Making Fire

jaids said:
Isn't thermite great stuff????? :D

jaids
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Heh, one of the few advantages of being a chemistry student.....other chemicals are being investigated. Actually i found one that is 'nuke like' and has a vacum and vaporises stuff etc...unfortenatly trying to get the chemical components is a bugger. Some "Dangerous substance list" - thats an invasion of my rights!!
 
carb choke cleaner :D gas in a can basically...

but the one i wanted to mention here hasnt really been mentioned yet (at least, i didnt see it on the search). if you go to b. daltons you can get a small credit card sized magnifying glass for 1.29$. me and my brother used to use them to start small fires all the time, and i just recently went back to get two of them, and kind of wish i had grabbed more...

im not sure how well it would compare to a large circular glass magnyfying glass, but i can definitrely say its a whole lot lighter, being the same size as a credit card (a little thinner). if you have dry material available, it starts fires very easily with the way it focus's the sun.

i know that bausch and loam makes them, and im sure a few others do as well, b. daltons is just the easiest to find location for them around my area. awesome little items, and a must have for any survival kit
 
SethMurdoc,
I also have one of those credit card sized magnifying glass, they work great and light weight.
 
In Hawaii, I watched a Samoan guy start a roaring fire in under a minute.

He had a piece of wood on the ground and a stick (couple of feet long) in both hands and rubbed the stick into the piece of wood on the ground. Looked like this technique allows you to get a lot of leverage easily and doesn't take a bunch of physical effort.

He said "You can use any kind of wood, so long as it's dry and both pieces are from the same kind of tree."

Anyone ever try this technique?
 
The Hand Drill.

I have tried it hundreds of times with no luck, but I'll keep trying. Making fire with the Hand Drill is a real art.
 
Robert H said:
Also, if using the heat tabs, embed them in a block of MRE peanut butter first. They will burn for a looooong time.
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Stuff like that makes you wonder, "Who on this green earth thought of THAT!" :D

I totally believe that it works, but I NEVER would have thought to smear peanut butter on a heat tab . . . .

Like, who was the first person to look at a lobster and say to them selves "Hey, that looks good, I think I'll eat it!" :eek:

Desperation I think . . . . Mother of invention and all that. ;)

Lunumbra
 
I have a Firepiston. Its a cool thing but does require a modicum of practice. The other problem with it is finding the best sort of tinder. I have tried Tinder Fungus or 'Chaga' and Charcloth. The Tinder Fungus works everytime, the Charcloth though is tough to get out of the piston end and makes a mess because its so fragile.

I am trying to come up with a formula (Maybe the Mouse can help here) to mix the Tinder Fungus and Charcloth together and then press them into a type of pellet that is easily extracted from the end of the piston. This is because the Tinder Fungus can be expensive and hard to find. I just came home from a mountainous region in Japan and looked at hundreds of trees (Silver Birch) and nary a sign of Tinder Fungus :confused:

Although I did find this site from Russia that sells it for $20 a Kilo as opposed to $5 an ounce in the US...

http://www.chagatrade.ru/PRICE.htm

Once you see the Firepiston you are going to say 'Hell, How much? I bet I can go down to Home Depot and get the parts for a few $ and make one myself' I think everyone says this then spends a weekend getting frustrated.

Unless you have a lathe and some skill using it, dont bother, the tolerances are very fine (15 microns oversize for the gasket) plus the piston length, diameter, recess for tinder size etc.
 
myopicmouse said:
Actually i found one that is 'nuke like' and has a vacum and vaporises stuff etc...unfortenatly trying to get the chemical components is a bugger. Some "Dangerous substance list" - thats an invasion of my rights!!
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If you could post the name of that chemical or e-mail it to me along with instructions for making it, unless i can find those easily through google, i would be very happy, as i have some friends that might be able to get around that dangerous substance list. Wow. That is a long sentence.

jaids
 
Alvin Hom said:
In Hawaii, I watched a Samoan guy start a roaring fire in under a minute.

He had a piece of wood on the ground and a stick (couple of feet long) in both hands and rubbed the stick into the piece of wood on the ground. Looked like this technique allows you to get a lot of leverage easily and doesn't take a bunch of physical effort.

He said "You can use any kind of wood, so long as it's dry and both pieces are from the same kind of tree."

Anyone ever try this technique?
Click to expand...


Did he spin the stick or grind it back and forth? If the latter, then it's the fire plow, which I have heard is a favorite among the pacific islanders. That's kinda what Tom Hanks used in Castaway. There is an advantage vis-a-vis physical effort, but you need to control your strokes or you'll obliterate your dustpile and never get an ember.
 
dogplasma, He grinded it back and forth. I'll give it a try and report back. Of course, this guy has been making fires his whole life, so I'm sure he made it look a lot easier than it is for someone like me.
 
This is my first post in the Wilderness forum (hell, it may be my first time reading this), but this whole firemaking thing fascinates me.

Regarding the "fire plow" method used by the Samoan, I saw a demonstration using this method in a class I had many years ago. After creating the embers, he put it in a dry coconut husk and blew on it and moved it (the coconut husk) around to get the air flowing and it was ready to go rather quickly. The guy's name was "Cap" and he did shows down at the Polynesian Cultural Center--I saw him on TV a few years later on that show where the people race animals and he was racing (I believe) an Orangutan up a coconut tree. He won the first time but lost the second. He was also pretty damn good at husking a coconut with a pointy stick.

Gotta try this firemaking stuff--lotta reading to do first, though.
 
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