- Joined
- Jun 5, 2006
- Messages
- 2,718
I finally found a use for them, those flat tins that AOL loves to send us CDs in:
After reading so many recommendations here about using cotton balls and petroleum jelly for fire starters, I decided to try it today. The cotton balls I bought were rolled into a kind of a pad. Out of curiousity, I pulled one apart and put a lighter to it. Holy crap it went off like a torch and I had to drop it on the ground.
So then I melted some petroleum jelly in a glass jar in a pan of hot water and just dipped the whole pad into the liquid, soaking it through, using forceps. Then stuck them in the tin, as you can see it holds 20.
I went out to the fire pit and tested one as a solid lump, like a fuel tab. I got 8:45 minutes of burn time out of it. The second one I pulled apart into a 2.5x2.5 inch sheet, and got about 4:30 minutes of burn. The third I pulled apart into a 7 inch strip and wrapped it around a thick twig, like a torch. It burned okay, but not as well as the first two, probably wrapped too tight
If I were going to backpack these, I'd probably carry fewer in a lighter plastic film cannister, like others do. However, one of these tins will go into an Alice pack that I'm making into a GHB that will live behind the seat of my truck. The other will stay at home for my fire starting experiments.
After reading so many recommendations here about using cotton balls and petroleum jelly for fire starters, I decided to try it today. The cotton balls I bought were rolled into a kind of a pad. Out of curiousity, I pulled one apart and put a lighter to it. Holy crap it went off like a torch and I had to drop it on the ground.
So then I melted some petroleum jelly in a glass jar in a pan of hot water and just dipped the whole pad into the liquid, soaking it through, using forceps. Then stuck them in the tin, as you can see it holds 20.
I went out to the fire pit and tested one as a solid lump, like a fuel tab. I got 8:45 minutes of burn time out of it. The second one I pulled apart into a 2.5x2.5 inch sheet, and got about 4:30 minutes of burn. The third I pulled apart into a 7 inch strip and wrapped it around a thick twig, like a torch. It burned okay, but not as well as the first two, probably wrapped too tight
If I were going to backpack these, I'd probably carry fewer in a lighter plastic film cannister, like others do. However, one of these tins will go into an Alice pack that I'm making into a GHB that will live behind the seat of my truck. The other will stay at home for my fire starting experiments.
