Lighters, matches and firestarters

Originally posted by frank k
BICs may be fine for lighting your smokes, but if you ever use them for extended periods in the field where they have to stand up to extremes in temperature and altitude, getting wet, contact with mud, dirt, sand and must work every time without excuses, you will begin to see their limitations.
Click to expand...
I live in the alps. I'm often getting up around 2500+ meters, and it never affected my Bic. Maybe higher than that it will, I don't know. Never tried.

For mud, dirt and water, it's not really a problem. You can always wash the dirt off, then let the flint dry and it lights back up quite fast.

Cold might be a problem... as already pointed out.

Suppose you fall through the ice out on a lake and you get yourself to shore where you will freeze to death in the sub zero temps and the howling wind if you don’t get a fire going fast. Which would you rather have: your BIC in your shirt pocket with your now soggy smokes and no tinder or a match case filled with water proofed SAW matches with some Vaseline soaked cotton balls inside or perhaps a Strike Force fire starter with a couple of packets tinder cubes in the handle?
Click to expand...
In that situation? I'd rather have your solution, plus a decent shelter and dry clothes... ;) Or better yet a good jeep to drive home (with the heater on) and drink a good old hot chocolate ;)

Seriously, I store my survival stuff (including the Bic) in those cool, tough, and waterproof Otter boxes. It keeps rain, mud, icy lake water and everything else away from my precious gear...

Cheers,

David
 
I use all three: firesteel, bic, and strike anywhere matches. Some information for people who use the Wet Fire brand chemical tinder cubes: they are totally useless when they dry out. I went backpacking two weeks ago and took them as my main spark-lit tinder source, evidently they were past their prime. The result was flaky crap that would not even start with the direct flame from a bic lighter. Luckily I had some of the compressed Coghlans cotton/wax tinder pellets in my altoids kit. I could have used my lighter or matches if I didn't have that, but I was trying to practice spark lighting the whole weekend. One other note, I was able to spark light some shredded birch bark after about ten minutes of effort. Something to keep in mind when your prepared source of tinder is gone. My main tinder supply in the future will be a few film canisters of vasolined cotton balls.
 
Originally posted by Moine
In that situation? I'd rather have your solution, plus a decent shelter and dry clothes... ;) Or better yet a good jeep to drive home (with the heater on) and drink a good old hot chocolate ;)
Click to expand...


Hey I’ve got a even better idea! – if you only camp out in your back yard, you don’t even need the jeep – you could just go inside for your hot chocolate when you get chilly! ;) :p :D :eek:






- Frank
 
Given the problems with butane in Midwestern Winter weather (I have experienced "flameless" brand-new BIC's in January) does anyone make a small propane lighter. It would have to have a stout container to hold the preasure.

TAL
 
Sesoku, thanks for tip on the wet fire tinder cubes, I know that the GI trioxiline tabs also loose stregth when they get old, but I didn't know about the wet fire.


BTW, I recently went through the fire starting supplies in my camping gear and a bunch of the green tip waterproof matches don’t work and several of the BIC lighters flints had oxidized – all of this stuff had been rotated out of my survival kits and is probably 5-15 years old. Now I am more careful about replacing any lighters/matches/firestarters that are more than a couple years old and to test everything before depending on it.





- Frank
 
Hey, I like that suggestion about those trick birthday candles. Simple but definitely very useful under tricky situations! :D :)
 
Originally posted by frank k
Hey I’ve got a even better idea! – if you only camp out in your back yard, you don’t even need the jeep – you could just go inside for your hot chocolate when you get chilly! ;) :p :D :eek:
Click to expand...

Yup, but there's no icy lake in my backyard... :( :footinmou: :grumpy:

:D

Cheers,

David
 
the sassafras worked well for me after i dried it , it is easy to find around here, you can make tea after you get your fire started, so it is a good plant to know and easy to identify.

alex
 
Yet another lighter man. It is very true that in cool to cold weather (I'm Montanan) one need to keep the Bic in the pocket close to the groin. Carry a few lighters, some Esbit and alcohol for the stove. Incidentally, in cold country I don't use campfires. Stove, hot food and hot liquid is the drill. Campfires can't make you warm, they just melt snow and make you wet.
 
The "trick" candles have to burn for some seconds before they have enough residual heat to inhibit being extinguished. If you do not have enough spark or dry or wind shielding to keep it burning for some (might seem like an eternity if you are under stress) seconds, they might not be much of a bonus.
 
I really like my Zippos, but a bunch of new BIC lighters with a book of waterproof matches or two is more practical in outdoor survival situations where your life might depend on your ability to start a fire.
 
Has anyone out there tried the "Ultimate Survival Blast Match" sold on Spark's website (and elsewhere)? It some kind of flint-and-steel machine.
 
i have the gerber strike force, similar to the blast match, larger ferro rod and striker, the blast match can be used one handed, but they are all based on a ferro rod like the swedish firesteel. the gerber is bulky but carries some tinder in its handle which is convenient,

alex
 
---------------
Originally posted by Thomas Linton
Has anyone out there tried the "Ultimate Survival Blast Match" sold on Spark's website (and elsewhere)? It some kind of flint-and-steel machine.
---------------

Check out the comments over on Equipped To Survive (ETS) on the Blastmatch as a one-handed firestarter:
http://www.equipped.org/firestrt.htm

I have a Blastmatch but don't actually carry it. It is BIG compared to the Firesteel Military models and even more so than the Spark-Lite rotary striker! Too big for convenient pocket carry IMHO. It is big enough that I relegated it to a pocket on one of my packs, but not my pants pocket. FWIW, my EDC ferrocium rod is one of those Military models I got from Bagheera here on BFC. But I'm rethinking moving the Spark-Lite into the primary EDC role due to its smaller size and much lighter weight.
 
That is a great gimick. MOre excuses for chocolate....

Another thought, if you are going to store a pre-polished can, how about making it into an alcohol stove first? Have both a stove and an ignition source in one neat package. And it would be smaller than the non-modified can. The alcohol stove would still have a usefulness even if you had no appropriate liquid fuel.

Did you actually ignite the cotton with it? What was the hour of the day, angle of the sun? Would it work with that tinder when the sun is low in the sky or only during a narrow window around noon when more solar energy is available? What is your lattitude, weather......

One negative thought for storing the can, the available heat will be relative to the cross section of the parabolic reflector. the can is of course a fixed and limited size solar collector.

A flat Freznel lens could be stored in a much smaller/thinner space and could be much larger cross section to capture and concentrate more heat and faster/more reliable ignition. The site showed tinder fungus being ignited with the can, an 8x10 freznel lens can ignite almost anything if the sun is out at all. Of course, a can can be found as trash almost anywhere and polished with whatever very fine abrasive is available.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top