The Charcloth Experiment

My nephews James and Christopher have been staying with us this week and we managed to fit in some time for a little woody work.


Christopher was very keen to try making some charcloth and as I've never tried it I donated an old cotton T-shirt for the experiment. I've only recently learnt of charcloth, which apparently is the material often used to catch the sparks from a flint or steel when making fire.


Meanwhilst James was busy making a new shelter with a stick frame and bracken covering.



Back at the charcloth Experiment. The pure cotton material is rolled up and the rolls fitted into a suitable tin, in this case a golden syrup tin. The process is very similar to making charcoal. The aim being to cook the cloth until its perfectly charred but to avoid it burning to ash.




With the lid fitted the tin is placed in the fire. A hole has been drilled in the lid allowing the smoke to escape.
Once the lid stops producing smoke the cloth is charred, the tin is removed from the fire and the hole plugged with a suitable stick whilst the tin cools. The first attempts were a little trial and error, but in the end we produced some quite charred cloth which looks as if it might do the job. Unfortunately my steel spark striker wasn't good enough to produce an ember, though we got as far as some somke. More practice needed I think, although perhaps Christopher will have succeeded by the time I've posted this article.