Dutch Oven / Campfire Cooking

[macmex]

Ron, that was amazing! Thanks for that link. I have to try that!

[heavyhitterokra]

I tried it and got zero results. I rolled my cotton ball joints with ashes until they were dust and only got them warm to the touch, nowhere near an ember. I must be doing something wrong? however, I did actually get a workout sufficient to keep me warm for quite a while without any fire.

Kind of like cutting firewood in winter. If you work hard enough, you get warmed three times by the same wood, once when you cut it, once when you haul it home and stack it, then a third time when you actually burn it in the stove.

[macmex]

I'm going to try it soon. The same fellow has a lot of videos on fire starting. I'm partway through another one on this same method. In it he emphasizes "the basics." I think he's gifted as a teacher.

Learn To Fire Roll With Cotton And Ashes FIRST! Then you can try all the other fibers and fillers

[heavyhitterokra]

I finally got a fire roll to light after about 10 failed attempts. I re-watched the video that George posted, then I noticed that the cotton balls used in the video were unrolling a lot longer than my cheap Dollar Tree cotton balls were unrolling.

Next, I tried it with a whole cotton ball instead of a half cotton ball, and like magic, it lit!

So far, I've got one to light every time I've tried it (about 5 or 6 times so far).  If I don't stop soon, I'll have to plant cotton this year, just to support my fire starter habit. 

What a cool trick!

I'm reposting a link to the same video that George posted earlier, just because this conversation about fire rolling cotton balls and ashes has rolled to a new page. That way, no one will be at a loss as to what we are discussing here.

[heavyhitterokra]

I was curious if this fire rolling method would work on damp ashes if the need arose, so, today, during the rain, I found some damp ashes under the closed lid of my charcoal grill. (Not wet ashes), just damp enough that when pinched between the forefinger and thumb, the ash kept its pinched shape.

I rolled the cotton ball about 40 times using damp ashes, (about twice as long as normal) and got nothing. However, it did get quite hot, as I could feel the steam cooking off of it. It just never would get dark brown to black, the way it would when the ashes are dry. So, I laid the roll, back on the grill and went inside to eat lunch. After the dishes were done, I went back to try the fire roll one more time, but when I opened the lid to the grill, it was gone! Apparently, it had experienced spontaneous combustion while I was away for lunch. There was just a streak of cotton ashes in its place when I opened the grill. (Good thing I didn't just throw it on the ground when I went inside). Apparently, you can still use this method even with damp ashes, which is amazing actually. Nothing else that I know of would still work that way if it were so damp, cold, and cloudy outside.

[macmex]

This is amazing! I've got all the materials gathered up yet never quite seem to carve out a few minutes to do this. I really want to master this technique.

[heavyhitterokra]

It only takes about 30 seconds to ignite a cotton ball when it's dry. I've got a little plastic pill bottle of ashes placed inside a plastic ziplock bag of cotton balls, cedar fibers, and a few dry okra pods in my truck now. Plus, two, 2x4 blocks to rub the cotton ball between. I always keep fire starting supplies in the truck in case I'm stranded in winter, or if I'm just needing a campfire while fishing or hunting. I also end up using the fire starting material quite often to light fires in my garden to burn out fence rows or to burn old plant matter in winter.

I feel the cotton ball and ashes have a lower chance of accidentally igniting my truck than carrying a container of matches around. Sometimes, my truck gets pretty cluttered up with old gloves, work shirts, hamburger wrappers, you name it. It's not always a safe place to leave matches laying around. Plus, matches never work if they somehow get damp while in the truck. From what I've seen recently, dampness has little effect on the ashes. (I'll have to experiment with damp ashes more to feel confident). That part is still fairly new to me, but so far, every time I've attempted to start a fire roll with damp ashes, it actually lit.  It just took a little longer to do because of the time it takes for the friction to dry out the ashes.

[macmex]

Yesterday I carved out about 10 minutes of my time to try doing a fire roll with a cotton ball. I didn't succeed. But I will. Just need to review David West's instructions and keep working at it. I've been watching more of his videos in snatches of time, and he really is a good teacher.

[heavyhitterokra]

I agree, David West is a really good teacher.  If he can teach me, he can teach anybody.  (I ain't never been the sharpest tack in the box).

Here's what I've learned to do so far: After I've sprinkled the cotton ball with ashes really well, I hand roll it into as tight a cylinder as possible. I think that's where I messed up the first time that I tried it with no success. I think I started out with too loose of a roll.

Once my roll is tight, I sprinkle a few ashes on top of a dry board, where I then roll the cotton ball under the palm of my hand until the fibers bind together well. Once it's really good and tight, I roll it four or five times between two boards, just to get it warmed up. Once I start to feel some heat, I roll it vigorously between the two boards about 25 times (counting one forward and one backward motion as one time). At twenty-five rolls, I check it to see if it's hot. If I don't see smoke, I roll it some more. After little practice, you'll get a 'feel' for when it ignites, by the sound that it makes, and the change in friction as you roll it.

I can't smell anything anymore, but people who can smell, tell me that the cotton ball smells like paper burning when it's ready to ignite.

[hmoosek]

He’s a fire bug for sure. I’ve watched him for a long time. My wife once asked me, “so that’s all he does is start a fire?” Laughing!!!!!

[heavyhitterokra]

I have a good friend and good neighbor up the road about a mile from here who was born in 1929, he's 93-years-old. His name is Henry. A few days ago, I was up at his place, working on a garage door opener. While I was busy with that, Henry was busy with his yard work. We were both lost in what we were doing and then I noticed that I could no longer hear his mower running. When I looked up, I saw him lying flat on his back, his arms outstretched, above his head, right beside the riding mower that he uses as a motorized mobility cart.

Henry's yard is about two acres across; he keeps it looking like a picture postcard and has a beautiful, well-kept garden that is a pleasure to see.  It's just like his shop, (neat and tidy). He is a retired aircraft mechanic and has everything in his shop in order, every tool has its place, just like you'd expect from a guy who spent most of his life working in a well-ordered aircraft repair shop. Knowing his age, and the fact that he was lying still for a very long time, I kind of feared the worst.

Since his yard is so big, it took me a little while to cover the distance between the shop and where he was lying. By the time I got about halfway across the yard, I saw his arms move. (That was a relief). The closer I got, the more I could see that he was alright. When I got right up on him, I saw that he had a pocket knife in his hand. He had been lying on his back, using his knife to cut loose some gardening twine that had gotten wrapped up under his mower.

When he saw me standing over him, he said, "Hey, neighbor! What can I do for ya?" As he rolled over on his belly, got up on his hands and knees, and stood up to greet me, I didn't say that I thought he had stroked out, instead, I made up an excuse. I said, "Would you happen to have a yellow wirenut on that cart of yours?" He said, "Let me see."

His mower has a couple of plastic milk crates attached to the hood that he uses to carry firewood from his woodshed to the wood-fired boiler in his garage. He tends the boiler all winter to heat his house, and also keeps a woodstove burning in his repair shop. (He uses a lot of firewood). His woodshed holds 20 ricks of split and neatly stacked oak logs. There are rows and rows of firewood inside there.  In winter he uses the milk crates to carry firewood, in summer, he uses them to carry tools to work on the old cars that he restores as a hobby. It didn't take him 30 seconds to come up with a wirenut.

While he was looking for the wirenut, I remembered him hauling firewood in the crates last winter and it occurred to me that I had never shown Henry the cotton ball fire starting trick that I had learned while watching the David West videos. After he handed me the wirenut, I went out to the truck to get two short boards, my bag of cotton balls, and a pill bottle full of ashes.

Since Henry is always piddling with a fire in winter, I thought he'd appreciate knowing a method to start a fire without any matches. If he ever needed a match, it's a long walk back to his house from the woodstove in his shop. 

By the time I got back from the truck Henry was busy working on an electric fence, by his garden. While he was fiddling with his fence charger, I unrolled a cotton ball and said "Let me show you an old Indian trick, if I'm still Indian enough to pull it off."  (I'm not Indian), so that was not much of a vote of confidence.  After I unrolled a cotton ball, I sprinkled it with ashes, and began to show him how to roll it between two short pieces of 1x4 lumber to ignite a fire.

Since we were outside in the lush green grass, after a heavy rain everything was damp. Because of that, it took a while for the cotton ball to ignite.  It didn't help that I inadvertently rolled a blade or two of green grass between the two 1x4 boards I was using. Still, the cotton ball did ignite, and with a vengeance! I didn't place the burning ember in any tender to start a flaming fire, I just wanted to show Henry how it worked. Since I had used an entire cotton ball, there was a lot there to hold an ember. After I blew on it to show Henry the glowing ember, I tossed it on the ground and extinguished it with my shoe.

Henry was still working on the electric fence, so I got down on my knees to help him twist wires. Then, after a few seconds, I felt my shin getting very warm ... The cotton roll was still burning! I picked it up and tried to extinguish it like a person might snuff out a burning cigarette in an ashtray of sand. A few seconds later, I saw more smoke. This time, I commented to Henry, "I guess I'll have to get up and stomp it out." So I got up and stomped it, but it kept on glowing and smoking. Then, I took the toe of my shoe and really got serious about grinding it into the damp ground. Instead of going out, it just started smoking more profusely. Henry said, "You're just making it worse. The more you roll it, the hotter it gets."

Finally, I picked it up and moved it away from where we were working and said, "I guess I'll just lay it down and let it burn itself out."

Henry was impressed. He said, "Show me how you did that again." I took out my little baggy of cotton balls, unrolled one, sprinkled it with ashes, and rolled it into a tight joint. I said, "Here you go. Put that in your pocket and you'll have it for next time." Henry said, "If I put it in my pocket, it'll get wet with sweat." I said, "I don't think that will matter. It will just take a little longer to roll it into a fire if it's damp. I've rolled them with damp ashes on purpose before, just to see if they'd still light, and they do. It just takes a little extra rolling to heat them up enough to evaporate the moisture."

[chrysanthemum]

The beginning of your story had me quite nervous, heavyhitterokra. I bet Henry would have been grateful to know you were concerned about him, even if he might have acted as though he didn’t. My mom is only 85, but she keeps herself very busy on her property, too. I call her just about every night to make sure that she’s safely back inside and not somewhere in the woods pinned by a downed tree or something. It sounds kind of morbid, but we both know why I do it (and I just enjoy talking to her, and it gives her some long-distance company), and she appreciates it.

I’ll have to show my son that fire rolling video sometime when it’s not so dry here. I’d like him to be able to try it out, but not inside, and there’s no chance outside right now.

[hmoosek]

The weather is getting cooler. It won’t be long before we can revisit this thread and keep it going. I’d like to take my canteen cup out and do some boiled peanuts with my fancy feast stove. I like getting outside fall/winter. Less bugs, less heat. Sometimes less is more!

[heavyhitterokra]

I went out while it was cool this morning and grilled some drumsticks, some okra, and some peach halves. It was about 65° out there, just about perfect for it. I've been cutting firewood all summer and piling it up for winter cookouts. I'm looking forward to cooler weather for sure!

[woodeye]

I know, I look forward to spending more time outside again. Here's my outdoor cooker, it works pretty good.
Has a rack to hold longer sticks, then as they burn up I can move more into the fire.