Edible firelighters.

[Robson Valley]

"Centigrade" is a term which means 100 divisions. I can apply that term to anything measurable that I like.

OTOH, The SI Metric system uses the actual names of the people responsible for the definition of terms.
Hertz, Ampere, Curie, Volta and, of course Celsius, himself are a few examples.

Celsius proposed a simple centigrade temperature scale which used plain water as the standard.
At zero, it freezes, at 100, it boils. No infatuations with a bucket of salt at all.
It is an agreed-to fact that the values are defined at Mean Sea Level = 1 atm pressure.

 

[Janne]

For sure, but the Celsius temp scale was called the Centigrade scale before the renaming.
Anders Celsius devised the scale where 100 was the freezing point and 0 (+0) was the boiling point of sweet water on mean sea level, but some genius inverted that.
I believe ( not sure) the issue was that mathematically it does not make sense to have a ‘-0’ and ‘+0’ or something like that.

Here in Cayman, we still use Fahrenheit, just like the US. Pounds for weight. Miles for distance!
Very backwards we are!

 

[Robson Valley]

Centigrade because it is 100 steps = gradations. As "decade" has 10 steps.

When the SI Metric System was put together, it was realized that some terms are very hard to translate from one language to another.
So, they agreed to give up ( as much as possible) on words and use the names of the original people, influential in the descriptions.
It is a fact that not all SI Metric System units are names, we all know that. Parsec and A.U., for example.
Angstrom was dropped because the bluudy-minded could not cope with a term other than divisions of 10^3.

The standard for the meter was a pair of scratched lines on a big fat bar of Pt/Pd alloy in Paris, France.
Surprise!!!! The bar is shrinking! We will sooon have more short meters between towns than ever before.

Speaking of edibile fire lighters, I hope that I can discern the difference between the charcoal in the grill and my food.

 

[Mesquite]

Pringles are even better - dripping fat as they burn!

You can boil a 1.5litre Ghillie kettle using exactly half a tube of Sour Cream and Chives Pringles.

I was going to try and see if the extra spicy versions lived up to the advertising of being extra hot but never got around to it

 

[Woody girl]

on topic, Brazil nuts, walnuts and Macadamia nuts all burn well. A Brazil can be used as a candle by carving to a point.

Has anyone tried peanuts? They burn better if you crush them, make a little pile of the crushed nuts before lighting them. (That sounds like some form of medieval torture by vengeful maidens!)

 

[Robson Valley]

Yeah, peanuts are cheap here. I buy 3 kg shelled/roasted/salted Valencia at a time.
Even peanut butter in kindling is a leg up for damp wood.
I'm not inclined, unless I had to, to use trail mixes of tasty exotic nuts for fire starter. BAD planning.
As a family, we always took many BIG bags of crisps as a snack for us boys and as never fail fire starter.

 

[Nice65]

Yeah, peanuts are cheap here. I buy 3 kg shelled/roasted/salted Valencia at a time.
Even peanut butter in kindling is a leg up for damp wood.
I'm not inclined, unless I had to, to use trail mixes of tasty exotic nuts for fire starter. BAD planning.
As a family, we always took many BIG bags of crisps as a snack for us boys and as never fail fire starter.

Bad planning is forgetting the firelighters, good planning is having a nutritious bag of nuts and using a couple to light the fire.

 

[Robson Valley]

There's nobody living on the 140 miles stretch between this village and the city. No cell phone coverage.
It's in your best interest to inventory and pack a sustenance kit that stays in the vehicle.
FFF = First Aid, Fire starter, Food. I keep forgetting to add a bottle of wine. One of these days.

 

[Nice65]

There's nobody living on the 140 miles stretch between this village and the city. No cell phone coverage.
It's in your best interest to inventory and pack a sustenance kit that stays in the vehicle.
FFF = First Aid, Fire starter, Food. I keep forgetting to add a bottle of wine. One of these days.

Different where you live, I’d certainly have a big hold-all in the back with provisions, some decent warm blankets or down bags, woolly hat, fleecy top, folding shovel, easy firelighting kit etc. Your situation could get serious, it rarely happens here. I suppose infrastructure breakdown is our worst case scenario.

As it is in the UK, I keep a small gas stove, a couple of cans of soup, can of Bacon Grill, and 2ltrs of water in the back of the car. I’ve never used any of it, just cycle the cans and water. It’s for the highly unlikely event I get in a motorway jam or suffer a vehicle breakdown and can’t get back on my journey. If I was off to The Lakes or somewhere a little more disconnected, I’d pack some extra insulation.

I know this looks like I may have just had a bit of a dodgy weekend This is a little pack of firelighting stuff. It’s solid, doesn’t smell at all, clean to pack, and they work really well. They don’t taste as good as corn chips or Brazil nuts, but I have a few tucked away in my bags and rucksacks. Brilliant things, I’d recommend everyone putting a couple in the firekit.

 

[Brizzlebush]

You can boil a 1.5litre Ghillie kettle using exactly half a tube of Sour Cream and Chives Pringles.

I was going to try and see if the extra spicy versions lived up to the advertising of being extra hot but never got around to it

Thank God someone is talking sense in this thread!
So how many Pringles (other tube-based snacks are available) does it take to bring 0.439 pint of water to 98°c? Somebody out there must have done the calculations.
At the least there must be some form of Bushcraft thermometer?
Perhaps 13/32in diameter yew sticks, harvested in a 300yr old churchyard at dawn in August would bend to the left at such temperatures?
Yes, I've deliberately used Imperial and metric, for comedic effect.
You may disagree with the comedic effect but surely not the science?

 

[GuestD]

13/32in diameter yew sticks,

Might give yew the hot trotts, or worse.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

I don't understand with all the stuff you have in the Uk why you'd want to start a fire with something you can eat. If you need a fire you are likely needing to eat? Why burn what food you have?.

With a little practice you can always find some dry wood/bark or grass or other wild stuffs to start fire even in rain or snow.. We had some guy out here once I saw started to carve a stick he'd found but he left each curl on at the end. When we asked him what he was going to do with it, he said he'd use it to start a fire. Feathers I think he called. it or something like it. One of our women quickly pulled some old bark off a canoe birch and that lights always even when wet - just with a match or lighter! . Out on the land of little sticks or the tundra Caribou droppings make nice fire but don't taste too good!! . Burns long and in the old days you could keep it glowing in a pouch and use it for starting a fire again.

 

[GuestD]

don't understand with all the stuff you have in the Uk why you'd want to start a fire with something you can eat. If you need a fire you are likely needing to eat? Why burn what food you have?.

A good part of this thread is good old UK tongue in cheek humour.

 

[Tengu]

Yes, Joe, you re right, if I had a tube of pringles, why, it would end up in my stomach in no time at all.

Birch is well known as a good fuel, but in this country, unless planted, isnt common outside the mountains.

No reason you cant collect and carry some bark though.

And feather sticks are useful.

 

[John Fenna]

Birch is well known as a good fuel, but in this country, unless planted, isnt common outside the mountains.
.

Masses of it in the woods around here!
And The New Forest...
Not just the mountains!

 

[Janne]

And you can see Birch as edible too!
The buds are edible, the (young specially) leaves are good for an herbsl infusion, the sap can be drunk, and if you are very, very hungry small amounds of the cambium (innermost bark) can be eaten.

 

[John Fenna]

And you can see Birch as edible too!
The buds are edible, the (young specially) leaves are good for an herbsl infusion, the sap can be drunk, and if you are very, very hungry small amounds of the cambium (innermost bark) can be eaten.

And wine - do not forget Birch Sap Wine!

 

[GuestD]

Masses of it in the woods around here!
And The New Forest...
Not just the mountains!

All along the roadsides in my neck of the woods. The council come out and shred it every year or so. I also produce my own char cloth.

 

[John Fenna]

I make char cloth on an industrial scale to furnish my Flint and Steel firelighting classes - dozens of teatowels are cremated every year....