PRIMITIVE TORCH! ONE THAT WILL LAST!

Now when it comes to torches, we all know about, you know, your birch bark torch, your twigs, bundle of twigs, even some that make them out of, you know, pine pitch and all that stuff. Those are great torches but, you know, the only problem with those torches is that they don't last very long. You know, if it's well made, it'll last between 15 and 20 minutes. Now I understand that sometimes maybe you're going to need to make a fast torch. I understand that but there's another way where you can make one if you have the resources available that will last a pretty long time. Now when we think about the cattail, it's got a lot of uses. Tinder, insulation if you have enough, it's even a wild edible from the, you know, the stalk right to the root, the stem right to the root, depending on the year. It's a great, it's a great resource but when you look at how the cattail is made, each fibers go in right to the stalk here, the stem, I don't really know how you say it in English but they all go right to the, I'll call it the stem, and they're all tight together which makes a great natural wick. Now if I open this up, just break it, we know how this is made, right? If you break it apart, you can use it as tinder, you can use it, you know, insulation and so on but if you look very closely, see the fibers are all going straight right to the heart here and they're all tight together which makes a great natural wick. Now let me give you a little example demonstration here and then we'll talk a little more about it. I'm going to use this is some, you know, it's not water, your typical oil for your oil lamps. So I'm going to pour some on it, not all the way, okay, just maybe halfway or so. I better put too, too much. I just want to make sure that, you know, it's got some. So I took about, I don't know, an inch maybe. That's just to demonstrate something to you. Give me a second. Okay, I was going to use my fire steel but for some reason I have no scraper on it. Anyway, if you take a close look at it, I'll bring it closer to you. You'll see how it acts as a natural. You see that the oil is burning but the cattail itself, the little, you know, fibers are not burning at all, okay. So now, naturally speaking, how could we achieve this? Let me get this piece off here before everything burns out. Naturally speaking, how could we achieve this? Well, if you have, if you happen to find some fat from an animal, if you kill an animal, if you find one on the road dead or in the woods dead, you can actually, you know, get that fat melted down. Now, again, guys, there's all types. Believe it or not, there's quality in fat. Natives around here used to use, you know, fat from a bear. But anyway, oil, sorry, the grease or the fat once it's melted down will work. What you need to do as soon as you have the fat, make your shift, make yourself a makeshift bowl if you want. And just get this out of the way. It's going to go out pretty soon. I didn't put too much. Thank you. Make yourself a makeshift bowl, right? Or if you have any type of bowl, melt down that fat, make a fire. You don't need to boil the fat, just melt it down. Leave the bowl just, you know, not too close to the fire. Don't want it to, as I said, boil. You take the, what do you call it? Man, I can't believe this, cattail. You take the cattail and let it saturate in about, in that fat for about two hours. Now, once that's done, okay, it's well saturated. Keep it, keep it close to the fire because you don't want your fat to become, you know, hard to dry up. Once that's done, take your cattail and you hang it upside down somewhere. You want the oil to concentrate, you know, at the upper part of your cattail. You want that fat, that grease to go up here because that's where you want the fire to burn the most. If you put it like this, it's going to, you know, go down your stem, your stalk, whatever, and it's going to burn this down, right? So you leave it upside down. Once it's dried up, you're going to see it dried. You take the excess off with a knife and your torch is accomplished. Now, if it's well saturated, believe it or not, your torch could last between six and eight hours. Now, a little tip, when you do use a torch, it's always important, if you're not going to hold with your hand, to put it slanted this way so that, because when this burns, the oil is going to come down and at the tip, it's going to drop down here. If you put it too straight, it's going to go on your stem here, burn this down, and obviously your torch is going to fall down. Now, another way what you could do is make yourself a makeshift, you know, pole. If you've got bamboo, whatever, you know, you stick it in or use a green piece of hardwood, carve it in, whatever, you know, use your imagination. This will make a great torch. And something else, I've burned these, been doing this since I was a kid, you know, and another thing that I know what happens when this burns well, let's say this burns, you know, overnight for six to eight hours, the next day when it's out, this is going to smother, you know, quite a while, just like coals, just blow on it, and you see it's going to turn all red. So that makes a great way to be able to carry your fire to the next campsite or start your fire again in the morning. But anyway, this thing can last quite a while. It's pretty unique, and we don't think of this much for the cattail, but it's just great. So anyway, I hope this was a plus for some of you, and more to your knowledge box. Thanks for watching. This is Mike from Bushcraft Partners. Bye. So pretty tough, ain't it? Works very well, guys. A little, one last tip. When you do do this, make sure that your cattail, either winter, summer, whatever, your cattail has to be dry right through. Even in the winter, if it's frozen, you gotta unthaw it and then dry it out, because if you don't, your oil, let's say you melt down your fat, your oil will not get down right to the stock, and this will not work like it's supposed to. See, even this one is not quite dry. I can see it, and since that irene, everything is so soaked. But I would have liked to show you how I can keep the coals. Okay, that's enough being a kid. Thanks for watching, guys. Bye.