Tin box and cotton cloth- Mini CarbonizationTool
How to Make Char Cloth
Step 1: Make the Char Tin
Punch a hole in the lid. Stab a hole in the top with an awl or a nail and hammer. It should be about large enough to stick the tip of a pen through, but not the whole pen. Gases and hot air will escape through this hole, preventing the tin from exploding.
after that you are ready to char some cloth. For a can without a lid, wrap the top tightly with aluminum foil.
Step 2: Choose natural fabric.
An old, clean 100 percent cotton T-shirt or pair of denim blue jeans are good options. White cloth is best, since it's easy to tell when it's charred and there's no risk that dye will interfere. Most dyed cloth will work fine, but never use cloth that contains synthetic material. Also with no plastic or rubber parts
Cut the fabric into pieces. The fabric will shrink during charring, so 2 inch (5 cm) squares of fabric will leave you with a small but manageable piece of char cloth.[4] There's no need to measure exactly or get even edges. Just eyeball the size and cut up the fabric with a pair of scissors.
Drop the fabric squares into the container, keeping them mostly flat. You can leave space in the tin or nearly fill it, as long as you don't tamp down the fabric.
Step 3: Put It on the Fire
Now just start a fire not a blazing inferno just a calm fire or you can use the embers (lots of embers, this usually works much better) set it somewhere in the fire where it will not fall over and watch it you will eventually see smoke billowing out or it might start on fire. Don't freak out just let it burn itself out and when there is no more smoke coming out take it out. What ever you do DONT! Take the lid off right away just wait a little while for two reasons. one it is probably really hot! and two if you open it before it cools, the oxygen will rush in and might start the whole thing on fire.
Step 4. Remove the lid and Inspect the cloth
if is kinda soft completely black and is not very fragile then it is perfect. then you should take it out of the can and separate each piece gently.
If the cloth isn't fully black, return it to the tin and heat again. Make sure there is no smoke leaving the tin before you take it off.
If the cloth crumbles to dust when touched, then you left it on the fire too long. Try again with new fabric.
Step 5: Light It Up
now all you have to do is let any kind of spark fall on it and it will glow red with a hot ember but no flame or for all those tech freaks you can just use a lighter but it burns it up fast. for all you primitive and medieval people like me this is the exact way the people back then made char cloth