# Videos > Instructional Videos >  Making Char Cloth

## crashdive123

A friend, and member here (TJWilhelm - only a few posts) was seriously injured when he was hit by a truck (he was in his front yard) on October 20th.  He is still in the hospital/rehab center, and probably will be until after the new year.  I put together this quick video on making char cloth using cotton rounds (his idea).  Hopefully it will find him in good spirits and on the road to recovery.

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## Rick

First, DANG! I sure hope you are doing better. That's terrible. Hang in there, man. I'm sending up some prayers and good karma your way. 

Second, that's a pretty cool vid. I'll have to find some of those. I think it's a great idea!

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## gryffynklm

Rick +1

TJ prayers sent.

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## southard

I hope the truck ended up in worse condition. Speedy recovery brother.

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## jake abraham

Rick plus 2 prayers sent

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## natertot

Any update on your friends condition?

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## TresMon

Yeah prayers sent indeed! Keep us posted!

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## crashdive123

Here's some updated information on him from about three weeks ago.




> I just heard from one of the surgeons that screwed and plated me back together that I have to wait another 6 weeks before I can do any weight bearing physical therapy. My muscles have badly atrophied over the past 7 weeks -- I've lost 40 pounds. Looks like this is going to be a long-haul recovery.
> 
> Aside from all the wonderful folks who have sent prayers and supportive messages, I have a number of things to be grateful for:
> 
> [ ] - I'm only blind in one eye...I still have a good one left.
> [ ] - In spite of some initially severe bleeding and swelling in the brain, there was NO permanent brain damage,
> [ ] - A great team of plastic surgeons rebuilt my smashed face so well that the LaFort-3 facial fractures are all repaired and I look like ME, again.
> [ ] - NO internal organ damage.
> [ ] - NO spinal cord damage.
> ...

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## RandyRhoads

Ouch a LeFort III.  Good luck prayers are with ya..... Sounds like you are extremely lucky and (besides the eye, sorry) will not have major long term disabilities.

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## hunter63

Wow, thanks for the up date, Crash....
Prayers sent......

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## Rick

Thanks for the update. Do you know what transpired, Crash? Why he was hit in the first place? I sure hope it was some horrible mechanical failure and not something stupid like a drunk driver. I guess if you're on the receiving end it really doesn't matter but still.....

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## crashdive123

He lives in a fairly rural community.  He was outside and heard a truck racing up and down the road.  He was in his front yard in an attempt to get a license plate number to report it to the local PD.  The driver swerved onto TJ's property and ran him over.  He was driving a full sized Dodge pick-up.  The driver never slowed down.  An arrest was made.  In addition to the injuries listed in the quote, he suffered a broken pelvis and shoulder along with several dislocations.

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## Rick

I think he's going to own the owner, his truck, his home, his......Right now the owner of that truck needs to be his beer wench and foot stool.

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## tjwilhelm

Thanks, Crashdive, for the video and the support!

Update...I'm home, still in recovery mode; but, doing well.  I still need surgery to replace/repair my right shoulder joint and my left knee.  Once those are fixed, and after physical therapy is done, I should be back to near normal...other than being blind in the right eye and having lost my sense of smell -- both the result of the facial/skull fractures.  Fortunately I still have one good eye, no internal organ damage, no brain damage, and no spinal cord damage...it's a GREAT day in east-central Illinois!!!

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## randyt

godbless ya!!!

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## hunter63

Thats good to hear....hand in there.....

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## Rick

I'm glad to hear your recovery is progressing. You've been on that road for a long while.

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## crashdive123

Glad your recovery is progressing.  Thanks for the update TJ.

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## natertot

Welcome back! Keep hanging in there!

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## Knight Hospitaller

Hopefully your buddy has gotten better since you posted this. I'm new here and I saw this thread thought my question would be relevant to this article. I'm trying to make my own char"cloth" but instead of using cloth I'm using natural materials, in my case moss because I can find tons of it around Denmark and due to cost, this is because I do medieval reenactment and believe that they would normally use charred moss, instead of cloth.

When I tried charring the moss today it failed miserably. The moss just crumbled and I realized I had burnt it too much. I think it might have something to do with my firetin, uploading pictures with this post. I believe that the hole is too large and the lid, which slides on, isn't tight enough to be useful. I hope you guys can help a beginning firestarter like myself.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Hospitaller


IMG_0006_zpsfed66a9d.jpg

IMG_0003_zps4f2f8cd5.jpg

IMG_0002_zps0d88f775.jpg

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## crashdive123

The hole does look too large to me.  Try it with a much smaller hole.  You may have to experiment with how tightly you pack the container as well.

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## Soggybottomboy

This was genius.

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