To my delight I recently saw this method demonstrated on The Weather Channel’s “Fat Guys In The Woods” program hosted by Creek Stewart. The participants each created their own fire using this method so I was encouraged to pursue this again, taking cues from their example.

I went to a store to buy a cotton sanitary napkin and began to read the labels regarding the material used. I saw that they listed cotton and Rayon and I didn’t know how successful that would work so I opted to buy 100 percent cotton balls instead for about two dollars. When I returned home I unraveled the balls and formed a six by four inch square. I used some charcoal left over from my campfire to crush into carbon dust that I sprinkled on top of the cotton pad. Starting from the narrow edge I rolled this tightly like a cigar then compressed it further by rolling it between my two hands.

I placed this carbon impregnated cotton roll between two “two-by-four” boards with one board used as a base while the other board was passed lengthwise back-and-forth on top while employing increased speed and pressure. Eventually smoke started to appear out the ends of the cotton roll and when I removed the boards I could feel a hot spot near the end. When it’s “too hot to handle” you know it’s ready to be opened up at that spot to expose it to the air so that it can be coaxed into an ember.

This a great alternative fire-by-friction method that uses simple materials. For me it was a satisfying accomplishment that I can now check off of my firecraft bucket list.

This vertical air-flow path is also used by chimney charcoal starters. They are designed with a lower and upper chamber with a grate in the middle. They use crumpled paper as kindling in the bottom chamber and holds the briquets as fuel in the upper chamber. When the paper is lit in the bottom, the heat travels upward and ignites the briquets stored above. This caused me to think that it could also be used as a rocket stove for cooking.

I found two styles of chimney charcoal starters based on their mid level grates that separate the lower kindling chamber from the upper fuel chamber: one uses a metal plate that has a series of holes; the other has a concentric wire grate.

The model with holes in the plate works well for holding wood sticks as fuel. I fashioned a grate for the top of the chimney using two “beer can” chicken roaster brackets that I fastened “top-to-top” as a support for holding a pot or pan. I used my tin-snips to cut notches in the chimney rim to position it securely in place. This grate served two purposes: it allowed air flow through the top of the chimney as well as provided access for loading wood chips or sticks as fuel to the combustion chamber to sustain the fire while cooking.

The model with the concentric wire grate in the middle works best for igniting charcoal briquets. In essence, it works like a conventional charcoal BBQ. An inexpensive cooling rack can be used as a grate above the chimney to suspend the food items being cooked while allowing the needed airflow through the top.

Why would you use a chimney charcoal starter for cooking? Here are a few reasons: It is portable; inexpensive; easily stored; and the wood chips & sticks version uses easily obtained free fuel. It’s small capacity may not be the best choice for a party, but it can be just the thing for camping or used for a power outage emergency scenario.

Scientific techniques have led industry to enhance the porosity of charcoal in a variety of ways using gases, chemicals, and extreme heat and/or steam to create “activated” charcoal. In terms of collective surface area, it is said that one gram of activated charcoal would be able to cover several football fields if it were rolled flat. Activated charcoal is used in hospitals worldwide for patients who ingest drugs or chemicals and have saved countless lives.

I recommend that you visit a local pharmacy and purchase some activated charcoal for your emergency kit or bug-out-bag (BOB). In lieu of activated charcoal, many military survival instructors teach soldiers to grind up the charcoal from their campfire and make a slurry with water to ingest. It works in both the stomach and the intestines while being eliminated through the digestive tract. Some home remedies also suggest burning your toast to create charcoal, then scraping into a small pile to grind. In the end, don’t be alarmed when your stool is dark, it just shows that the charcoal has finished it’s course, and be thankful for the task that it has accomplished.