Char

[AZ Prepper]

Some Thoughts on Char
by Gene Hickman & Ron Garritson
from T&LR Spring 2006


There is a lot of conjecture and controversy over what kind of char was used in the Rocky Mountains from 1800 - 1840. Most believed that cloth was too valuable and rare to be used as char and that other natural materials would have been used. There is little historic documentation to support either side of the issue. However, most of us seem to use, due to the ease of ignition, some type of cloth char. Here are some of our thoughts and our "test" results on char cloth. We tried to address only those types of material that would have been available or around during our time & place in history. Gene Hickman, Ron Garritson, Larry Renney and Greg Muich were the primary "experimenters" with these chars.

All char/charcoal will absorb moisture from the air and your results will vary depending on how dry you kept it. Your results may also vary depending on a lot of variables including technique. There are many other natural materials that many brothers use, but we limited ourselves to what we have in our part of the rocky mountains. There are lots of possibilities for char or charcoal and we would be interested in hearing about your experiences with them on the AMM members Yahoo discussion group. Our hope is to expand this list with your experiences and experiments.

• Burlap - Char will catch a spark and readily ignites with burning glass. Holds a coal well and holds up well. We are not sure about the availability of burlap during our time period. A good char.
• Charcoal - Old Charcoal from a fire pit may often be readily lit with a burning glass, but may be much more difficult with flint & steel. There are a lot of variables here with types of wood, density of the wood or how punky it was, how charred it is, and most importantly how much moisture may have been absorbed by the charcoal. Charcoal lying out in an old fire pit usually absorbs lots of moisture. We'd rate this material from poor to good, depending on circumstances and ignition method.
• Cotton Rope - Charred end of rope ignited easily with burning glass although it takes practice to get the spark from flint & steel on the end of the rope and it seems, to us at least, to be a little harder to ignite than hemp rope. Holds a coal long and hot. Cotton rope may not have been very readily available in our time period. Very good char.
• Cottonwood - Rotted or punky wood was charred. Results similar to Yucca and Mullen stem, ignites with flint & steel with some effort. Sparks ignited charred wood when sparks showered into a pile of char. Readily ignites with burning glass and holds a coal well. A poor to excellent char depending on ignition method.
• Denim - Char will catch a spark and readily ignites with burning glass. Will not hold a coal as long as Monk's cloth. Depending on thickness of the material Char is somewhat fragile. A fair char.
• Hemp Rope - Charred end of rope ignited easily with burning glass although it takes practice to get the spark from flint & steel on the charred end of the rope. Practice and technique will solve this. Holds a cola long and hot. Can also make excellent tinder when frayed. Good char excellent tinder.
• Linen or Cotton Cloth - Char will catch a spark and readily ignites with burning glass. Will not hold a coal as long as Monk's cloth or burlap. Usefulness depends on the thickness & weave of the material, therefore Char can be somewhat fragile and not last long. Some fabric used for char is so thin that a heavy breath will blow it apart and light material will not hold a coal very long. A fair to poor char.
• Monk's Cloth - One of the best chars for lighting with flint & steel or burning glass. Heavy loose weave of this cotton fabric makes it easy to catch a spark (increased surface area) and it holds a coal well and holds up well (heavy thick fibers). All of the fabric tested worked best if it was a heavy coarse weave. The increased surface area made it easier to ignite and the heavier weave or thread made it last longer. Rated as the best of the fabric chars tested so far.
• Mullen Stem - Very similar to Yucca stem. Charred stem pieces difficult to light or catch a spark from flint & steel, if you are not holding it with or very close to the flint. Charred stem difficult to hold next to flint for lighting, as they disintegrate easily. Showering sparks into pile of stems difficult as sparks seem to cool too much before contacting stems. Charred mullen very easily lit with burning glass. Charred stems burn very hot and last a long time. Useful for starting a fire with burning glass and for extending a coal when using another source of char lit with flint & steel. Kind of a second stage char. Stems make fair spindles in fire making. The spindles are much more brittle or fragile than other spindles, so it takes practice and a soft touch. Char is poor to excellent depending on ignition method.
• Other Woods - We have also picked up old partly rotted wood of unknown species and charred or charcoaled it with varying results. The key seems to be that the punkier or dryer and lighter the wood is the better charcoal it will make for flint & steel.
• Pillow Ticking - Much like denim above.
• Sage - Charred old sage wood was used. We would rate it between cottonwood and yucca. Hard to find really punky sage though as wood is dense, but lots of fibrous bark. A good char depending on ignition method.
• Willow - Rotted punky wood was charred and found to be much like cottonwood.
• Yucca Stem - Very similar to Mullen stem. Charred stem pieces difficult to light or catch a spark from flint & steel, if you are not holding it with or very close to the flint. Charred stem difficult to hold next to flint for lighting, as they disintegrate easily with the pressure. Showering sparks into pile of stems difficult as sparks seem to cool too much before contacting stems. Charred yucca very easily lit with burning glass. Charred stems burn very hot and last a long time. One of the "testers" joked that you could probably hold it under water and it would sill burn. Useful for starting a fire with burning glass and for extending a coal when using another source of char lit with flint & steel. Kind of a second stage char. Stems very good spindles in fire making, but not as strong as other woods. Spindles being somewhat fragile, although sturdier than mullen, care must be used in using them. First choice for char ignited with a burning glass. However, Char is poor to excellent depending on ignition method. Rated as the best of the "wood" chars tested so far.

[Angela]

I'm kind of a char novice, but here's a post of mine from Utah Preppers

When starting a flint and steel or striker type of fire, char makes all the difference in being able to actually get the fire started or just making a bunch of sparks that never catch anything on fire. Char cloth (sometimes also called charred cloth) is one of those amazing mountain man items that is still very useful today. Char cloth is pieces of blackened fabric that easily catch a spark and burn similarly to the way steel wool burns–no big flame, but a nice ember burn that doesn’t blow out once it’s lit. The spark lights the char cloth and the char cloth is used to light the other tinder. I’ve been wanting to add char cloth to my fire kits and having used all my char cloth made by others, I decided to make a batch of my own.

100% cotton jersey fabric

I had some basic directions to go off of, but had never made it myself, so here’s how the first round went. I got some 100% cotton fabric–I used jersey fabric (an old T shirt) and cut it into approximately 2″ squares. Mine was kind of a natural color, but you could probably use any color you have, just avoid screen-printed designs, etc. I cut the ribbing off from the neck and sleeve ends as well as the seams. You just want the fabric.
Next, I got a metal can–I used an old cookie tin. I punched a vent hole in the can lid with a hammer and nail. You can use whatever metal can you have–I’ve seen it done with smaller tins as well as cleaned out food cans with foil for a lid.

Char cloth cooking tin


Cut cloth in the tin

I put the cut up fabric squares in the tin, put the lid on, and put the can on my grill on low and let it cook. You definitely want to do this outside–burning fabric doesn’t smell all that good. My instructions said to cook it until it stopped smoking. I had the tin fairly full, and cooked it close to 3 hours before I decided to turn it off. It never smoked a lot. When it cooled, I opened the can and only the bottom 3-4 layers were black, the rest of the fabric was brown.
I turned the pile over and put it back on the grill on Medium this time and cooked it another close to 3 hours. This time it was all black when it was finished. However, it didn’t catch a spark very well. I could light it with a flame, or an occasional large spark, but it was very frustrating to work with. Nothing like the char cloth I’d had before that a friend of ours made from terry cloth (old towel).

Cooked jersey char cloth

So I put it back on the grill again, this time I only filled the can about 1/3 full and cooked it on high another 3 hours or so. Now it was a little more fragile and easy to tear (as char cloth generally is), but it still didn’t catch spark well. I had no more ideas to make it better, so I decided to start over.

Cotton monks' cloth (quarter for scale) and smaller cooking tin

The second and far better batch of char cloth I made started with 100% cotton monk’s cloth I got at Walmart. Notice the loose weave and air holes. Those made a huge difference. I cut it a little smaller this time–about 1 1/2 inch square as 2″ was a little larger than necessary. There is some shrinkage as it cooks, but not that much. I wanted to see if it would work straight from the store without washing the fabric first, so I only cut 5 squares of it.
I put it in a smaller tin which also got the hammer/nail air vent in the lid.
Feeling like I’d spent enough of my grill gas on this project, I opted to do this round real mountain man style and build a fire and toss the tin in the fire. I pretty well buried it–it’s in there somewhere.

Real mountain man char cloth cooking method

It did not cook long in the fire–maybe 15 minutes (of course it was in a smaller tin than the first round, but I’m guessing even a large tin wouldn’t take 9 hours in the fire). I couldn’t tell when it stopped smoking since it was in a fire with all the rest of the smoke, so I just guessed at when to pull it out. It wouldn’t matter if it stayed in there until the fire burned out as long as no sparks got in the airhole and caught all the fabric on fire in the meantime.

Cooked monk's cloth char cloth

I fished it out, let it cool, and opened it to nicely blackened monk’s cloth.
This second round of char cloth lights up with minimal spark from a firestarter or flint/steel. It is more fragile than the jersey char cloth, but works much better.

Char cloth burning

So, to recap, to make better char cloth, start with a 100% cotton fabric with texture and a fairly loose weave. Use a fire pit if you can to save on gas. Cooking on higher heat and cooking a smaller batch help speed up cooking time. Happy firestarting!

[AZ Prepper]

Another short video on char using cotton rope. Personally, I like to use cotton from a mop head. It ends up being very similar to the rope.


Char cord / chard rope

External Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjUDMbVl3Bg


How to make char cord / chard rope

External Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI1krYbxDyQ