On Saturday, we took a short hike in the nearby state park. The weather was sunny and warm and I decided to give a try to my credit card size Fresnel lens from my "survival pouch". I succeeded in getting flames out of cedar bark easily in 1-2 min. However, the success was not uniformal with other tinder.
My brief findings:
1) Handful of WELL SHREDDED dry (kept in ziplock bag) cedar bark worked well. I shredded it by rolling it between my palms for ~5 sec. That also compressed it into a smaller but tighter bundle that -in my opinion- worked better than a looser one.
2) Petroleum jelly saturated cotton balls smoked up quickly but never bursted into flames during my trials. My current theory is that they either reflect the sun rays (white color) or the thin fibers just are not optimal for this fire starting method. That surprised me a bit. Small woody pieces of the cedar bark turned into long living tiny hot coals actually.
3) Dried tree leeves from ground smoked too but did not give flames. That might be still possible with more practice.
4) Other tinders were not tested, since my wife woke up to the smoke and we had to move on. Possibilities: hexan tablets, charcoal, charred clothes and more natural tinders.
5) Keep in mind: grooved surface of Fresnel lens should face the Sun!
6) WEAR SUNGLASSES or risk beeing blinded for some time!
7) You do not have to focus in one point. One might be better off putting the focus point ~.25-.5" deep from the surface of the bundle. Given the depth of the fibrous bundle, it provides plenty of fibers in the way of the focused light to smolder.
One last remark: Greg suggested the use of cedar bark as an excellent tinder long time ago. However, cedar is considered an exotic tree in the area of Europe where I am from. It took me some time and research to find out that the common Juniper tree which is around in the NJ, NY area is a cedar. I might have been the only one not knowing this. Anyway, I used Juniper bark in the test.
Any experience, remarks from others?
Best to All,
HM
My brief findings:
1) Handful of WELL SHREDDED dry (kept in ziplock bag) cedar bark worked well. I shredded it by rolling it between my palms for ~5 sec. That also compressed it into a smaller but tighter bundle that -in my opinion- worked better than a looser one.
2) Petroleum jelly saturated cotton balls smoked up quickly but never bursted into flames during my trials. My current theory is that they either reflect the sun rays (white color) or the thin fibers just are not optimal for this fire starting method. That surprised me a bit. Small woody pieces of the cedar bark turned into long living tiny hot coals actually.
3) Dried tree leeves from ground smoked too but did not give flames. That might be still possible with more practice.
4) Other tinders were not tested, since my wife woke up to the smoke and we had to move on. Possibilities: hexan tablets, charcoal, charred clothes and more natural tinders.
5) Keep in mind: grooved surface of Fresnel lens should face the Sun!
6) WEAR SUNGLASSES or risk beeing blinded for some time!
7) You do not have to focus in one point. One might be better off putting the focus point ~.25-.5" deep from the surface of the bundle. Given the depth of the fibrous bundle, it provides plenty of fibers in the way of the focused light to smolder.
One last remark: Greg suggested the use of cedar bark as an excellent tinder long time ago. However, cedar is considered an exotic tree in the area of Europe where I am from. It took me some time and research to find out that the common Juniper tree which is around in the NJ, NY area is a cedar. I might have been the only one not knowing this. Anyway, I used Juniper bark in the test.
Any experience, remarks from others?
Best to All,
HM