I took you up on your suggestion - tried three batches:

• First try. I cut up the white cotton pockets into 1/4" x 2" strips and cooked them in sealed aluminum foil on the gas BBQ on low heat for an hour. Then I realized that you needed to poke a hole in it to let the smoke escape - the foil package was too air tight. Some of the cotton strips were kinda stuck to the foil and were extremely crisp and crumbled on sight. The other strips were just brittle and crumbled when worked a lot. They left my fingers blackened. I set fire to a piece with my lighter and instant flame! It almost burned too fast.
• Second try. I suspect the strips were overdone and crispy so the I cut up new strips 1" x 2-3" this time of the pant leg which are a little heavier thread. I put them in another foil package and this time punctured a hole to let the smoke escape. I cooked the strips at high heat for 15 min. and then tested them. The charred strips were soft to the touch but not brittle. When lit they glowed but no open flame.
• Third try. Another batch of 1" x 2-3" strips, this time I cooked them for 22 min. at medium heat with a hole in the aluminum foil. When tested again the strips were still soft to the touch but not brittle and didn't smudge too much black on my fingers. This time they lit with an open flame but didn't burn hard and fast like the first batch. It was a slower flame that I think is more appropriate to fire starting. I deemed the third time as a success and cooked my second batch for another 5 minutes at high heat to bring it to the same consistency as the third.

I now have a large volume of char cloth tinder (originally about 1/2 of one leg of black denim, now about 3-4 Altoid cans worth of tinder).

I now have multiple sources of tinder: the char cloth, 1 film can of petroleum jelly soaked cotton balls, 1 film can of 0000 steel wool, a film can of dryer lint, several Coughlans waxed tinder tabs, a few Spark-lite tabs (surprisingly not as good as Coughlans tabs) and compressed sawdust/wax bits. The next source of tinder to gather is punk wood (half rotted wood from an open tree log should do). I understand that punk wood can also be charred like cloth to make it even drier and easier to start. Jute rope/string is also supposed to be a good tinder.

I also have multiple flames starters too: magnesium block/flint (I hate this thing), 'Light My Fire' FireSteel Firestarter (great!), Coughlans flint and striker, flint striker on a plastic match safe, strike anywhere matches dipped in wax and striker strip, Coughlans' matches, safety matches, book matches, Bic lighters, windproof lighter (my overall favourite), Spark-lite and batteries for use with the steel wool. I've never tried a compression blastmatch or Nato lifeboat matches because they aren't available locally.

I do want to learn how to use the "primitive" bow drill and plough methods of fire starting just for the fun of it. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

That was a pretty good review. I still haven;t made any yet but now have even more ways to try when I do.

Char cloth should not give a flame; only a glowing ember. It's pupose is to catch a tiny spark and deliver an ember that stays lit.
Sounds like batch #2 is closest. My char is soft but will "crack" apart when folded or pulled apart. Batch 3 sounds underdone.

I found my char cloth is more durable when I make it using the leg seam section of a pair of jeans rather than square patches. The multiple stitched layers hold together much better during the striking action. The regular squares would often get broken apart before catching a good spark.

-Blast

I have used the punk wood char, and it works very well. I sort of slice off thin laths of it, probably around an eighth of an inch, put it in a small tin with a lid (which also transports it), and either put it in the oven, on the grill, or in or under the coals of a fire. It's guesswork as to when it's done, and it won't all be done evenly, but it makes a good tinder: takes the spark off a steel well, keeps it going, and is awfully hard to extinguish if it's good char. Another tinder is the hoof-type "tinder fungus" off alders and birches; that also can be charred to improve it. There are all sort of good plant tinders: milkweed, thistle, goldenrod, cottonwood down (sycamore down goes up too quick), cottonwood inner bark, and the inner bark of the junipers and other things we call cedar here, and of course the bark of some birches, are all good in their season.

last time I had my dutch oven out I made a batch of charcloth over the coals. I had a good time and learned a new skill. This stuff will catch a flame really quick.