The Easiest Material to Light with Flint and Steel?

Make Amazing Natural Char from Plant Pith

While charred punk wood is the standard for good reason, I have been playing around with charring the inner pith from certain plants and it seems like it takes a spark more easily than anything else I have tried so far; char cloth included.

If you are not familiar; the pith is the spongy center found inside of some plant stalks and it has a similar texture to Styrofoam. While searching for hand drill spindles, I have noticed that some stalks seem to decompose in such a way that the pith easily separates from the outer wall.

Elderberry is especially prone to this, especially if you can find old nascent growth shoots from last year that did not survive. I have gotten better at spotting these gems, but it still takes a bit of trial and error.

If they snap off clean, they are probably not ideal, but some of them feel soft and squishy, which is a great sign that they will be easy to peel. With these special shoots, it is easy to pick the outer wall off with your thumbnails and get nice long pieces.

You can accomplish the same thing with lots of different plants including mullein and salmonberry, but you may have to use your knife to get rid of the outer wall.

Have you ever tried charring the pith from any plants in your area?

Like anything else, this material has pros and cons. It will take even the smallest spark and spread quickly, burning hot in the process. With few exceptions, it usually seems to light up on the first strike. The downside is that because it is so light, it both burns up quickly, and is susceptible to blowing away.

Any piece that starts glowing will burn itself all the way through, so you need to act quickly to get it into your tinder bundle, or have a coal extender standing by.

Putting a combination of this stuff and some punk wood into the same tin would likely be an outstanding option; with the pith taking the spark with ease, and spreading to the punk for longevity.

Because this stuff is so light and fully, it chars very quickly. I only left the tin on for about three minutes this time. You can see that not all of it charred completely black, but it all works beautifully. I did lose a few pieces to the breeze before I even started striking, so you do need to take care to manage the wind when using this material.

Materials Used

Pith: Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)
Tinder Bundle: Black Cottonwood Bark (Populus trichocarpa)
Stove: Pocket Cooker

Music:

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