Disappointing (and fun) firestarting techniques

[ZDP-189]

I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to firelighting. I have started a fire with a bamboo firesaw in the rain. But there are plenty of fire starting systems and techniques that proponents "swear by" that I have found really disappointing in the field and even under controlled conditions. Some noteable examples:

Magnesium fire-steel. I have owned two of these, some 20 years apart. I have tried many times and failed. On the packet it says I can use it to start a fire even windy conditions. I am a knife buff and even I can't shave a nice curl or anything more than powder from it. I have never ever got these to light and they blow away in the lightest breeze.

Fire-piston. I occasionally get an ember with tinder fungus or charcloth, but a lot of preparation is required (compared to even a fire-saw), the device is unreliable even when well made and well maintained and to me it's nothing more than a curiosity.

Flint (rock, not ferrocium) and steel. Maybe it's my technique, but so far I have made sparks, not fire.

Blue flame butane windproof lighter. Ordinarily this works a treat, but it certainly isn't windproof.

These all worked surprisingly badly considering their reputation. Conversely, there are some odd techniques that I have found work astoundingly well.

Lighting up from a smoke. A burning cigar or cigarette as an ember works even in very windy conditions. Cupped hands and a swift draw and maybe nitrates in the tobacco light easily and once burning won't blow out and will transfer easily to tinder. You have to be standing in a gale for this to fail.

Tissue, paper or cloth soaked in oil or animal fat. In dependently, they don't work too well, but together they make a good fire started in combination with a small tinderball.

Le Fée Absinthe. 68% v/v this will accelerate any campfire or campfire party. It's not as crazy as it sounds. A small 3oz hip-flask of this stuff has the alcohol content of more than a quart of whisky and I actually prefer it to all but the best single malts. It also dilutes well. At full concentration, it makes a good steriliser and just a few drops is enough to give a really good boost to damp tinder. Try lighting a teaspoon of this stuff and you'll see what I mean. You could fuel a Trangia with this if you had to. (And watch the green fairies while your dinner cooks.)

What are your disappointments and ideas?

 

[BushTucker]

Le Fée Absinthe sounds nice, what is it and can you get it in the uk?? not for fire starting by the way. I want to see little pink thingies.lol

 

[Fin]

Funnily enough, my fire piston is normally one of my most reliable fire starters - especially in wet weather. I have a small buffalo horn model and provided the string seal is lubed (I use Vaseline) and the tinder is bone dry - it never takes me more than three attempts to get an ember from tinder fungus - horses for courses as they say!

Flint and steel - I have only ever produced fire when using charcloth. Anyone use anything different? Hard work but satisfying when it comes off (rarely in my case - although I always carry a set as a backup)

Firesteel on the back of the knife on prepared birch bark still gives me a kick - the flame is so instant.

Top tip on the absinthe mate - although I have to say that I only tried it once and it made me gag! I can see what you see in it as a multi purpose liquid though - especially if you drink the stuff!

 

[Porcupine]

so far i havent found a way of lighting fire that was unreliable, what i did find was that my knowledge and technique wasnt always up to the task.

basicly firestarting comes in two ways, open flame or spark. (for simplicity friction goes to spark for me)

if you prepare to build it up from the type of starter you have not a lot should go wrong. that said, i stil have a lot to learn about making things work under adverse conditions.

 

[gregorach]

I've got an ember from flint and steel using amadou - never taken it to full flame though. Still, that's just a formality... No, seriously! Once your amadou has caught, it's really hard to put out... Wouldn't be my first choice, but it is cool.

As for burning absinthe... I guess it's better than drinking it.

The most disappointing thing for firelighting? The wrong kind of birch bark - the one that won't burn even if you go at it with a lighter. Dunno exactly which species it is...

 

[Tony]

I haven’t touched a magnesium block for years, just butcher it You can scrape slithers off of it but it’s a case of practice, I never use them now. You need some good tinder on hand as well to take advantage of the flare.

I actually get an ember from the fire piston nearly every time, the only difficulty II sometimes have is transferring it to my tinder and converting it to fire, this is partly through being clumsy and partly because it can be a small ember. It wouldn’t be my first choice but I’d be happy to use it if it was around.

I find flint and steel easy, although that’s with charcloth or some other prepared material, even if it’s natural like a bit of hemp. I think it’s a great way to start a fire, although seeing it done on t he movies where they just go click click and hey presto they’ve got a lovely fire, is a little misleading.

Lighters, they just need getting used to, as you say they’re crap in wind, I’ve not found one yet that really stands up to the wind but they’re a great backup or even a main stay of firelighting and use the other methods as back up

Never tried a smoke, thanks for the tip

Soaking things with fat is a bit like the cotton wool and Vaseline which works well and if you get it right it can burn for a good long time, Find wood shavings and wax (a bit like wax paper tinder cards) etc all work well when prepped right.

I think the mistake I most often make is not sorting my tinder well enough, or not having enough of it, around here there’s lots of beaches and half the fires I light are with drift wood, twigs etc, it’s amazing how quick a fire can die with the wrong wood on it in the early stages.

Maya sticks (resin impregnated pine) can be brilliant and I find it disappointing when it’s not, it does seem to dry out a bit and not burn so well if it’s left out, might just be me though.

I really don’t like the packaged flint and steels, the ones with the little bit of saw blade, maybe that’s because I’m used to the Swedish steel now and they’re a different kettle of fish.

Yeah, Amado is good, I use it in my piston sometimes.

I also enjoy getting the old fire dogs (charred bits of wood) going again, that can be a challenge, although sometimes it can be done really easily, I’ve come upon a few fires and just struck a spark and got a great fire going. Some wood only needs a small spark or ember and you’re away. You can get to burning big sizes very quickly.

I’ve never got a fire going with iron pyrites, have any of you? I should try again…now where did I put it

 

[ZDP-189]

Soaking things with fat is a bit like the cotton wool and Vaseline which works well and if you get it right it can burn for a good long time, Find wood shavings and wax (a bit like wax paper tinder cards) etc all work well when prepped right.

Interestingly, I brought some cotton wool and Vaseline on a recent trip. It was the rainy season in the rainforrest. We stacked our firewood under our shelter to keep it dry and prepared a separate bamboo guttering roof over our fire and placed some larger logs around the fire pit to shield it and dry out. Trying to restart a fire from embers, I chucked on a matchbook sized cotton-vaseline brick in a small ziplock, which from experience I know to be totally impervious and reliable. Sure enough, the fire quickly caught and picked up to a bright flame, but the tinder wasn't quite dry enough and after a fight, it went out. Our guide came back and hacked off some chunks of a dead nara hardwood tree with his bolo and casually chucked a couple of McDonalds beef pattie sized chunks on and went off to do something else. In moments he had a decent fire going. He hadn't even fanned the flame or anything.

 

[Tourist]

I played with flint and steel. I made a steel from an old round file by using a blowtorch to heat and bend it into a U shape. In that 'I know what I'm doing cos I read about it on the internet' sort of way I heat treated it - again using my blow torch.

I had a nice bit of flint and some charcloth and managed to get the charcloth going on the first attempt - yippee. Then I had to go and mess about with re-shping the steel a bit and totally ruined my [accidently] successful heat treating.

I have no probs with ferocium, lighters, flares and ciggies back when I used to smoke.

I used to get magnesium ribbon and cut it into really thin long pieces using scissors and keep the bits in a film container. Also you can cut pieces of magnesium ribbon and coil them around matches, stick with some gloohoo and you have, depending on your need: mini handheld flares; lifeboat matches; firestarters.

 

[rich59]

The most fun/ dissapointment in one go has been with liquid drop lenses. I have had great fun with so many variations

- drop on a waxy leaf like read mace

- drop in a small hole in a leaf

- oil drop floating on water

- water drop under oil

- and then there are lenses you can try by putting water in things - occasionally with success - like a wine glass or a plastic bag.

and then there is fun for the future considering using a spinning disk of water as a concave mirror

And yet water drops are credited with starting wild fires?

Anyone got an idea how this might actually work?

 

[bushyboo]

fire steel and the back of a knife for me usualy with feather sticks still trying with a bow drill but just get dust and smoke not going to give up till i get an ember

 

[hanzo]

I primarily use a ferro rod with gathered tinder. But I do carry fatwood as an aid for really wet stuff. When I visited with a client recently, I noticed he had a bunch of eucalyptus trees out back. I asked if he would mind if I took some bark. He told me to have at it so now I have my bag of bark tinder for our next camping trip in a few weeks.

A tinder bundle of eucalyptus bark burns hot and long enough to get most kindling and subsequently, firewood, going. Fatwood is my "cheat" when everything is wet.

A road flare or two makes a good emergency backup if you need a fire immediately and your dexterity is going south.

Some time back, I made a batch of "fire candy" that was a pretty good starter. It was basically a vaseline covered cotton wrapped in wax paper along with wax coated cedar shavings. The wax paper was wrapped up like a candy and tied with some jute cord. To light, the wax paper is cut or torn, the cotton and jute fibers are teased out. These catch with a spark and the whole thing burns hot with a pretty big flame (about an inch or two wide by about three to four inches high). It stays lit even in pretty high wind and burns for over four minutes (from my memory...it could have been longer).