Making Char Material

Making Char Material

Ask someone what they keep in their fire kit and you are likely to get all sorts of answers. Ferro rod, flint and steel, jute twine, wax-soaked cotton pads, the list goes on and on. One thing that almost everyone keeps in their kit though, is some sort of char material. It may be cloth, punk wood, rope or something else but nearly everyone keeps some sort of charred material with them for making fire. You can make it with almost any natural material. Cotton rope, cotton t-shirt cut into squares, punk wood and even regular wood can be cooked into char. The process is very simple. Get a metal container and fill it with your material, then toss it in a fire for a little while.

I use an Altoids tin or a round metal tin that has a screw on lid to make mine. I have a couple different ones for different materials. An Altoids tin is perfect because you don’t need to make any modifications. Simply take an old t-shirt or a pair of jeans and cut the material into small strips and place them in the tin. The tin is then placed in a bed of coals and left until smoke stops coming from inside. Some people will take a nail and poke a small hole in the tin to allow the gases to escape, but with an Altoids tin it really isn’t necessary. I have a hole in mine, but it is more for me to see the smoke coming from the tin that anything else. I also use a tin with a screw on lid for making larger material and the nail hole is necessary because the tin is otherwise airtight. Whatever you use, the gases must be able to escape for the material to char correctly.

The materials we use must be all natural. Any sort of synthetic fibers will simply melt into a mess in the tin. Cotton or wool cloth is ideal but almost any material will work. Cotton rope makes outstanding char material for fire starting because it will create a little bigger coal when you use it. All you must do is place the material inside the tin and place it on a bed of hot coals to begin cooking it. As it the tin heats up, all the chemicals are cooked out of the cloth eventually leaving nothing but a piece of slow burning fuel that will ignite with even the slightest spark. The process is called pyrolysis. The advantage I find with a small hole is being able to watch the smoke exit the tin. Once the smoke stops coming out, your material is done. BE SURE not to open the tin until it has cooled completely. If you open it while the material is still hot, the sudden rush of oxygen will cause the material to ignite and you will have to start over.

You can use t-shirts, denim jeans, cotton rope, punk wood or almost any other natural material for making char tinder. Experiment with some different things and see what works best for you. I keep my flint and steel in an Altoids tin along with a supply of char cloth and rope. The tin is used to make the char cloth as well as storing it in my pack. As long as you can keep it dry, you will always have something to catch a spark and blow into a tinder bundle and get a fire going.