Let's Make Some Fire

L

lpwang

Joined
Jun 10, 2007
Messages
95
I was thinking about how to make fire. Any suggestions and tips for different situtations.

What is Required:
Spark
Tinder
Fuel
Oxygen

SPARK. Easiest to hardest:
Lighter
Matches
Fire Piston
Magnesium stick
Flint and steel
Magnifying glass
Fire Drill
?Fire Plough

Tinder:
Cotton balls with mixture of vaseline and kerosene (my favorite):D
Char cloth
Chaga
?more suggestions

Fuel
Wood
Dung?
What else

Oxygen is a given.

Recommendations for arrangement of fuel
Pyramid
Teepee
?others

What to do if it's wet?

What to do if it's windy?

What to do if it's cold?


Thanks,
Lester
 
Have you used any of these methods
Lighter
Matches
Fire Piston
Magnesium stick
Flint and steel
Magnifying glass
Fire Drill
?Fire Plough

because from my experience the would go in this order.
Lighter
Matches
Doan tool / Ferro rod
Magnifying glass
Fire piston
Natural flint and steel
Fire drill
Fire plough

the only one of these I have not event attempted was the fire plough.
 
I have done all except fire plough. I have problems with magnesium sticks. The little pieces scatter and my hand hurts scraping the stick.

Lester
 
I almost always use a ferro rod (specifically a BSA hot spark) and vaseline soaked cotton balls. That way you don't have to worry about the wind, like you do with magnesium sticks, and you can save your matches and lighter fuel.
 
for fuel you could use rubbers/ plastics grasses fabrics assorted chemicals
 
lpwang said:
I have done all except fire plough. I have problems with magnesium sticks. The little pieces scatter and my hand hurts scraping the stick.

Lester
Click to expand...

That is one of the reasons I built my survival knife with a hollow chamber in the pommel. It holds over a tablespoon of mag-thermite so I don't have to make the shavings. I could just see me trying to scrape mag shaving swith cold numb hands with a breeze going.

This is a mixture that I will be playing with as a back up fire starter

Ammonium Nitrate 14 grams
Ammonium Chloride 1.5 grams
Zinc Dust 34.5

You keep the zinc dust seperate until you need it. A very small drop of water (or saliva, urine, sweat etc) will cause it to ignite.
When mixed it becomes very unstable and will pull water right out of the air and eventually ignite.

I have also used 0000 steel wool and a nine volt battery to start fires.
 
I have also used 0000 steel wool and a nine volt battery to start fires.
Click to expand...

I have never understood this mentality. A firesteel with easily ignite 0000 and its useful once the 0000 runs out. Is it just the cool factor or am I missing something?
 
I was just throwing out alternative firestarting techniques. Fire steels were allready mentioned. Nine volt batts would not be my first choice though.

Me and a friend were up in the hills target shooting and he forgot his lighter. He is a hardcore smoker and spent seven years in the Army. I wanted to get some target practice in and had no intention of driving back to the nearest town. So I cut a 3' twig and fished it down into my gas tank with a cotton cleaning patch attached to the end.
Then I hooked up the jumper cables and sparked the patch with the gas on it. He got his cig lit and we had a great time shooting.

I wonder how many people never consider using a battery from one of the oodles of electronic gadgets we have now to start a fire. Even a little AAA has enough amperage to light steel wool if you do it right.
 
Flint and steel are really easier than most people think, it usually takes about 10-15 seconds with char.
 
lpwang said:
I have done all except fire plough. I have problems with magnesium sticks. The little pieces scatter and my hand hurts scraping the stick.

Lester
Click to expand...
Scrap the magnesium with a piece of hacksaw blade - on to the sticky side of duct tape. If the saw blade is still unconfortable, wrap the "handle" with more duct tape to provide some cushioning OR try the sharp edge of a knife spine.

Tinder
Flint and steel works best with charred cotton as the tinder in my experience. Charred cotton will take a glow from the low temperature spark that natural flint and steel provides.

Magnifying glass
In good sun, a magnifying glass is pretty much failure proof - easier than any fire-by-friction method, fire piston, and flint and steel. I base this on over 100 kids trying to start fires with various methods over the years. If you have a problem with a magnifying glass, try better tinder - charred cloth.

Battery
If all you had to start a fire was a car battery, it would be good to know the principle, although the odds of having 0000 steel wool always seemed somewhat unlikely to me. Heating up a spring wire from a car seat or a strip of steel food can is more like it.
 
Steel wool & a 9-volt battery; short out the steel wool with the battery and ignite your tinder.
 
The arc from dead shorting a car battery will produce enough heat to ignite many materials. Look what it does to the teeth on the cables.
 
If the heat during the weekend days ever dies down here in GA long enough for me to play outside, I am going to test every fire starter I can get my hands on to see which ones work the best. I have bought pretty much every commercial fire starter that I have come across. Just messing around with them, so far I like the Coughlan's rectangular ones the best. I am also testing handmade ones, like PJ cottonballs.
 
I just got back from the 100 mile hike in Maine with a few buddies. I had great luck with a swedish fire steel and the back of my knife. My friend Andy is big believer in the magnesium block style, but he couldn't get his going in the rain. Mine lit right up everytime. Just birch bark and a few feathered pine branches. We tried moose scat for tinder too, but it doesn't work that well. I heard camel poo burns readily, but the moose pellets just smoke and stink.
 
Hey Guys..

lpwang...

fire piston
magnifying glass
fire plow
bow and drill

Aren't considered "spark" or spark based, however they are ember based. The fire drill and fire plow are friction based.

If your magnesium particals are being scattered, you may want to try pulling the flint Away from your striker..

It sounds as though you are saying that you are hitting your magnesium tinder pile while you are trying to strike a spark into it...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
reminds me of a thread i started a while ago about how many firestarting methods all u guys know

often ppl know about ten

but just know, not neccesarily done
 
lpwang said:
I have done all except fire plough. I have problems with magnesium sticks. The little pieces scatter and my hand hurts scraping the stick.

Lester
Click to expand...

I scrape the shavings over a fresh leaf....fresh so the block doesn't rip it and the concave stucture keeps the shavings pooled together
 
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