First time with a flint and steel

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

Joined
Feb 3, 2001
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Started my first fire with a flint and steel:D , I'll have to confess, I did use a small piece of char cloth but I did start one none the less.

Next I'll work on usin' fine tinder only, any ideas as to what lights the easiest?
 
Congrats! It's a very liberating feeling the first time you can make a primitive fire. Try some cattail fluff, dry moss, dry mugwort leaves. Not sure what you have in your area, but any very fine, and very dry and fiberous plant material should work.
 
Take some birch bark, press it outside down on a flat surface. Hold it open between two fingers, and scrape with a knife blade held almost completely vertical. Scrape one direction until a pile the size of a small cotton ball is formed( this may take a minute or two).

This will give you a very easy to lite natural tinder. Before you light it with your flint and steel, lay a thin piece of the birch bark loosely across your pile. This will start to burn when your shavings lite. Now use your flint and steel.

This is the easiest natural tinder to use, for me anyways. Hope this helps.
 
Lots of people say that cotton balls moistened (not soaked) with Vaseline petroleum jelly works best. You just use a pinch of it that you've fluffed up. Under very adverse conditions you can use the whole ball to get a fire going good. I keep a tiny plastic can stuffed full of them in my kit. My elderly mother's glucose test strips came in that container. It's smaller than a 35 mm film can, but one of those will work fine, too.
 
Cram the vaseline coated cotton balls in a straw and melt/seal both ends. It works great and isn't as messy as putting in a film canister. I was blown away at how easily they caught fire and how long they burned.

Use the search, there was a thread recently about how to make them.
 
My buddy and I just did the same last week. We used (Incense?) cedar. Fluffed a bunch in our hand and it went up like nothin. Course thinking we were going to have to practice half the day at fire making with flint we were left with the..."okay, what now?" problem.:rolleyes:
 
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