Maya Dust Failure?

the gimp

the gimp

Joined
Mar 19, 2003
Messages
521
I was out in the woods over the weekend trying out some knives and gear with JeffS1 from the board. One piece of new gear I brought along was some Maya Dust from Light My Fire.

After numeous tries with both my Army and Scout model fire steels I was unable to get this tinder to burn. I finally got it to light with a Bic lighter but I was under the impression it would catch fire from a fire steel.
Has anyone else had good luck with this stuff? :confused:

Here is a description from there webiste

http://lightmyfireusa.com/mayadust.html

"From the heart of the ancient Mayan Empire, Maya Dust is made from the "Pino de Ocote", a fatwood pine cultivated in the highlands of Guatemala and Mexico. With its 80% resin content, MayaDust is easy to light, even when wet, and produces an extremely hot flame.

MayaDust is packed in a convenient waterproof case that is easy to carry in your pocket or backpack. It packs maximum heat energy for minimal weight. Use MayaDust together with our Swedish FireSteel to light your campfire with ease. "
 
maximum heat + minimum weight = cotton balls soaked with vaseline/petroleum jelly.
 
I've never used the maya dust but have made my own version of it using fat wood and an old pencil sharpener. The fat wood dust readily takes a spark but doesn't burn as long as cotton balls soaked in PJ.
 
Ive tried it about a year ago...The stuff took ages to light, i got blisters on my fingers trying to light it with my firesteel. Id call it a disappointment, wont recommend it to anyone. Dont know what the problem was though cos ive heard of plenty of ppl praising the stuff.

I stick with birch bark now. Readily available and takes a single stroke to ignite.
 
The coglan's firesticks work pretty good. They look like brown cardboard like sticks and are made of sawdust impregnated with paraffin. Essentially a commercial version of PJCB but without the stickyness. Just scrape off powder from them with your knife edge and it catches a firesteel spark easily enough.

Another thing that nobody uses but a trick with the fint and steel is to use charcloth to catch the spark and convert it to an ember. You then place the ember into a tinder basket and blow it to flame. This is a little more work than spark to flame methods but on the upshot is that it is wind friendly. In this case wind is your friend, and the charcloth will catch the first spark it encounters everytime. Use jute twine with the threads teased apart to form a birds nest as the tinder basket. This is a great method and when practiced can lead you to full fint and steel fire starting. Toss your maya dust out and use the same tin to hold some charcloth!
 
I've never had any trouble with the maya dust. I usually use a big pinch though to catch the sparks.

I think you do better with fatwood itself though - what I do is scrape my firesteel striker 10-15 times along the edge of a piece of fatwood which makes very fine curls (even finer than the maya dust shavings). These curls seem to catch super easily.
 
i bought some years ago, mixed it with cotton ball and ground up coglan's firesticks to make a batch of ready made tinder so to speak. never and issue lighting that stuff with a flint, the combination of those 3 really worked great for me. i never tried just the maya dust by itself.
 
I pick up some and no issues on my end... seems to work to me... to me it is my last ditch/ dry item to use...I try to use natural tinder and only use the m.dust if wet / damp outside
 
I would think that pre-made dust would be much more prone to picking up humidity from the air and ground and things than carrying a fatwood stick and then scraping it when you need the dust.
 
Its been my experience that over time the shavings of fatwood and likely maya dust lose some potency over time. They seem to dry out as the resin evaporates. The best solution for me is to leave the fatwood in a chunk and scrape as needed.

YMMV,
J.
 
The Maya Dust I used was brand new and used on a dry hot day. I used about 1/5 of the container with no luck. Maybe I just got a bad batch of the stuff.
 
I got a tin of Maya Dust after I got my first firesteel.
lol I don't think I actually tried to light it by itself.
I just use it with my own prepped tinder blend.
(shredded jute, fatwood dust/shavings, infused with candle wax)
 
How is the tin that this stuff comes in? I've been looking for a round tin to go in my Maxpedition bottle holder. Playing with the dust would just be a bonus.
 
Above poster is correct...fatwood (what maya-dust is) loses potency over time,more so because it is already ground up. Dust texture is hard to light an doesnt burn well. The fatwood blocks I carry are scraped into shavings or split into small splinters and light up much easier. Try setting sawdust of any kind on fire, it will smolder but is very hard to get to burn. Try jute twine with (unscented) candle wax dripped on it and a block of fatwood. It will work much better....carry wrapped in wax paper(to keep dry) in an altoids tin or you can find an empty plastic skoal can around a tobacco store. best of luck on your next attempt!
 
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