Charred Punk Wood

Howdy!

An alternative to charred cloth, found in the woods providing limitless supply, and as easy to make.

Lets talk flint and steel fire starting method for a bit . . .
 

Everyone know how to make charred cloth? You need a tin of some sort. Tins can be provided by a wide range of vendors, and levels of pc (Period Correct) from one that is a few $$$'s from a craft store, to one that is $25 from a tin smith making it by hand with period tools, and period materials.

Drill a hole (about 1/16" in diameter) in the side of the tin, through both layers where the bottom and top portions overlap. This way you can simply twist the tin to close or open the hole when using it to carry you charred material.

The cloth in "charred cloth" is important. You do not want any synthetic materials, definitely NOT anything flame retardant (dont ask me how I know). 100% cotton works really well, linen, other period materials work ok too. But, you can check the tag of an old t-shirt, cut it up into as big of pieces as you can get inside the tin, and stack as many layers in the tin as you can.
Put the tin in the fire, if you can, with the hole facing up so you can see the smoke coming out. When the smoke stops coming out, remove the tin from the fire and plug the hole either by covering it, a stick, or if you have gloves twisting the lid. Allow enough time to let the material cool down, open the tin and check it. If its all black, your good. If there's some pieces still brown, its not done charring yet. Put it back in the fire.

The same can be done with punk wood. White oak is preferred, but many wood types can and will work. Find a dead and rotting piece of wood in the woods. It is nice when its spongy and you can squeeze it with your hands or fingers. Put it in the same tin and char it the same way as above. It works really well. It will catch and hold a spark, and will help aide in starting a wet fire, because its essentially a piece of char-coal and will stay lit and glowing much longer than a piece of cloth. Now, it will not win you any speed competitions, but when out in the woods actually NEEDING a fire for something important, I would take punk wood over cloth any day.

Some tips. I use one of those cookie tins, about 8" in diameter to make it. When making charred cloth for FCF events (I no longer use it personally), I cut up squares large enough to fit inside that tin. When it chars, it shrinks down anyways, and will fit inside a smaller tin. Punk wood will also shrink down to fit in a smaller container, or I break up the larger pieces to fit in my tin. I also use a portable electric burner outside on the deck. The process smokes too much to do it inside. The portable burner just allows me to make it without an actual fire at home. In the woods if I need it, I use my tin.

You can also char wood without a tin. Put the wood in the fire until a portion of it is burnt, then remove it and bury it until cool. Remove it, clean it off, and check it with flint and steel.

And that in closing, is the last tip. Always CHECK your charred material and assure it will catch a spark before taking it to the woods and relying on it. A spark on both charred cloth and punk wood will extinguish when put back in the tin and closed up tight, cutting off the oxygen. Its a poor situation when youngbucks are trying to compete with flint and steel, and their charred cloth wont even burn, much less catch a spark.


Simeon

I have made and used charred wood & my 2 cents would be mobility. I found that if it were going to rattle in my tin the wood would break down to dust. The cloth would stay together. Now if yu stay put or take greater paking care care then just throwing itin the tin, heck yes go with all natural free char wood

Howdy!

I understand your point. And to a point, it does break down some. But, in my experience for the last 3 years or so of exclusively carrying only other forms to catch a spark (no charred cloth), not once have I gotten into my kit to discover "dust" or any other form that would not catch and hold a spark. Shoot, even the dust will catch a spark and glow, so it works too.
Mobility with me is key also. I run, climb, crawl, walk, step over, jump, and sleep with my kit. My shooting bag and horn dont even come off when im sleeping on scouts. Yet my fire starting kit inside is just fine. I also do pay attention to rattle, as that gives away the noise factor. So, I adjust my kit in ways that eliminate as much noise as possible, hopefully keeping me alive AND able to start a fire in the woods.

A side story . . .
Several weeks ago I attended a scout in eastern Tennessee with a group of guys. We slept in a rockhouse, which is basically a hollowed out part of a cliff. It was nice! Once inside, we were spared from the rain that fell.
During the night I woke up to notice every last bit of our fire had gone out. Im talking nothing. No embers, nothing smoldering, no smoke, nothing! It was pitch black inside there. I could only make out a little bit of the corners of our rockhouse and the slightly lit skyline outside the cave. Inside I could not see my hand in front of my face.
Earlier before going to bed, I heard what I thought was a bear outside the opening trying to see what we were, so we needed light.
In the pitch black, I felt around and found my fire starting kit, tried for several minutes and finally got a piece of punkwood glowing. That transferred to dry leaves being lit, then a candle stub I had. The pitch blackness conditions are really tough to do anything in, especially when your trying to get spark from a rock and piece of steel. I encourage you FCF guys to try it. Its interesting.

Char cloth would have been expensive in those days. In those days they wasted very little. I would amagine the char wood would have been the tool of the night. Funny thing is I discovered it lighting a campfire that has went out from the night before and my metal match made it glow. I blew that into a flame with some dry stuff. It was a good lesson. Then I looked up Char wood and saw it was most likely the real stuff as you said it could be made anywhere there is rotten wood. That spongy stuff works great.

I kept my eye out and as I was working I found a old dead tree laying on the ground and poked it. It was really spongy so I charred it and it is good stuff.

Mark Jones