Aloha Gang,

We just finished a long over due camping trip two weeks ago. Can you believe it has been almost six months since our last one? No wonder my wife was telling everyone I was having withdrawals. We have to get in as many outings as we can until soccer season starts up again. My daughter wants "Coach Daddy" so I gotta do what I gotta do. We can no longer skip the occasional game anymore to make our monthly camping quota.

Anyway, enough rambling. I just wanted to share something we tried at camp that I am very happy about. One of my buddies joined us at camp for the first time with his family. We of course, we had to initiate him and his wife. We showed him how to make fire with a ferro rod as well as flint and steel. His wife was also successful with the ferro rod. I showed him a speedy way to make char cloth. I cut out some pieces from a burlap bag, ignited them in the fire, let em burn for a little bit, then buried it in the ashes under the coals for about 20 seconds. Took them out and smothered them so they wouldn't reignite and we had quick expedient char cloth.

But that wasn't the discovery. The cool thing that we discovered was that cotton filler cord that you can buy at Walmart and other places made an excellent vehicle to catch a spark and build a coal. The cord has the exact (to my eye) same cross section as a tinder quick tab. I think the only difference is that the cord isn't coated or saturated with anything. In a future post, I will compare it with a tinder quick.

After we got back home, I took a few pictures. I didn't think to at camp since I was just enjoying my time outside. The cord easily took a spark from a sparklite. And once it was blackened, it took the smallest spark from a flint and steel and formed a large ember to transfer to a tinder bundle.

Here's a large ember from the cord.



At camp, I was putting the ember out by stepping on it which also removes a lot of the char, which hasn't affected performance. But I saw something similar before where the cord was run through a piece of tubing. Then when you are done with the ember, you pull the lit end into the tube and cover it with your finger to smother the coal. I fully intend to carve a tube from a branch of my dragon eye tree, but in the meantime, here it is in an aluminum tubing sleeve.



And an ember from a freshly made whatever you call this thing.



Four of the dads at camp tried it and were successful.

Sunrise at camp.



Goddess on a mountain top?



At one point we had 15-20 kids running around. We were too busy playing. I wish I took more pictures. And our newest camper is four months old.

Some kids playing.



By the way, mods, I wasn't sure where to post this so feel free to put it wherever you want.

Very excited to know which type of their cord this is.

Campsite looks great, did you get any time on those mountain in the background?

It's called cotton filler cord. I bought mine at Walmart. $3 for six yards. I have the larger of the two in the picture.



We had lots of little kids and stayed in the camp area. Although they did go fishing at the lake on one of the days. But there are lots of great trails in the Koolau mountain range.

Good clarity on the pick. From the tag I found that it is as you said Filler Cord, used mostly in the trim tubing around throw pillows. Given that, I think it would be located in Wally's fabric department. Good find!

another neat idea,cheap and easy..good to see your camping posts again,they are a very refreshing change from the doom and gloom-

Thanks guys. It really has been too long since we went camping last. I am trying to schedule a dad's camping outing where we can really play with sharps and fire and eat lots of meat cooked in said fire.

And we have our next family outing planned for January. After that, it will be another lean season for me as soccer season starts and takes our weekends.

Was this cord able to catch/grow a spark from flink and steel? That would be awesome.

Edit: D'oh! Just reread your post. Char the tip of the cord and then it'll work with flint/steel...

-Blast

p.s. Great pics as usual!

"it took the smallest spark from a flint and steel and formed a large ember to transfer to a tinder bundle"

Last sentence before the first picture.

Thanks for the idea, Aloha. It's a great Idea. Char Cloth is usually a little bit of a mess and hassle, at least as far as creating it is concerned, and this seems like an awesome solution.

Yeah it worked great with flint and steel. And since you can let as much of the cord burn as you like, you can get a truly massive coal with it.

Frankly, I was surprised at how easily it took a spark.

Someone on another forum suggested that a wooden tube might not work as well as the aluminum is also sucking the heat out of the coal.

Today, I wanted to try lighting it with a fresnel lens. It was overcast earlier so I didn't attempt it until almost sundown. As you can see from the angle of the lens, the sun is almost to the horizon. I could only get some clear late afternoon sun at the side of the house.



Once focused, I immediately got smoke and and ember, then blew it into a large coal.



Sorry for the lousy focus. I really should have just left it on the wall and taken a picture instead of picking it up. The aluminum tubing really works well. The coal was snuffed out in seconds. And according to my postage scale, the whole shabang with a little over a foot of cord weighs in at 0.5 ounces.