We use char cloth regularly on our courses when we’re teaching fire lighting. Char cloth is a tinder made from natural fabric that’s charred in a tin, a bit like making charcoal but on a much slower, and quicker, timescale. I generally use cotton as it’s easy to get hold of. And from the various cotton products out there I typically use towelling, mostly old tea towels we use in our woodland camp that invariably end up somewhat black. I prefer towelling fabric as it retains its fluffiness once charred, giving more surface area for the spark to land on. But if you don’t have a spare tea towel around, denim also works well.
Here’s a short video of me making char cloth in preparation for a course last week.
We teach making char cloth on many of our bushcraft courses such as on our 2 Day Bushcraft Course, 5 Day Bushcraft Course and IOL Bushcraft Competency course. You can see plenty of photos from these courses, as well as all of our others, on our Facebook page.