more wax firestarters

C

Cliff Stamp

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Awhile ago I posted about firestarters with hemp+wax, recently I used wax+shavings. I made a pile of shavings from a piece of birch layed them on a piece of newsprint and put about a tablespoon of candle wax in a line. Then rolled up the paper, tied it, then ran a line of wax the center :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/fire starters/tube_starter.jpg

This catches as easy as paper, but the wax keeps it going for a long time, paper just flares, the wax melts and ignites the wood which also wicks the wax. You need it on a slant for maximum flame, the higher the angle the more aggressive the flame.

If you just burn it by itself it burns for 5-10 minutes depending on the angle and leaves a pile of red hot shavings :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/fire starters/tube_starter_end.jpg

You don't need to make them this large of course (this was about a foot long), you could also used charred cloth at one end to serve as a spark igniter. This also allows the use of wood which doesn't tend to burn well as the hot wax and wicking action allows it to burn well.

-Cliff
 
thanks for the info. i've got some birch laying around. i'll have to try this out.
 
Try taking about 25 strike anywhere matches, tie them up with dental floss in a bundle (with half pointing one direction, half the other) and soak them real good in canning wax/parrifin.

They will store perfectly in a waterproof prescription bottle, and all you have to do is strike on the nearest rock, and it will burn quite well for several minutes.

The beauty of this, of course, is that you have just one "unit" that is both waterproof and self lighting, has tinder, and goes up into small kindling category all rolled up into one. Pretty handy to have around.

I've experimented with them in the backyard quite a bit, and always take a couple when backpacking "just in case".

One problem with this is that strike-anywhere matches are pretty tough to find anymore in many places. Don't know the situation in Canada.
 
You can get them around here no problem, I do that for starting the fire, but actually lighting one takes a much bigger flame, especially when it is cold out and the wood is frozen and can contain ice, having these wax based tinder bundles makes a massive difference. It depends on what is available to burn on if they are needed or not, I pack them but only use them about half the time. I always go for bark or moss first, grasses are not practical in the winter as they are under feet of snow, often iced in so you have to look to the trees and stumps. These bundles will generate enough heat to burn green boughs even if slightly damp and once these start to burn and the resin ignites they will self-sustain and allow burning of heavier woods.

-Cliff
 
I was never interested in the flint and steel thing. I carry waterproof matches and a 6" length of candle . Light the candle then use that light kindling.
 
mete- you could use matches to light these paper bundles as well, and they would give you a more intense flame than a candle.
 
Cliff Stamp said:
You can get them around here no problem, I do that for starting the fire, but actually lighting one takes a much bigger flame, especially when it is cold out and the wood is frozen and can contain ice, having these wax based tinder bundles makes a massive difference.
-Cliff
Click to expand...

I'm trying to remember, and no doubt the vast majority of fires that I've started outside have been when it's above freezing. For sure I've never done so when it's way below zero, so I don't have a practical feel for how much more difficult it would be when really cold.

Just as a rough guess, how much more difficult is it to get a fire going when it's twenty below (fahrenheit) as opposed to forty above (assuming the same wind/dampness conditions)? Twice as hard? An order of magnitude?
 
onowa said:
I use grey birch bark ......
Click to expand...

Birch bark is one of the better tinders, it catches as easy as newsprint but burns *much* longer, it will also burn fairly damp and doesn't tend to want to absorb water. If I knew there were a lot of birch in the area I would not worry about tinder, locally it is about one birch every square mile.

Troll Bait From Hell said:
Just as a rough guess, how much more difficult is it to get a fire going when it's twenty below (fahrenheit) as opposed to forty above (assuming the same wind/dampness conditions)? Twice as hard? An order of magnitude?
Click to expand...

Similar to what you need shelter wise to be comfortable. When it gets really cold not only do you have to face the fact that you have to heat everything up that much more in order for it to light, you have to thaw it out, then melt the water for it to burn, and that is *many* times over longer.

Plus you also have to face the issue of doing precise work with heavy gloves or trying to work in spurts bare handed. That being said, it can be harder to light a fire if it is hotter but wetter and/or really windy, depends on the location though and the materials, if you can quickly build a break or enclosure you can negate wind/rain, but you can't get around the cold except to heat it up.

It gets really fun when it gets really cold, less than -30 and such, get a wind then and things are interesting, little survival tins will get cold very quickly and they can be hard to open with mits and pretty dangerous barehanded so you can end up working with them inside your clothes.

-Cliff
 
And I thought that I was a stud when I went jogging in 20 degree weather with 40mph winds and had one eyelid start to freeze shut.

Maybe things in the Great Plains aren't as bad as I thought!

And I've found that the older I get, the more appealing it is to sit at home reading about strenuous adventure than out living it, particularly if high altitude, severe wind, and precipitation is involved.

(A couple of years ago while spending a rough night in the miserable little hut called Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier, I would have given much of what I owned for a helicopter pilot to have come and flown me back down to the fire in Paradise Inn.)

The next time it gets below zero here, which ain't that often, I'm going to have to go outside and see about starting a fire.
 
The best way to get experience is to do it, reading and talking to people to get the most information you can is always a good idea but in the end you have to put it to use, a lot of time the small details are what is critical.

Some methods of firestarting are very difficult in extreme cold, I have tried the lens method on several occasions, and even when it was focused enough so that the spot could not be kept on my skin at all it was near impossible to induce flame.

While your body is close to 100 F and gets really uncomfortable at 120 F, the surrounding material you are trying to light may be -20 to -40 F, and paper for example has to heat up to 450 F to ignite, and even a slight wind really sucks the heat away.

-Cliff
 
The absolute best tinder I have used is Hammarö Lighting Paper. It's basically stearin impregnated coarse paper pulp. Doesn't absorb water, is light and flat, non-toxic, doesn't smell too bad, lights with a single stroke from a firesteel every time. It's very fibrous, so when you rip it (which is very easy), lots of good fire catching little "hairs" stand out. I like to rip the layers apart a bit, as that seems to work exceptionally well. A small piece burns a good time and does not give off that nasty thick smoke that vaseline does. Sold under other brands too perhaps.

I've made decent similar tinder by soaking cotton pads in candle wax/stearin. The difficulty is not to use too much wax as the pads come too hard to rip, but not to use too little to leave exposed surface. If they're kept in a watertight container, dipping half of the pad into molten wax is a good option, since it then has a bare cotton surface that lights almost by just looking at it and the waxed part to provide the "candle effect".
 
Cotton balls would be a nice idea, the problem with paper/cardboard/hemp is that it doesn't catch well from a spark unless you mag fuel it and thus it is basically a direct flame tinder which limits its uses.

-Cliff
 
Honestly, I have had this tinder light from a single strike with a firesteel, every time. It's not really paper like copy paper or newspaper, it's more like compressed pulp, very fibrous and catches fire as easily as cotton balls do.

Also, it costs next to nothing.
 
Way-O, are those waxed paper tinders pink in color? Piet Henskens used to send some pink paper strips along with Firesteels. He found them in France as explained in this thread here. There are a couple of them at the upper left in the pic below.

INFIcoot&friends.jpg
 
RokJok, The tinder I have is light yellow, but that pink stuff looks to be pretty similar, maybe a little thinner.

Cliff, you can write on it with a felt tip marker, or a thick/blunt pencil. Ballpoints dont work very well obviously. I haven't tried a space pen (a rite in rain pen is similar, I understand) since I lost mine and haven't bothered to buy a new one.
 
Here is an example of one of the cardboard+wax firestarters in action :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/dozier/k2/k2_fire_I.jpg

No tinder, just the starter plus green boughs, temperature is freezing (pools of water are ice crusted), the boughs are not wet but not dry, it has been misting+light snow, some areas are covered, some of the boughs have a light coating which I shook off. After a minute or two :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/dozier/k2/k2_fire_II.jpg

The cardboard+wax is burning steadily and it has heated up the needles which are burning, even when not well dried these will burn well because they have so much surface area to volume. However they light poorly off a match because there is so much space between them they don't tend to catch each other. You want something to generate enough heat to get them going together, once this is achieved they will flame up in a burst and just an armful is enough to allow enough heat to get actual wood burning :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/CliffStamp/dozier/k2/k2_fire_III.jpg

This wood was 1-2 inches across, frozen with snow/ice, it was layed on the fire then more boughs then more wood. The boughs provided enough heat to dry out the wood which once it started burning eliminated the need for more boughs and provides a much longer lasting fire which also doesn't give off the huge volumes of smoke that the boughs will, which though does tend to keep flies away which is nice in june/august.

-Cliff
 
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