Charpaper

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Charpaper is used in starting a fire with flint and steel. It is traditionally made from cotton that has been processed into charcoal. When a spark comes into contact with charpaper, it makes the charpaper glow, but the charpaper will not ignite. After the charpaper glows, you put it against your tender and blow.

To make charpaper, you need some cotton material. Cut it into approximately 5 centimetre squares. You then place 5-15 pieces of the cloth into a metal can that can be sealed. You will want to punch a small hole into the top and botom of the can, in order to allow the gases to escape. You then place the can containg the cloth into a fire. you can have it in open flames or in hot coals, or even in the end stages of the fire. The hotter the fire, the faster the cloth will be transformed. you will want to roll the can in the fire to evenly cook the cloth, and continue to do so until you stop seeing gases coming from the holes in the can. When the gases stop coming out, you want to take the can out of the fire, and place something on the can to block the holes. a rock or piece of wood will do fine. You then want to let the can cool down for at least 5 minutes. This insures that when you open the can, the char paper doesn't get consumed from the sudden introduction of oxygen. Once the can has cooled, remove the lid, and remove the pieces of charcloth. You want to make sure that they are comletely blackened, if any of the original color from the cloth is still evident, you will want to cook that cloth again. This is because the cloth has not been completely burnt, and will ignite instead of holding a spark. The flame resulting from such an ignition is very fast, and would be difficult to utilize in building a fire.

If you want to make some, you can use an altoids can, an old T-shirt, and a campfire.

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