Pathways Newsletter 2/13/2019

Historical Perspective
    The importance of a good fire on the American frontier can hardly be understated. Fire provided warmth in the cold weather and even in the warm weather provided light and was essential for cooking, purifying water and aiding in the manufacture of various useful items just as it is today.
    Flint and steel firemaking was probably the most used method of the white settler in the American backcountry, for matches did not appear until the late 19^th century and were often unreliable and not readily available. Flint and steel firemaking is still a very simple and reliable method of making fire without matches even today (save some of the modern matchless devices on the market, i.e. magnesium fire starters, a variation of the flint and steel). Success in making fire without matches is achieved only with practice and the right equipment.

The Right Equipment
    The essential equipment for flint and steel firemaking, whether acquired or made should be chosen and prepared with care. To the early settler it could be a matter of life and death. To the outdoor survivalist it could still be so. Essential items needed in a flint and steel firemaking kit are as follows:

Fire Steel or Flint Striker
    These come in various shapes and sizes, but a broken file works great. The matter of importance here is that it be of high carbon steel. It is always best to test the striker before purchasing it to see if it throws a good shower of orange sparks when properly struck against the flint chard. Yellow sparks indicate a low carbon content and will not be as

‘hot’. You can make one easily from a broken file. If using a broken file I have had the best performance from an American made file. They seem to consistently be of a higher carbon content than the cheaper, imported variety. You should also grind the striking edge smooth.

Flint Chard
Black English flint seems to work the best, however, I have had equal success with agate, chert, rhyolite, quartzite or any silica type stone broken into angular chunks to produce sharp edges. A good sharp edge is

very important to achieving a good shower of sparks, for it is the flint that is actually shearing off hot particles of steel that produces the sparks necessary for producing a healthy ember.

Charred Cloth
Charred cloth is sometimes referred to as just ‘char’. Charred cloth is any natural (cotton, linen, etc.) woven material that is scorched in an airtight

container with a hole that allows for the release of gases but not combustion (burning) of the material. There will be more later on producing this all important item as well as a list of raw materials of the wild that can be charred. Once suitable ‘char’ is produced it should be stored in a tight, waterproof container. A tight, tin container that had been ‘japaned’ was a common storage place in the backcountry. You can ‘japan’ your own metal container just by throwing it in a fire and burning off any paint. Then sand it a little to clean it up. I also like rubbing a little oil on it while it is hot, kind of like seasoning a cast iron skillet. A container treated in this manner usually will not rust.

Tinder
Tinder is any natural material that is easily blown into a flame when an ember is placed in the midst of it. It is also important that this item be kept dry. It can be carried in a leather pouch that contains the other items in your kit if it is constructed in such a way as to be waterproof. Moisture does have a way of penetrating and accumulating though, therefore, it is recommended that some amount of tinder be hermetically sealed in a watertight container. Rivercane or Bamboo that is cut with a section remaining as a bottom and a larger piece for a cap or a wooden plug sealed with beeswax or paraffin serves this purpose well. I know of more than one woodsman that can testify that they were glad they took the time to do this when caught in a downpour or overturned canoe!

Here is a list of tinders I have found to be very successful, it is by no means exhaustive, don’t be afraid to experiment with others:
CEDAR BARK (Juniperus occidentalis) - -Peel the stips off of trees that are already loose. Rub it between the hands until it is light and fluffy and all the hard bark is removed leaving nothing but fibers.
JUTE (Corchorus capsularis) or SISAL (Agave sisalana) --You can purchase a roll of jute or sisal fairly inexpensively. Tear it apart into fibers and make a loose tinder nest. Beware though and test your string as a tinder ahead of time because some manufacturers actually treat it with a fire resistant coating.
MOUSE and BIRD NESTS—Use as is.
DOGBANE—Dogbane should be worked down to its fibers carefully separating the hardened inner pith and rub between hands till fluffy and soft. This plant is best gathered after the first frost, when it is very dead and dry.
DRY MOSS—Experiment with this one. Some moss works better than others and some doesn’t work at all.

Other Useful But Non-Essential Items
That covers the essentials needed for a good flint and steel firemaking kit. There are other helpful items that may also be included, such as:
CANDLE STUBS—Birthday candles, any candles. If you use a candle lantern when those candles in your lantern burn down, save them. A candle may be blown into a flame with only an ember from your char and may burn long enough to build moist tinder around until a fire is built. Not to mention that shavings of paraffin or bees wax make a good tinder when all but moist tinder is to be found and can be added to a struggling flame.
FUZZ STICK—A fuzz stick is good to have. This is just a shaved stick that still has the shavings curled up and clinging to it. This is easily made in the wilderness situation, though, so there is no need to carry one. A pointed end is also helpful for driving into the ground.

PUNK WOOD—Punk wood is corky, rotten wood. It is a handy item to have, for you can place a piece of glowing ‘char’ on a piece of it and it will not flame up but will form a larger coal for you to work with the more you blow on it. This is often called a coal enhancer.
CATTAIL (Typha spp. L. (T. latifolia, T. glauca, T. angustifolia, T. domingensis) ) FLUFF or PLANT DOWN—These are handy to have for ‘holding’ an ember for a long period of time when you are short on char and candle stubs. These are also coal enhancers.
Making ‘Char’
    Without a doubt 100% cotton or linen are the best materials for making reliable char. Linen may be laid on a grill over very low coals and blackened, not burned. If it even flames up it becomes a useless ash. It should be removed when it is thoroughly blackened and still holds together well.
    The best way to make char though is to acquire a can with a tight fitting lid, such as a paint can, clean it out well and make sure it is thoroughly dry and punch a hole in the lid with a nail. Cut your cotton or linen material to suitable sizes that it will stack and lay flat in the can or cut to the size of your chosen storage container. Place the cloth in the can and put the lid on tightly and set it in the coals and wait. You may wish to put a wire handle on your char can for easy removal later. Black gases will soon begin to escape through the nail hole. This is a good indication that your cloth is charring properly and not burning.
    Watch until the gases stop completely, then, remove the can from the heat. Place the nail in the hole loosely or a small stick to prevent any oxygen from entering. Allow to cool before opening the can. This is important, opening it sooner may cause the material to burst into flames and be lost. After it is cool look into the can at your material. If it is black throughout, and not just an ash, then you have been successful. Take some out and strike a spark to it and see how well it holds an ember. If there are any brown areas, then close it up and let it ‘cook’ a while longer. If you have a material that looks like black plastic or the can is coated with this black plastic, then the material you chose contained some synthetic blend. You might as well throw this away, clean your can out good and look again for some 100% cotton or linen.
    A word should be said about natural materials that can be found in the wild that char well. They are charred in the same manner, using a can. One of these is a type of red shelf fungus that grows on the side of oak trees like a shelf. It can be charred and stored whole. Also the cottony pith from many plants ground to a powder and charred works well, these include: Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Sumac (Rhus coriaria), Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), etc. In a pinch charcoal from an old fire works and of course, has no need of further charring.

Making Fire With Flint And Steel

Before striking that first spark, go ahead and lay out some small twigs and dry grass and possibly some kindling. Think about what kind of fire you are going to build. It is never necessary to build a bigger fire than needed. If it is a high wind, you may wish to dig a pit. Think ahead. Plan your fire. You don’t want your fire to go out while you frantically search for material to keep it going after you get a flame. Next, take out some tinder and form a hollow in the center where it forms a nest of sorts. Lay this aside, but within reach. Tear off a piece of char, you be the judge of how much, usually a piece the size of a quarter is sufficient to blow into a flame in a properly prepared, dry nest of tinder. Place the char on top of your flint chard next to a good sharp edge.

Now, holding the char on the flint with the thumb take your fire steel in your other hand. Strike the flint with the fire steel in a downward, limp-wristed, motion in an arc, not straight up and down, scraping across the length of the fire steel as you go down (see inset on Fire Steel diagram and photo above). You may wish to practice this without char. You will know you are doing it right when you see a nice shower of orange sparks fly. What you are doing is shearing off hot pieces of steel with the flint chard. In one or more attempts you will notice a tiny orange glow in your char. If your char was prepared properly this glow will not go out but will hold until it consumes the material. You may blow on it lightly, if you wish, to get a larger ember. Drop your flint and steel and transfer this glowing char to your tinder nest in the hollow you have prepared. As I said, properly prepared char will not go out, unless moisture has got to it, so you really don’t have to blow on it to keep it going until you are ready to blow it into a flame. Now wrap the tinder loosely around the glowing ember. Tilt your head back while holding it slightly above your head and begin to blow

on it (See photo). This keeps smoke from filling your eyes and from starting an unplanned brushfire of human hair from the ensuing flame! It will begin to smoke, indicating you are near the tinder’s combustion point. Continue blowing steadily until it bursts into flame, then transfer it to your waiting twigs and grass and continue to fuel as normal. You may wish to light a candle at this point to save on char if your flame happens to go out.
That is the best and easiest way. Some prefer to go ahead and lay the char in the tinder nest and then strike flint against steel showering their tinder/char nest on the ground with sparks until it glows and then pick it up and blow it into a flame. It is good to master both, for in the case of powdered char, such as mullein, elderberry and other natural chars discussed earlier you will have to use this method while using the form of the nest to keep the powder together into one mass, as much as is possible.

Another handy thing to master is the art of lighting a candle from the glowing char without benefit of tinder. This is particularly handy when you are out of tinder and nothing can be found. Master it and you may like it so well that you prefer it over carrying tinder. Select a piece of char cloth about 3 inches by 2 inches and roll it end to end creating a tight roll about the diameter of a pencil. Position the roll of char on top of your flint with one end near the

sharp edge you are going to strike. As you strike the fire steel on the flint you want to cause the sparks to fall on the end of the roll of charred cloth. When they catch and the cloth is glowing, drop the flint and steel and pick up the candle and place the roll alongside it. Blow long and steady breaths onto the smoldering end of the cloth. Blowing the cloth will cause the cotton or linen you charred to reach it’s combustion point but it cannot burst into flame because all the burnable gases have been driven off during the charring process. It will however, melt some of the wax on the side of the candle and absorb some of it. This absorbed wax after a few seconds of blowing will burst into flame. Using the blazing roll of char, you can light the candle. This takes a little practice but is well worth mastering. A variation of this was used right through the Civil War. It was a handy implement which was basically a metal tube that had a cotton rope through it. One end was kept charred. A spark was struck to the charred end of the rope and this was used to either light a candle or light a tinder bundle. The rope was then pulled back in enough to smother the flame. Pretty handy and compact. Weld or solder a little ring on the side of the tube and you could carry it around your neck or attach it to your possibles bag.
That pretty much covers flint and steel firemaking, but by no means covers all its variations and other methods of firemaking used by backcountry folk or their predecessors. They did use other firemaking methods, such as fire by friction. The backwoodsman sometimes placed the char in the pan of his rifle and ‘lit’ the char with the shower of sparks created by flint striking frizzen. In many colonial homes a variation of this was found in a mantlepiece that consisted basically of a gun lock and pan to hold the char. Firemaking is an art almost as old as man and though refined in modern methods still remains one of man’s most essential skills.