Fire starting methods?

you have to put something inflammable on the steel wool for it to go up with a 9 volt battery... lighter fluid works occasionally.
 
I'm trying to make a quick little movie of spark-based starting with steel wool, but it keeps being too dark to film before I get home. Perhaps over the weekend...and I'll have to try the 9 volt method as well since I've never done that. Will work on it!
 
I was surprised at how easy taking your knife, busting open dead stumps or peeling off dead bark to make a birds nest with the fibers inside. Use a flint and steel.....made a fire like that my first time last year in about 3 to 6 miniuts.
 
Please enlighten me... why would any one consider carrying steel wool and a 9 volt battery to start a fire (if your lucky, and if the battery doesn't run down) when a BIC lighter is more reliable, lighter and will start more fires than a package of steel wool, or a whole box of batteries? BTW sometimes the steel wool has an oil based coating that will help it flame the first time but is quickly used up. To make it work apply dry tinder to the red hot wires of the steel wool then bring the sparked tinder to a flame by blowing gently on it.
Apply the flaming tinder to your previously prepared small teepee of twigs and such...
Other than the vaseline soaked cotton balls my favorite last ditch fire starter is a trioxane fuel bar.
In the woods some dry pine needles and a few dry pine cones will usually work fine. Last year's long dry grasses/weeds will go up quickly and easily (save the civilised tinder for emergencies).
For city folks, styrofoam, plastic bags or any of the oil based plastics will burn long and hot (relatively hard to start from a spark though, open flame is needed here)
Enjoy!
 
Happy Joe said:
Please enlighten me... why would any one consider carrying steel wool and a 9 volt battery to start a fire ...
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It is more for the case of improvising rather than some you specifically pack.

-Cliff
 
Happy Joe said:
Please enlighten me... why would any one consider carrying steel wool and a 9 volt battery to start a fire (if your lucky, and if the battery doesn't run down) when a BIC lighter is more reliable, lighter and will start more fires than a package of steel wool, or a whole box of batteries?
Click to expand...

I believe the steel wool/battery was devised when people carried flashlights. Two 1.5V batteries (traditionally D-cells, if memory serves, although a quick google showed someone using two AA's) from your flashlight and some lightweight steel wool in your emergency kit and you can get fire. The 9V is just an easier configuration to hold everything and get results...although I guess I DO have a 9V flashlight as well (PAL Light).

But overall, I agree: I'd rather have the Bic with me. And yes, I do bring trioxane bars along when I go out. I think they're really the easiest way to get a fire going and save me lots of time scraping up tinder.
 
Ok, I made a mini-movie with a blast match and 000 steel wool. Not a Spielberg production, but for using Windows movie editor for the first time, I can't complain.

I only had the front doorstep of my apartment complex to play on (unfortunately a high traffic area) and got a little overzealous with the blast match (2 or 3 strikes), but with a fairly small fluff of steel wool and some random dry leaves and branches around, it shows the concept fairly well.

I placed some of the tinder on the wool itself, stuck the blast match in, and, well, blasted. After the blasts, you can see the red glow of the wool as it's burning, but no tinder catching. After that, two breaths show some much brighter flares, the second of which catches the tinder. I let it go out at that point since I realize I have to run inside for the water I'd prepped. :rolleyes:

If anyone's interested in seeing it, eMail me with your info (it's about a 3.09 MB .wmv file), or if someone wants to (or could tell me how to) put it somewhere, I could do that as well.
 
I use a US Army canteern, cup and stove sleeve to cook with. I'm always looking for fuel substitutes to the traditional trioxene bar because they aren't available here in Brazil.

This past week on a two night mountian trip I tried paper egg carton filled with wood shavings saturated with parrafin wax. They worked great. We took eight of them between the two of us and used them exclusively to cook with, coffee, oatmeal, instant rice. One worked well to cook even the rice as long as you left plenty of room for air and kept them out of the wind. Mac
 
Maybe it's just me but I like the traditional flint and steel . When my hands are cold and the gross motor skills begin to fail and the BIC just aintdoin it, I can still get a spark off it. As far as tinder, the 4ought steel wool is great when it is fresh but YES it can and will rust! Char cloth remains my favorite, it's easy to make and replace. The Goodwill has tons of wool fer cheap. I also got a bunch of cotton lamp wicks(bout two pounds) at a garage sale for a buck and it works very well. In my "kits" I bundle items in waxed paper, you get the idea. Wolf
 
knivian said:
I would suggest being careful in trying to "pre-shave" a magnesium bar. They are very stable in block form but once they are in shavings it might be a little too easy to ignite them. A film canister full of magnesium shavings going up in your hand or pocket would ruin your whole day. Also, it would be very time consuming which might lead to using a short cut method that would generate too much heat and have the same effect.

Also, make sure you label the flasks well. I would hate to confuse my bourbon with my lighter fluid!!
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Every fire safety video Ive watched show that a magnesium fire takes a speacial extingisher and the use of water will cause a violent explosion
 
Magnesium powder is only dangerous once you get it into a VERY fine powder, read the consistency of flour. Once it is that fine it explodes in combination with oxygen, same as strontium and aluminum. You would need a ball mill to get it that fine. Shaving it off with a bastard file or knife will not make the particles small enough to ignite dangerously and unpredictably.

The above is only true if large quantities of magnesium is reacting. Smaller quatities like a film canister can be put out with water very easily.
 
Yes, and any other natural fiber. One really good material is the fungus that grows on Birch. Slice it up and make charcoal out of it, but I understand this is not nessessary with this mushroom, it is punky and will catch a spark very well. Wolf

Make sure that is 100% wool, polyester makes goo
 
Funny about wool being used as a char cloth. I always wore it because it didn't burn when coming into contact with sparks from a campfire.

I read this and don't remember exactly where, but doesn't wool put off a toxic gas when it burns?
 
Been buggin me all day!! Boy is my MORON showing. A guy I met this summer gave me a bunch of char and told me it was wool,WRONG. My common sense should have told me ,,IT'S HAIR" it won't work!! Ran a batch thru my cooker and got a can of GOOO. I hate when I get snookered. As far as toxicity I'm not sure. Sorry guys , shot my mouth off too fast on this one, glad this aint W&C.
 
I'm a fan of birch bark and dried spruce twigs. I started a fire today with a magnesium/ferrocium fire starter and the aforementioned fuels. Conditions were 40 degrees, rain, and a stiff breeze. I had a fire going in no time.
 
Thanks Horse, I still feel like a schmuck! been doin this stuff for an awful long time and I don't miss much, but when I do I sure never forget the lesson.
 
You aren't alone. I've made some :foot: good ones. I suppose that's why we're all here. To learn and find humility.;) :D
 
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