Lurker very impressed

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390beretta

Joined
Nov 1, 2002
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This past week-end, I went to an exhibit held by the AZ game and Fish dept near the juvenile detention center in North Phoenix. In addition to helping wildlife who've been injured and returning those who can successfully do so, to the wild; there were several exhibits/demonstrations.

The one on fire making was very useful and new to me. It involved a small amount of steel wool...very fine, probably 0004 ought. Cotton balls which had been swiped in vaseline and "munched" around a bit in the hand. They lit these little sweeties with flint and steel, shaved tungsten, and most impressively with a 2 in. by 3 in. 9 volt battery by just putting the two electrodes or whatever they're called against the steel wool and whoosh!, fire.

I'm guessing most of you know this stuff but I was impressed. See no reason why anyone should go without warmth, provided you have a bit o knowledge and basic equip. Of course gathering adequate kindling ahead of time would help! Cheers!
 
390beretta said:
This past week-end, I went to an exhibit held by the AZ game and Fish dept near the juvenile detention center in North Phoenix. In addition to helping wildlife who've been injured and returning those who can successfully do so, to the wild; there were several exhibits/demonstrations.

The one on fire making was very useful and new to me. It involved a small amount of steel wool...very fine, probably 0004 ought. Cotton balls which had been swiped in vaseline and "munched" around a bit in the hand. They lit these little sweeties with flint and steel, shaved tungsten, and most impressively with a 2 in. by 3 in. 9 volt battery by just putting the two electrodes or whatever they're called against the steel wool and whoosh!, fire.

I'm guessing most of you know this stuff but I was impressed. See no reason why anyone should go without warmth, provided you have a bit o knowledge and basic equip. Of course gathering adequate kindling ahead of time would help! Cheers!
Click to expand...

Yep, preparation to build a fire is 95% of it, the spark and tinder are only a little part of it, IMO.

Moose
 
390beretta said:
The one on fire making was very useful and new to me. It involved a small amount of steel wool & lit it with a 2 in. by 3 in. 9 volt battery.


Won $10 bucks off my brother-in-law when we went camping this summer by doing this one. Just have to remember not to put the battery in your fire kit before you need it . . . :D
Be safe.
Click to expand...
 
I saw Rick do the steel wool/battery trick with his cell phone battery. Kind of zaps the battery out quick. Poor guy missed about three phone calls from his mother-in-law that day!

I'll agree with Moose that we get fixated on ignition sources, but really the key is prepping your materials beginning with very small and working your way to decent fuel.
 
Batteries are good ways to start fires. Sure, the 0000 steel wool trick is easy (actually, 00 can be used too--like your familiar Brillo pad, but 00 (double-aught) can be dicey. Works for some. Not for all).

But if you can get a length of thin wire, you can attach each end to a terminal, insert the far end of this loop into petroleum-laden cotton ball, and get fire. On a whim (I guess I don't have to explain to you folks what kind of "whim" triggers people to do these things) yesterday, I tried Vick's Vap-o-Rub on a cotton ball and the result was spectacular. Smelled wild, too.

Anyway, if you are using bare copper or bare aluminum wires to trigger ignition, PLEASE hold the wires with twigs or wood, not with your bare fingers. In a split second, the wire goes from warm to reallygoddamfreakn hot! The first time I tried this, many tears ago, I had a groove burned into my thumb from the wire that lasted for about a week.

There's some videos up on Youtube using paperclips and batteries to do the same thing, and a clever one involving a AA battery and an ordinary staple to ignite some charcloth. I need to try that last one on my next whim.

Wait, here it is:

[youtube]RCZEE5UCqOc[/youtube]
 
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