Tinder.... what's your preferred? Why?

fivefold said:
I use dryer lint (kept in a small sandwich bag) and fuzz sticks. Especially lint from cotton jeans, etc. Burns nice and hot and I've never had an issue with getting a blaze going with one match or a quick hit with a fire steel.
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Heh, I keep collecting dryer lint for tinder, then forgetting where I've put it...


Sometimes I feel ninety instead of nineteen. :confused:
 
stitchawl said:
Yellow birch has more 'Sergeant's stripes' than white or gray birch. Lot's of it growing in the Adirondacks. Do you ever start out from 'Adarondak Loj' at Heart Lake? Used to be one of my favorite jumping off points!

You can find the fungus growing on dead birches, and it really does look like a horse's hoof. But it really has to be treated with the chemicals and dried out well before it works as good tinder. (There is NO SMELL once it's dried out!) You can't just use it 'as is' when you find it on a log. I was introduced to it when I started making fire pistons. Because the fungus would break off in small, pea-sized pieces, it was great for stuffing into the end of the plunger, and burned for a long time. I guess ancient man used to go to his local chemical supply store to purchase his potassium nitrate and uric acid, but I just piss on it... ;)

Stitchawl
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Thanks for the info!

Adirondack Loj is such a great hub for so many peaks that it's been the start of many trips. Great spot.
 
#1 for me is the paper thin birch bark curls that are on the bark, they light up in wet weather like gas poured on a fire.

#2 is P/J + wax cotton balls. They ignite with spark and then burn like a candle. Average 1- 3 minute burn

#3 is a hybridized tinder/firestarter: take a tea candle cup and pour in hot wax, crushed sparklers, powder from a .22 and top of with a P/J cotton ball pressed into the mix, just enough so that there is a 3/4" bit of fluff sticking out. Light with spark, burns like a candle, then starts flaring up, fizzing spitting flame everywhere. GREAT for wet day fire starting.
 
depends what fire-starting-implement i have on me at the time. i like dryer lint or jute for a bowdrill fire, with a lighter or matches i can usually skip the tinder step and go stait to the fuzz stick, and i almost always have some PJCB on me, especially when using a ferro rod.
 
PJ cotton in straws, and fatwood. Though I usually actually use whatever is locally available. The PJ and fatwood is reserved for emergencies.
 
Bushman5 said:
#3 is a hybridized tinder/firestarter: take a tea candle cup and pour in hot wax, crushed sparklers, powder from a .22 and top of with a P/J cotton ball pressed into the mix, just enough so that there is a 3/4" bit of fluff sticking out. Light with spark, burns like a candle, then starts flaring up, fizzing spitting flame everywhere. GREAT for wet day fire starting.
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Now THIS is creative thinking! Love it! :thumbup:
I'm gonna follow you a bit and make some of this, but I'm going to add some copper sulfate to some (for a nice green flame,) some Strontium Chloride to some for a reddish flame, etc. Why survive in plain vanilla?!? :D

Stitchawl
 
Another type of tinder I have used occasionally is a ciggarette but. You can sometimes find them lining a trail. You cut open the filter and fluff up the cotton inside and it will take a spark from a ferro rod.
You make fire and pick up trash at the same time:thumbup:
 
If you going to go that route it is cheaper to use Sodium Chlorate and sugar 3:1. Don't get the poxy little tubs of ICI stuff it has a fire retardant in it. Old school hardware shops selling it loose as a weedkiller is what you seek. It's pipe-bomb mix, but without the confines of a container the gas escapes quite happily with just a good strong flare up.
 
tonym said:
Another type of tinder I have used occasionally is a ciggarette but. You can sometimes find them lining a trail. You cut open the filter and fluff up the cotton inside and it will take a spark from a ferro rod.
You make fire and pick up trash at the same time:thumbup:
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That's odd, the ones here are synthetic. In fact, one can melt them and rub them up a rock or wall to make a crude edge.
 
Everyone I ever opened up and tried it with has worked quite well. I did up at the W.L.C. as well, to show some of the guys there. My Marlboro lights aren't true cotton either but still works fine. Try it, but fluff the inside of the filter up good.
 
I always carry jute and have firestraws in my bag, BUT, I prefer to save that tinder and go natural.

I use yellow poplar bark and dried grass the most for tinder. In the lower coastal plain (including Florida) I use cabbage palm.
 
tonym said:
Everyone I ever opened up and tried it with has worked quite well. I did up at the W.L.C. as well, to show some of the guys there. My Marlboro lights aren't true cotton either but still works fine. Try it, but fluff the inside of the filter up good.
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Cool. I'll need to tax a straight off someone later.
 
I don't usually go out of my way to carry tinder there's just too many things on me already that'll get a fire going. I remember touching on this with misanthropist in a past thread. As a smoker I've got a light. I do carry a flint and steel. Beyond that I've got cotton wool in other things, and rubber bands, sometimes alcohol gel to prime a stove, then there's the other accelerants like KMnO4.
 
Forget the hardwood dowels for the pencil sharpener... :(

Dulled the sharpener very quickly and the wood would bind instead of shave. I guess pencils must be made of very soft wood indeed. Birch worked for a while, but the hickory was a no-go. The fatwood gummed up the works after a few twists. Guess I'll have to stick with pencils if I want to use a pencil sharpener for tinder. I still like Bushman5's idea of adding a sparkler and cordite to wax and cotton.


Stitchawl
 
The sparkle bit of a sparkler is principally iron filings. I think you can achieve a similar idea but a better effect by using tiny clumps of very fine wire wool [steel fur]. The advantage is concentration of heat.
 
Fag butt fire-straw test: Little Smurf tampon filters designed to go in the end of a hand rolled cigarette. Each cellophane tube contains 5 units.

Findings: You can get them going with a flint and steel but compared to cotton wool it's a real bitch. I suspect that is mostly to do with the size of the strands. I also suspect that under decent magnification we would find the synthetic to be a lot smoother across the surface. Even teased out with a hacksaw blade they are no match for cotton wool teased by hand. Still, it is possible, and I got a steady ten count before the flame exhausted.

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Another vote for jute twine and cedar bark. Works great with flint/steel, ferro rod, or fire piston. :thumbup:

Jeff
 
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