Have you started a fire with your eye glasses ?

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upnorth

upnorth

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I was considering the many ways to start a fire out there with minimal gear, and it hit me, my glasses ! So then I hit the net and of course it has been done to death. Has anyone here performed this act of wizardry ? I tried to light grass last winter, twice with a jewelers loupe on very cold days, and had zero luck. And ironically I remember burning paper with a magnifying glass as a child. I haven't put a lot of effort into making fire this way and I am curious about the eye glass thing.
 
My eyeglasses aren't a strong enough prescription to do so. Reading glasses perhaps, but not with my eyeglasses.
 
I tried with a pair but the lenses disbursed the light instead of concentrating. Maybe I was using the wrong type of glasses..
 
I am extremely far sighted and have been doing it for over forty years!! Nice thick glasses are definitelt a plus, as os alot of patience.

Doc
 
DocGP said:
I am extremely far sighted and have been doing it for over forty years!! Nice thick glasses are definitelt a plus, as os alot of patience.

Doc
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I'm having trouble remembering for sure but I recall far sighted works and glasses for near sighted will not. One will focus the light and the other not.
 
I've seen quite a few alternate methods for firestarting using sunlight over the years. I've tried a few. Of course the magnifying glass. But not the polished bottom of an aluminum can. Or the bottom of a glass drink bottle. Fresnel lenses are cool and compact. One will fit in your wallet though there are larger sizes. As for lenses, never tried eyeglasses but high magnification readers are available cheaply at big box stores and dollar stores. One could pop the lenses for carry. Or salvage an old fashioned camera lens from a thrift store. Binoculars and rifle scopes can be disassembled as well for their lenses. Back years ago I started fires using my muzzleloader and patches. I've seen it done with modern arms but that is pretty tricky and would be a last resort, IMHO. Interesting topic.
 
It would be very hard to start a fire with your spectacles unless you were extremely farsighted!

Farsighted prescriptions = Plus power

Nearsighted prescriptions = Minus power

Plus power lenses are thick in the middle, thin on the edges, and bend the light rays to a point.

Minus power lenses are thin in the middle, thick on the edges, and spread the light rays out.
 
if you ever need to start a fire in the arctic circle (when the sun's out, of course) you can make a big lens out of ice. you either carve one or freeze water on a pan with a rounded bottom.
 
I have never tried. Anyone else read the title as "Have you started a fire with your glass eye?".
 
As long as they didn't read it as "Tugeye" in Cree. :D Thanks for the informative replies. Unfortunately my prescription is apparently too weak to be of much use. I really appreciated Codgers thrift store ideas because a lot of my "just in case" equipment usually sits in a bag forgotten for years. So pricey items are, and are not, a waste of resources. If it's going to be some kind of peripheral back up, it makes more sense to get something suitable on the cheap.
 
I've done the magnifying glass, and seen video of a ziploc with water. Plain glasses would be too cool. Maybe with tri-focals?
 
If I remember correctly, on the TV show Survivor, an older woman contestant started her tribe's first fire with her eyeglasses. I'm think it was a few, not too many, seasons ago. I've never tried it with my own gradient lenses .
 
Fresnel lenses are cool and compact. One will fit in your wallet

As said........

Weigh nothing
hard to break
Just have to remember where I put it..........
 
My dad had given me a full page sized Fresnel lens when I was in elementary school. I was able to set paper on fire quite easily with it.

Ric
 
This is a big plot element in Wm. Golding's Lord of The Flies, but Piggy, whose glasses are frequently stolen for this purpose, has such terrible vision that his lenses were like the bottom of Coke bottles.

Zieg
 
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