Quick fire starting methods?

T

Txknifefan

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Jul 9, 2011
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Hey guys got a newbie question about a fire steel. My brother-in-law and I both received a fire steel for Christmas from Santa. We both tried them out and I was able to get some dried crumbled oak leaves to start smoking a bit but that was as far as I got. He said forget it as he is a smoker and always has a lighter. So my question is what is good tender to start a fire with a fire steel? Lot of hardwood around the area oak, pecan, some hickory, and some soft wood trees like cedar, willow, and cottonwood. What works best for you?
 
A 35mm film canister with cotton balls soaked in petro jelly.

If you want to do it the hard way and not use the cotton balls, there are a lot of things that make good tender. Just make sure it's dry. Birch bark, cedar bark, cattail heads, rat and bird nests, etc. I like the seed pods at the top of many weeds in the fall and winter as well. Your best bet is to get out in your local area and try different tender to see what the fastest is in your neck of the woods.
 
Think thin and fine !!!!

Cedar bark, thin Fatwood shavings, Any feathery seeds or old mans beard mixed with Balsam sap or pine resin. Try carving some wood into a pencil sized shape and then use a pencil sharpener to make really fine shavings !!!

If you don't insist on natural tinders go with Cotton balls or Dryer lint mixed with Petroleum Jelly !
 
I will have to try the cedar bark we have a decent amount of those around my area. I was wanting to try it the hard way just so I could learn how in case a shtf situation. I have heard some people mention the cotton ball and pj but had forgot about it. Thank you for the suggestions.
 
I like dryer lint but I don't really get much as my clothes are almost all synthetic and or I don't use a dryer. I think of months worth of lint wouldn't fill a film canister. As for cotton balls, they work, but I've read that raw cotton is much better, but hard to find. So, you could try an organic cotton tampon! :D
 
There are a couple of ways to 'cheat' by bringing your own tinder, like petrol jelly cotton balls and bundles of jute. IAWoodsman has a perfect video for this thread, in which he tests about 15 different types of tinder and gets them all going with a strike or two. That video goes to show two things,

1. The importance of DRY fine tinder
2. That learning how to use your firesteel is just as important as what type of tinder you have. -PRACTICE at home to get the most amount of sparks for the least amount of damage to your fire rod consistently. Some fire rods are easier than others.

Edited to say that you shouldn't even be considering your tinder and your fire rod until your fuel is there. If you get your tinder and your little transfer material going, it will be burned out by the time you have collected fuel to put on top of it, so do it ahead of time. IAWoodsman has another great video on this called the One-Stick Fire method.

These tutorials are probably the most simple, thorough and efficient in teaching fire rod methods. It's worth your time to watch them, lest you burn out your fire rod trying to learn the hard way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eltjfIeTsxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN2tjcXwVmg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sawri36ga1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c90jBC31lrU
 
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try pinning your tinder to the ground with the fire steel and allowing the sparks to be directed directly into the tinder
FIne knife shavings of dry wood, and fine strips of teaased birch bark are easy to ignite this way
also when selecting tinder the about the 3 F's fine, fibrous, fluffy something that is all of the above is ideal like fluffed up cedar bark, but something that has any of those qualities in various degrees will work.
as far as leaves go Dried beech leaves do seem to work well
my suggestion FWIW would be to think of this rod as your learning rod, and wear it down till you can make fire with that and natural tinder on a consistent basis, by the time you are ready for a new rod, your jedi skill will be complete
good luck
 
Lots of organic tinders, cedar bark, cattail, birch bark, dried leaves


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Thistle, grasses, horseweed, and milkweed pods all work pretty well.

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Hornets nests work really well.

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Fine dry wood shavings.

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Burch bark

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Fatwood

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There are lots of things out there that will take a spark. Experiment and see what you learn.



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RescueRiley said:
try pinning your tinder to the ground with the fire steel and allowing the sparks to be directed directly into the tinder
Click to expand...
This is what I do. I see a lot of guys who hold the knife still and pull the flint backwards. The result is the sparks have to travel a few inches into the tinder. This means some of the sparks go out before they reach the tinder and/or you have sparks missing your tinder entirely. The way RR describes, all of the sparks are shooting straight into the tinder and creates a lot more heat IME. The only caveat is you have to be careful not to disperse your tinder with your striker/knife.
 
Shotgun said:
This is what I do. I see a lot of guys who hold the knife still and pull the flint backwards. The result is the sparks have to travel a few inches into the tinder. This means some of the sparks go out before they reach the tinder and/or you have sparks missing your tinder entirely. The way RR describes, all of the sparks are shooting straight into the tinder and creates a lot more heat IME. The only caveat is you have to be careful not to disperse your tinder with your striker/knife.
Click to expand...

This technique is somewhat dependent on rod size and type as well though. It works great with the LMF type rods that throw sparks easily even with light pressure, and works good with the longer well made mischmetal rods but some mischmetal rods need more speed and longer strikes to get more than just shavings of the rods (which these shavings also add to the tinder pile) and with these rods the risk of scattering the tinder, depending on the type, is greater.
 
If any of you live where Milkweed grows, collect some of that in late July-August when it starts to go to fluff. Save it for future use. That stuff will catch a spark and go up like a bomb.

Edit: Oops, sorry, I see Mistwalker already covered this.
 
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Looks as if its been said but always helps to have an accelerant (if available) petroleum jelly as already mentioned, a small/light spray of bug juice/repellent does it for me.
 
besides fatwood, birch bark or balsam fir pitch i carry a few man made tinders with me in extreme weather.


coghlan's fire sticks and coghlan's fire paste is what i carry when i need guaranteed fire.
 
I had success with the dryer lint and cedar shavings. Thanks for all the different info on fuels for starters everyone. Unfortunately we have no birch that I know of in my area (North Texas). I will have to try the milkweeds there's usually a good crop of them everywhere each year.
 
In north Texas? You have another source that's more plentiful and just as good. If you remove the shaggy bark covering sagebrush, there's a layer of very fine, dry fibrous material underneath. No tools required, you can gather a ton by hand on a whim. It'd take maybe a minute to gather a nice fist-sized bundle. Stuff lights like crazy-the only downside is if it's rained in the last 24 hours, sagebrush is really good at drawing in moisture when it can get it...
 
Birch bark is my personal favorite since it's so abundant up here. Try all different kinds though there are plenty of options listed in the thread.

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