Firestarter

[spamel]

Whilst looking for something else, I came across this:
http://www.edirectory.co.uk/penrith_survival/pages/moreinfoa.asp?pe=IDJEEBQ_+Maya+Dust&cid=55
Anybody had any experience with it?

 

[steve a]

My opinion is don't bother with it, if you want to go down the Maya route buy the sticks and just scrape them with the back of your knife, this forms a scraping that can be lit with a ferro rod, you also have the sticks that can easily get a fire going, they work out much cheeper than buying a small tin of dust. You can buy a bundle of sticks for about £2.50 upto a sackfull for £25. Just google it and you should find a few suppliers.

 

[tomtom]

im with steve on this one.. i while im sure it works very well i wouldnt bother..
if your going to buy/carry man made tinder with you, you might as well use cotton wool.. its cheaper and easier to get

 

[khimbar]

I have some and the only time I've ever managed to get it to light is when it's covered in the superdrug alcohol hand wash. Cotton wool lights first time, every time.

 

[shinobi]

I must confess that I bought a tin of this as well as the Maya sticks, just out of curiosity.

Whilst the Maya dust works ok, I don't think it's worth the cash. The sticks function as well as the dust if you scrape of some bits with your knife and you can build up your fire with bigger and bigger bits of stick, whereas with the dust you're restricted to just adding more dust. Oh and it is very easy to knock with your firestick, so you keep on losing it in the dirt

Cheers,

Martin

 

[spamel]

Well, as I said, I found it whilst looking for something else, and asked you guys for an opinion on its worth. I think that proves it's not necessary, so I'll save my pennies. Thanks for your help :biggthump

 

[Realgar]

Anyone know where I can get a biggish piece of the wood from - it's got a bizzare translucent quality and I love to carve something from it.
Realgar

 

[hootchi]

Maya wood is hard to come by and normally only small pieces.

You will find it at the surface of a dead pine trunk, and it's produced when the tree is dying or 'realises' it's injured it loads resin into that area to try and heal.

The wood is a good fire starter because of the high resin content but unfortunatly does not exhist in large amounts. How large are you looking for anyway? You might be able to find a rectangle a few inches square.:?: