Often times while in the great outdoors it becomes necessary to utilize the resources at hand to make life a bit more comfortable, and using a coal-burn to make a wooden container has a number of ways in which the finished item can be used. By this method an outdoors person can make bowls from which to eat or vessels in which fresh water can be carried in a pinch, and making a coal-burned wooden container is a skill familiar to most people that have ever taken a survival course. While coal-burning a wooden container is usually not difficult, they do take a reasonable amount of time to complete and there are a few important tips that have to be used to enable success.
The first step to coal-burn a wooden container is to first locate and appropriate piece of wood from which the container can be forged. In an ideal outdoors situation wood can be cut to the proper container size, but when this is not possible it is necessary to find the right size of container wood in the brush. Regardless of the size of the desired container there are two criteria which should be met whenever possible - the wood should be dry but not so dry that cracking has begun and the wood container should be of a hardwood such as oak, cherry or maple if available. The reason for this is that dry hardwood will burn much better when a hot coal is applied to it, saving time and effort while making the wooden container. Using either a knife or a sharp stone remove the bark from your container wood, and then carve a shallow depression in the wood that will serve to hold a hot coal.
The next step to make a coal-burned wood container is to get a good campfire going by utilizing smaller pieces of hardwood that may be available in the area. The basic concept is to let the fire burn until there are red hot coals present and then place one into the depression you have made on your container blank to burn out the unwanted wood. When the coal that is placed into the container blank begins to burn out remove it and then scrape out the burnt wood inside using a knife or pointed stone, and then place another coal inside and repeat the process. Eventually, with patience and perseverance a container will slowly begin to take shape over several hours.
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