How do you make a long burning torch?

LMT66

LMT66

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I've seen them in old movies as they move thru caves, dense jungles and even Gilligan carried one on that tiny deserted island (at the back of MGM studios).
They look like half a cutip.

How do you make a long burning torch for navigating at night using only natural materials and things you might have on or with you?
No fatwood or flammable fuels can be used.
 
I think in Rambo he wraped rags around a stick, but i think there had some sort of oil or gas on them.
 
Funny you should ask...I just went thru this exercise for the Bethlehem thing at the chruch this past christmas.
I used a 2x2 wrapped with sisal rope and soaked it in roofing pitch, burned great, for about 14 minutes, then destroyed itself. I had 3 4x4 posts set up down the center of the market about 20' apart and each was crowned with 4 of these torches, it was quite spectacular until it burned up. I had about 30 them on hand, and ran my ass off trying to keep them all going. More research needed, got to be a better way.
 
The villagers were chasing me. I didn't have time to turn around and look.
 
i hate to say his name but didn't Bear Grylls show how to make one on an episode once?
 
I'm sure Ray Mears made some candles in either a Scandinavian based episode or a UK one. I seem to remember he used a mix of pine resin and twigs, think Swedish fire log then make it smaller.
 
SIXFOOTER said:
Funny you should ask...I just went thru this exercise for the Bethlehem thing at the chruch this past christmas.
I used a 2x2 wrapped with sisal rope and soaked it in roofing pitch, burned great, for about 14 minutes, then destroyed itself. I had 3 4x4 posts set up down the center of the market about 20' apart and each was crowned with 4 of these torches, it was quite spectacular until it burned up. I had about 30 them on hand, and ran my ass off trying to keep them all going. More research needed, got to be a better way.
Click to expand...

See, that's my problem. I've never tried it, but in my mind I always think that even if you had something that would burn well for a long time, the stick it was on would catch fire eventually.

Maybe green wood wouldn't catch on fire and burn up?
How do the natives do it?

Or are torches something completely made up by hollywood?
Think about it, how often do you need to see at night if you live primitively? When I'm backpacking, I just go to bed when it gets dark, or I have a campfire to sit next to. Why would native peoples have need to travel at night? What activity would they have need to do that wasn't centered around a campfire?
 
you said natural materials right?

if you didn't this would be a way (i think)...

get an empty can (beans or whatever), tie it to a stick with some wire (from your survival kit :D and fill it up with kerosene... then put some pieces of cloth in them (acting as a wick)... light it up and they will burn for a long time... a long time...

when i was a kid in peru, in school they would do this (without the sticks) and put a bunch of them on a hill (a little mountain in front of my mom's house - i'll take pics and show you :D) like to draw letters or simple pics... then they would light them up and it looked nice at night... and they would burn for a long time...
 
i think bushman and pitdog made a few fatwood torches a while back that would work. just split a green stick twice on one end and stuff it full of fatwood. that should burn quite nicely for a fair amount of time. I have never made one, you would have to ask one of those crazy B.C boys for an example.
 
- wrap tons of birchbark around a well soaked (with water) stick. The natural curl of the heavy bark will keep it on the stick.

wrap tons of old mans beard around a wet stick, dip in melted pitch and light it up
 
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