Fire Kits
- Thread starter TeeDee
- Start date
I take bits out or take the whole lot to have a play around with techniques.
Pocket bellows are great and make getting a fire going very easy in challenging conditions
No shortage of flint here to use on the ‘steels’. The small steel is a Dave Budd made for the ‘Song of the paddle’ forum about 15 years ago. The larger one I bought of him at the moot this year. I can get a spark to catch on char cloth or cramp balls. The wallet is a plastic ‘oil cloth’ tobacco pouch. Good to put bits of tinder and dry fragments collected during the day.
I was just sorting some gear when the post came up so everything was to hand.
Pocket bellows are great and make getting a fire going very easy in challenging conditions
No shortage of flint here to use on the ‘steels’. The small steel is a Dave Budd made for the ‘Song of the paddle’ forum about 15 years ago. The larger one I bought of him at the moot this year. I can get a spark to catch on char cloth or cramp balls. The wallet is a plastic ‘oil cloth’ tobacco pouch. Good to put bits of tinder and dry fragments collected during the day.
I was just sorting some gear when the post came up so everything was to hand.
I have a leather bag that holds my firebow, the spindle and spindle cap, a hearthboard and one of my tinder bundles.
I'm of the short firebow persuasion. I don't do brush shafts. Mine's about eighteen inches long and it works, every time, it works.
This one was a present from Patrick McGlinchey (Backwoodssurvival) and the leather bag was a present from Warthog1981. I've been using that set for over ten years now.
I'm pretty sure the photos are somewhere on the forum, but I'll have a looksee.
The tinder bundles were on another thread.
In my foraging bag I have a wee tin with vaselined cotton wool pads and I carry a pack of the ratpack storm matches.
Somewhere I have one of the sort of lighter shaped pilots emergency firelighting things. It has a spark maker like a lighter and the inside holds waxed cotton twists. Just unravel one of them, spark onto it and you have fire
Very neat and tidy and pretty much bomb proof....with very little effort necessary.
Just minded, that set is in my Response Pack.
Flint and steel and chagga sets are in the working kit boxes.
M
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bushcraftuk.com
I'm of the short firebow persuasion. I don't do brush shafts. Mine's about eighteen inches long and it works, every time, it works.
This one was a present from Patrick McGlinchey (Backwoodssurvival) and the leather bag was a present from Warthog1981. I've been using that set for over ten years now.
I'm pretty sure the photos are somewhere on the forum, but I'll have a looksee.
The tinder bundles were on another thread.
In my foraging bag I have a wee tin with vaselined cotton wool pads and I carry a pack of the ratpack storm matches.
Somewhere I have one of the sort of lighter shaped pilots emergency firelighting things. It has a spark maker like a lighter and the inside holds waxed cotton twists. Just unravel one of them, spark onto it and you have fire
Very neat and tidy and pretty much bomb proof....with very little effort necessary.
Just minded, that set is in my Response Pack.
Flint and steel and chagga sets are in the working kit boxes.
M
edit
Tinder bundles
We've had a few threads recently on tinder, and I mentioned in one that I make tinder bundles from the assortment of 'stuff' that I find, forage or have lying around. I've worked the past two weekends demonstrating both natural dyes and firelighting, with a bronze and iron age basis. I cleared...
bushcraftuk.com
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I have a tin with bits of Birch bark and fire steel etc, but you really can’t beat the Polymath fire kit. Even the pencil sharpener is magnesium.
www.polymathproducts.co.uk
Spitfire - Pocket Fire Lighting Kit - Polymath Products
The quick and easy way to start fires in all weather conditions.
www.polymathproducts.co.uk
my fire kit lives permanently in my "manly man bag" and contains the following items: #1 homemade leather bag with a small tin, containing some fatwood sticks, jute twine, a piece of flint and a magnifying glass in a homemade leather cover; also a homemade container (recycled piece of an aluminium hiking pole someone in south korea left in the mountains -sadly typical...- when it failed) with some matches(only for emergencies but never used. so who knows it they still work, but regular checks show them dry) and 3ft. lawnmower staring cord for a bowdrill #2 a small waterproof tin with a rope lighter (30-06 + .45 shell*), striker (also from Japan), another piece of flint, gaps filled with tinder to prevent rattling #3 a small char tin with charcloth/ charred punkwood. i also have two bowdrill sockets with ball bearings (one found 3month later in the mud after a flash flood left the farm i was staying 4ft under water....) but they don't live in my bag...
probably more than what most folks carry (on a daytrip) but i'm in rainforest country so i'm not taking chances...
and N-O! : i'm not carrying or using an evil magic or thus ****** newfangled ferro rods (i'm more likely to ignite something by just staring at it) , since ten years i've only used traditional methods to start a fire
* top of shell filed round to avoid (so far it worked) going through airports, lost the previous rope lighter as some security guy in Incheon almost peed his pants mistaking it for a cartridge despite my explanation + showing him "2pieces and empty" and confiscated it....
probably more than what most folks carry (on a daytrip) but i'm in rainforest country so i'm not taking chances...
and N-O! : i'm not carrying or using an evil magic or thus ****** newfangled ferro rods (i'm more likely to ignite something by just staring at it) , since ten years i've only used traditional methods to start a fire
* top of shell filed round to avoid (so far it worked) going through airports, lost the previous rope lighter as some security guy in Incheon almost peed his pants mistaking it for a cartridge despite my explanation + showing him "2pieces and empty" and confiscated it....
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Here's my kit - from the top the flint, steel and tinder bits are from the Wilma's kit, middle right is a length of slow fuse with wooden holder, in the left corner are a couple of commercial firelighters and at the bottom a refillable lighter..
The flint and steel are great in the summer when twigs are dry and time is plentiful, but with autumn here firelighters speed up the situation nicely.
Yep, a plastic bag with a couple of firelighters and a cigarette lighter in it as recent fellow campers will attest.
Seriously though, my kit varies depending on what I'm doing. It's usually in a drawstring leather pouch/bag that opens out flat so nothing touches the ground and contains a variety of methods for demonstration - including matches, ferro rod, flint and steel, tinders, wire wool and 9v battery ....
If the occasion demands it, my bowdrill set is packed separately. Unfortunately, I don't currently have any pyrites (which some people consider was probably the oldest British firelighting method).
Seriously though, my kit varies depending on what I'm doing. It's usually in a drawstring leather pouch/bag that opens out flat so nothing touches the ground and contains a variety of methods for demonstration - including matches, ferro rod, flint and steel, tinders, wire wool and 9v battery ....
If the occasion demands it, my bowdrill set is packed separately. Unfortunately, I don't currently have any pyrites (which some people consider was probably the oldest British firelighting method).
It's natural fibre cordage treated with saltpeter or similar - @gra_farmer will be able to tell you better than I as it came as a bonus with a sale. It catches a spark beautifully and the wooden bead / grip is super handy..
I have a wide-mouth, screw-top aluminum can.
1. The can is lined with several layers of our iconic paper birch bark.
2. Two BIC butane lighters.
3. A solid block of magnesium metal with a spark striker down one edge.
4. A non-descript folder knife that I found on a logging road one day.
5. I practice. No sense, screwing around learning under brutal weather conditions. 1+3+4 and I can have flames in 30 seconds under ideal conditions.
6. A wooden box of Coughlan's hurricane matches, the heads are 1/2 the length of the match stick. I'd light a dozen of them in a pile if I needed to.
7. What I don't carry? A big bundle of dry spruce twigs. They have massive resin ducts for flammability. No real shortage of birch and spruce where I live. Bash a bunch into fiber with a rock and we will have fire, quite soon! The 10 minute road flares are in the box in the back of the Burb.
In warm weather, I have a butane cartridge stove that looks kind of like a JetBoil. Bought it in Melbourne, OZ in about 1970. Still functions flawlessly but adiabatic cooling makes it poop out easily. I can hand warm the cannister but that's hardly what I'm after.
For cold weather and high heat, the Coleman 533 petrol stove. It sings the familiar tune of Coleman stoves off grid for 5 months. It's heavy with volcanic heat for hours.
1. The can is lined with several layers of our iconic paper birch bark.
2. Two BIC butane lighters.
3. A solid block of magnesium metal with a spark striker down one edge.
4. A non-descript folder knife that I found on a logging road one day.
5. I practice. No sense, screwing around learning under brutal weather conditions. 1+3+4 and I can have flames in 30 seconds under ideal conditions.
6. A wooden box of Coughlan's hurricane matches, the heads are 1/2 the length of the match stick. I'd light a dozen of them in a pile if I needed to.
7. What I don't carry? A big bundle of dry spruce twigs. They have massive resin ducts for flammability. No real shortage of birch and spruce where I live. Bash a bunch into fiber with a rock and we will have fire, quite soon! The 10 minute road flares are in the box in the back of the Burb.
In warm weather, I have a butane cartridge stove that looks kind of like a JetBoil. Bought it in Melbourne, OZ in about 1970. Still functions flawlessly but adiabatic cooling makes it poop out easily. I can hand warm the cannister but that's hardly what I'm after.
For cold weather and high heat, the Coleman 533 petrol stove. It sings the familiar tune of Coleman stoves off grid for 5 months. It's heavy with volcanic heat for hours.
Yeah I have a little pouch with a set of pocket bellows, a ferro rod, a lighter with some bits of rubber inner tube round it (because sometimes I just want it lit!) and some small tinder bundles or wax/Vaseline based fire starters. All wrapped up in a zip lock baggie
i like your wooden slow fuse -- this version won't show up on any metal scanner (== see my previous post , rope lighter from two shells)
where did you get the saltpeter?! i'm using cotton rope boiled in a wood ash solution (for half an hour or so) -- a trick i learned during a trip to Jutland in a reconstructed Viking village -- but i guess saltpeter might work better
iirc that's what was used in the days of matchlock firearms, too...
As @Redhand Jack said it is natural hemp jute, and yes you pull it into the wooden Hazel bead to put it out. You need to retain the charred end to take a spark easily when in use again.
I am glad you like it, nice to see my work pictured on a post.
The potassium nitrate, KNO3 can be purchased anywhere, I was a lecturer for a while and this was leftover chemical from a project I ran. If you want a more mold resistant slow fuse, add borax to the mix, these slow fuses are left to soak few weeks.i like your wooden slow fuse -- this version won't show up on any metal scanner (== see my previous post , rope lighter from two shells)
where did you get the saltpeter?! i'm using cotton rope boiled in a wood ash solution (for half an hour or so) -- a trick i learned during a trip to Jutland in a reconstructed Viking village -- but i guess saltpeter might work better
The Ash idea is great, I have done similar before and woven the Ash in between fine garden jute, that worked okay too. The best thing to do with wood Ash is to make detergent, by slowly pouring water through and collecting the yellow water
To be honest I just have a ferro rod in my pocket and usually some matches in a dry bag at the top of my rucksack. With a bit of practice, it’s fairly easy to light a fire with a single match. Especially when you’ve got a knife nearby too.
I only really use flint and steel as part of a course and then I’ll have another dry bag with the fire kit in for that.
I only really use flint and steel as part of a course and then I’ll have another dry bag with the fire kit in for that.
I have a small tin full of wooden firelighters and a lighter. That's what I use 95% of the time because it's quick.
I always carry a lighter, but I usually have a ferro rod or flint and steel kit with me.
"anywhere" is unfortunately a place far away from the caribbean coast of Costa Rica but maybe i'm lucky at some point. .. borax for mold resistance is a great idea around here (and also used to kill cockroaches) so should be available
as already said: the Vikings figured out before me that boiling fomes fomentarius in wood ash solution improves performance -- it's also (most likely) the reason why the "Ruediger roll" works...
For the saltpeter, wee in a pot and leave it outside somewhere warm where itcan evaporate ( a roof will be needed if it's going to be rained on ) and eventually you'll end up with the crystals. Or if there's a midden to hand you may find the crystals already formed to be harvested.
Unless I'm having a play, I won't inflict my collection of fire starting stuff on you again, I don't actually have a fire starting kit , I do carry various items dispersed around my pockets and pack.
Tinder card and a plastic tub of strike anywhere matches in with any twig stoves I'm carrying.
Soto refillable gas blow torch type lighter in bag top pocket.
Chrome slim Zippo on idiot cord if I'm carrying a petrol stove, in a pouch attached to the storage case, I fill it with the same fuel, usually Aspen 4.
K&M brass match case in a pouch attached to the right shoulder strap of my daysack, or bergan, contains a mix of lifeboat and normal long matches with a striking strip and a little metal spark wheel thing.
A aluminium K&M match safe cut down to fit UK strike anywhere matches In my front right trouser pocket on a cord to my belt. OK there's a lot of redundancy there. 99% of the time I just use the Soto lighter , tinder card and the strike anywhere matches.
I do like flint and steel kits. If you soak linen char cloth in a strong KNO3 solution and let it dry in the sun it will catch the smallest spark but if you don't have something to snuff it out with as soon as you have lighted the wick sulphur match what ever, it will burn up in a instant. Real Hollywood stuff!
ATB
Tom
Unless I'm having a play, I won't inflict my collection of fire starting stuff on you again, I don't actually have a fire starting kit , I do carry various items dispersed around my pockets and pack.
Tinder card and a plastic tub of strike anywhere matches in with any twig stoves I'm carrying.
Soto refillable gas blow torch type lighter in bag top pocket.
Chrome slim Zippo on idiot cord if I'm carrying a petrol stove, in a pouch attached to the storage case, I fill it with the same fuel, usually Aspen 4.
K&M brass match case in a pouch attached to the right shoulder strap of my daysack, or bergan, contains a mix of lifeboat and normal long matches with a striking strip and a little metal spark wheel thing.
A aluminium K&M match safe cut down to fit UK strike anywhere matches In my front right trouser pocket on a cord to my belt. OK there's a lot of redundancy there. 99% of the time I just use the Soto lighter , tinder card and the strike anywhere matches.
I do like flint and steel kits. If you soak linen char cloth in a strong KNO3 solution and let it dry in the sun it will catch the smallest spark but if you don't have something to snuff it out with as soon as you have lighted the wick sulphur match what ever, it will burn up in a instant. Real Hollywood stuff!
ATB
Tom
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