp flints to shave off tiny shreds of the steel which will glow from the friction, and catch the spark on the char. Remember that you don't have to strike the steel hard, but you do have to strike it with good hand speed.

A note - I have seen no evidence that charcloth was used before the 19th century. There are a variety of fungi that work well, try a Google search for "tinder conk".

Thomas Powers · Post by **Thomas Powers** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 11:04 pm

Bob, any primary sources as to what was used? We got lots of steels with the use scratches but I don't recall any "tinder" finds. I have heard lots of "they used this" but with no backing so far; so I'd be real happy to be able to nail *something* down!

Thomas

Mikael · Post by **Mikael** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 2:32 pm

I would be interested in period refrences, too. For this is one of those things which are common knowledge, to which I do not know scholarly proof.

Than again, a variety of tinder conk living in birch is only thing commonly known to have been used in Finland when using flint and steel. (taula, prepared stuff - from mushroom taulakÃ¤Ã¤pÃ¤.)

The stuff needs to be prepared with the help of lye. The end product has soft long fibers and is supposed to hold sparks really well.
(I still need to practise how to get those sparks on the stuff. After getting sparks to glow you are ideally supposed to feed it with strips of juniper bark.) It appears as something which will perish very easily in almost any condition I could expect for an archeolocigal find.

I have never heard any Finnish reference to charcloth.

In 19th century the tinder conk was augmented by adding small amounts of factory made sulphur, however.

Enough rambling, as I said, I am most eager to hear of any first hand sources, too.

Mikael

(Allegedly tinder conk was also used for spicing viking ale. Is supposed to give a very violent intoxication with a terrible hangover. As a bonus it is supposed to act as a hallusinogenic, but this is just folk-lore, i.e. may or may not be true, I haventÂ´t seen modern medical data on the topic.)

Bob H · Post by **Bob H** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 3:23 pm

Sorry, I'm still looking for proof, too. Slow match seems to be used in the age of blackpowder (again, no specific sources), which is usually made by soaking some soft fabric cord in a saltpetre solution, or in a gunpowder/water slurry. I have a book on the early to mid 18thC Canadiens that lists slow match as the most common char (again, no source, dammit). All I can do at this point is to try working backward and hope it gives me ideas about what to look for in a search.

Owen · Post by **Owen** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 9:10 pm

Look at it this way; you showed how easy it is to start a fire with flint and steel!

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Owen
"Death is but a doorway-
Here, let me hold that for you"

Thomas Powers · Post by **Thomas Powers** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 11:38 am

Mikael may have pointed out a way; any literary sources that might refer to tinder in a way that indicated what it was?

Need the original sources and a good grasp of the languages to recognized that what in translation is "tinder" was in the original "burnt cloth", tow, someone's mushroom stash, etc.

Anybody remember any references to lighting a fire anywhere?

Thomas