To Catch A Spark
By Dude McLean
In past issues of “Wilderness Way,” there have been articles about preparing and how to make char cloth , using material, i.e., cotton. Once the cotton is “cooked”, read “charred” properly it isn’t difficult to master the flint and steel using the char cloth as the catcher of the spark and producing a coal. You then move the piece of char cloth glowing with heat, to your tinder and soon you have fire.
CATTAIL
Many of you are aware of using cattail fluff. That is the material found in the head of the cattail when it has turned brown. You break the brown portion open and the contents will expand rapidly with a fine, downy fluff. When it is dry and you hit it with a spark, it will explode the fluff into into a ball of flame with a flash of light and heat. It burns very fast, a few seconds, and then is out. If the tinder you had prepared didn’t catch on fire in those few brief seconds that the fluff allows you, then you have failed in your fire making effort.
CHAR THE CATTAIL FLUFF
Following the same principles as making charcloth, we are going to make charred cattail fluff.
Choose your brown section of cattail. You want it as dry as possible, almost to the point of bursting on its own. You will want to stay out of any wind because the wind will rob you of the fluff in a heartbeat.
Compact the fluff by pressing it first in a can with a weight to hold it down, or between two flat rocks (a few heavy books will also work well). Wait a day, then pull out about a quarter of the bundle and press it into your “char tin”. I use an old Altoids tin; any like tin will work for you. Take a nail or any small punch and poke a small hole in the center and the top of the tin. Now press as much of the fluff into the tin as you can and shut it.
FIRE
At this point you need a fire. I use a one burner Coleman stove for projects like this. Or if I am in the wild, I build a fire and position the some rocks so I can set the tin on the flame. Watch the hole on the top of the tin,. When it starts to smoke, let it smoke away. The timing here is critical. When the smoke stops pouring out of the hole, I count to 30 or so and then remove the tin from the flame. It’s important to wait until the tin has cooled off. If you open the tin
too soon, the contents can burst into flame.
When you can handle the tin with your bare hands, it will be safe to open. Your cattail fluff should be charred and you will be able to pick it up in one piece (carefully, because it is fragile.) If for some reason it isn’t charred all the way through, throw it back in the fire and wait for the smoke to come through the hole again and repeat the process.
TESTING YOUR CHARRED CATTAIL FLUFF
Once you have inspected the fluff and you are satisfied that is charred through and through, you are ready for the test.
Break off a small portion of the charred fluff and throw a spark to it with your flint and steel or however you wish to create a spark. The spark will catch your fluff right now and you will see the coal glowing in the charred material. Move it to your already prepared fire lay.
The cattail charred fluff is so sensitive that it will catch a spark made from two rocks. Sparks created between two rocks are not nearly as “hot” as a spark thrown from flint and steel.
UNIVERSAL
The great thing about cattails is that they are found not just all over our USA , but they are found all over the world . That’s the good news because we are not limited to a certain kind of fungus, cotton, tow, conk, or various other materials that many times are localized.
With very little practice you will be able to produce cattail fluff in a charred state. I like using the cattail because it is more primitive to me than the cotton that is so common with the flint and steel method..
This is a fun and easy project that will only take up a small portion of your day. Now get to sparkin’.