Oil / Fat Lamps

**BraggSurvivor** · 02-10-2008, 09:21 PM

When I go pheasant hunting in the fall with the boys, my wife makes and makes sure I have fire starters made from dryer lint and paraffin wax fire starters for just in case. They work the best out of any thing Ive tried.

What else would dryer lint be good for?

Cheers,

**Rick** · 02-10-2008, 09:46 PM

I stuff it inside a half roll of paper towel holder or empty toilet paper holder and use it for fire starter for the fireplace. Try cotton balls soaked in vaseline for your next outing. Super quick and easy to make. You can stuff six inside a 35 mm film can. Half a cotton ball burns for a couple of minutes. A full cotton balls burns for about five. As a bonus, if you have some chapped lips just a touch of the cotton ball gives you some vaseline for your lips.

I'm going to make some dryer lint and paraffin wax fire starters and try them. Do you use a cardboard egg carton as a mold?

**Assassin Pilot** · 02-11-2008, 04:19 PM

I just bring a small lighter rather than a fire starter (I know, it's cheating). But have any of you tried using one of those pencil sharpeners for large pencils to make tinder? The idea came to me yesterday while having to shade in parts of a map for science w/ a colored pencil and I figured the shavings from the sharpener could easily be lit.

**Rick** · 02-11-2008, 04:21 PM

Nothing that starts fire is cheating. I carry a BIC lighter as well. It just won't work very well or not at all when it gets really cold.

The pencil shavings is a great idea!!

**BraggSurvivor** · 02-11-2008, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

I stuff it inside a half roll of paper towel holder or empty toilet paper holder and use it for fire starter for the fireplace. Try cotton balls soaked in vaseline for your next outing. Super quick and easy to make. You can stuff six inside a 35 mm film can. Half a cotton ball burns for a couple of minutes. A full cotton balls burns for about five. As a bonus, if you have some chapped lips just a touch of the cotton ball gives you some vaseline for your lips.

I'm going to make some dryer lint and paraffin wax fire starters and try them. Do you use a cardboard egg carton as a mold?

Thats exactly what she uses. Whats nice about the paraffin/lint combo is it is completely waterproof. Seems like it burns forever and when the wax melts it spreads all over the place starting the fire even better.

**Rick** · 02-11-2008, 05:56 PM

Same with the cotton and vaseline. It's water proof. I'd seen the lint and paraffin starters somewhere on the net and thought they were a pretty good idea. I would think you could even add some sawdust to them when you make them. that should improve the fire starter...seems to me.

**Assassin Pilot** · 02-11-2008, 08:45 PM

Sawdust is always a good idea. Some people just don't have it as readily accessible. If you use my idea of pencil shavings those would work as well with it because they light easily and can help light other pieces of wood on fire as well.

**Two Rivers** · 02-17-2008, 09:16 PM

I've kept a pencil sharpener in my kit for years. Just another way to make tinder. Sharpening a stick with it.

**bulrush** · 02-21-2008, 09:29 AM

If you notice the designs on ancient oil lamps they are very shallow. Why?

In my testing with olive oil lamps the oil seems to be too thick, so that it will only travel up a wick 1 inch from the oil surface. If the wick is too high, the oil will simply not go up to where the flame is. Yes they work, there is a slight olive oil odor, somewhat pleasant, but you have to move the wick about every hour or so to account for lower oil levels, hence the usage of an often attached "pick". A metal pick to move the wick keeps your hands from getting carbon on them.

Corn oil tends to produce more smoke. As far as odor, I much prefer an oil lamp over a kerosene lamp.