Fire With A Magnifying Glass

**NatureboyAlec** · 07-16-2007, 01:37 PM

Hey guys. I just got this huge magnifying glass that has about a 3 inch diameter. When you hold it over tinder it almost instantly starts to smoke! But we can't seem to get it to catch a flame. What weve tried is burning tinder, leaves over tinder, and tinder over leaves, but none give a flame - just alot of smoke. We've even tried blowing and fanning it with little luck. What should we do? Thanks guys

-Alec

**Sarge47** · 07-16-2007, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by NatureboyAlec

Hey guys. I just got this huge magnifying glass that has about a 3 inch diameter. When you hold it over tinder it almost instantly starts to smoke! But we can't seem to get it to catch a flame. What weve tried is burning tinder, leaves over tinder, and tinder over leaves, but none give a flame - just alot of smoke. We've even tried blowing and fanning it with little luck. What should we do? Thanks guys

-Alec

Try soaking the tinder in lighter fluid 1st? I don't use that method of lighting a fire. For one thing you can't have any cloud cover at all during the whole time. Even a slight cloud cover will negate the process, and the glass in question has to have be really strong...maybe 10x's or better. Even our two survival heros, Les & Bear had to wait a very long time to start a fire that way. If I'm not using matches or a lighter I use either flint & steel or a magnesium flint tool.

**owl_girl** · 07-16-2007, 03:17 PM

My magnifying glass is only 5x and it works really good. You just have to learn what starts on fire and what smokes. Leaves smoke, I’ve never had luck with leaves. Try dry tinder fungus, it grows on old birch trees, and that will make a coal and hold it for a really long time and with the coal you start a fire. That works every time. Also try this, take a dry cattail and hold it under the magnifying glass until the beam of light has burnt a howl almost to the center then remove and it should be slowly burning like incense. Hope this helps

**NatureboyAlec** · 07-16-2007, 07:20 PM

Whoa good news guys. We were using the magnifying glass to burn some tinder again today and the same thing happened - just smoke. But then my friend accidentally sneezed and blew a huge gust of air into the tinder, which caused the tinder to light up with orange! Before when we blew/fanned into it we did it very softly because we thought it would smother the flame. We startd furiously blowing into the tinder when it abruptly burst into flames, which would have burnt my face if I didn't get away in time! It was awesome! After that we took more tinder and started burning it again. As you all know, tinder burns up quickly so we had to add more to it. We added dry grass, then as the fire died down, we added twigs. As the fire died down again, we added lumber scraps, which held the fire together for 15 minutes, before we finally flushed it away with the hose

Thanks for the help guys!

-Alec

P.S. Sarge, what did you mean about Bear and Les having a hard time with this!? It was my third time trying, and I was able to get a full fire going in 5 minutes! Im not tryin to make you sound bad or nething, but was Bear maybe using a smaller lens? (BTW: I found out that my mg actually has a 5 inch diameter!)

**man.vs.wild** · 07-16-2007, 08:36 PM

i used to sneak over to the neighbors yard and "borrow" some of his grass because it was always dry and dead and all i did was use the magnifying glass on a leaf and get it smoking then put it in the tinder bundle the use the magnifying glass again to reheat the leave then jest blow and voula i used to make good fires doing it like that

**man.vs.wild** · 07-16-2007, 08:38 PM

oh yeah also when holding tha magnifying glass up to the leave make sure the little beam of light hitting it is as small as u can get it i guess the heats more concentrated but that always had best results for me

**Sarge47** · 07-16-2007, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by NatureboyAlec

Whoa good news guys. We were using the magnifying glass to burn some tinder again today and the same thing happened - just smoke. But then my friend accidentally sneezed and blew a huge gust of air into the tinder, which caused the tinder to light up with orange! Before when we blew/fanned into it we did it very softly because we thought it would smother the flame. We startd furiously blowing into the tinder when it abruptly burst into flames, which would have burnt my face if I didn't get away in time! It was awesome! After that we took more tinder and started burning it again. As you all know, tinder burns up quickly so we had to add more to it. We added dry grass, then as the fire died down, we added twigs. As the fire died down again, we added lumber scraps, which held the fire together for 15 minutes, before we finally flushed it away with the hose

Thanks for the help guys!

-Alec

P.S. Sarge, what did you mean about Bear and Les having a hard time with this!? It was my third time trying, and I was able to get a full fire going in 5 minutes! Im not tryin to make you sound bad or nething, but was Bear maybe using a smaller lens? (BTW: I found out that my mg actually has a 5 inch diameter!)

I believe it was Les who had the problem with a light cloud cover and I think he was using a lens from one of his cameras. I'm not sure about Bear, I'll have to research my tape archives. Anyway, it's not the width of the lens, but the power of magnification. And always blow hard on any type of spark or coal. Recently I was Watching a 1st season rerun of Man Vs. Wild where Bear jumped in freezing cold water to show how to get out of it, up in the mountains. He got back to his fire and complained that it had gone out. No way! There was still a tendril of smoke coming from the coals, and as the old saying goes: "Where there's smoke, there's fire!" Works everytime.

**owl_girl** · 07-16-2007, 09:03 PM

Actually you can use a small magnifying glass if you want, it don’t mater. My mag glass is 2 inches and its on a necklace. And you can use smaller then that so long as its not week it doesn’t mater the size. If Bear & Les had trouble maybe it was cloudy or the tinder wasn’t dry or something?

But if the sun is out even in winter it should work so long as the tinders good.

**Beo** · 11-01-2007, 02:11 PM

Anyplace that sells those magnified glasses for reading, buy a pair and fashion a magnifying fire starter from it. Try using dried moss or hay as a starter under your kindling, or set your partners hair on fire and then slam his head into the fire pit