Toasting Punk

I had a hot bed of pecan wood coals in the pit after working up something tasty for the supper table. Supper was done. The coals were waiting. 

It was time to toast some fire making materials.

My fire starting go-to is a fire steel and charred cloth. Flannel, out of all the 100% cotton offerings, is my favorite cloth for charring. It is soft and fluffy and seems to take a spark a lot easier than tighter woven materials.

This is not the only fire starting means that I carry in my kit. There is a bic lighter in there. There is a magnesium bar and ferro rod in there. I just happen to like old school. 

I am, where old school is concerned, still working on the bow drill method. I do not imagine the bow drill ever becoming my go-to fire starting means. Not as long as I have some hard steel and a sharp rock to cut red hot sparks. Friction fire just happens to be one of those good to know things.

Friction fire predates everything but lightening for getting a fire going. It has a certain mystique about it that makes it attractive. I do question its reliability here where the humidity is always high, rains are more often hard and heavy, and things tend to remain at or beyond the damp side of the scale. 

I would not want to have to depend on it. Maybe in a dryer climate. But not here.

Charred cloth. It dawned on me at our last class that I have gone through my little stash of the valuable resource. Time to replenish the container that I carry in my kit.

We do not have to rely on the textile mills to provide us with material to char. Charred cloth is convenient, handy, and readily available close to the settlements. However, in a long term situation where replenishing resources is a serious matter, we do not want to waste a good bandana or toast our cotton underwear to have material to get a fire going. Not when Ma Nature provides us with all the natural materials we need for the fire making purpose.

I am always picking things up when I see them.

Especially good fire making resources. 

It is like they are waiting for me to happen along, find them, and add them to my stash. 

I think this collecting business happens to folks when they begin making a priority of identifying and utilizing natural resources. It is amazing how much there is laying around waiting for us to recognize its usefulness.

The punk wood had fallen out of a live oak in town. A piece from a small limb. It had been run over a few times but there was still a nice bit of it that was usable. 

I stuffed it in a small bag and put it in the truck.

Throw some sparks in the tin of char, hold your tinder bundle on top, blow on it until the bundle ignites, then put the lid on the tin. Charred punk is great stuff. It takes a spark nicely and gives off a lot of heat. Once it is going you have to either drown it, suffocate it, or let it burn out on its own to put it out.

Hence the need for a tin with a tight fitting lid to choke off the supply of oxygen to put out the burning charred punk.

The tin will get quite hot. Give it time to extinguish and cool down before packing it away in your fire bag.