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1000th post contest, 2 prizes
- Thread starter Sharp Eye
- Start date
Masteroffajitas
BANNED
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- Oct 7, 2008
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Straw, not my pic but one I get something like twine going or cotton swab, dry staw works very well for me. Thanks for the oppurtunity.
Going to try this again tomorrow or the next day. I've heard that you can use a knife to scrape off lint from your clothes, and use that to catch a spark. I'd like to try this for my entry. I know you said no tinder you brought in, but is this fair game since its improvised? If not fatwood is quite local and easy to find. I'd just like to post something that others haven't done yet (in this thread).
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- Apr 14, 2006
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- 7,021
If it was Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and you burnt it, anybody in the area, that is hypersensitive, and breathed in the smoke, can get a horrendous case of Poison Ivy, in fact, I've heard that it can possibly be fatal!!!!!! Do not burn it!!!!!
Doc
Doc
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,012
okay the tinder box isnt getting much love it rain today IE fri.as soon as it stoped i took the family to the lake for a hot dog bratworst roast
pic if the ground indiana red clay doesnt look wet but is
this is the best i could do for this post under natrual conditions im trying to win this for a birthday gift for my best friend .if you want i will go sit under a sprinkler and build one
i just think it would be cool to give him a gift that i used one of his and my fav. hobbies being outdoors to get .
pic if the ground indiana red clay doesnt look wet but is
this is the best i could do for this post under natrual conditions im trying to win this for a birthday gift for my best friend .if you want i will go sit under a sprinkler and build one
i just think it would be cool to give him a gift that i used one of his and my fav. hobbies being outdoors to get .
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,551
Munky88 - As curious as I am to see if lint from your clothes can be made to work, I do not think it is in the spirit of this contest.
Go for the fatwood or other naturally found tinder.
eastr77- Looks like a great day.
BTW all this is my 1000th post here at Bladeforums.
I want to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge, their good humor and their great picts.:thumbup::thumbup:
You people are what make this such a great place to hang out.
I am going to keep this contest open until April 27th to include an extra weekend for anyone who wants to post an entry.
Go for the fatwood or other naturally found tinder.
eastr77- Looks like a great day.
BTW all this is my 1000th post here at Bladeforums.
I want to thank everyone for sharing their knowledge, their good humor and their great picts.:thumbup::thumbup:
You people are what make this such a great place to hang out.
I am going to keep this contest open until April 27th to include an extra weekend for anyone who wants to post an entry.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 26,284
As far as the lint tinder goes...have you ever played around with a ferro rod while you were inside and had a spark hit your sock? It gets instantly engulfed in FLAME!!!! 
...for about half a second. 
...for about half a second. I'll definitely make a note of that. I used it as tinder b/c I wanted to use something other than fatwood and it was suprisingly dry after the rain. I think I am going to go back to that vine and take a look at the top of tree that it was climbing. There are several vines that grow here and the bigger ones like this are definately not poison ivy. I'll see if I can't get a pic of one and try and id it.
Thanks Doc
As far as the lint tinder goes...have you ever played around with a ferro rod while you were inside and had a spark hit your sock? It gets instantly engulfed in FLAME!!!!
could be enough to get a not so dry fuzz stick to go up.
I shall try it anyways, and then trip over a stick and accidentally get some fatwood to ignite for the contest.
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- Joined
- Mar 7, 2007
- Messages
- 2,406
Sharp Eye, Thanks for the opportunity to post these pics and thanks for the generous give away!
Wandered off by myself into the Gifford Pinchot Nat Forrest on Good Friday to harvest some fatwood and practice my fire making skills. It has been raining for the last week, finaly got some dry weather on Friday.
First a fatwood stump a couple of us came across an another outing.
And on to making some kindling.
I used my Izula and SoD to make some tinder/fatwood curls. As I was out alone I had a hard time taking pics in the process. I used a little homemade scrapper that was made out of a sawzall blade to make some fine dust to catch my spark. I used the base and brace method, all components are damp fatwood.
A couple strikes on the metal match and we are good to go.
Made some fuzzies out of a saturated stick and tossed it on the fire just for fun!
Nothing left to do but relax!!!
Wandered off by myself into the Gifford Pinchot Nat Forrest on Good Friday to harvest some fatwood and practice my fire making skills. It has been raining for the last week, finaly got some dry weather on Friday.
First a fatwood stump a couple of us came across an another outing.
And on to making some kindling.
I used my Izula and SoD to make some tinder/fatwood curls. As I was out alone I had a hard time taking pics in the process. I used a little homemade scrapper that was made out of a sawzall blade to make some fine dust to catch my spark. I used the base and brace method, all components are damp fatwood.
A couple strikes on the metal match and we are good to go.
Made some fuzzies out of a saturated stick and tossed it on the fire just for fun!
Nothing left to do but relax!!!
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2008
- Messages
- 596
I chose to use birch bark, my favorite tinder. I never got a chance to get out of the city to do this, so I just had to take a few meager scraps from the one in my yard.
I dumped everything, including my kindling in a puddle (doesn't really show up too well cause it's on top of ice, but I fully submerged everything)
Shook off the excess water, scrapped up some of the bark into fluff, and in this case had to cut slits in the non scrapped part for more surface area because it was so wet. A few tries with the firesteel and we have lift off. The kindling was soaked too, and I didn't have enough bark to dry it out and get it going, not without harming my tree at least
(but this is about tinder right?)
Birch bark is like fatwood, but a lot easier to harvest. In the wild (my wild at least) there's dead birch all over the place and you can get a nice big roll of it in 2 shakes. The dead trees are like hollow tubes of tinder because the wood rots away and the bark practically lasts for ever because its so saturated with oils, and it's pretty much waterproof, which is why it makes such a great tinder under any conditions (and was used for hulls of canoes).
I prefer birch bark to fatwood for a number of reasons (not a knock on fatwood though, I love that stuff too
). The white trees stick out like sore thumbs, you basically can't take 10 steps without finding some, you can harvest it in the time it takes to open an envelope, and it needs practically no prep, in dry conditions I've cast my firesteel right on the broad side of a log and the bark started burning off it. IMO all this makes it an excellent emergency tinder, if you're soaking wet and don't have a proper fire kit, you probably don't want to go hunting for fatwood stumps then digging them up & breaking them down.
p.s. Awesome contest, I really enjoyed having an excuse to play around some:thumbup:
I dumped everything, including my kindling in a puddle (doesn't really show up too well cause it's on top of ice, but I fully submerged everything)
Shook off the excess water, scrapped up some of the bark into fluff, and in this case had to cut slits in the non scrapped part for more surface area because it was so wet. A few tries with the firesteel and we have lift off. The kindling was soaked too, and I didn't have enough bark to dry it out and get it going, not without harming my tree at least
(but this is about tinder right?)
Birch bark is like fatwood, but a lot easier to harvest. In the wild (my wild at least) there's dead birch all over the place and you can get a nice big roll of it in 2 shakes. The dead trees are like hollow tubes of tinder because the wood rots away and the bark practically lasts for ever because its so saturated with oils, and it's pretty much waterproof, which is why it makes such a great tinder under any conditions (and was used for hulls of canoes).
I prefer birch bark to fatwood for a number of reasons (not a knock on fatwood though, I love that stuff too
). The white trees stick out like sore thumbs, you basically can't take 10 steps without finding some, you can harvest it in the time it takes to open an envelope, and it needs practically no prep, in dry conditions I've cast my firesteel right on the broad side of a log and the bark started burning off it. IMO all this makes it an excellent emergency tinder, if you're soaking wet and don't have a proper fire kit, you probably don't want to go hunting for fatwood stumps then digging them up & breaking them down.p.s. Awesome contest, I really enjoyed having an excuse to play around some:thumbup:
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- Feb 3, 2001
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I'll sign in for the random # pick, my expierience with natural tinder in wet weather is mostly limited to Cattail fluff or fatwood both of which are abundant in this area.
I also carry a flint and steel with char cloth and sisal rope in a tin for fire startin'.
I also carry a flint and steel with char cloth and sisal rope in a tin for fire startin'.
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- Mar 8, 2008
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- 26,284
No worries! It's been a fun contest!
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- Feb 21, 2008
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- 1,551
You guys made choosing the winner of the skills contest really, really hard.
I got it down to the 2 that taught me the most and that I thought would help save my butt in a cold wet forest. I will tell you how I came to a decision between those two shortly.
First, the winner of the random contest.
For this I put all the post numbers of people who had posted tinder ideas, except for the the skills winner, in a list and had random.org randomize the list. The number that came out #1 would be the random winner.
Congratuations defaultuser.
Now for the skills winner....
As I said this was really hard......
In the end I had to choose a winner.......
So ......
I chickened out
Congratulations to Snakedoc and to Ankar Sheng.
I have duplicated the skills prize and you both win!!!
I am going to try each of your methods in the cold and wet the next time it comes around. (It was in the 90's here last weekend)
Winners please PM or email me with your shipping information. Ankar Sheng and defaultuser let me know the best way to ship the stuff to you north of the border.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your ideas and for making this such a fun place to hang out and learn.
I got it down to the 2 that taught me the most and that I thought would help save my butt in a cold wet forest. I will tell you how I came to a decision between those two shortly.
First, the winner of the random contest.
For this I put all the post numbers of people who had posted tinder ideas, except for the the skills winner, in a list and had random.org randomize the list. The number that came out #1 would be the random winner.
Congratuations defaultuser.
Now for the skills winner....
As I said this was really hard......
In the end I had to choose a winner.......
So ......
I chickened out
Congratulations to Snakedoc and to Ankar Sheng.
I have duplicated the skills prize and you both win!!!
I am going to try each of your methods in the cold and wet the next time it comes around. (It was in the 90's here last weekend)
Winners please PM or email me with your shipping information. Ankar Sheng and defaultuser let me know the best way to ship the stuff to you north of the border.
Thanks to everyone for sharing your ideas and for making this such a fun place to hang out and learn.