Firestarters

[Krasni]

From my boy scout days... simple 1,000 strike flint & steel with a zip lock bag of dryer lint (only takes about a fanned out quarter size of lint). Tender/Kindling as appropriate. I've had a bag of lint tucked in my go bag for years. It regularly burns homes down, highly flammable. (Lint, not MY lint)

May have already been mentioned, eyes crossed on page 3.

[Ranger]

I take a lot of pride in my fire starting. I make batches of char cloth and keep some in every emergency bag I have, from there I use my Fire Stick and throw a spark on the the char cloth, bury it in pine needles or dead grass or whatever and work like a dog to get it going. Last resort, magnesium (only if very wet or very cold).

I also have a really cool fire piston that I use from time to time as well. Other tools: make my own wax/sawdust/egg carton firestarters, cotton balls in Vaseline, dryer lint, sawdust by itself, fire bow, heavy praying - whatever it takes!

Fire starting is an art for me, I really love trying every possible way to do it. Did the 9 volt plus steel wool a while ago, that was pretty impressive!

[StagLefty]

+1 on cotton and petroleum jelly-cheap and can carry a lot in a small container.

[Ranger]

+1 on cotton and petroleum jelly-cheap and can carry a lot in a small container.

Actually, aside from a fire bow, this is my least favorite method. It's great if you have a flame and want to keep it going for a while, but not so easy to simply drop a spark on it and have it go - the char cloth is the best method for me, then if it's wet out and I need a bit more staying power on that flame then the petroleum jelly cotton balls are a welcome sight.

[BigBear]

Firestarters?.. Let's see. Bob. Likes to use a good soaking in kerosene before lighting from his zippo... Oh wait, you mean we aren't talking about arsonists?... crap... Let me go lock my doors.

[StagLefty]

Actually, aside from a fire bow, this is my least favorite method. It's great if you have a flame and want to keep it going for a while, but not so easy to simply drop a spark on it and have it go - the char cloth is the best method for me, then if it's wet out and I need a bit more staying power on that flame then the petroleum jelly cotton balls are a welcome sight.

I have an ESEE fire kit that has a misch rod-just messing around the other day with it and 1 spark lighting with cotton/pj balls.I like them because once lit they give you a good enough burn time to get your tinder going and build from there.JMHO

[Irving]

I didn't like the dryer lint because it didn't seem as flammable as the cotton balls. I guess I could try it again though.

[StagLefty]

Dryer lint was my preferred method until I started using cb/pj-with the cotton soaked with pj if you pull it apart so you have fibers sticking out it will light real easy. Dryer lint doesn't seem to have the fibers needed to me.Fibrosity
If Sara can make up words so can I.

[Krasni]

I try to collect the lint from all cotton loads, if that helps. I will have to experiment with the cotton balls/vaseline.

[Irving]

Okay, so I was watching Man, Woman, Wild tonight and they started a fire with a 9 volt battery and steel wool in about the same amount of time as it would have taken with a lighter. Just the other day I found a fist sized wad of steel wool near my tool box.

So I got out an old 9 volt I knew I had and the steel wool. Using the battery, the steel wool, and some toilet paper, I just CAN NOT get a spark to catch the toilet paper. I tried for so long that the battery became very hot and I set it down so it wouldn't blow up in my face. I managed to char the toilet paper at one point, but no flames. Any tips?