Suitable Tinder...

[JoshG]

So i've just got myself a nice swedish firesteel and I'm about to start getting super interested in making fire by friction and all the other many great ways of making fire. But I was wondering what kind of tinder should I use? I've heard birch bark is great but i cant find any birch near me, but of course if I ever find it I will yoink some bark.

So I guess I have a few questions.

1)Is it silver birch bark i'm after here, not normal birch?
2)What other tinders can I use which are readilly available to me, e.g. should I steal some dry grass? I'm thinking of storing tinder for future use so some suggestions for a tinder that is easily stored and ready to go would be great.

Thankyou all in advance.
Josh.

 

[leon-1]

Hi Josh, have a look at this thread, there are quite a few good ones in here and as far as birch bark is concerned any birch will do.

 

[falling rain]

So i've just got myself a nice swedish firesteel and I'm about to start getting super interested in making fire by friction and all the other many great ways of making fire. But I was wondering what kind of tinder should I use? I've heard birch bark is great but i cant find any birch near me, but of course if I ever find it I will yoink some bark.

So I guess I have a few questions.

1)Is it silver birch bark i'm after here, not normal birch?
2)What other tinders can I use which are readilly available to me, e.g. should I steal some dry grass? I'm thinking of storing tinder for future use so some suggestions for a tinder that is easily stored and ready to go would be great.

Thankyou all in advance.
Josh.

Some tinders are of course better than others. If you want to practice a lot and only have a small supply of natural tinders you could use meadow hay as your main bundle (as mentioned available from pet shops, or gathered in a huge bin bag during the summer) and use a small amount of the better tinder in the middle of your tinder bundle to drop your coal onto. Red cedar bark finely buffed goes up almost instantly and is a fantastic tinder for sparking or friction fire lighting. There are many birches that are hybrids but if it's shredding it's outer bark it should work.
Easily stored and to handle and ready to go - Buffed Clematis bark, Honey suckle (usually found near Hazel) Western red cedar, or Birch bark. Use a little at a time in the middle of a less superior tinder and it'll last longer

 

[JoshG]

Thankyou both very much.

 

[steven andrews]

100% cotton wool smeared in vaseline is a great tinder to catch a spark from a firesteel. It can be tightly packed into a container, then "fluffed up" prior to use to catch the spark easily.

 

[rich59]

What other tinders can I use which are readilly available to me, e.g. should I steal some dry grass? I'm thinking of storing tinder for future use so some suggestions for a tinder that is easily stored and ready to go would be great.

Josh. As you can see from other replies there are lots of options.

Tinder is one thing, but something that will take a Swedish fire steel spark is not necessarily the same thing. But with practice you can probably get a lot of things to go from a spark. I am learning that a key thing with these ferrocerium rods is getting a good big spark. The bigger the chunk you scrape off the more options you have got on what you can get to catch directly from it.

Some things I recently got to go with early attempts were:- fluff from the tumble drier (easy to store), shreaded paper, birch bark, dandelion clock head (only a momentary flame), char cloth, felt made from a layer of "artists conk" shelf fungus, the razor strop fungus (piptoporus betulinus), cramp ball fungus, punk from hand or bow drilling, well rubbed fibre from dead flower head of phormium (New Zealand flax).

Lots of these could be stored.

 

[martin]

Tampons are compressed cotton wool. Carry them with a small tub of Vaseline (as Steve has already mentioned). Pull the tampons apart and fluff them up then smear some of the vaseline on. Wack a spark on the cotton and leave until the vaseline starts to burn. Vaseline will not burn on its own it needs the cotton wool to act as a wick. I've uesd this method for lighting fires and Kelly Kettles loads of times, it's dead easy and it always works a treat.

 

[oops56]

Well joshg go to your in laws house see if they got a old couch like in the 40/s or 50/s the stuffing in them burn real good.

 

[JoshG]

Josh. As you can see from other replies there are lots of options.

Tinder is one thing, but something that will take a Swedish fire steel spark is not necessarily the same thing. But with practice you can probably get a lot of things to go from a spark. I am learning that a key thing with these ferrocerium rods is getting a good big spark. The bigger the chunk you scrape off the more options you have got on what you can get to catch directly from it.

Some things I recently got to go with early attempts were:- fluff from the tumble drier (easy to store), shreaded paper, birch bark, dandelion clock head (only a momentary flame), char cloth, felt made from a layer of "artists conk" shelf fungus, the razor strop fungus (piptoporus betulinus), cramp ball fungus, punk from hand or bow drilling, well rubbed fibre from dead flower head of phormium (New Zealand flax).

Lots of these could be stored.

Thankyou very much, Rich. That's just the post I was after.

 

[JoshG]

The strangest and most Ironic thing... I managed to find some birch bark... Next to the drive-thru at Burger King! Haha.
Would you have expected that? I certainly didn't, the trees were quite young but the bark was in absolutely PERFECT state to be peeled off. I now have a little collection of birch bark all thanks to Burger King! And an earwig just crawled out of it... yay!

 

[bikething]

The only place I've found birch with "peeling paper" bark is outside our offices! (and it came with an earwig too!) -
I get some funny looks from the factory opposite though

I've also got a bag of thistle down that I collected around the edge of the car park 3 weeks ago.

 

[Carcajou Garou]

I use ripe cattail heads either from a swamp or from my "stash" plastic bag if a suitable source is to far. Seperate the "down" to let the air get to it and light it up very volitile.

 

[oops56]

Did the people down south use dry tobacco leaves in there fire piston or as a tender starter or with flint & steel or mybe cotton

 

[shadow57]

This stuff is really good when charred for my brass fire pistons

http://carcare.co.uk/product/KM100

 

[oops56]

This stuff is really good when charred for my brass fire pistons

http://carcare.co.uk/product/KM100

I saw it but what is it?

 

[bikething]

It's a cotton polishing cloth - like a heavy knit stocking