Fire ?'s

E

Expatriated

Joined
Jan 19, 2004
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551
1. What are your favorite tinders to carry with you in your kit based on EXPERIENCE, i.e., What has worked the best under the most adverse conditions? Do you use just cotton balls in vaseline, dryer lint or do you buy one of the marketed items, like wet tinder, those tab things in the Doug Ritter kit (forget the name), or what?

2. Personally, I have been able to use a bic lighter in all environments. Even in the pouring rain, I've been able to dry one out enough that had been submerged so that I could get a good consistent flame from it. Is it me, or does it seem that the old bic is just not cool enough for the standard PSK? Yes, I know a lot of you guys carry them so I'm not accusing anyone, I'm just making an observation. It seems they are rarely part of any survival kit. I love my RAT fire kit since it can store some good, dry tinder inside (and the added bonus of a compass!). It makes a great back-up to a bic, but it's still a back-up. At least, in my opinion. I always tend to go with the simplest option first. What are your thoughts on the old, gas station 79 cent bic? Have you ever been in a situation where the bic would not work and you had to use one of these other methods? Care to share it?
 
i think PJCB are one of the most popular tinders, they are cheap to make and burn when wet, though I still carry wet-fire tabs, and every once in a while some esbit tabs (only to boil water where you can't have an open fire)

I always have a mini-bic on me and will use that first. But should it run out of fuel, or fall down a cliff, everything else is just backup. i would probably even try using it like a spark-lite before digging into my kit. Actually I have a mini bic in there too that would come first:D
 
I smoke. I've usually got a bic, butane, or zippo on me. I've had them all fail under a wide variety of situations. All methods have thier ups and downs. Only solutions are to carry many types of fire, and know work arounds for the downsides. Wet bics dry out, cold lighters warm in an armpit or glove fast, etc
 
I'm a smoker so I always have a bic (white) lighter on me. In my pack I've been carring a Spark-Lite fire kit along with a mini Bernzomatic torch. I also have many cotton balls stuffed in my kits mainly to keep things from rattling & for tinder. The mini torch is just awsome for firestarting!
 
All gimmicks and improvised tinder aside, my all time favorite tinder to carry is PJCBs. But yes, I've also always gotten a Bic to work, although it has required some armpit pre-warming in very cold temps.

In my real-life diciest firestarting situations so far, I have always had at least a splash available in my stove fuel bottle. White gas in the 90's and denatured alcohol (HEET) since. Like a Bic, denatured is pretty sluggish in the cold but catches a spark very nicely. Safer than hand-lighting white gas too. :eek:
 
I always carry a bic and some fatwood. Some tinders that I've found take a spark easily are PJCB's, steel wool and charcloth. Of those three, the cotton balls just seem the most effective and weather resistant.
 
I've found that empty red bull shots are a great way to carry about 3 or 4 fires worth of cotton balls
 
My favorite tinder by far is four-ought (.0000) steel wool. It lights first time everytime and the conditions don't matter: hot, cold, wet, dry. It works with a fire steel or a flint and steel, basically anything that will throw a spark.
My second favorite is a Bic lighter and strips of bicycle tire.
Third fave is PJ cottonballs.
Fourth fave is jute twine.
Fifth fave is my Magnesium bar.
Dead last is fatwood.
 
I keep jute twine and PJ cotton balls with a firesteel. I have never failed to get it going. :)
 
I like the PJCB and a bic, but the cheapest easiest one I like is just a few strips of birch bark. deepending on where you like its easy to come by, waterproof, and best of all free.
 
I use strike any-where matches I keep a few hundred in My bob I have a zippo but I don't trust it I keep a fire steel in my bob with lint and some times pj cotton balls..... I will be putting a bic in when I get home.
 
I like blowing an ember to flame. Chaga or charcloth will take a spark from any source. Usually have some jute in case, but prefer to forage for natural materials. I usually have a bit of fatwood tucked away somewhere.
 
Expatriated said:
1. What are your favorite tinders to carry with you in your kit based on EXPERIENCE, i.e., What has worked the best under the most adverse conditions?
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#0000 Steel Wool - Ask someone in the paint section at China-Mart and they will direct you to a package of it a little bit smaller than a loaf of bread for about $4.00 and you will find it to be possibly the best manmade tinder available without getting into a lot of chemical/fuel tablets like Trioaxane and Hex Tablets, etc.

Steel Wool, that grade, can also be ignited with a couple AAA or AA batteries with just a little bit of snare wire or some pulling and spreading apart of a suitable sized piece of the Steel Wool.

"Tube Vaults," which are 2-liter soft drink bottle "blanks" are excellent for storage of this and other tinder materials. If you pack them tightly, you can have an incredibly large supply of tinder but you have to have a way to pick it out, large forceps or a piece of coat hanger or piano wire that you can make a small hook on one end, to pull it out.

100% Cotton, Cottonballs. Make sure it has the little cottonball logo on it as some "cottonballs" are not cotton at all. Some are marketed to women for make-up removal and related uses and they are not cotton.

Pharmacy supply foil packets of Vaseline. Vaseline brand squirt tubes for using as hand lotion/treatment for dry hands. Looks like a little toothpaste tube. Squirts a thin noodle of Vaseline out on whatever tinder you have.

2. Personally, I have been able to use a bic lighter in all environments. Even in the pouring rain, I've been able to dry one out enough that had been submerged so that I could get a good consistent flame from it. Is it me, or does it seem that the old bic is just not cool enough for the standard PSK? Yes, I know a lot of you guys carry them so I'm not accusing anyone, I'm just making an observation. It seems they are rarely part of any survival kit.
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I have little Kydex "Sheaths" made for regular and "mini" sized BICs. I would never bet my life on a BIC, Cricket, Zippo or the various Brunton Helios and other hip lighters. Mine are always as a part of other devices for firestarting.

Light My Fire Brand Swedish Firesteels, Scout or Army, and DOAN Magnesium Firestarters which is just a ferrocerium rod about the size of the LMF Brand Scout firesteel attached to the side of a block of magnesium...I bet my life on these tools and the aforementioned tinder. I have went out in the rain, pouring rain, to test them.

The Spark-Lite firestarter should also be a part of everyone's firestarting kit. You can use them one handed. They have half the weakness of a lighter, the spring can corrode and any number of other things can happen and render them inoperable. They can also allow you to light a fire with one hand, which is important.

I have not quite got the hang of using a knife, scraper, saw blade or small file and a ferro rod with one hand to light fires. I have been trying to find the best way, holding things between my shoes, all sorts of things.

I carry more firestarting stuff than this, too, this is just the best as far as I am concerned.

The best match I have used are REI matches and this is coming from someone who has used NATO-British Lifeboat Matches for about 25 years now. The K & M Matchsafe is just about the best of breed as a matchsafe.
 
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Jake Bauer said:
Any of yall use Wet-fire tinder?
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I had the old ones that were in a golden wrapper. They work well. They are advertised as working better when wet. I never tried that. I am fairly certain that if the package is compromised, they don't work as well if they are exposed to oxygen over some period of time. I'm pretty sure that was my experience with them in the past as I had some of them bouncing around in various kits and packs and the packs had some minor damage to them. That might have something to do with them working better when wet, if they are exposed to open air over some period of time and they dry out, maybe that drying out destroys the "trade secret" ( :rolleyes: ) ingredient(s) rendering the tablet less effective or totally ineffective.

I have one of them from Tony that is in a gray wrapper that seems to be more robust than the older ones which kind of makes me think I am recollecting accurately.

I don't have anything against modern technology when it comes to stuff like this but I think people that don't try #0000 Steel Wool and Cottonballs, both of them with and without Vaseline, you are making a huge mistake. You can purchase so much tinder material for $10.00, it's almost absurd. For $10.00 you can get a small "loaf" of Steel Wool, a bag of Cottonballs and a small travel sized container of Vaseline or a couple little tubes of Vaseline Intensive Care.
 
Jake Bauer said:
Any of yall use Wet-fire tinder?
Click to expand...

I just threw some out because they don't work any more. They are about 6 years old. I didn't realize these things have a shelf life, but they definitely don't work now--hard to light even when holding in a match. But, when they were new, they caught a spark the first time every time. I lit one in the pouring rain one time (with a lighter) and it continued to burn.

I'm going to try the steel wool, I've got a bunch of that laying around here already for wood finishing projects anyway, but so far, I like the wet fire tinder the best. I'm just not happy with the storage life of them. But, I just ordered some more. We'll see.
 
dryer lint , rolled in fat wood dust and a little PJ, and shaving of a magnesium i got from a wheel...... mix and compact, tear appart in the field
 
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