emergency tender

dogwood dan

dogwood dan

Joined
Aug 19, 2011
Messages
925
I posted earlier about a fire piston as a follow up let me ask what is your favorite emergency tender. I like to carry something extra for that time I absolutely have to have a fire now. I have ben using cotton soaked in paraffin, but would like to take advantage of some of y'alls experienced. so what do you carry
 
PJ cotton. Works for me. I ALWAYS use natural tinder though. I keep a pipe tobbaco can in my bag with various nat tinders. Cedar bark, Milkweed pods full of fluff and Ovum, Charred fungus, etc.....Gather em up as I pass em in the woods. No birch bark or fatwoods here so this hardwoodsman takes advantage of dry tinder when he sees it.
 
I would think for an emergency you wouldn't want to play around. You would want something that could turn an engine block into a roaring fire in under a minute. I've seen video of Canadian coast guard dropping these road flare looking things onto glaciers to melt them. Anyone know more about that? And where we can buy them if they are legal? Or something equivalent.
 
The foil wrapped alcohol prep pads work and carry well. If they're not foil wrapped they dry out in storage.--KV
 
I like and use fat wood but for emergences I like to use the cotton and paraffin because if I pull it apart it makes little fibers that light if I stare at the to long and are water proof. The alcohol pads are a grate idea for easy carry I am taking the kids on the river this week end I will have to try it out. As for melting an engine block thermite is as good as it gets but it needs a magnesium starter witch could be a cool one shot all in one kit. I have also used heat tabs we got in the army.
 
I tend to use cottonballs smeared with vasoline(petroleum jelly) or even dryer lint. Dryer lint will take a spark like crazy, and if you compress it right it will actually smolder for a little while. Dryer lint is abundant here in my house, so I can fill up a gallon bag in no time. Take a little and stuff it in whatever you're using to hold your tinder. It works great.
 
OpKey said:
I tend to use cottonballs smeared with vasoline(petroleum jelly) or even dryer lint. Dryer lint will take a spark like crazy, and if you compress it right it will actually smolder for a little while. Dryer lint is abundant here in my house, so I can fill up a gallon bag in no time. Take a little and stuff it in whatever you're using to hold your tinder. It works great.
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I think dryer lint is abundant in every household with a dryer.
If I could sell the dryer lint in mine, I could retire.
 
Theremite would be cool. Of course I carry a .......I forget what's it's called but it's compressed fuel that was used before modern MRE heaters. Very toxic and burns for eight minutes or so. But is that good enough? I'm thinking of taking one out of it's package and re-wrapping it with steel wool to make it burn hotter and ignite faster. I think we have different ideas of survival tinder. I imagine using this type of tinder in a real emergency where my hands and fingers are too cold and numb that I can barely use a push button fire starter. Forget making fuzz sticks or finding kindling that will ignite with a pj soaked cotton ball. It could be raining and I could be wet. I want something that will light a fallen log on fire without fail.
 
I use cotton and vasaliene. I also keep some foil folded up in my sheath pocket. I remember in the scouts we made these fire starters made out of egg carton (paper kind) filled with lint, sawdust, and then covered with wax. acts alot like a candle but takes up a;ot of space.

However in am absolute mergency. Like "burn that ditch line so we dont have to worry about snipers" its hard to beat a thermite
 
I carry a little kit in all my bags. Dryer lint, fat wood sticks, Bic, matches and a fire striker. Dryer lint goes up like gasoline!
 
Brad "the butcher";9948631 said:
my wife gets tender in an emergency
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Takes a spark to get her going though :p


PJ balls and waxed paper works great as I discovered.
 
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