Another cave visit

[Chigger]

Back to my favourite cave for another visit and firelighting with flint and steel. This time to try out a new hand made striker courtesy of Waveman well known here for fire lighting techniques.
There has been a lot of rain lately so upon arriving at the cave scavenged around under rock outcrops for dry leaves and kindling. Laid the fire and set up the new striker with a piece of chert which I had found on the side of a local road.
With the striker came a small pouch containing nitrated Cats Tail tinder, a material unknown to me and was eager to try this stuff out.



The striker and chert proved very effective, two strikes and the Cats tail tinder started spluttering and fizzing away which gave me quite a surprise. A hasty photo.



A bit of blowing and waving the glowing tinder about soon burst into flame and lit the fire. Another hasty photo with a flash fail.



A photo taken on a previous visit, Bushlite and UCO candle lanterns and a cheerful fire to dispel the freezing night. Forgot to take a torch but still had plenty of light for cooking and other tasks. As well used bits of bark lit in the fire as portable torches when needed.



All in all a pleasant overnight campout. A thanks to Waveman for the excellent handmade striker, sparks like fury and the cat tail tinder which is the most ignitable material I have ever used.

 

[Wave Man]

you are most welcome mate.

The nitrated bullrush fluff (thanks for telling me this mate, I am going to use the Aussie name for cattails from now on) is a bit volatile, I should have warned you, I made it quite 'hot' just to make sure it performed well.
I love it and it is my favourite prepared tinder and I honestly like it more than char cloth and punk wood.

 

[Chigger]

You are not wrong ! It made me jump a bit when the spark set it off. Excellent stuff and here are a couple of extra photos I forgot to put in.

A piece of nicely rotted punkwood laying beside the track to the cave. Have plenty at home but grabbed this piece just to play with.



On the drive back noticed these. Do not know what they are, flax ?? Anyhow cut some for experimentation as tinder. Looked about for Bulrush/Cattail which also grows in wet places but none about.



At home punkwood and moss drying. Otzi the Iceman had some mosses in his fire lighting pouch. Did make some experiments with mosses a few years back with no success but will have another try.

Moss may be more a kindling, not a tinder as I thought. Anyhow will experiment.

 

[Wave Man]

yes, bullrushes only grow in wet places and are seasonal.

I have a heap of them growing here in Brisbane where I live in the stormwater drains and the son and I harvest the heads as often as needed.

I have about 30 bullrush heads on hand at the moment and a heap of the fluff nitrated.

I look forward to your ongoing experiments mates. Punk wood is so good if it is spongy and light.

 

[Howling Dingo]

Good stuff..

 

[Wentworth]

Another great camp Chigger, good use of the cattail to take the spark.
Waveman, nice job on the striker too

 

[Yamaotoko]

Looks like a real neat spot!!

 

[peter.]

That looks like a nice spot.

 

[peter.]

I have about 30 bullrush heads on hand at the moment and a heap of the fluff nitrated.

I look forward to your ongoing experiments mates. Punk wood is so good if it is spongy and light.

I’ll keep an eye out for the bullrushes to try them.
When you say nitrated, is that potassium nitrate? As kids we used to use it for various things so I thought maybe that’s it. I’ve searched but haven’t found a reference yet. edit… oh never mind, I found it in your slow match thread.

 

[Wave Man]

I’ll keep an eye out for the bullrushes to try them.
When you say nitrated, is that potassium nitrate? As kids we used to use it for various things so I thought maybe that’s it. I’ve searched but haven’t found a reference yet. edit… oh never mind, I found it in your slow match thread.

yes mate potassium nitrate, I buy it as stump remover off ebay from a chemical supply here in Australia. I do have a full tutorial about nitrating bullrushes on my youtube channel.

 

[peter.]

yes mate potassium nitrate, I buy it as stump remover off ebay from a chemical supply here in Australia. I do have a full tutorial about nitrating bullrushes on my youtube channel.

thanks, I’ve subscribed and will watch the video.
Growing up dad had a drum of stump remover and we would dip into from time to time.
I thought it would be harder to get hold of now.

 

[Wave Man]

as long as you are not buying buckets of it and are buying it for the right reasons there should be no problems. We all know why it is a problem, just be sensible with it. It's always good to have stumps in your yard if asked why you need it as well...which I do.

 

[peter.]

Definitely, it’s something to be very careful with. As farm kids in the 70s it seemed just a bit of fun but we were careful with our smoke bombs -nothing more than that.