PJ-Cottonballs, how much is enough or too much? Testing and answers!

Fletcher Knives

Fletcher Knives

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So I realized earlier, in a fit of boredom, that I hadn't sufficiently tested the whole PJ cottonball thing enough.

I've read on here a million times threads discussing "how much Vaseline is enough?" or "how much petroleum jelly should be on the cottonballs?" and I've seen all kinds of answers. A bunch of people say that just the outside having a thin layer is best. That way you still have a bunch of fluff in the middle that will take a spark quick. Then there are people that say that having it pretty well saturated but not all the way through, as to leave some fluff works best. Then of course you've got everyone who says, "I've tested it a bunch of times and I find that fully saturated cottonballs work best!"

Now I'm sure that several of these people have tested these theories to no end... and I'm sure that several of us are just completely full of the poop and are just repeating what we saw someone else post. Well that's not good enough for me. I have used dry cottonballs, cottonballs with fatwood mixed in, cottonballs with a little jelly smeared into them, but one thing kept me from really knowing the answer... the fact that I use regular old dry stuff whenever possible. I've never really used a bunch of cottonballs with different saturation levels to find out what worked the best. In the interest of actually knowing I can make a fire with cottonballs of some sort of waterproofness in an environment that is completely soaking wet, I needed to find out. After all, we all need to practice practice practice, right?

Here was the experiment. I had five different cottonballs to test. One that would remain perfectly dry with no PJ, one with no PJ that would be completely soaked in water (these first two are my controls. You can't do an experiment without controls.), one that would have just the outside covered in PJ, one halfway saturated with still a little fluff in the middle, and last but not least, the fully saturated cottonball. Each one (other than the dry control) would be held under water for several seconds (simulating completely soaked, rainy, wet conditions)then slightly broken apart and set aflame by means of an ESEE fire kit. I find this to be the best firestarter/firerod/etc. out there.

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I got started. First I did the dry control.

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As we would guess, it fired right up with the first strike. No surprise there. Next was the soaked control. This simulates your results if you were smart enough to pack cottonballs, but not smart enough to waterproof them and you didn't check the news and see that storms are hitting you hiking area.

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I soaked the cottonball.

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Now to break it apart a little and try to light it. To add a little bit of realism, I did my best to ring as much of the water out of it as possible.

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Obviously it was no dice.

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Next onto the only covered cottonball.

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I first soaked it in the water, simulating being soaking wet in the rain after being capsized in your canoe... or whatever.

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Then I broke it apart a little to get to all that wonderful dry fluff.

Unfortunately, somehow moisture still managed to get through that thin layer of PJ and made it very difficult to light the cottonball and once it was lit, it immediately went out. I lit it again and it stayed burning for a little bit, but then went out again.

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Now onto the halfway saturated cottonball. This one still has some fluff in the middle but had no shortage of petroleum jelly smeared into it.

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As with the others, I soaked it in water for several seconds. I gave it plenty of time to soak up water.

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Then I broke it apart some to expose the fluff inside.

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One strike and bang, it was lit. It burned really well and was actually hard to put out.

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Last but not least, the completely saturated cottonball.

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Yeah. Yeah. Soaked in water. Bla bla bla.

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I broke it apart and fluffed it up as much as you can with a handful of Vaseline.

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Striking it was utterly pointless. I launched flaming globs of magnesium into it over and over again to no avail. This stuff absolutely will not light with the rod. Out of desperation, I tried a Bic lighter.

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I held the flame to it for a few seconds.

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Nothing. I tried it again.

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Nada. I finally just picked it up and held it above the lit Bic until it finally caught fire. Once it was on fire, it went out before I got it back into the ashtray. Loading it up completely with PJ in effect actually made it damn near fireproof.

The Verdict:

In simulated wet conditions, a cottonball that didn't have enough petroleum jelly on it would still let a little moisture through and wouldn't light or burn easily. A cottonball that is completely saturated is pretty much fireproof. Cottonballs that are halfway saturated with still some fluff inside will flame up fast and burn great. They are, in my opinion, the way to go. Now as I said, this is simulated. Who knows if it will work this way in real conditions. I'll have to try this again when it rains next. Then we'll see.

On a side note. Even in rainy, nasty conditions, I still try to keep my tinder dry, find a way to light it without water hitting it, even if that means building a small cover with my tinder under it, and using non-fireproof material. Now, I will keep waterproof stuff on me for emergencies, but I prefer to use the dry stuff. My favorite is cottonballs with fatwood mixed in it.

So that's it folks! The real answers from real testing. I hope I didn't bore you guys too much. Thanks for reading.

-Dylan
 
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I usually just wipe half the ball across the top of the jar, which essentially does half the ball and it works great. I recently did an outdoors survival class and people were busting out their sandwich baggies of saturated cottonballs and were amazed at how they couldnt get them to light.I always wondered about the "right" mixture. Now its answered. Thanks!!!
 
nice test!!! thanks man...

as i was reading i thought that the completely soaked in pj would catch fire quick... :D

Thanks
 
wow, thank you for this post! when I get home, I have to toss my PJ balls and make new ones!
 
Nicely done bro. I humbly suggest the face pads they sell for women's makeup stuff work well too.
 
Makes me wonder how much I really put on the cotton I stuffed in those little straws? Great test thanks!
 
Cool test. Might have to try my own, just to get to know how much I should put in there to be enough fluff to light, but enough PJ to keep it lit.
:thumbup:
 
Nice post, thanks! I pretty much do the half-saturated method. Cover the whole cotton ball, then break it open and fluff it up a bit and cover that little bit. Still leaves plenty to fluff up and light with a spark, but burns for a good while, and apparently, is the way to go for waterproofness:thumbup:.

I do keep mine in a waterproof match container or small ziploc baggie though just in case.
 
About what I had expected. Thanks for doing the foot work. Very cool (and fun, it looked like) experiment!
 
My undocumented testing came with the same results-half smeared= good to go. Saturated=no go.
Well done.
Bill
 
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