- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
- Messages
- 30
I picked up a Swedish Light My Fire Scout Firesteel 2.0. Ever since then, I have been having great fun starting campfires without matches. Most of them are in my little patio chimeneria. Although I imagine a lot of what I am about to say is old news for many of you, I thought I would pass along my observations and if not help someone else, maybe at least learn something new myself. All of these experiments occured in near ideal conditions under no stress and reflect what is possible given my skills (which are meager).
The first thing I started with was dryer lint; because it was free, plentiful and available. It took me a bit to get the hang of it; but once I did I could usually get fires started provided I had prepared all my wood. The lint was easy to get ignited; but tended to burn fast. Also wet dryer lint not only does not ignite; but tends to fall apart.
My next experiment involved coming across a pine tree that had giant chunks of dried sap/resin falling off of it like little white stones. I tried grinding the resin into a powder and attempting to ignite it with the firesteel but I was unsuccessful. I eventually just threw a chunk of resin into a pile of dryer lint and lit the lint - I was pleased to discover that this created a nice hot fire that burned a good 2-3 minutes and gave off black smoke. This made it much easier to get fires going or start with larger wood. As a bonus, the resin burns even if wet, though it takes a little longer to get started.
After this I decided to try making my own firestarters (Firestarter #1). First, I took a bowl with a pour spout and placed a cheap candle from WalMart in it. I then placed this in a pot of water so that the bowl was barely floating and began to boil the water. This allowed me to melt the paraffin. While the candle was melting, I took an empty cardboard egg carton and filled the hole on one side with dryer lint and then dry birch twigs (matchstick size or smaller). After this, I poured the melted wax into the egg carton. I learned a few lessons here:
1. Hot wax soaks through egg carton cardboard with relative ease - making for quite a mess if you haven't prepared for that.
2. It takes awhile for hot wax to solidify at room temperature. The longer it takes, the more leakage/mess. The freezer or refrigerator helps speed the process up.
3. The easiest way to separate the solidified waxy mess was to cut the egg holes apart, soaked waxy cardboard and all.
4. I was unable to ignite lint covered in wax with the firesteel. I had to use dry lint to catch the spark, then set the firestarter in the lint and wait for it to ignite; however once it did it burned hot and strong for almost 18 minutes. You could skip right to 1" thick sticks with dry wood and dry conditions because this could get them started no problem. It was almost impossible not to get a fire going once you got it ignited.
5. The resulting chunks were kind of bulky and with everything covered in wax, they were messy to boot.
My next attempt was a plain old jumbo cotton ball. These are simply awesome. With one or two strikes, they would catch fire and they would burn a good 2 minutes or more. You could also ignite them with the firesteel then pick them up and put them in your firelay. As a bonus, you can stuff a LOT of jumbo cottonballs into a waterproof pill container, a pocket on a sheath, etc. I was really surprised at what a great firestarter a simple cottonball was.
From there, I decided to do another batch of firestarters (Firestarter #2). This time I used a plastic egg carton and after filling the half egg with wax, I set a cotton ball on top to provide something fluffy for the firesteel. Lessons I learned this time:
1. Hot wax melts through plastic egg cartons too; but not as bad. Let it cool a little bit before pouring and make good use of the freezer.
2. Just pop the plastic egg carton inside out to release your firestarter. These give a good strong fire for 15 minutes and a usable, dryer lint type fire for another minute after that.
3. Unfortunately, the cotton ball tends to soak up the wax while it is solidifying, and the waxy cotton ball is difficult to ignite with the firesteel. I had mixed success getting these started.
4. These were slightly more compact; but still too big for a pill bottle and still a waxy mess.
I also took the opportunity to just dip cotton balls half into the wax and set them on a papertowl to dry. These also turned out to be great. They burned for a good 6:30 minutes. They were not as hot as the egg carton firestarters but still plenty hot to get a fire going the usual way. However, you need to leave at least 1/2 to 2/3 "fluffy" and unwaxed or they can be tough to start with a firesteel. Also once the wax hardens, they are not quite so compact as a cotton ball; but they do fit in a pill bottle.
Of all of these, I was most impressed with the cotton ball. You can fit a lot of them in a pill bottle. It required the least work, and you get a good two minutes of fire out of it. My second favorite was the waxed cotton ball - triple the burn time with more heat but you can carry fewer and they can be more difficult to start. The firestarters work better with a match or lighter. Good heat for 15-18 minutes makes it easy to get fires going; but less easy to carry, messy, and tough to start with a firesteel if you don't have separate tinder.
Edited to add pictures: Here is a picture of Firestarter #2 after burning for 12 minutes. As you can see, it burned hot enough and long enough to char the partially burned log I used to separate it from the smaller tinder (didn't want to start an actual fire, just wanted to see how long it would burn on its own). It actually got the log smoldering at a couple of points (the white spots against the black):
The first thing I started with was dryer lint; because it was free, plentiful and available. It took me a bit to get the hang of it; but once I did I could usually get fires started provided I had prepared all my wood. The lint was easy to get ignited; but tended to burn fast. Also wet dryer lint not only does not ignite; but tends to fall apart.
My next experiment involved coming across a pine tree that had giant chunks of dried sap/resin falling off of it like little white stones. I tried grinding the resin into a powder and attempting to ignite it with the firesteel but I was unsuccessful. I eventually just threw a chunk of resin into a pile of dryer lint and lit the lint - I was pleased to discover that this created a nice hot fire that burned a good 2-3 minutes and gave off black smoke. This made it much easier to get fires going or start with larger wood. As a bonus, the resin burns even if wet, though it takes a little longer to get started.
After this I decided to try making my own firestarters (Firestarter #1). First, I took a bowl with a pour spout and placed a cheap candle from WalMart in it. I then placed this in a pot of water so that the bowl was barely floating and began to boil the water. This allowed me to melt the paraffin. While the candle was melting, I took an empty cardboard egg carton and filled the hole on one side with dryer lint and then dry birch twigs (matchstick size or smaller). After this, I poured the melted wax into the egg carton. I learned a few lessons here:
1. Hot wax soaks through egg carton cardboard with relative ease - making for quite a mess if you haven't prepared for that.
2. It takes awhile for hot wax to solidify at room temperature. The longer it takes, the more leakage/mess. The freezer or refrigerator helps speed the process up.
3. The easiest way to separate the solidified waxy mess was to cut the egg holes apart, soaked waxy cardboard and all.
4. I was unable to ignite lint covered in wax with the firesteel. I had to use dry lint to catch the spark, then set the firestarter in the lint and wait for it to ignite; however once it did it burned hot and strong for almost 18 minutes. You could skip right to 1" thick sticks with dry wood and dry conditions because this could get them started no problem. It was almost impossible not to get a fire going once you got it ignited.
5. The resulting chunks were kind of bulky and with everything covered in wax, they were messy to boot.
My next attempt was a plain old jumbo cotton ball. These are simply awesome. With one or two strikes, they would catch fire and they would burn a good 2 minutes or more. You could also ignite them with the firesteel then pick them up and put them in your firelay. As a bonus, you can stuff a LOT of jumbo cottonballs into a waterproof pill container, a pocket on a sheath, etc. I was really surprised at what a great firestarter a simple cottonball was.
From there, I decided to do another batch of firestarters (Firestarter #2). This time I used a plastic egg carton and after filling the half egg with wax, I set a cotton ball on top to provide something fluffy for the firesteel. Lessons I learned this time:
1. Hot wax melts through plastic egg cartons too; but not as bad. Let it cool a little bit before pouring and make good use of the freezer.
2. Just pop the plastic egg carton inside out to release your firestarter. These give a good strong fire for 15 minutes and a usable, dryer lint type fire for another minute after that.
3. Unfortunately, the cotton ball tends to soak up the wax while it is solidifying, and the waxy cotton ball is difficult to ignite with the firesteel. I had mixed success getting these started.
4. These were slightly more compact; but still too big for a pill bottle and still a waxy mess.
I also took the opportunity to just dip cotton balls half into the wax and set them on a papertowl to dry. These also turned out to be great. They burned for a good 6:30 minutes. They were not as hot as the egg carton firestarters but still plenty hot to get a fire going the usual way. However, you need to leave at least 1/2 to 2/3 "fluffy" and unwaxed or they can be tough to start with a firesteel. Also once the wax hardens, they are not quite so compact as a cotton ball; but they do fit in a pill bottle.
Of all of these, I was most impressed with the cotton ball. You can fit a lot of them in a pill bottle. It required the least work, and you get a good two minutes of fire out of it. My second favorite was the waxed cotton ball - triple the burn time with more heat but you can carry fewer and they can be more difficult to start. The firestarters work better with a match or lighter. Good heat for 15-18 minutes makes it easy to get fires going; but less easy to carry, messy, and tough to start with a firesteel if you don't have separate tinder.
Edited to add pictures: Here is a picture of Firestarter #2 after burning for 12 minutes. As you can see, it burned hot enough and long enough to char the partially burned log I used to separate it from the smaller tinder (didn't want to start an actual fire, just wanted to see how long it would burn on its own). It actually got the log smoldering at a couple of points (the white spots against the black):
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Not being able to pee standing up isn't that bad of a sacrifice when you realize that we can start awesome fires at will 
