Burn Some Rubber Baby !!!!

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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On my last hike in the rain I had planned on testing a Ranger band ( inner tube ) to see if it would burn long enough in the wet to ignite some fatwood, unfortunately when I prepped my fatwood I realised the Ranger band was no longer in my pocket !!!!!!:eek:

So today I thought I'd try it again but as it was no longer raining I decided to soak the fatwood and Ranger band to simulate rain !

Here is a poor pic of the test piece....

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Onto the soaking......

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Now without any drying or shaking I placed the wet test piece onto a damp surface and lit it with my Bic, it lit in about 3 seconds........

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The flame soon took hold......

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Before long the whole bundle was well and truly on fire !!!!

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I was quite impressed with the result, I still want to try this in heavy rain but will definitely include some in my fire kit now !!!
 
Rubber burns well. Ever burned a few old tires? Not that I've done it personally :rolleyes: but boy to those things burn HOT!
 
In Spencer Chapman's Book "The Jungle is neutral" he speaks of using strips of inner tube as a fire lighter.
Triangle shaped strips ( gives you a narrow piece to light) can't get wet. burns hot ( as discussed) and rather cheap.
Carl
 
Looks like a nice piece to add to a fire kit. Although I've never lit tires my self (..:rolleyes: ) I here they burn pretty well..
 
Good info to have, especially in a do-or-you-know-what situation. I wonder though, any health issues with the fumes? I'd imagine you don't want to cook dinner on a pile of burning tires.
 
John G said:
Good info to have, especially in a do-or-you-know-what situation. I wonder though, any health issues with the fumes? I'd imagine you don't want to cook dinner on a pile of burning tires.
Click to expand...

I'm only planning on using a very small piece to get a fire started in adverse conditions, within a few minutes there will be no traces of the rubber left.
Using these is not new it's just that I don't hear them mentioned any more and had never used them till a few days ago !!!
 
The fumes from burning rubber definitely aren't all that good for you. However, if you're using a small piece to start a fire, by the time you get a fire suitable for cooking that little chunk of rubber will have burned off long ago.
 
One of my AK fishing buddies carries bike tube rubber strips (and gave me some), as well as natural tinder. As noted, they are a bit stinky but burn long and hot enough to help get a fire going.

DancesWithKnives
 
The fatwood and the tires burn well on their own, so I wouldn't waste precious firestarters by using them together. Shave some of that fatwood and it'll go up just fine on its own.

If you go down to your local bike shop they will usually give you old inner tubes for free. Most of them ship them off to be recycled. I get them all the time for survival kits for Scouts.

The beauty of them is that you can cut them into small squares or strips and they take up virtually no room in your kit, making them ideal for mini kits, your wallet, etc. Wax paper is also great for that, as I'm sure most of you know. Mountain bike innertubes lay flatter when you cut them because they're wider than the road bike tubes.

Of course using them as Ranger bands, makes them multi-purpose. I like to use them on Mora Clipper sheaths as the mountain bike tubes are the perfect size to hold a Doan mag and ferro rod block, if you like those. The road bike tubes are good to go around lighters to hold on some 550 cord or jute cord to give it an attachment point that doubles as a fire starter (although I usually just wrap a foot or so of blaze orange duct tape around the lighter and a loop of cord, which makes it even more multi-purpose: fire starter, the color makes it hard to lose and can be used for signaling, an attachment point for your survival necklace, etc. and of course duct tape has a billion uses).
 
While we're on the subject another use I saw on this forum for bike inner tubes is you can cut a section out and use it as a makeshift horizontal sheath for large locking SAKs.
 
kage said:
The fatwood and the tires burn well on their own, so I wouldn't waste precious firestarters by using them together. Shave some of that fatwood and it'll go up just fine on its own.
Click to expand...


Where I live wet weather is a regular pain in the ass and in real heavy rain the Fatwood will just keep going out, once it gets real hot you are ok so my hope is that the rubber will burn hot enough and long enough that even in heavy rain the fatwood will take hold ! Heavy rain might still be too much for the rubber though...we will see !:confused:
 
pitdog,

Good to know. I tend to use PJCB in wet conditions, and I don't think I've ever tried either the fatwood or tubes in very damp conditions. Something to do on the next rainy day!
 
You really don't have to go out of your way to "add them to your kit." You can strap them around the outside of an altoids tin, your sheath, your lighter, or almost any other object that is already in your kit. As you have shown, they are pretty impervious to the elements.

I have tried them enough to know how they work, and once I felt comfortable don't use them regularly. Just like having them "just in case."

B
 
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