vaseline/cotton balls

Are cotton balls, dryer lint and so on even necessary? Only one time I had a difficult time finding dry tender, still was able to get some after a little search.
 
We can make a good argument about almost everything we take outdoors with us being necessary, but it does make things alot easier.....

When taking my time I don't use PJCB's, but if I fell through the ice and wanted fire asap I will be glad I have it.
 
They're for the time where dry tinder is either hard to find or will take too much time. If you're wet and cold you want fire *now*. Some of the longer burning tinder will help dry out kindling and get a fire going where shorter burning tinder will not.
 
dipbait said:
Are cotton balls, dryer lint and so on even necessary? Only one time I had a difficult time finding dry tender, still was able to get some after a little search.
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They are for me! I'm not a real accomplished woodsman, been out in the rain when it took a lot for me to get a fire going. If you can get by without them, more power to you!
 
I have used different methods:
Cotton pads with a blob PJ.
Tampons, straight from the box.
BBQ lighters that looks like matches on steroids.
BBQ lighters that looks like a OXO cube. I just make a hole in them with a knife and spark on the fuzz.
Birch bark.
Dryer lint.
Resin filled pine shawings.
Hand sanitizer on almost anything that burns.
Hand sanitizer is also good for cleaning knives and hands and stuff. The health care people in Sweden use huge amonts of that stuff. If you have lots of it, you can also use it on its own for heathing water and such.
 
Making things fast and easy is always worth doing. Many times a survival situation happens because you are injured, all the woodsman training in the world can't change a broken leg or worse, although the training sure don't hurt.;) Don't ever take for granite that you will have all of your physical strengths going for you.
 
If you don't like messing with the home-made stuff, you can buy Tinder Quick tabs that are pretty close. With either, a spy capsule makes a great container. A regular ol' pill bottle makes a great PJ-ball container, as do the cheapie plastic screw cap match safes.

I found that I didn't need clean cotton to get one going, but you don't need to bother with saturating them.

Kudos to the guys who thought of tossing it all in a ziplock to combine and store the stuff. Clean, simple and good! The used Chap Stick container is pure genius-- what i call the fine art of applied junque.
 
There is another useful container lurking about, especially for you guys with problems with your breathing :)
The Turbohaler inhaler is great for storing stuff. When it is empty you just rip out the inner part and you have a great watertight container.
 
m48shooter said:
i use the wax method... my ferro and a couple in the pocket.... the rest in a ziplock in the pack.... u break off as little as u need off the "rock", or just smash it up w a rock.... made sure to soak the pocket gear last time out...(i fell in grins) and everything went from dripping to smash to spark to fire... in heavy wind... i like em a lot...
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Could you go into a little more detail about your wax method. It doesn't sound like anything I'm familiar with, and I'd be very interested to learn more. I'm probably reading it wrong, but it sounds like you used a rock to smash a chunk of wax to start a fire using a ferro rod. Or did you have a wax/cotton ball that you cracked open with a rock. If it was the latter then how did you make the wax/cotton balls. Confused and intrigued.:)
 
Melt wax, dip jute string or cotton ball in several times. When you need to catch a spark, you pound it between 2 rocks to expose the fibers.
 
Here is a different option
Take cotton string (I have heard jute works as well but I haven’t tried that). I usually buy the cheap stuff at wally world and then double it up in thickness. I then melt some wax in a double boiler and place the cotton string in the melted wax until it is saturated. I then pull it out and allow it to harder (keeping it straight). Once it is hardened I cut the sting into 2 inch long lengths and place it in a pill bottle.
It is very easy to light with a flame and it is naturally waterproof and you can just add more sticks if needed.
When using a firesteel I simple wrap the wax string inside of a fluffed up dry cotton ball.
 
I just used a PJCB to try and start the charcoal on my grille. It didn't catch the charcaol, but I was using a VERY small cotton ball to try and do it with.

I think I may be on to something here. Stay tuned.
 
LittleHairyApe said:
Could you go into a little more detail about your wax method. It doesn't sound like anything I'm familiar with, and I'd be very interested to learn more. I'm probably reading it wrong, but it sounds like you used a rock to smash a chunk of wax to start a fire using a ferro rod. Or did you have a wax/cotton ball that you cracked open with a rock. If it was the latter then how did you make the wax/cotton balls. Confused and intrigued.:)
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the wax/cotton ball when cool forms a solid "rock"
he cuts a bit off the "rock, smashes it up a bit to fuzz the cotton up, then hits it with a spark

i add a bit of Pj to the wax (maybe 1/4 to 1/3 pj to wax) as it makes softer "rocks" i use the back of the saw blade on my Sak to strike the ferro rod, and find that the saw edge can be used to fluff the wax/cotton ball up so it catches a spark well
 
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