random question - compressed o2 for building fires?

Josh Muller

Josh Muller

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Jun 22, 2003
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just a random question - im on my second semester of going for full welding certification, and i was wondering, would it be beneficial for firestarting to carry a small hand held canister of o2?

is it even possible to buy small canisters of o2? not a 3" diameter x 8"= heigth, but like a small co2 style canister, something air rifle size...


the obvious reason being that everything burns more violently/faster in the presence of pure oxygen (hit a burning shop rag with o2 and it will go from smolder to blaze immediately). if you could get a small enough oxygen blower, it would be like an immediate tinder ignition system. as long as you could get a single spark to settle, you could get it blazing in a second.

just wondering, thought about it about 6 months ago but never got around to asking...
 
given that skill is your most important tool, and with a flint and knife you can build a fire in almost any environment, im thinking of this more as a last ditch effor when things are at their worst, such as -30 degree's or worse, when starting a fire is increasingly difficult

i could be completely wrong in what im thinking it would do, so id like opinions on its real world usability

you could carry napalm - but the o2 would make it burn hotter/faster/brighter :D
 
Seth, the closest thing to your idea I've ever read about or heard about is carrying a couple inches of SS tubing attached to 18-24" of plastic or rubber tube. This gear allows you to easily blow a jet of atmosphere (obviously includes O2 but at no weight to carry) at the point where it is needed to encourage flames. I tried it. It works, but in the end it seemed unnecessary.

My ultimate, last gasp fire-starters are a 35mm can of gun powder and the Coleman fuel that's along for my stove.
 
i can buy one of those muzzloader unloaders! its a nozzle and trigger atached to a co2 powerlet and it has a trigger on it. its used to blow out a charge that wont fire.
also a quick change adapter for a paintball gun allows the player to power his paintgun with co2 powerlets instead of a large tank of c02.
thats all that i know of if you can find 02 powerlets maybe these will work, but i havent seen any.
 
Boy, funny I saw this...I had a couple of valseline soaked cotton balls laying around :eek: , and thought I'd get a new ferro rod tested out. WOW, a small fluffed piece of cotton/vaseline ignited in the second scrape of sparks :D I even did a few when it was drizzeling outside, no issues at all! I can't imagine a more cost-effective firestarter than a decent ferro rod and vaseline/cotton ball tinder (yeah, matches are cheap too...but the ferro rod is much more robust!)

ROCK6
 
I prefer to use the two compressed O2 canisters that God provided me with, lungs. Keep 'em clean and they'll serve you for a lifetime. They really are essential equipment, I take mine everywhere and have used them to light many a fire.

Seriously I can imagine this would be a help in some very extreme conditions but most likely in such places, like high mountains, there isn't a whole lot of natural stuff to burn anyway. The only fuel is going to be the stuff you packed in and the O2 is going to be needed to refill the canisters God gave you.

For the weight you're probably better off with some sort of pyro-powder or a road flare. Mac
 
Not a bad idea if small pressurized containers of O2 were readily available.

Some of you may have seen the videos of lighting a barbecue with LOX.


grill3.jpg


http://www.doeblitz.net/ghg/ A small controlled spray of gas phase O2 will not be quite as effective but should be quite adequate for starting fires.
 
SethMurdoc said:
just a random question - im on my second semester of going for full welding certification, and i was wondering, would it be beneficial for firestarting to carry a small hand held canister of o2?

is it even possible to buy small canisters of o2? not a 3" diameter x 8"= heigth, but like a small co2 style canister, something air rifle size...


the obvious reason being that everything burns more violently/faster in the presence of pure oxygen (hit a burning shop rag with o2 and it will go from smolder to blaze immediately). if you could get a small enough oxygen blower, it would be like an immediate tinder ignition system. as long as you could get a single spark to settle, you could get it blazing in a second.

just wondering, thought about it about 6 months ago but never got around to asking...
Click to expand...
They make CO2 sized cartriges for the little micro-torches...It is not o2 but no2(nitrous oxide{yes, laughing gas}), but it serves the same purpose.
You could cary one of the little torches as a emergancy firstarter(it has both a no2 and a butain cartridge.
I do not know WHAT you could not get to start burning with that thing.
 
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