New starting a fire on snow (just for example\fun)

S

sicily02

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Nov 23, 2005
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Today I started a little fire with a Boy Scout Hot Spark flint & a couple of cotton balls. One cotton ball had PJ in it and the other was just cotton. We started this on a mound of snow.

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This picture is with my two cotton balls with PJ on the tip of my finger and my Shadow III in my palm and a BSHS (Boy Scout Hot Spark) flint on my wrist.

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The cotton ball without PJ in it is closer to my knee and the one with PJ is farther from my knee. I struck my BSHS flint on both of the cotton balls and this is right after I struck them.

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The cotton ball without PJ in it burned about 30 seconds (it is still in the shape of a cotton ball) with just a very small flame. While the other one with PJ in it is still burning at 1 min. with a 2-3 inch flame.

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This is a picture of the cotton ball with PJ in it at about 2 min. still with a 2-3 inch flame.

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I put a fuss stick on the PJed cotten ball at about 2.5 min.

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As you can see if I had 5-8 fuss sticks on the flame now I would have a nice fire to put a few small sticks on to keep it going.

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If I really needed a fire I would put the two big sticks down first to create a platform so that the fire would stay on top of the pile of snow. Then I would carve up some fuss sticks and get the rest of my sticks ready to go to get the fire going. You want everything ready and right beside you before you strick the flint the first time, so that it wouldn't go out before you could get everything ready and on it. This method will work even when it is raining, snowing, the sun shining, or on a clowdy day.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Have more coming of some other ways to start a fire.
 
excellent work and pics, thanks for sharing them with us.:thumbup:
I must ask did you grind off the upper cross guard on the shadow 3 and why?

looks just like a mountian I - spearpoint...interesting! can you post a closer pic of the shadow 3
 
I used my shadow III to start the two cottonballs on fire. I saw this on a web page from the late Chris Janouski of the World Survival Instatute in
Tok Alaska. I talked with Chris about this and he said he liked to use cotton
and vaseline mixed up to start fires anytime anyplace. I have used this method like he said anytime anyplace. The Boy Scout hot spark I used
is several years old and has satarted over 200 campfires. The flint and steel
cotton and vaseline mix starts every time I do it. I carry a flint and cotton/
vaseline mix in my Shadow III. In another post I read a comment that it would
be hard to start a fire with flint and steel. I think this method works great.
It has no moving parts,no fuel to in a hold tank on the thing,just scrape the
thing with your knife and presto fire.
 
westllen I did grind off the upper cross guard. I like small knives with out
the top guard on them. Just my preferance.
 
very nice! was that stone you have in your shirt the sparking mechanism when paired with the knife?
 
RedSox said:
Why not just use a 99 cent Bic Lighter? :D
Click to expand...

A bic light will not strike if it gets the least little bit wet.I know this well from when I used to smoke and try to light a cig with damp fingers.
 
u812 said:
A bic light will not strike if it gets the least little bit wet.I know this well from when I used to smoke and try to light a cig with damp fingers.
Click to expand...

Actually there's a little trick to get a wet bic lighter to work. Everyone ought to know this for times of emergency. Whenever you get it wet, the reason it doesn't light is because the flint is wet. You can get a wet flint to spark simply by spinning the "flint wheel" for a few seconds. An easy way to do this is to roll the wheel along a flat surface. It works well to just roll it along your thigh if you're wearing jeans. After a few rolls, you'll start to see sparks, and you have a working lighter! I've done this many times back when I smoked and always left my lighter out on the porch in the rain.
 
WOW....you mean I can use my Chris Reeve knives, I just look at them and woder how they would do compared to my cheapies I abuse. :)
That is it! I'm taking one out of the box, dammit!
 
RedSox said:
Actually there's a little trick to get a wet bic lighter to work. Everyone ought to know this for times of emergency. Whenever you get it wet, the reason it doesn't light is because the flint is wet. You can get a wet flint to spark simply by spinning the "flint wheel" for a few seconds. An easy way to do this is to roll the wheel along a flat surface. It works well to just roll it along your thigh if you're wearing jeans. After a few rolls, you'll start to see sparks, and you have a working lighter! I've done this many times back when I smoked and always left my lighter out on the porch in the rain.
Click to expand...

I have done that too and it works if you are dry.The trouble I had was when out in the woods or fishing in the rain and not a single square inch of me was dry and no way to dry my thumbs enough to keep from getting it wet again.
 
Very interesting. Nice pics, thnx for sharing:thumbup:
 
"Why not just use a bic lighter?" Bic lighters are4 easily broken and become useless. They also don't fit into the handle of a Chris Reeve one-piece knife which is the basis for a mini survival kit.
 
nickzac sorry to get back to you so late about the sparking tool on my wrist
yes it is the same one I used for the demontration.
 
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