Most popular/successful Fire lighting in the UK

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dnarcher

Full Member
Jul 21, 2016
59
15
Sheffield
I've got a different version of the pocket bellows, and they work surprisingly well.
Can I just add to the comments on ferro rods being a modern innovation. If I was alone in the wild with just basic tools, I think it would take me less time to produce a civilisation capable of delivering takeaway pizza, than to produce a ferro rod to start a fire.
 

Ogri the trog

Mod
Mod
Apr 29, 2005
7,182
71
60
Mid Wales UK
For my take on this topic - to get a fire lit in Blighty's damp conditions is to have options;

Flint & steel works well, ferro rods are great, matches - if you can keep them dry, a lighter if needs be and a magnifying glass for those lucky times.
Also carry a few cotton wool & vaseline balls, some jute twine that can be teased into a fibrous nest, a candle stub and some lipsalve.

Couple all of that with the ability to make feather-sticks, split whatever fuel you can forage and lots of patience.

You don't need to know it all at the outset - just enough to keep half a step ahead of your student!

Have fun with it all.
 
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Silverclaws2

Nomad
Dec 30, 2019
287
155
56
Devon
Game as I am for charcloth, fatwood, fine shavings etc, you could do worse than by one of these kits. Even the pencil sharpener for shaving the dowels is magnesium and can be scraped into swarf. Polymath sell on Amazon at £12.99 delivered, there’s a lot of value in the small tinderbox. No connection to the seller, I just like their innovative products. :)


View attachment 60460
Yes I'd already noticed that kit on Amazon, to have initially thought the silver thingy might be fire piston, to be wholly delighted to discover it is in fact an extending car aerial, oops a rather innovative and useful extending tuyere - of which has other uses I can think of in the field.
 

Silverclaws2

Nomad
Dec 30, 2019
287
155
56
Devon
For my take on this topic - to get a fire lit in Blighty's damp conditions is to have options;

Flint & steel works well, ferro rods are great, matches - if you can keep them dry, a lighter if needs be and a magnifying glass for those lucky times.
Also carry a few cotton wool & vaseline balls, some jute twine that can be teased into a fibrous nest, a candle stub and some lipsalve.

Couple all of that with the ability to make feather-sticks, split whatever fuel you can forage and lots of patience.

You don't need to know it all at the outset - just enough to keep half a step ahead of your student!

Have fun with it all.


Indeed as looking in my forgotten fire tin, a rather battered 2 oz tobacco tin I had created over a decade or more ago, I find ; lifeboat matches, strike anywhere matches, a tiny BIC lighter, a pencil sharpener, fresnel lens, a couple of small ferro rods and saw file strikers, a steel striker and a dodgy bag containing vaseline soaked cotton wool balls, to conclude I have options. But I do wish to move to a more pocket slip-able waterproof and bash resistant plastic box as I certainly can't envisage needing a 2 oz pan, - not anymore anyway as I have moved past that stuff.

So my plan with my pupil is as follows - starting with ferro rods ; start a fire in ideal conditions, then start a fire in the worst conditions (raining), start a fire at night and one for winter ; start a fire when one is cold.

When my pupil is confident with ferro rod fire starting, move onto flint and steel and do the same, to also instruct my pupil to create a tinder box and there learn what in the wild can be useful for tinder.

After which I intend to more for interest to stir the grey matter as opposed to 'useful' move onto what I consider the more exotic methods ; friction, compression, electricity, light concentration (though I personally have never been successful at fire making with a magnifying glass or polished parabolic surface), etc.

Noting in all this is not just the teaching of my pupil, but the practising for myself, as I have said, I have been a long time away to have been delighted with reading what all of you have wrote of which has unlocked mind stuff I had thought I'd forgot, well I had to have been asking the question I had , later realising of course all I needed was keys to open doors.

Thank You All.
 
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demented dale

Full Member
Dec 16, 2021
647
308
57
hell
Petrol and car tyres. Start it by crossing the terminals on a truck battery. Burns a treat. If not then use wire wool, cotton wool, soaked in fat, oil or vaseline and make a fine feather stick. Ignition with a flint and steel ferro rod
 

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
I also have mixed feelings about ferro rods. If I can use a ferro rod, surely you can use a "bic" lighter ; both factory produced. However are we trying to be true to a moment in time or to guarantee a cup of tea. For a cuppa then I would have a lump of cotton wool sealed in candle wax. Water proof until broken open and fluffed up to take a spark or flame.
 

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