Five-cent tinder

[finallyME]

If you have to drag some thing out in the bush with you, might just as well be a road flare.....

I keep my cotton and vaseline separate until I need them. That way I can use the cotton balls as bandage, and vaseline on skin rashes. I can't do that with a road flare.

[finallyME]

Birch bark beats the lot.. always around when you need it, and lights like there is no tomorrow ;-)

I have never found birch bark in my neck of the woods. Maybe I am just not looking hard enough.

[hunter63]

I keep my cotton and vaseline separate until I need them. That way I can use the cotton balls as bandage, and vaseline on skin rashes. I can't do that with a road flare.

Granted, but the point is....if you have to carry it with you, carry the best and easiest that will do it's intended use no matter what.....(Insert your favorite items here), Bic, Zippo, fire steel, fire piston, burning glass, steel wool.....what ever.

I carry Kleenex and Carmex.....a little Carmex rubbed on a torn up kleenex works well as tinder, spark catcher, and of course the intended use..lip blum, snotty nose, .......TP, something to put on owies, zipper lube.

But when something really need to burn....road flares.

[Phaedrus]

Sometime around the beginning of the year or end of last I saw that WalMart was carrying Orion campfire starter/signal flares. They cost $4.88 for a 2 pack and are just like the larger versions, just shorter. They have a striker under the top and are stuck like match, like the larger ones. They burn at a couple thousand degrees for around 5 minutes. I tested a couple of them while camping and found they worked well, although lighting them was a bit more work than I thought it would be (note: I never doubted they'd light, just took a bit of work). They're marketed as both a signal device and a fire starter, although they don't burn long enough to satisfy USCG standards for operating a boat. They're so bright that even in full sunlight you can't stare at them. Just on a goof though I did try to use one to ignite some water-logged wood I found by the river, and that unsurprisingly was a no-go. The moral of the story- no matter what source of ignition you have, you still need good fire prep.

Some people snort in derision at the idea of buying fire starters. To them I say, good for you if you like the DIY approach and find that it works for you. But while I also use cotton balls & PJ, I also use a few commercial products. The first is Tinder-Quik. These are really cheap, especially in bulk. They shed water a lot better than a cotton ball (although a long soak in water will render them ineffective) and burn for almost 2 minutes. Astonishingly they're even easier to light than naked cotton balls! I also really like Weber Cubes. These are made sold by Weber as a lighter for their grills. For all the world, they look feel and smell like WetFire, just in larger and much, much cheaper cubes. In my experience they lose effectiveness quickly when exposed to air but I've had good luck vacuum sealing them. My tests have shown them to work for at least a year and a half after being sealed (my oldest ones) and I'll test those old stocks every few months to see how long they last. Weber cubes are easy to light and burn hot for around 9 minutes, give or take. ESBIT is another stand by of mine. It can be shaved and lit with a firesteel and burns very hot. One 14 gram cube goes for around 12 minutes. The little 4 gram pieces are also awesome. They're about the size and shape of a stick of Dentyne gum and work just like the larger ones. Hexamine (the stuff used by ESBIT) will keep for over 50 years and doesn't need to be sealed. It's fantastic stuff that bridges the gap between tinder & kindling.

Fatwood is one of my favorite fire tools. Many of you southern folks can collect your own but where I live there are few pines so I buy mine at Wal-Mart! It compares very favorably to fatwood I've received from several forum buddies down south. Easy to light and burns long and hard.

Jute twine is also a great tinder but in my experience it has to be kept bone-dry to catch a spark well. Just the humidity in the air here is enough to render it difficult to light with a firesteel.

[edr730]

There are many secrrets people have to start a fire. In order of how they work would be something like gasoline, fuel oil, grease or petroleum jelly and candle wax, and . The thicker it is, the longer it burns and the better it works. You can make premade balls with wood or sawdust from any of these items. You can even buy things made form these items if you feel that it saves you time. Once you have a little fire, there are other basics to follow. In simplist terms it would be ....don't put wet sponges on the fire. Wet sponges would be like rotten wet wood, wet grass, bark that has obsorbed a lot of water and anything that has been laying on the ground that has obsorbed water. Eliminate those things and you are at the beginning of learning how to build a fire when it is wet. After that you must learn what wood burns the fastest and splits easiest to begin the fire as well as what what wood splits and burns the longest and hottest. In the end, as much as we would like it not to be true, there are no replacements for education about what you are trying to do and the experience of having done it many times.