Jute/wax/leather/ferro/fatwood & a blade!

B

Bushman5

Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
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After seeing someone else here (WHO was it?) make the Jute + Wax firestarters, I made this fire kit last night, the firestarters are bundles of Jute soaked in hot wax then cooled. They are rock hard (and very waterproof, i soaked them in the sink for hours, under water, shook them off still lit after), but when you need to use one you "bend" them with your thumbs and they flex apart, with a nice fluffy powdery wax ready for flame. (see the one on the right). I thought the GL DREW knife with Jute neck cord fit nicely with the kit.

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I use a bit of fatwood shavings on them

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a spark from the fire steel and it starts to burn:

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i snuffed out this one pretty quickit was really starting to flare up and take off....., i was indoors in the kitchen. I had one going outdoors it burned with a quite aggressive flame 4 - 6" tall). It was spittin rain but that did'nt faze it. I got about 15 minutes of very hot flame from it. Once its burning you can walk with it and it does'nt go out. One could fluff it up even more than i did for a bigger flame.
 
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beautiful little kit man. I looks really handy:thumbup:
I bet its pretty light all together eh?
 
That's pretty cool, brother:thumbup: I'll definitely be making some of those up before my next 2 day hike (gonna try to go lightweight/primitive on this one). I think those would be great down here on the Gulf Coast, 'cause it rains so damn much - starting a fire can be a real P.I.T.A.:mad: Thanks for the inspiration. Oh - nice little knife, too!:D
 
Ok that is frickin cool as hell. How did you do it? Double boiler some parrafin? And where did you get the pouch? If you made it, seriously bro, you should peddle some. I dig it.
 
yup, doubler boiler slab of wax, dip, soak, pull out with tongs and let cool until hard. The pouch was given to me by a former coworker, with some pipe tobacco. He had found it years prior and forgot about it.
 
So do you have a dedicated pot for melting wax? Or does it clean out pretty easily? I understand that only one has the wax in it with a double boiler setup, just curious if that is the end of that pot's life for anything other than wax melting.
 
yea, dedicated pot, its an old SS camping pot. I just put it in a pot of boiling water and let the melt wax. , Toss in the jute bundles, soak for a minute,etc

EDIT: pics:

jute bundle ready for dipping! (shown with a Camillus Becker Necker!)
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yummy wax dip!
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Bushman5 said:
yea, dedicated pot, its an old SS camping pot. I just put it in a pot of boiling water and let the melt wax. , Toss in the jute bundles, soak for a minute,etc
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Thanks, have you done wax cotton balls? Just curious as to how wax and PJ compare.

L
 
done BOTH! the wax ones burn for quite a bit, the PJ ones light quicker but consume faster. A 60/40 ratio of wax and PJ in the melting pot is a nice comprimise.

Challenge: i dont have any thick cotton sash cord or wick....can someone take some sash cortd and make a bundle like this and soak it in wax and report back? i'm curious to see the burn differences between Jute/wax and cotton sashcord /wax
 
naked said:
So do you have a dedicated pot for melting wax? Or does it clean out pretty easily? I understand that only one has the wax in it with a double boiler setup, just curious if that is the end of that pot's life for anything other than wax melting.
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Naked, for a double boiler, I just use an aluminum beer can in a slightly larger can with boiling water. That's all you need.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
B5, I sent you 2 emails. One was kicked back. Let me know if you get the other one.

Doc
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got it, that is great info, thanks! :thumbup:

EDIT: off topic, my typing/senteces is bad tonight dyslexic almost , if words seem mixed up let me know ed and i'll re edit. Its just something i have dealt with all my life - some days i can clearly type and express one self other days not so much.
 
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Bushman5 said:
yea, dedicated pot, its an old SS camping pot. I just put it in a pot of boiling water and let the melt wax. , Toss in the jute bundles, soak for a minute,etc

EDIT: pics:

jute bundle ready for dipping! (shown with a Camillus Becker Necker!)
00002-26.jpg


yummy wax dip!
00001-41.jpg
Click to expand...



Great idea! These things must work really well. I wonder if there would be any difference in using bee's wax or paraffin? Hmmmm....

I think that for igniting-with-a-spark fire starters, these would work much better than lamp wicking. They fluff up more.


Stitchawl
 
I keep a similar kit. It is great stuff.

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I usually keep this one as my emergency kit. I keep another bundle in my pocket. I just generally cut off about 4" of jute, fluff it, and you have a super easy firestarter. It lights almost explosively fast.

I was out camping last weekend, and let a couple people try it. They were both shocked at how that stuff lights.

B
 
Awesome, I'm going to try this. I usually end up throwing in one of those coglan firesticks, which I think is just paraffin embedded sawdust. They cost $2 for about 12 sticks. This project is a little more fun though.
 
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