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| NOTES ON MAKING FIRE: "Everyone carrieth about him a purse of tewed leather, a mineral stone and a flat emery stone, tied fast to the end of a little stick. Gently, he striketh upon the mineral stone, and within a strike or two, a spark falleth upon a piece of touchwood and with the least spark, he maketh the fire." - John Brereton describing the firemaking skills of the Wampanoag Indians (early 17th century). Never made a fire with flint and steel? For a full page of excellent, detailed instructions, click the link to visit Bob Spencer's page on "Making Fire with Flint and Steel." To clear the ground for a fire, I use an old Boy Scout trick that many of you probably use. I grab the center of a straight stick (about 2' long) and use this to clear the fire area. (I tend to be fairly cautious here and clear at least a 5' diameter area). My favorite fire shape, is a banked "V" fire. I use three, thick, green limbs on each side to form the "V." I stack these log cabin style using two more green limb as pegs to lean the open ends against. Keep the opening towards the wind. NOTES ON CHAR: Punk wood char is the best type of char (better than any cloth type). Of punk woods, maple punk is king of chars, but any type will work. If you're going to do cloth char, remember that linen cloth is better than cotton. Remember to set your char tin on end with the hole up. You don't want to see any flames coming out of the hole. If you do, it is getting too hot and the material is being consumed (ruining your char). Blow the flame out and reposition your tin a bit further out. When you stop seeing smoke, your char should be done. Move your tin out of fire and let it cool. When cool enough to handle, take a gander. Good char is fully blackened, and somewhat fragile, but not so much as to fall apart to the touch. Lastly, no mentioning of 18th century fire making would be complete without mentioning the mysterious "Amadou." Amadou, (sometimes called "touchwood" or "German tinder") is simply the European term for a special type of char made, most commonly, from dried shelf fungi. It must have been so common to daily life that it was considered trivial, for we can find few records of it today. Generally speaking, "touchwood" could also be made from dried, punky wood, whereas "Amadou" and "German tinder" referred only to the dried shelf fungi. This fungi was gathered and subjected to a unique treatment. The fungus was cut up thin, charred and then soaked in "strong urine" where it was boiled for several days. Urine contains sodium nitrate, which is very similar to the potassium nitrate ("saltpeter") found in gunpowder. The difference is that sodium nitrate tends to be more hygroscopic ("absorbs moisture"). Although the species of fungus used traditionally is only found in Europe, there are a number of North American varieties that worked equally well. Charred shelf fungus, gathered from Birch trees, is known to quickly take (and hold) a spark very well (even without a urine soak!) NOTES ON TINDER: Tow is excellent tinder, as is an unraveled, and frizzed up, piece of Jute rope. Jute, although documented to a French frigate sunk in a Canadian river in 1760, was imported from India and Southeast Asia. Still, try giving a simple explanation as to how a Middle-Ground hunter was carrying a length of Jute. Although probably the most common tinder used today, tow was probably only used for tinder after having served it's primary purpose; that of swabbing out a dirty barrel. Probably more common to the 18th century were tinders easily found in nature. These included dry, shredded cattail leaves and grasses, the down from dried cattail spike heads and milkweed pods as well as the inner bark of various trees; Cottonwood, Birch, Cedar, etc. A trick I read about, but have yet to try, is using powdered oak tree gall or rotten wood when you're stuck with poor tinder. Once you get a small ember going, you are supposed to sprinkle the powder and gently fanning it into a larger ember. Sounds like it should work well enough. NOTES ON KINDLING: When building a fire, especially in wet weather, use fatwood, or dead grapevine stems and tendrils in your kindling. Greasewood/fatwood is resin soaked pinewood. When in the woods, look for a downed pine and use the poll of your axe to tap for deep, hollow thud sound (like finding a stud in a wall). Chop in and look for very yellow section. Get close enough and you'll generally get a whiff of their turpentine smell. Hack this out into small chunks. You can also find fatwood bundles for sale, generally around Christmas time, and in fireplace specialty shops. They make great little candles that burn for several minutes, and will light even when damp. Grapevine stems and tendrils are also great kindling. Gather those that are up off the damp ground and are relatively dry. They're hollow and contain an oily resin, which makes them burn hot. In damp, or cold weather, it's good to immediately light a candle just in case your flames die while trying to get kindling going (saves having to start the whole process over), and using grapevine stems and tendrils will help dry out other kindling on a lightly damp morning. NOTES ON FIREWOOD: White Oak- bark and wood are best for a hot, smokeless fire. Walnut- great hardwood for hot fire.Hickory- best for a hot, smokeless fire. Sugar/White Maple- really good for hot, smokeless fire. Cedar- great for tinder (but not great for fire as it burns fast, spits and is not that hot).Pine- pitch and kindling (but not great for fire as it burns fast, spits and is not that hot). |
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