Vaseline-soaked cotton balls vs Maya Sticks/Dust

Quiet Storm

Quiet Storm

Joined
May 17, 2002
Messages
5,757
...or something entirely different?

I'm looking for the most weight- and size-efficient solution for a small to medium-sized wilderness survival kit.

What's your preference?
 
Vaseline soaked cotton balls. By FAR.

Fat wood can easily be obtaines in the bush, and the cotton takes a spark so easily it's almost cheating.

Another great one is to tie three strike anywhere matches together with cotton thread and dip them into melted wax. Let the cotton absorb some wax, and repeat once or twice. You strike the matches, throw them under your twigs and you've got 3-4 minutes of hot flame going. Easy, cheap, and works great as well.

Cheers,

David
 
i use the cotton pj firestraws. i like your idea about the matches though, moine.
 
Cotton Balls Soaked in Vaseline... Then Wrapped up in Tin Foil. Which Allows for Easy Carrying and Longer Burn Times.

When you are ready to light it. just cut an X on the top and 'wick-up' the cotton. Strike your firesteel... and watch it burn.

:)
 
+1 on vaseline soaked cotton. I use it packed into straws in my kits and during rainy season I use it in 2cm cubes wrapped in foil. The stuff always works, very fool proof and it does not go bad, even after years of storage the stuff is stable. I've had some for years that lights right up like the day I made it. Lots of commercially prepared tinders don't store well.

I've had very good experiences with jute twine treated with vaseline as well. Mac
 
Well........I'm kind of embarassed, but not really. I've never tried to light vaseline and cotton in the rain. How's it do?

I carry Spark-lite tinder in a compass match tube as EDC. Quartered and fluffed, it's starts a properly prepared fire wet or dry. I've tried the Jute twine and have put a 100' or so in each kit. Good stuff.
 
01-21-2006, 01:20 PM
muzzleup
Gold Member Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Bremerton Washington
Posts: 927

Kiss of fire

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What I have found that works very well is:
1.Using a double boiler method, melt some bee's wax or parafin.
2.Using a pure cotton cottonball saturate the cotton ball in the wax and set it aside in a cookie tray.
3. While the wax is still mallable but not fully hardened then place a second cottonball on top of the saturated one. You can even put a little vasoline on the second cotton ball.
4. After the wax has hardened in the first cotton ball then place it inside a square piece of wax paper and give the wax paper a twist so it looks like a large Hersheys Kiss.
5. I have found it works best by unwrapping the twisted wax paper and sparking into the top cotton ball (I usually place the whole "kiss" inside a stainless steel pipe cap to keep it off the ground).
6. I have timed these "kiss of fire" balls and they will burn between 5 to 15 or 20 minutes.
If it is windy or raining you can just shelter the pipe cap with your body or in a dry spot and then place the fire, pipe cap and all, into your tinder and small branches of chips. Pretty soon you will have a nice fire going assuming you have set it up in a protected spot.

When done, retrieve the pipe cap to be used again. To start a fire IN WATER with the pipe cap drop some miners carbide into the pipe cap and cover with a small funnel (stainless if possible)with a spark you can get some fire out of the small end of the funnel because you now have acetalyne gas coming out of it.

FWIW, Ciao
Ron

:thumbup:
 
Thanks guys!

Hi Ron,
I already read your post in the other thread - interesting stuff. Yep, I did a search before I posted, but I wanted more opinions on the most size-efficient option.
 
I like vaseline soaked cotton balls (and wax soaked) for starting fires, but I wouldn't discount the fatwood sticks, either.

I carry a stick of fatwood, about three inches long and a little thicker than a pencil, as a key fob. It's totally waterproof, and fairly shockproof. There are no potential issues about tearing aluminum foil, or wearing out foil from extended carrying, or having vaseline melt in the heat and mostly leak out, etc. It's enough to start a few hundred small fires.

The cotton balls are easier to light, but the fatwood shavings are easy enough to light (once you really learn how too do so properly) that lighting difficulty is a non-issue for me.

Fatwood is pretty easy to find in most Northern coniferous forests. The equivalent to vaseline soaked cotton balls is also usually readily at-hand. (Take your knife and scrape cotton lint from your t-shirt and/or blue jeans and/or underwear, rub some lip balm/sunscreen/antibiotic ointment into the lint, and you're set.)

I don't carry pre-made vaseline soaked cotton balls. My psk includes a large swath of "Packtowl" (serves multiple functions: insulating scarf, bandages, sling, water collector, firestarter, etc.); you can pinch it and pull off tufts which light as easily as cotton; and my psk also includes antibiotiic ointment (which comes in a petroleum jelly base), and other "fuels".

I also usually have a couple ounces of 99.99% pure methanol on me (it's a cleaning supply for my camera gear), and nothing else I've found (not even cotton) lights as easily from a spark as that.

I'd consider the fatwood stick a more reliable firestarter than vaseline coaked cotton balls, , due to the greater durability, more total waterproofness, potential to start more fires, etc.

Mike
 
We use cotton balls up here to,we also use tripple ointment cream,you can use it for your cuts,and it is patroleum base to,so it will work like just like vaseline.
 
Evolute,

How do you use the fatwood for firestarting? I am currently cutting slivers from mine, but from the size that you're describing, it would only be good for maybe 10 - 20 fires or so. Maybe you are a better whittler than me (quite likely). How much do you need for firestarting?

I played around today with some charcoal discs that I read about, but can't remember which thread. The local tattoo/paraphernalia shop carries them for lighting incense, 10 for $2. What a deal! Anyway, then center of the disk is hollowed out, (perfect for holding a little firestarter) and I tried fatwood slivers with a ferrocium rod, and was unsuccessful. I knew that a cotton ball with vaseline would have worked, but didn't try it. Then I tried taking waxed paper, about 4 in x 5 in, and wrapped the charcoal like one of Muzzleup's hersheys' kisses. Very easy to light waxed paper, and it was enough to get the charcoal going very well. I like the charcoal just for having prolonged heat for lighting tinder, and the wind just made it hotter. A little messy though.
 
I like the cotton balls/vaseline. Keep them In a plastic vitamin bottle. Used them a couple of weeks ago in a light rain with no problem.
 
sodak said:
I am currently cutting slivers ...
Click to expand...

A small piece of wood will turn into a massive pile of scrapings. If you are in really wet conditions then your tinder may have to double as first stage fuel which means you need much more of it, but usually it is just to catch a spark.

I view the situation more like Evolute, multi-purpose, plus cotton balls+vaseline is horrible in the rain/wet as it absorbs water (the balls are made to do that) and near impossible to dry.

-Cliff
 
Hi, Sodak,

How do you use the fatwood for firestarting? I am currently cutting slivers from mine, but from the size that you're describing, it would only be good for maybe 10 - 20 fires or so. Maybe you are a better whittler than me (quite likely). How much do you need for firestarting?
Click to expand...

Let me make a few things clear.

First, I was referring just to using fatwood as a first-stage tinder: to catch a spark and combust for long enough to get a second stage tinder lit. Fatwood also makes a great second-stage tinder, but a small stick of it will not last for hundreds of uses as a second stage tinder. When you are talking about "cutting slivers", that sounds more like you are using it for second-stage tinder than for catching a spark and igniting. Slivers cut off with a knife will burn for longer, but will be much more difficult to ignite from a spark.

Secondly, There's no whittling skill necessary for making the kind of fatwood shavings that I use to start fires. In fact, I don't even use a knife to do it; I use my P38 can opener (which I also use as a striker for my fire steel). You would be able to do this as well with the back of your knife, or the back edge of a key, or with the edge of a broken rock. Just hold the edge at about a 60-90 degree angle to the wood and scrape. This should produce extremely fine shavings.

It doesn't take much... a small fraction of a gram. To exemplify this, I am temporarily including a photo of the typical amount of fatwood I would use to catch a spark and ignite a second-stage tinder under fairly easy conditions, like today... shown on top of a dime, to give you a sense of scale. (This picture will also show you how fine the shavings produced by scraping are.) To get a pile this size, I scraped my fatwood key fob five times. Of course, if conditions were colder, wetter, windier, etc, I would use five to ten times this amount.

4059628-lg.jpg


Mike
 
Evolute said:
To get a pile this size, I scraped my fatwood key fob five times.

Mike
Click to expand...

Could you post of picture of your fatwood key fob or point me in the direction to get one of those?
 
cosine,

Could you post of picture of your fatwood key fob or point me in the direction to get one of those?
Click to expand...

It's nothing special. I just took a piece of fatwood of the diameter I wanted, cut off a 3 inch long piece, and drilled a hole in the end.

================================

Victor,

What is Vaseline soaked cotton balls? i know what both things are but what do you guys do put vaseline on it
Click to expand...

Yes. You take a cotton ball (or some dryer lint, etc.) and you smear a bit of petroleum jelly into it. That's all. Be sure not to use too much; it's easiest to light if you don't oversaturate it.

Mike
 
Cliff and Evolute,

Thank you for clearing that up. I never thought of *scraping* v.s. *shaving/whittling*. You're right, I was slicing slivers, which would fall into the 2nd stage tinder category. It takes some serious sparks to light that, I've done it once or twice, but wouldn't want to depend upon it when I"m cold and wet. Thanks!

Hey Cosine,

If you can't find fatwood in a natural environment, you can get some at Walmart in the section for home furnishings/fireplace supplies.
 
Evolute said:
cosine,

It's nothing special. I just took a piece of fatwood of the diameter I wanted, cut off a 3 inch long piece, and drilled a hole in the end.

Mike
Click to expand...

Doh! I never even though of doing something like that myself. I assumed you got it somewhere already made. That shows how resourceful I'd actually be in a survival situation. :D

Thanks, sodak, for a lead in the direction where I can find some fatwood.

I've got another question, Evolute. I noticed that you shaved your fatwood into a pile about the size of a dime. How long will that flame for when you throw a spark on it? One second? Two?
 
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