I've been experimenting with different tinders but by far the easiest one to use is char cloth.
I made up some char cloth on the weekend to add to some of my fire kits.
Nothing catches a spark like it. Especially the dull red sparks from flint and steel.
All it takes is for one spark to hit it and you have yourself a nice ember.
The first thing you need is a tin with a tight fitting lid. A shoe polish tin works great. I used an energy mint tin. It's smaller than a shoe polish tin but no matter. I made three batches.
Poke a hole in the top of the lid with a nail and fill the tin loosely with (approximately 2X2 inches in size) squares of linen or 100% cotton. Denim works and is easy to find.
Find a small twig and whittle it down so it fits inside the nail hole in the lid.
Set the tin on a burner or in the coals of a campfire. I started out using the side burner on the gas grill but it got too darn hot in the sun so I moved to the shade and used my Brunton camp stove.
It won't be long before smoke starts streaming from the hole.
If you get a flame don't worry about it. It's just gas burning off that's created by the cooking of the cotton.
When the smoke quits, plug the hole with the twig and remove the tin from the heat.
You need to plug the hole to prevent oxygen from entering the tin and causing your char cloth to combust.
As well, wait a good ten minutes before removing the lid.
The char cloth should be black. Not brown or grayish black.
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the finished char cloth in the tin but in the above picture you can see the colour it should be.
The gray on the edge is ash from the cloth burning after it was ignited by a spark.
The two preceding pictures show the ember on the char cloth.
One of my tinder boxes. It's just a Fisherman's Friend lozenge tin.
I keep a chunk of chert, a steel, some jute string and char cloth in it.
