Bulrush Tinder

Tinder from bulrush - ideal for fire making.

Until well into modern times, fires were made exclusively with fire steel, flint and tinder - and for this you needed dry, easily inflammable tinder, such as cattail.

The bulrush tinder is packed to 5 gram in a small cotton bag. To use it, it is best to cut a small opening in the bag with a knife and pull out the tinder you need.

Fire steel and stone are beaten against each other until a spark falls on the cattail tinder. It should then be taken to blow on the tinder in the hand. If it glows more, simply place the tinder between a few pieces of tinder wood and/or other easily combustible materials and blow gently but steadily until a small flame is finally produced.

The tinder consists of the seeds of the common bulrush, popularly known as cattail, which is extremely flammable due to the very large surface area of the seeds. To increase this effect even more, the bulrush should be nitrided beforehand to obtain a perfect scale.

To produce nitrated cattail tinder, the bulrush must be carefully washed in hot soapy water after harvesting to degrease it. Afterwards, squeeze the tinder properly until it no longer drips, carefully pull it apart and put it in a lockable bucket.
Now pour a 20% nitrite solution over the bulrush, adding 200 mg potassium nitrate to 1 litre of boiling water. Close the lid and leave the tinder to stand for one or two days. Take it out with rubber gloves, wring it out, pluck it apart and let it air dry for 3 to 5 days depending on the weather.
In the Middle Ages, birch ash or urine was simply used instead of potassium nitrate, but ammonia or ammonia spirits also did a good job.