(5) Tinder Ignition
There are many types of tinder and well discuss a few of them. In general terms, tinder must be very easy to ignite with a minimal amount of heat. In order for this to be true, we should try to optimise certain characteristics. Tinder should be:
1.
Bone dry. There is often not enough heat generated in fire lighting to first dry out tinder and then to ignite it.
2.
Very fine. We discussed earlier that it takes twice as much energy to ignite an object twice as heavy. Having tinder in large lumps makes it hard to light. Even flat sheets are more difficult as the bulk of the tinder is not mixed with air. Thin fibres of tinder with air pockets interspersed with the fibres work best.
3.
Highly exothermic, In other words, once ignited it should generate large amounts of heat. However the nature of making tinder fine, means there isnt a huge amount of it, so ones fire should be built up lighting small twigs first.
Tinder can come in many forms. It can be
1.
Naturally occurring
2.
Fine or adapted fuels
3.
Procured from readily available household materials
4.
Purchased
Top Tip:
Its very important to match your tinder to your heat source. Trying to light a feather stick with a piece of glowing charcloth is very difficult. Igniting a nest of dry grass with it is easy though and then igniting the feather stick with the dry grass is also easy. Generally tinders that glow because they are carbon based (cramp ball, friction coals, charcloth) are best added to another tinder that will flame (dry grass, clematis bark etc.) before attempting to ignite kindling (fine wood).
Naturally occurring tinder:
Birch bark. One of the most widely available and easily recognisable of tinders. Its great as it needs minimal preparation. Many fallen trees have paper thin bark already peeling away. There seems to be plenty of fallen birch logs around too. Pieces of bitch bark can be teased apart with the fingers too tissue paper thin strands or scraped into strands and powder with a knife. A good handful squeezed into a loose ball will generally catch a spark first time. Birch bark contains lots of tarry hydrocarbons (so much that tar can be extracted from it) so it burns very hotly with good flame. Shredded birch bark is very fine though beware it blowing away!
A fallen birch log
A pocket full of birch bark!
Clematis bark: Clematis is a climbing plant with a soft bark that forms vertical lines. Its downy seed pods are instantly recognisable. The seed down will burn but generally absorbs water from the atmosphere and so needs to be dried before use. The clematis bark can be stripped away from the stem and buffed (rubbed between the palms of the hands) into fine fibres. If the plant is not dead, these need to be dried but they dry easily in a pocket near the skin. They burn well and are great for developing flame from a piece of charcloth or cramp ball.
How to spot clematis
Raw and rubbed clematis
Dry grass or straw: Sounds great but actually very hard to find dry stuff in the wild. Again if dry(ish) stuff can be found and kept in a warm place for a while it gets much better. Coarser stems should also be buffed up to make finer fibres (especially straw). A handful of hay or straw from the middle of a bail is generally dry even if stored outdoors.
A burning straw "nest"
Fatwood: Fatwood is formed when natural resin (pitch) is concentrated in the centre of the stump of certain pine trees. This means that wood emits a large amount of volatile hydrocarbon vapour, ignites easily and burns very hot. Thin fibres carved from a fatwood stick can even be ignited from a spark from a Feroccium rod. Fat sticks are sold under a variety of names including Maya sticks.
Burning fatwood - note the "pitch" coming out
Cramp ball: Cramp ball is a black vaguely round fungus usually found on dead or dieing ash trees. It looks and behaves like a light charcoal honeycomb. On the outside it is smooth and almost shiny and looks almost like a black animal dropping. On the underside it has concentric silvery rings. When ignited it glows like charcoal and burns for a very long time, although a thinner fibre based tinder or twigs are useful to coax flame.
Cramp ball as its found
"Glowing" cramp ball
Horses hoof fungus. The horses hoof (or false tinder fungus) grows on dead Birch trees. It has three distinct layers - a very thin crusty outer layer, a thin (1 or 2 mm) leathery layer of amadou and a thick corky spore layer. The crusty outer and spore layer need to be removed and the leathery layer either dried and roughed up with a knife blade or boiled in wood ash, pounded and fluffed which some claim improves the fire taking qualities.
A horses hoof fungus and prepared amadou
True tinder fungus or chagga. Chagga fungus looks like a black lumpy burr on the side of a birch tree. Dried and crumbled it makes excellent tinder and is particularly effective in fire pistons.
Prepared chagga fungus
Punk wood: Punk wood is the soft powdery wood found in the middle of rotten logs that is almost as light as balsa wood. It can often be found dry by knocking or kicking apart rotten logs. Be sure to dry it or dry out damp stuff before needed. It light very easily since its well mixed with air already. If charred like char cloth it will catch and burn from a cool spark.
Dry punk wood
Tinder made from fine or adapted fuels:
Feather stick: . In making a feather stick, fine curls of wood are shaved from a dry stick leaving them attached to the main stick. The finer the curl, the easier they are to ignite some practice is required to get good and quick at this. I have had excellent results by using an axe to split a wet log to get to the dry wood inside, chopping thing pieces of dry wood and then feathering them. A finely feathered stick can be lit with a match a very well made one ignited with a spark from a ferrocium rod.
A finely feathered stick
Butane: You may know butane as a stove fuel, but it is of course a vaporised hydrocarbon its also lighter fuel! The heat source in a lighter is the piezoelectric spark or flint. Its butane vapour that provides the tinder.
A "Windmill Lighter"
Petrol: Petrol vapour (liquid petrol doesnt burn just the vapour) is what powers the trusty Zippo lighter.
The cooler trusty "zippo"
Tinder procured from readily available household materials:
Cotton wool: The fire makers friend. Dry cotton wool will catch any old spark and burst into flame. Cotton is of course a natural plant fibre! I carry some in small ziplock bags. Its cheap, widely available and foolproof. Whats not to like?
Burning "plain" cotton wool
Cotton wool and Vaseline: Like cotton wool just better! Rubbing a small amount of Vaseline into the cotton wool gives a long lasting burn. A small ball will burn from 5 to 10 minutes! Vaseline is of course petroleum jelly petrol! The cotton starts to burn and vaporises the jelly. It then acts like lots of candle wicks and the result is probably the easiest lighting, best burning, tinder that I know.
"PJ" coated cotton wool
How it burns...........
Drier Lint: A lot of people recommend this but I have to say, cotton wool is better (and only 99p for a big bag). Drier lint is the stuff from the lint trap in your tumble drier. The quality depends on what was washed though and there can be lots of other (non cotton) fibres mixed in. Stick to cotton wool is my advice!
Charcloth: Another of my personal favourites. Easily made by charring natural fibre cloth in an airtight tin with a small hole. Ensure you use only natural fibres (cotton or linen are great). Some are treated with a flame retardant so be sure you use those that arent. Charcloth is my tinder of choice with proper flint and steel but its good for lots of uses. Again, its a glowing tinder so to produce flame, its best dropped into a ball of fibrous tinder and blown into flame.
Smoldering Charcloth
Olive oil: I have found that many tinders can be improved by smearing or dripping on Olive or other vegetable oil. I always have some in my Bergan for cooking and have noticed that a piece of cloth or cotton wool with oil rubbed in burns very hot and long same principle as cotton wool and Vaseline plenty of easily combustible hydrocarbons in oil the Romans used it as lamp oil after all.
Cotton wool an olive oil
Charred wick: I use a lot of oil lamps. Ive noticed that a wick that has been burned before lights very easily. A small piece of charred lamp wick can be used to catch a spark and transfer the heat to another less volatile tinder. It can then be extinguished and re-used. Again it can be improved with a little oil.
Glowing lamp wick
Candles: Many survival instructors advise using a candle to start a fire. The one advantage these have is cheapness! Tealight type candles can be had for about 2p each and only cotton wool and petroleum jelly can equal that for cheapness. Two top tips.
1) If using tealights, light them at home and blow them out charred wicks light more easily
2) Try using the trick birthday cake candles that dont blow out!
A birthday candle - small and portable!
Candle wax and sawdust: I have heard of people using homemade firelighters made from candle wax and sawdust (with or without embedded wicks). I see no reason why they wouldnt work, but for me, if going that far, Ill take a packet of firelighters.
Wire wool: Wire wool works very well as a firelighter and burns very, very hot. Ideally you want the fine stuff (0000 or 00000). It lights from a batter or spark and glows like a bulb filament literally red hot. It wont flame so have another tinder or fine kindling available to catch the heat it doesnt last long. Interestingly a few drops of added oil work well again!.
Hairy string: Good old fashioned garden string is just vegetable fibres (usually jute). I keep a small hank in my pouch. Its good for firelighting when teased apart plus shelter building and washing lines !
Jute fibres - great for catching a spark!
Prawn Crackers. Really. Want a bet?
A burning prawn cracker. No preparation involved - try it!
Purchased tinder:
Zip firelighters: Yeah I know, hardly Bushcraft, very, very handy though when its hammering down, you are cold and wet and so is the wood. I carry them. I can make fire underwater if needs be. So? It takes longer and why be uncomfortable, I dont carry a first aid kit because I plan to use it, but I use it if I need to. Zip do some really nice individually wrapped ones that save stinking your pack up. Shave pieces off finely and they will light with a spark.
Pre-packed firelighters - great for not smelling your pack out!
Hexamine block: No real difference to firelighters esbit and hexamine blocks are solid fuel for stoves. If you are running low though, using a small piece of one to eke your fuel out by starting a fire makes sense.
Hexamine and Esbit blocks
Wet fire tinder: A commercially made firelighter. Comes individually wrapped in small bags and will burn floating on water. Good stuff but pricey.
Packaged Wet fire
Wet Fire Tinder burning while floating on water
Shredded fire logs: Many supermarkets sell self-igniting firelighters and firelogs. Small pieces of these broken up burn very easily and make for a very cheap tinder source
Pieces and shredded bits of "fire log"