How To Make Reactive Char Cloth And Charred Punk Wood 

Thank you for these information I have a question: Should I take the can out of the fire as the flame burn out of it And keeping the can over the coal or fire after the flame burn out could affect the reactivating of the char cloth?

I've used a Kiwi shoe polish tin for a little more than 35 years. I have two spares, but I'm still on my original tin. I've never tried lining the bottom, since the tin is so shallow. The hole in the lid is somewhere around a 1/16th inch, the size of the tip of the vent pick I use for my musket. I usually make char at the edge my fire more on the coals than in the flame. I light the jet of gas coming from the hole. It's like a little blow torch. When the flame goes out, the char is done. I've never had a problem. The char always comes out fine. I use my worn out cotton shirts for rags, gun patches and char cloth. My credo is, keep it simple.

I agree with a buffer and larger hole diameter. A buffer definitely helps with the brittle issues and you don't need an air tight container. As you said, you want the gas and resisins to burn off and not make everything gooey. I've had that with moist material. Great tips! I swear I'm the only one who gives you likes. I've learned a lot from you and it directed me to experiment on my own to find better ways. Keep it up!

Mr. David , I never thought of reverse wrapping cotton balls...Sir you are a genius....Thank you!

thanks, David - I am learning things I didn't even know I needed to know 😁🤔🔥 but I get more and more inquisitive about fire making - that I had never thought about or tried before - the more I watch your videos. This char cloth stuff is really fascinating. I love the info you teach and love trying to duplicate it. I had always used just two or three traditional methods to start fires, now I am trying to find at least 5 or 6 additional methods that I can master and your channel is really giving me a boost in doing that. I also had never heard of fire roll boarding until I started watching you about 7 or 8 months ago.

I like putting the hole down into the fire. To hear and watch the gas burn..... Just remember Do Not open can until it is cool. Thanks... Great video.!!

I won't be worried till you can't make fire David! Thanks for the pointers and another delightful video!

Great video. I have a similar setup for making char cloth. I have an old musket cap tin that I used for my makings. The only difference is I didn't punch a hole in the lid. When "cooking" the char cloth the gases will vent from under the edge of the cap, and smoke then ignite. Once the flame died, I pull the can from the fire using 2 sticks and set it on a nearby rock. Once cold, the char cloth comes out perfectly supple and catches a spark quickly. Works every time. I use 100% cotton gun-cleaning patches that I bought at local gun stores. They cost about $0.50 for 500 patches in a bag. They are old-style military cleaning patches and have the same texture as denim. Never used punk wood as a liner on the bottom of the tin but I'll have to give that a try. About 40-45 years ago, I was into the Mountain Man Rendezvous meets in New Mexico. Still have my Plains Rifle and fire-making kit. Used to show students how to light a campfire with flint, steel, char cloth, and a big wad of dry grass while on field trips. Lit the fire faster than they did with their matches (the wind kept blowing the matches out 😂😂😂). The professor on one particular trip who was a former Marine thought I was lying. He was shocked when I lit that fire. I showed him how it worked and he was very grateful. He said he had tried and tried in Marines and could never get it to work. Useful skills in a pinch.

Really terrific skills, and very clear explanation / demonstration. A++ !!!

Hey Dave, thanks for reaching out to us how to. Great video 😊

Very interesting find you made for charred material making with both materials. Great info. I’ll have to try making a hole bigger on my tin can. Thanks.

I always learn something from your videos! Keep them coming, I love all of them. God Bless!

Thank you for the great video. I learn something new almost every time I watch one of your videos. Thank you for sharing.

Just stumbled onto your channel recently and I am obsessed with it. Nothing fancy, just a ton of great info. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, David.

I watch your videos. Every chance I get in I will be honest with you. I learn something new every time. So the best thing I can say to you, sir, is just keep doing what you’re doing. You were teaching a very valuable skill.

Excellent video David. Great tips. Thanks and take care.

Another great video. I live in a place called 'Chislehurst' which in Anglo Saxon means 'Flint Wood' so I got flint in the woods, just got to make my steel and char cloth. Everyday is a school day and I've learnt so much from you, many thanks.

I drilled my hole with a 1/4" drill bit, used enough punk wood to keep the cloth off the bottom. I used around 1.5-2 inches thick of 1.5-2 inch denim squares. I should have paid attention to the advice to just do about 10 squares. It took about an hour on my isobutane burner to fully char. The top and bottom squares were a little brittle and sooty, but the rest was awesome. Nice and supple, yet fully charred. I am completely new to flint and steel and got fire on the first strike. The punk wood lit up nicely as well. I've sealed the rest of my material in an airtight ziplock in hopes of preserving its life through the summer, but we'll see how long it lasts. Still got the rest of that old pair of jeans in any case! Thanks for the tips!

Great video showing many aspects simultaneously. Good job! Well done

Cheers for the mention in the description David 👍 it's a great way to do it, love the wick support and cotton ball wick I'll definitely have a play with that, summer is just a month or 2 away for us. Stay safe n keep well.

.... This is the best technique for making char cloth I've tried .... Much better than my previous attempts .... Thank you ....

Thank you sir for all the info you have shared. I have never tried making char cloth and char punk wood . I’m going to have a go now .

Thanks for the video! Yes, you are right! I have ever tested to make the char cloth without the hole in the tin can after I got such idea from a video in the youtube. The char cloth can be made in such way, however there was much residue in the can. In addition, I also tested the char making by putting the punk wood at the bottom and cloth on the punk wood, and they were charred excellently!

Thank you thank you thank you. You are answering many of my questions and doubt, I am learning a lot. Can't wait to try again making some char cloth. It is important to SEE how to do stuff like this.

Wonderful! After doing flint and steel demonstrations for 10 years I learned something about it.

Great instructions as always. Thanks!!! Dan

Just goes to show you that even an old hiveranno like me can learn something new. I’ve been making fire with flint and steel since I was 8 years old (that was 1968). It’s my go-to fire making source no matter we’re I am or what the weather is. It has never failed me. I have never heard of using punk wood to buffer the cloth in the tin. But I will say this, I’m gonna do it from now on. Thanks for this. It’s rare that something comes up that I haven’t heard of, or tried. I’ve subscribed to your channel for a long time and don’t know why it took so long for this video to come up in my feed. 👍🏼👍🏼

So much good information in this video!

I learn something new with every video I watch. Thank you David

Seeing is believing. Amazing and convincing demonstration.

Love this, excellent video. Looking forward to giving this a try.

Made a batch using your punk wood bottom method. Compared vs a batch made in coals with direct contact on the bottom of the can. Outstanding results, soft supple and takes a spark. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have & continue to learn new things from your videos daily. Thank you Brother! GOD BLESS!!

Good demonstration! I learned a method from Muzzle Loader magazine many years ago. It is very similar to yours. I used a Minwax tin and after burning it clean, put 2 small holes in it (cut two small sticks to put into those holes later). One hole in the lid and one in the bottom of the can. I wrapped a wire around the top so as to grip it with pliers. Put small, white, undyed cotton strips into the can, close it and place in the fire. Then you constantly turn it to prevent igniting the cloth. Smoke will come out of the 2 vent holes. When that stops remove it from the fire and put the 2 sticks you cut into the holes. Let it cool for a few minutes and open to check the char cloth. It should be all black and slightly resistant when pulled apart. Check its ignitibility. It should be good. Just a minor difference from your method.

I accidentally made a great batch of char cloth. A cotton hand towel apparently got buried in wood chips and bark by our wood splitter, we moved the splitter for the winter and burned the chip pile. When I raked the ash pile out the next day there was the charred towel. We tried striking with flint and steel and it works great!

Great job as always. Like those cans. Be great size to have especially making charged punk wood

good video Dave. love your setting!

Thanks for explaining what char cloth is and how to make it!

Thank you so much! ..the punk wood buffer is an awesome tip xxx

Your char cloth has to be clean and supple to be the most reactive to a flint and steel. All char cloth comes out of our char tins with a certain amount of smoke residue on it. That residue will make it slightly less reactive. The real culprit, though, is char cloth that comes out brittle. That will make it from... only slightly less reactive to completely unignitable. I know the big controversy over having a hole vs having no hole in your char tin. Let me just say this. It is a REALLY bad idea to not have a big hole in your char tin. I use a 1/4". A big vent hole allows gases, deposits, and smoke residue to easily exit the tin... not allowing them more time to linger and coat the char materials. The best way to keep the batch of char cloth from becoming brittle is to protect the hottest part of the char tin from contacting the fabric. While I was experimenting with ways to keep the red hot metal of a char tin from the fabric (see my double walled char tin video below) a subscriber, Richard Solomon, recommended using punk wood on the bottom as a buffer. He was right. That simple fix, for me, made brittle batches of char cloth a rarity. Come see this very easy technique, see me make a new char tin from a hair products can, and see me build a grease lamp to use that hair product in. Please follow the LINKS below and SUBSCRIBE. Thank you! A Double Wall Char Tin Might Make A Cleaner More Supple Batch Of Char Cloth. Let's See! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bqFHgL4WmP8.html A Double Wall Char Tin Tweak Made Very Clean Char Cloth But 10% Of It Was Crispy Again. LOL! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MFx4nRqqkp8.html Cha Cloth, Charred Punk Wood Playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLkoXX8XsMW3nfHvlf-YghwFdkUBYRIIMy Grease Lamps and Fat Lamps Playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLkoXX8XsMW3k7cP1F4wShxqd_J0Uv_prf Flint And Steel Playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLkoXX8XsMW3mFf5FgLtam1aDmXmqQQice

Very concise detailed video; thanks for posting!

Thank you David for another amazing video , with all this advices you are the best ...

The fire master! I’m looking forward to making my first char cloth🙂

Great tips! I charred and tried some punk wood a few days ago and it really did well. Now I need to check if my char cloth is supple or brittle. Didn't know 'bout that one. Thanks! That Pomade really burns well too!

Thanks for the tips!

Fantástico 🥰 vídeo. Obrigada 🙏🇧🇷🙏 Deus abençoe sua vida.

Very impressive findings and work sir. Thank you a bunch load for sharing your awesomeness.

Impressed with all your videos.

Thanks David!

Great video as usual David. Very helpful.

Great tips. I over-did my first couple of attempts with char cloth. I'm definitely going to use a buffer next time.

I'm going to try it !!!

Great video with good instructions.

Brilliant thanks 😃

1-23-2023. David, great stuff as always! I like fire and I play around with it a lot. I would like to share a few things if I may. I think you can get the instutional size empty food cans for hobo stoves for free from restaurants and schools. I like the Dollar Tree Crocs handy lighter long reach, 2” for my work bench and backpack. My best fire starter is fat wood, my second choice is a thimble full of K-1 kerosene on a cotton ball. I keep K-1 in an empty Nasal spray bottle relabeled of course. Last thing is I used to burn the twigs and fallen branches in my yard in the can stoves and hobo stoves , now I use the charcoal lighter stove. It has big air holes, and a handle, and if I need to cook on it I have a salvage cook top pan grate from a gas range I can throw on top. I’ m kind of proud of that find, and had them for 6 or 7 years and never saw that on RU-vid until recently. I still have trouble with fire rolls, you make everything look so easy. Thanks for all the good information! DC STL MO 1-23-2023

Thanks, good educational video 😊

Nice demo! Good for Scouts. I always carried flint and steel when I went camping and hiking. I was going to ask if the charred punkwood would take a spark. I learned something new.

Great video again, learned quite a bit from your videos here in London England

Nice tutorial! Thanks,

This dude is a total badass. So freaking cool!

Thankyou, for this info. So very useful, when/if shtf.❤

EXCELLENT PRESENTATION.

Sir, you are a fire making genius!!!

Thank you. This is a skill I've always wanted to learn.

Great video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you so much the stuff you taught me will help me more than almost any thing i,ve got off the Internet

Matches He don't need no stinking matches ! Great demo .

I love using denim for charcloth. Never knew about this punkwood trick tho!! I find an old shoe polish tin is perfect for me. Thanks for the tip, I always learn from your channel! ✌️

Not gonna lie that’s pretty slick!

Sempre vendo seus videos shou .nota 10 p voce

Dude you are truly a pyro maniac but I luv Yuh and that spoon trick is awesome thanx for the info and your time.

Well done as always, you teach me and I teach my grandson LOL he thinks I'm smart. But I do give you credit! thanks!

Thanks I really enjoyed this very informative and easy to understand 😀

Thanks for show us how to do this ,Ant from Wales UK keep em coming . ive subd .keep safe .

I appreciate this knowledge thank you for sharing. Learn something new everyday

Thank you great info. I will be making one or soon.

Amazing!

I'm looking forward to experimenting with these techniques ... Thanks for sharing, sir! God Bless :)

Good video 👍

Dave ...... You are"" realllllllllly"" good !!!!! Thanks....

wonderfull

That’s pretty cool 😎

Nice job!

Buffering the bottom sounds like a great idea.. going to try it today.. Been here a few times.. finally remembered to sub.. A lot easier than searching for ya all the time... lol

Thank you for the fine points , for that it tales a pro.

I've always used a big metal container(packaging from whisky bottle) punched a hole in it with a nail and have put half the jeans in it straight away and not bothered at all. Tossed in the fire and let it smoke. Nex day opening. Use the stuff to Light my forge, easiest and fastest way to light coal! Some fabrics contain synthetic fibers: those i find to get crunchy. Cotton towels work the best of all!

Thank You! SUPER GREAT VIDEO-Tutorial!... I'm a Democrat that lives and "works" in Washington. I found this big glass box in the basement at work filled with a bunch of torn-up hemp-cloth/paper sheets inside. I figured since it was sitting by the Diesel-powered Ultra-shredder dumpster, it was garbage. So I grabbed a bunch of pieces out and took it home to try and make some char-cloth out of it. Well, after my Bi-weekly "LQBTQI+/BIPOC Diversi-Couragement & Equality-Equalization dinner-meeting" I finally got to work on my super-cool project. Though I must say it wasn't easy! For one thing lighting such a small fire isn't nearly as easy as really large ones that aren't controlled!... Anyways, after a couple seconds I noticed it didn't smell very good while I was baking it in my cute little bedazzled tin-can I found in my girlfriend's boyfriend's bedroom while collecting their laundry upstairs here at my mom's house. But like usual, I didn't have allot of choice!... Though It seemed emmotionally-offensive to ruin it because it was originally an empty can of imported "Creme de' Soy" Brand: 'Succulent-Cucumber&Marshmallow' Nipple-Butter&Bottom-Balm" from the pre -Franceganistan city of Paris.( Though, PERSONALLY I prefer the ambrosial-sophistication of their "Ger'Bil-Varian Gooseberry Stuffed-Fudge-frappe"-flavor!) So, I didn't feel nearly as devastatingly-depressed as I thought I would otherwise.... So, Considering what was in the can originally I do believe the putrid smell was likely just some sticky bottom residue left in the bottom that smelled like burning plastic and really old ink... REEgardless, the Hemp Char-cloth likely would have worked really well but I couldn't get the can open because the bedazzled-beads melted and glued it shut before I could grab it with my other mom's rechargeable salad-tong!.. So maybe next time. Well, That is IF I can find any more of that hemp cloth!... Everyone of my fellow Democrats, and a few of the "GOOD" Republicans, were all grabbing pieces of it as well! Besides thoese that were obviously taking it into one of the 72-bathrooms at work for personal-hygiene reasons to reduce the use of pre-rolled paper products and reduce their carbon foolprint! Well, maybe some were also using it to make char-cloth!... I don't know, If any of them get a chance to talk about anything outside of our extremely-packed, mandated 168hr/wk-minimum TDS-oppositional-REEEsearch, I'll ask!

Great video, thank you very much and keep well. Dave & The Girls

Now that makes great sense.

That's pretty smart of you. You make a video, make charcloth, and get rid of your leaves at the same time. 😀 Seriously though I have enjoyed your videos.

I bought some cotton rope to make some char for an empty bic lighter project, ot turned out so crunchy it wouldn't hold an ember. Ill try your punk wood trick and see how i go. Cheers David.

Interesting, I use an altoids tin without any holes in it, and my char cloth always seems to work pretty well. My main reason for not using a hole (aside from it hasn't seemed necessary) is the risk of the hot char cloth spontaneously re-igniting as soon as I pull it from the fire and oxygen enters the tin through that hole. Usually I'm using a campfire so the box is very hot when I remove it. I suppose I could cover the hole with a rock or a stick.. I might just have to make a second charcloth tin with a hole in it, so I can try a side-by-side comparison to see if it makes a difference.

I bet I have too small of a hole in my char tin ! Mine was also too bridle,I will all punk wood to the bottom. Thank you for your great intel Dave.

Happy New Year Pyrophilogists!

I like using denin for char cloth.

Mr. West, would you recommend the use of a dowel for use as a spindle? Maybe for practice? I know horseweed grows here where I live (upper peninsula, Michigan), but I can't seem to find any.

Oh happy day to you my dear friend. Thank you for sharing another outstanding video looking forward to seeing your next video stay safe and burn on

Hey David, nice work there! I just wondered, have you ever tried soaking your denim cloth in wood ashes before charring it? Do you think it would make a good comparison video? "Normal char cloth vs ashed char cloth"

I will be trying that out

Hello Sir, AWESOME as usual! I love the way You're experimenting things. Even thought You're facing some small issues sometimes, You're always able to figure them out right away and never try to hide anything. That make outstanding lessons for us to get the job done, avoiding us loosing time, even thought, I still always have to figure out my own small issues when I'm trying to get my fire up and running well. But Your example gives me confidence and I just take my time to think and after few more attempts, it works! Much Love and Respects, Greetings from France ^_^

Impressed and fascinated! I don't think i need this skill right now, but I'm going to learn it for when i do. How do you store your char cloth?