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thundermoon

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Nov 5, 2007
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Have any of you had note worthy sucess making fire using steel wool, cotton ball, and a battery.... for 9V only the battery is needed....AA, AAA, C, D, etc.....a piece of stripped wire is needed.

I've never tried it myself, just wondering if anyone has and if it's truly effective.

Thanks!
 
with a 9V or even a AA or AAA all you need is steel wool. connect the contacts and you have some hot metal! works great, its pretty cool.

keep in mind that when you use the battery and steel wool you are getting glowing hot metal, not actual flame. you should treat this as you would an ember from a flint and steel or a bowdrill set...you need to set it into a tinder nest and blow it into flame.
 
thanks siguy.....can you remove it from the connection to put in tinder nest, will it still be glowing at hot, or do you have to keep the connection active until the tinder catches.....sorry, may be a stupid question.
 
I have experimented with this a little bit. If using fine enough steel wool, it will start to glow immediately after touching the battery. You can then take the battery away. The glowing metal will begin to spread along the steel wool giving you ample time to add it to a tinder bundle. If you are stranded in the woods and don't have a 9 volt battery but have some steel wool, a cell phone battery can substitute.
 
If you are using the right stuff, namely "00" guage steel wool, it will combust, igniting your tinder. It is not a sufficient tinder by itself. This is much thinner than what you would find in an "SOS Pad" under the sink. You can find it at the hardware store.

I have managed to light it with a 9v battery, a mini-maglight, and even a cell phone battery.

-- FLIX
 
just a word of caution, dont hold the battery for too long, a few seconds is best, any longer the battery can shortcircuit & burst, causing hearing damage , eye damage and possible chemical burns.
yes i was an innocent child growing up, sure was, yep....... ;)
 
Thanks, some very good info. didn't even remotely think about a cell phone battery......thanks! I guess a wad or two of fine steel wool tucked away in the pack or kit is a good idea....as long as the battery is stored somewhere else like in a flashlight or something.
 
Like FLIX mantioned, the finer the steel wool, the more sparks and excitement. I tried some 0000 stuff I use for wood finishing and it worked very well. Just don't carry both of them in your pocket.:eek:
 
thundermoon said:
Have any of you had note worthy sucess making fire using steel wool, cotton ball, and a battery.... for 9V only the battery is needed....AA, AAA, C, D, etc.....a piece of stripped wire is needed.

I've never tried it myself, just wondering if anyone has and if it's truly effective.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I enquired on how to do it before, and I was told to use automotive steel wool. YMMV

What I have always wondered is how easily I could start a fire with my jump starter if I needed to. I know it sparks, but I never tried it, but I should give that a try. It could be another option in the event of a rural breakdown.
 
mp510 said:
I enquired on how to do it before, and I was told to use automotive steel wool. YMMV

What I have always wondered is how easily I could start a fire with my jump starter if I needed to. I know it sparks, but I never tried it, but I should give that a try. It could be another option in the event of a rural breakdown.
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, Les Stroud did something like that where he started a fire with some gasoline, wire, and a battery. He just connected the wire up to the terminals and shorted it.

I think it was a you tube video.
 
It works great. You can also strip down a stranded wire and wrap a single strand around some tinder, then touch the ends to the battery.

Be wary of using a lithium battery for this, definitely don't hold one shorted for too long!
 
Wow. What a timely thread--I was just thinking of starting one up on this subject for two elements. And those are...

andrew7978 said:
...a cell phone battery can substitute.
Click to expand...

Have you tried this Andrew? I had an old cell phone battery, but when I went to look for it to try this experiment...well, I dunno what the heck I did with that battery. :mad: It should work in theory, but I don't know that you get a long enough drain time with a cell phone battery given its low discharge design. Would love to hear your experiences with this.

Bushman5 said:
just a word of caution, dont hold the battery for too long, a few seconds is best, any longer the battery can shortcircuit & burst...
Click to expand...
This actually is what I wanted to ask.

I've seen a lot of survival texts talk about using a battery to start a fire... and they all show a 9V touched to steel wool. Yeah... yeah, that can work. I think there was some good advice here that it doesn't cause the rip-roaring bonfire that some books make it out to sound though--my experiences here have been a small glow with typical steel wool. You still need to transfer the ember to tinder to get that glow into a real fire.

But a few of these same texts also recommend using "any type" of battery, and simply using "wires" to the + and - terminals to generate the spark.

Okay, but those better be insulated wires.

You don't want to hold bare copper and connect even to the smallest AAA battery, or you'll get a severe but tiny burn in about 2 seconds.

Use wood, please, to hold bare copper wires! No, you don't get electrocuted from a AAA, AA, C, or D battery... but you will feel fire in your skin almost instantly!
 
andrew7978 said:
If I recall correctly, Les Stroud did something like that where he started a fire with some gasoline, wire, and a battery. He just connected the wire up to the terminals and shorted it.

I think it was a you tube video.
Click to expand...

That will work very quickly indeed if the car battery is in decent condition. But if you think a little AA can explode, wait until you see a car battery blow up! After having it happen about 20 inches from my face, I'm very careful around those things. Blew the whole top off the battery. Just make sure you don't short it too long. The battery I blew was on the charger, but it can happen shorting the battery as well.
 
Watchful said:
Wow. What a timely thread--I was just thinking of starting one up on this subject for two elements. And those are...



Have you tried this Andrew? I had an old cell phone battery, but when I went to look for it to try this experiment...well, I dunno what the heck I did with that battery. :mad: It should work in theory, but I don't know that you get a long enough drain time with a cell phone battery given its low discharge design. Would love to hear your experiences with this.


This actually is what I wanted to ask.

I've seen a lot of survival texts talk about using a battery to start a fire... and they all show a 9V touched to steel wool. Yeah... yeah, that can work. I think there was some good advice here that it doesn't cause the rip-roaring bonfire that some books make it out to sound though--my experiences here have been a small glow with typical steel wool. You still need to transfer the ember to tinder to get that glow into a real fire.

But a few of these same texts also recommend using "any type" of battery, and simply using "wires" to the + and - terminals to generate the spark.

Okay, but those better be insulated wires.

You don't want to hold bare copper and connect even to the smallest AAA battery, or you'll get a severe but tiny burn in about 2 seconds.

Use wood, please, to hold bare copper wires! No, you don't get electrocuted from a AAA, AA, C, or D battery... but you will feel fire in your skin almost instantly!
Click to expand...

Mobile 'phone batteries can give a moderately high current; they transmit in bursts. Problem is that, being lithium, they have protection circuits inside that cut the power very quickly if too much current (like from a wire short) is drawn. I haven't tried it myself but starting with a very long strand of wire and gradually shortening it until it just gets hot enough *might* work. If the battery starts smoking, treat it like a lit firework and chuck some wood over it!

I used to do the wire wool thing as a kid. A PP3 battery will do it easily; just brush across the terminals and a few strands will start to melt. Blow gently and you can get a good furnace going. Just like any fire, the burning iron loves oxygen.
 
foxyrick said:
Mobile 'phone batteries can give a moderately high current; they transmit in bursts. Problem is that, being lithium, they have protection circuits inside that cut the power very quickly if too much current (like from a wire short) is drawn.
Click to expand...
I don't want to say I'm skeptical about using cell phone batteries, but agree with you on the design kind of tipping the odds against you.

I need to talk to someone who's done it.

Blow gently and you can get a good furnace going.
Click to expand...

That's just it: you've done it, and you know there's actually a little more to it. Many of the survival books slant their wording to convince you that any steel wool will burst into high temp flames... which makes me think "they never did this; they're just repeating it."

Ditto with my warning about using uninsulated conductors. A lot of survival books make these techniques sound quite easy to do... the point that I get suspicious as to whether the authors have even tried this stuff.

Yet another great reason to keep coming to BFC! Folks who have done it! And will tell you the caveats!
 
Watchful said:
I don't want to say I'm skeptical about using cell phone batteries, but agree with you on the design kind of tipping the odds against you.

I need to talk to someone who's done it.



That's just it: you've done it, and you know there's actually a little more to it. Many of the survival books slant their wording to convince you that any steel wool will burst into high temp flames... which makes me think "they never did this; they're just repeating it."

Ditto with my warning about using uninsulated conductors. A lot of survival books make these techniques sound quite easy to do... the point that I get suspicious as to whether the authors have even tried this stuff.

Yet another great reason to keep coming to BFC! Folks who have done it! And will tell you the caveats!
Click to expand...

Watchful,

As I stated in my prior post, I have used a cell phone battery to ignite steel wool. I didn't just read about it or surmise that it may work, I took a charged cell phone battery and touched it to some fine steel wool. It started, albiet with a little less gusto than it does with a 9 volt battery.

I have used this spark source to then ignite fluffed up cotton and magnesium shavings.

The fact that using a cell phone battery works doesn't mean you should rely on it. Doing so may ruin the battery, rendering your phone useless. As others have said, it may also cause the to explode, potentially making a bad situation worse. Somebody mentioned keeping some steel wool in their phone. This sounds pretty risky.

-- FLIX
 
Sorry, Flix! I sure did miss that. I just re-read the thread.

All right, so you've actually done it! Am I glad to hear that, too. And as I hoped, you have some good cautions, too.

Nice work! And again, the mistake was all mine.
 
Hey watchful,

Coincidentally, I just got a new cell phone and am going to throw out the old one, so maybe I will try it out and take pictures. Actually, I'm supposed to be doing a workshop (fire, etc.) this Sunday so I probably can work it into the day. No promises, though. :rolleyes:

Doc
 
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