Fire Straws..

[wicca]

I'm a great fan of fire straws, the plastic drinking straw stuffed with Petroleum Jelly and cotton wool mix. Rarely do I light tinder and carefully add kindling to feed the flame, I just make an open fire by piling tinder, kindling and thicker fuel wood in a heap and then just lighting a fire straw and poking it deep into the heart of the fire pile. I can't recall it ever failing, even with damp tinder. But...making the fire straws takes me back to being a Nipper and playing mud pies..

Vaseline (Petroleum Jelly), cotton wool bits sticking everywhere, making skinny rolls and poking them down the straws....and so, when I remembered I had some wax collected from the stubs of candles I had used at at Solstice, I played at making a different fire straw..

Plastic drinking straws..9.5 inches long.

Some old, and new Natural Jute garden twine.

Finally, the remains of Solstice candle stubs melted into an old food tin.

Candle wax on very low heat to melt

I cut enough Jute twine to thread doubled into 5 drinking straws which would be cut in half to make 10 fire straws. Immerse the twine in the molten wax, fish it out, let it drain and then leave it to harden. I left mine outside on a garden storage box.

I then cut the straws in half and using a piece of hooked wire hauled the waxed twine through each straw in turn.

Once the twine is threaded and cut you have a choice. You can either heat the end of the straw and pinch it closed..

Or just dip the end in the molten wax which will seal the straw.

When these are dipped I'll have 10 waterproof, floatable, easily carried bomb-proof fire starters.

The fire straws fit conveniently beside a small First Aid Kit and a fire tin ( Ferro rod, matches etc ) in my belt pouch.

On test each straw burns for at least 2 minutes, but I expect that may vary with different wax, twine etc:

 

[tombear]

Thanks for reminding me of those, I had completely forgot about them but have vague memories of copying them from a survival book back in the 1980s.

Can you still get those thick waxed paper straws? A quick Google and yes, a bit pricey so far

http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/paper-straws-birch-144.html?gclid=COCX78Ovj84CFRXhGwodYXQJzA

i think oat straws would be too brittle.

ATB

Tom

 

[KenThis]

I really like the idea of these but I don't like burning plastic. I guess you could make straws out of greaseproof paper and seal the seams with wax, though I suppose the plastic is what makes them easy to light in any conditions.

I tend to use cotton balls soaked in hot candle wax and left to cool, just break them open and tease out some cotton fibres to light them.
I've never tried lighting them when wet but I'm pretty sure the outer wax would keep them water proof, so as long as they were patted dry before use they'd be fine.

 

[tombear]

It's burning the plastic that has me looking for cheaper waxed paper ones like I used back when I was a kid, I know one of the fast food chains used to use paper ones rather than plastic but (a) I can't remember which and (b) they may have stopped anyway.

ATB

Tom

 

[Drain Bamaged]

Buddleia or Elderberry works if you are worried about the plastic, dry, cut to length, push the pith out, fill with cotton wool/Vaseline and dip the open ends in wax. A little more time consuming but actually better and stronger than the straws, plus it really winds people up when they see you send a single shower of sparks into a built and ready fire with apparently nothing smaller than pencil size pieces of wood in it and it bursts into flame first time.

D.B.

 

[forrestdweller]

what about sections of reed as containers?!

sealing the ends of the straws (regardless of what you use) with wax might lead to a mess in your gear if temperatures get hot enough.......

normally i don't use PJ/cotton for firestarting except a small amount stored in a small container made from a piece of aluminium pipe and a cork which i carry in a compass pouch on my tool belt-- its a backup for emergency only..... .the container can be refilled if needed.....