Fire Starting Material.

[C-pher]

All this Flint, Magnesium, and friction Fire starting topics got me to thinking.

What do you guys use as a fire starting mediums? I was reading on the review for the Blast Match about the Cotton balls stored in rubbing alcohol in a film canister. Never though of that, but I like it.

We used to use dryer lint and paraffin in an old egg carton. Just keep all the lint from when you wash your towels and jeans and such as you want the cotton lint. Also, we did the same thing with all the sawdust from my grandfathers work shop. Sweep it up and put it in an old egg carton or paper mini muffin sleeves, melt wax on the stove in a double boiler, and then pour in and cover the lint/sawdust.

They sell paraffin in any grocery in the baking isle I think...my grandmother always had a lot on hand because she used it for canning her beans and fruit preserves.

One of the kids used to use cotton covered in Vaseline, I think... I can't remember, I just remember that they were messy.

Also, if you have a lot of pine trees. Pine Cones soaked in paraffin is another way to do make fire starters ahead of time...



Also, I wear glasses. And as a joke one time, I used that to get a fire started. Only problem, it needs to be a warm sunny day. And leaves used to start the fire has to be dry.

 

[Tiktock]

Ive never really pre-fabricated firestarters. In a pinch, ive never needed anything more than a knife and a piece of string. Cut a bow, string it up, cut a dowel, cut a base with notch, find a suitable handpiece, string up the dowel in the bow, and use good old friction bow and staff firemaking skills. For actual fuel, i just shave a stick finely and use what is available at the time. With enough time, its not hard to do....if i expected to need to start a fire fast, i would dedicate my preparations on keeping a few lighters and matches dry or a single flint rather than going through the hassle of melting wax onto pinecones, etc etc. I simply have never had much trouble starting fires, even in the rain...in the woods, even a heavy drenching rain rarely penetrates deeply into the floor cover. Dry wood and materials are almost always 4" down.

None of this will help if you camp in established sites where the entire surrounding forest has been plundered of wood.

 

[C-pher]

Yea, that's why on the other thread, I brought up finding good vine and a curved strong stick and a rock. You can never know, but having all the nice stuff to fab a nice friction bow might not be there when needed.

Conditions are quite a bit different in the deep South. You get a LOT of rain, and sometimes not a lot of cover, or a lot of swamp land...so EVERYTHING is wet. And anything we could make to facilitate drying out what wood we could find was well worth the 20 minutes to make what we could to keep in our packs. And, when we can get a fire started in 5 or so minutes using these pods, it can be a lifesaver. If you break an arm in the woods, a friction bow might not be that great of an option. More so when it can take quite a bit of time to get it hot enough to start to smolder.

I do agree that flint/Mag is a good thing to have. Because in windy conditions, a match or a lighter isn't going to work really well. And the good thing about these pods, once started, they do a good job of keeping a flame even in windy conditions.

Which can be a good thing with the weather we get in the Gulf. Even more so in Hurrican Season.

 

[Twigg]

Need fire ? Take a walk !

Next time you go for a walk in a park or the woods look for downed Birch trees and either pick up or peel the bark.

Just don't peel bark from living trees.

Often smaller limbs and even whole Birch trees found lying on the forest floor will have rotted out internally. You can pick a branch and it'll break off into smaller sections easily. Shake / tap the rotted wood out and put the sections in a small garbage bag to take home.

Iffin' you need tinder to start a fire from sparks, take a sharp knife and scrape the white side of bark into a fine powder. A pile as big around as a quarter and slightly mounded in the center will usually do. Cut several thin strips of Birch bark to feed into the powder once the sparks get it going and use thin dry twiggs and slabs of Birch bark after that.

I keep a small gargage bag of Birch bark for starting campfires.

 

[C-pher]

That got me to thinking. The "Christmas Tree" effect is a great way to make tender.

We would take a twig. Then you shave about an inch or so off the bottom so it curls. Just don't shave it off. Leave the bottom attached. Do that all the way around the bottom so you have four or five curls. Then, move up a few inches and do that again toward the bottom of the stick. Do this all the way up, and it will look like a Christmas tree. Do this with about four or five sticks and set them up like a tee-pee and put your tender in the middle... These will light up your fire nicely.

A good way to do this in the woods, is look for a lot of pine trees. Then find some downed limbs. If it's not soaked through, the shave off the outside or split it if you can. The sappy insides will work great, "fatwood" is a great fire starter. Just don't use it when cooking your food...

 

[Mikey]

The sappy insides will work great, "fatwood" is a great fire starter. Just don't use it when cooking your food...

Dumb question coming; by "fatwood" do you mean the brand name (like this) or is burning sap not good for food?

 

[C-pher]

It's not really a brand name persay. It's a pine wood that's loaded with a lot of resin from the tree itself. It's a natural wood that you can get youself. They have just taken the pine and cut it into strips for you. Let me see if I can find a definition...

Found this..

Q. What is Fatwood?
A. Fatwood is a pine wood, approximately 8" in length (approximately 3/4" in diameter), which is hand-split from the stumps of pine trees that contain a high concentration of natural resin. This organic, 100% natural resin allows the Fatwood to be started with a single match and gives a sustained flame. Fatwood is used to start fireplaces, pellet fuel stoves, barbecues, wood/coal stoves and campfires.

You can read more here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwood


Turpentine is made from the burning of fatwood. And unless you like to add turpentine to your food when you cook, I wouldn't cook with it...

 

[Mikey]

I get it now, thanks

 

[stixnstones]

Tinder

While you're looking for birch bark, look for tinder fungus, as it prefers birches. See a picture here in the top section.

Scrape off the hard shell to get to the orange core. It'll take most sparks, even true flint/steel and even sparks from pyrites.

 

[ArmedMainer]

Steel wool burns pretty hot when you put a match to it. It"ll start a fire even in the rain.

 

[C-pher]

Steel wool burns pretty hot when you put a match to it. It"ll start a fire even in the rain.

I had a guy at scout camp start a fire with Steelwool with a nine volt battery. Didn't even think about that until you brought it up. I've never done it, but I've seen it. If I remember, he just rubbed it against the steel wool and it started sparking. I'm guessing that it's because both + and - are up top and you can cross them on the wool.

 

[n1zfg]

I had a guy at scout camp start a fire with Steelwool with a nine volt battery. Didn't even think about that until you brought it up. I've never done it, but I've seen it. If I remember, he just rubbed it against the steel wool and it started sparking. I'm guessing that it's because both + and - are up top and you can cross them on the wool.

Been there, done that. Just press the battery terminals up against the steel wool, rub a little if it doesn't start right up, and that's all. It is also why I'll put a piece of tape across the terminals when I carry one in my pocket, etc. I've heard of it shorting against a pocket knife, scrap metal in the trash, or anything else that is conductive, with positively "toasty" results.

 

[zenprop]

Dryer lint. Keep it in a zip-lock bag in your pack. It's abundant and free; and is really effective. Just "fluff" it up a little to get good air circulation. I've seen people cut toilet paper or paper towell rolls down into small sections and "pack" the lint in there.

 

[KMaurer]

Dryer lint. Keep it in a zip-lock bag in your pack. It's abundant and free; and is really effective. Just "fluff" it up a little to get good air circulation. I've seen people cut toilet paper or paper towell rolls down into small sections and "pack" the lint in there.

Plastic 35mm film cans ... #17 on the list of most useful inventions of all time.

Ken

 

[C-pher]

Plastic 35mm film cans ... #17 on the list of most useful inventions of all time.

Ken

And they are free from any film developing place. They toss them, so they are more than willing to give them to you if you ask.