I recently was on youtube and observed a hunter who was hiking way off the grid in Alaska. He needed fire for the night. He gathered twigs and sticks, then opened a tin with his home made charcloth. Then with a square piece of the charcloth he launched a shower of sparks from flint and steel and… the cloth took an ember to which he started his fire. Using fine tinder nest, he grew the fire. This is a Bushcraft technique we modern folk rarely use. 

Honestly, I’ve never tried lighting a fire with charcloth and a spark. I pull my Bic lighter or a special outdoor match, but I was intrigued. I thought, “Maybe I’ll give that a try” for fun and emergencies. 

You might try this too to make charcloth! 

I used an empty Campbell soup can (paper label removed) and aluminum foil to cover and cook twenty 1.5 inch cut denim squares and cooked them on my Weber grill.

The good news is that I lost some weight, so I cut up my oversize cotton dungarees for the cloth. Boy, it felt good to cut those dungarees up. Right?  

After some experimenting on the grill, I put the can on its side, it worked great. I monitored the process every 10 minutes. After 10 minutes smoke and flame came out of the 1/4 inch hole I punched in the foil. 

When flame stopped (30 minutes) I let it smoke for another 5 minutes and placed it in some nearby to cool. It snowed yesterday, so I put the can where it would cool, snow helped.

Note: The cooking and smoke is a quite stinky so do this outside.

Let the can cool completely, maybe 30 minutes or so. Empty the can onto a sheet of aluminum foil.

If embers are present on the charcloth, enclose it in the aluminum foil to remove oxygen and the embers will die out quickly. 

I had some tins to put the charcloth in. Below is the tin with charcloth shown.

You can use a flint and steel or a ferro rod to throw sparks at your charcloth. Once the charcloth takes an spark, use tinder or a cotton ball with Vaseline on it to grow the flame.

Happy Emergency Fire Making!!

Honestly, I like all of these wild game stews, but my very favorite of-late is Black Bear. I say “of-late” because I was reintroduced to hunting Maine black bear in the fall.  Especially after gorging on blueberries, raspberries and acorns, bears are plump and delish.

I covet bear fat and render it for cooking, lubricating, softening leather, my hands, and even rust prevention. Great for my Flintlock, cleaning and lube for patch and round ball. 

Springtime east coast black bears on the other hand are also leaner and eat more carrion and grass.

You are what you eat.

I like the idea of eating game fed on blueberries, fruits and nuts.

I met folks in Alberta, Canada who avoid spring black bear meat as it smells and tastes strong. 

The grain of Northeast US black bear meat does not separate into large strands (to get caught in teeth when chewing) like other wild game, yet very tender when day long stewed or pressure cooked. I prefer pressure cooking till meat falls apart, say 40 to 50 minutes or so under high pressure. 

Good Eating!