Flint and steel Friday


Emjay said:
Gotcha 👍

May not be a miracle, but darn sure feels like one and you got all rights to feel that way.
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Haha I had charcoal last night. In the same manner I showed earlier with the ball and the charred wood in there. I never lit bare grass or jute. Charcoal was included in every tinder ball. My mistake was omitting that process in the original post because I was more interested in the triangle birds nest my son and I made and how we could lift it and flip it once we got the fire on top.

And yeah I felt cool, and posted the few pictures I got. But I’d be glad to try and take pictures of each and every step tomorrow that I did if I led anyone to believe I just threw sparks and got fire.
 
NOTa_badaxe said:
Haha I had charcoal last night. In the same manner I showed earlier with the ball and the charred wood in there. I never lit bare grass or jute. Charcoal was included in every tinder ball. My mistake was omitting that process in the original post because I was more interested in the triangle birds nest my son and I made and how we could lift it and flip it once we got the fire on top.

And yeah I felt cool, and posted the few pictures I got. But I’d be glad to try and take pictures of each and every step tomorrow that I did if I led anyone to believe I just threw sparks and got fire.
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Nope, you nailed it...I didn't see any mention of charred material in the post and the reason I asked.
 
Stone said:
The thing that makes char magical, is that it is burned in the absence of oxygen. The little hole in the tin is just big enough for the material to off-gas, but not big enough to let oxygen in to complete combustion. That preserves the stuff that burns in the cloth (or other material so treated). Charcoal from an open fire generally has all the oxygen it needs for combustion. There is less of the stuff to catch sparks because it has already burned off. Some of the campfire burned wood may have conditions that preserve more of the 'right stuff,' perhaps by being partially buried so it doesn't get all the O2 it wants. That might be why your charcoal was difficult to light.
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Thank you. Haha because I was comparing other people in videos getting an ember on charcoal to my four hours of striking and wondering why the heck was happening.
 
Alright. So, use charcoal prepared from a tin, and it will take a spark WAY EASIER. And use way more jute. That’s what I’ve got so far.

Thanks everyone for the help. I know I’ve posted a bunch in the last 24 hours, some in glory and then some venting my frustration about how I couldn’t do it again. But the help was great and it means allot to me.

I’m gonna try again and I’ll post pictures of my charcoal and tinder for sure, and lead with that. But aside from that. Any other advice? Because now I can’t focus on anything else but getting it done with charcoal reliably. Haha

(I don’t want to use charcloth because I can find wood, I can’t find cloth without cutting up something I might need)
 
NOTa_badaxe said:
Thank you. Haha because I was comparing other people in videos getting an ember on charcoal to my four hours of striking and wondering why the heck was happening.
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If you char punkwood in the tin it gets the same treatment. I've used some of that--punky poplar that i could tear off in chunks by hand. Probably wood charred in the tin would also work, but take longer.
 
NOTa_badaxe said:
Alright. So, use charcoal prepared from a tin, and it will take a spark WAY EASIER. And use way more jute. That’s what I’ve got so far.

Thanks everyone for the help. I know I’ve posted a bunch in the last 24 hours, some in glory and then some venting my frustration about how I couldn’t do it again. But the help was great and it means allot to me.

I’m gonna try again and I’ll post pictures of my charcoal and tinder for sure, and lead with that. But aside from that. Any other advice? Because now I can’t focus on anything else but getting it done with charcoal reliably. Haha

(I don’t want to use charcloth because I can find wood, I can’t find cloth without cutting up something I might need)
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When you say charcoal, are you talking about burnt wood from a campfire, or are you referring to charred punkwood?

You can also char your jute twine...you had a big hunk of it, you can cook a bit of that in a tin and use that as your charred material.
 
Emjay said:
When you say charcoal, are you talking about burnt wood from a campfire, or are you referring to charred punkwood?

You can also char your jute twine...you had a big hunk of it, you can cook a bit of that in a tin and use that as your charred material.
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Cottonwood bark also chars very nicely--INNER cottonwood bark.
 
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Emjay said:
When you say charcoal, are you talking about burnt wood from a campfire, or are you referring to charred punkwood?

You can also char your jute twine...you had a big hunk of it, you can cook a bit of that in a tin and use that as your charred material.
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punkwood would be best. But I live in a dry climate and nothing gets real punky out here. And I’m not doing what I did today again. That was a fool’s errand.

If I don’t have allot of punkwood I do have cottonwood bark, sagebrush and yucca stalks. And these weird invasive yellow puff weeds that have been the cause of many wild fires (but I’m dead allergic to that stuff)

And I’ll try the charred jute.
 
Stone said:
Cottonwood bark also chars very nicely--INNER cottonwood bark.
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I can imagine...I haven't found any cottonwood in the areas that I frequent, although I know it's prevalent. I've used cedar inner bark, but usually just stick to punkwood since it's in abundance...you could say we have so much that it grows on trees (yea, lame joke, but made me chuckle).

NOTa_badaxe said:
punkwood would be best. But I live in a dry climate and nothing gets real punky out here. And I’m not doing what I did today again. That was a fool’s errand.

If I don’t have allot of punkwood I do have cottonwood bark, sagebrush and yucca stalks. And these weird invasive yellow puff weeds that have been the cause of many wild fires (but I’m dead allergic to that stuff)

And I’ll try the charred jute.
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While punkwood is good, there's a number of things that, if charred, work just as well. It's just like anything, experiment and find what works for you. G'luck!
 
NOTa_badaxe said:
punkwood would be best. But I live in a dry climate and nothing gets real punky out here. And I’m not doing what I did today again. That was a fool’s errand.

If I don’t have allot of punkwood I do have cottonwood bark, sagebrush and yucca stalks. And these weird invasive yellow puff weeds that have been the cause of many wild fires (but I’m dead allergic to that stuff)

And I’ll try the charred jute.
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I bet yucca stalks would work great to char
 
sniperbait1 said:
I bet yucca stalks would work great to char
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I thought I'd heard that, but never had a chance to use it. There's supposedly yucca out here in VA, but the only ones I've found have been in folks yards.

My cousin and I used to have sword fights with the leaves as kids...I never said we were that bright 😄
 
Emjay said:
I thought I'd heard that, but never had a chance to use it. There's supposedly yucca out here in VA, but the only ones I've found have been in folks yards.

My cousin and I used to have sword fights with the leaves as kids...I never said we were that bright 😄
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Me and my brother would poke each other with them and yell SNAKE.

NOTa_badaxe said:
Gonna collect some soon. I tried to get out today but my wife told me I can’t play with my knives all day again. I got none of the things I was supposed to do done yesterday haha.

But I will char some jute tonight.
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Damn responsibilities always getting in the way lol. Let us know how the charred jute works out for you.
 
HillbillyHiker said:
No frozen rivers here, but we did have roman candle duels 🤣
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Ours were bottle rockets 🤣

I found out, if you threw a blackcat firecracker in a coke bottle, and shoved an almond into the end, it would shoot the almond out like a cannon. I was shooting it, and my friend thought it was cool and wanted to try it. Handed it to him, and the first time he did it, the bottle shattered in his hand.

I won't even go into the calcium carbide, "bomb" I made...I only did that once, but make sure you poke a hole big enough before ignition.

Sorry to derail...back to flint and steel.
 
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