As the title of this thread suggests, this is an idea in progress...
Tissue paper makes a good tinder when using with a firesteel/ sparkstick but I've always found it somewhat inconvenient to carry around. So, after a bit of experimenting, I've come up with this:
- Take a length of toilet tissue - maybe 15 sheets or so.
- Soak the lot in water then take the resulting mush and squash it down as tight and compact as it will go. This should expel most of the water.
- While squashing it down try to make it into as much of a square shape as possible. You'll need at least one flat side.
- Leave it on a window sill (inside) or airing cupboard to dry out for a few days.
- When it's thouroughly dry, place it in a plastic bag and take out with you.
- When you need tinder, unwrap the tissue brick and, holding the blade of your knife perpendicular to the flat side of the tissue brick, scrape up a good amount of tinder as you would when preparing birch bark for lighting with a spark.
- Scrape this tinder off the tissue brick and onto a dry surface (piece of dry bark, flat side of a large, dry split stick etc.) Basically anything that can be moved and added to your prepared fire.
- Use your firestick to drop a few sparks into the tinder.
- Once you have an ember, add more tinder (perhaps tinder that won't catch a spark but will take from an ember) and blow into a flame.
- use this flame to make your fire.
Don't touch the 'brick' with your fingers - the moisture from your sweat will soak into the tissue and prevent it catching from a spark. Just unwrap and expose the top part of the brick while holding it still inside the plastic bag. In the same manner as you may do when eating a chocolate bar etc.
You'll get several uses from a brick 30mm x 30mm x 50mm.
As I said, this is a work in progress - I've had very mixed results using this form of tinder.
Perhaps if you fancy trying this out you would post up your results?
Thanks for reading
Tissue paper makes a good tinder when using with a firesteel/ sparkstick but I've always found it somewhat inconvenient to carry around. So, after a bit of experimenting, I've come up with this:
- Take a length of toilet tissue - maybe 15 sheets or so.
- Soak the lot in water then take the resulting mush and squash it down as tight and compact as it will go. This should expel most of the water.
- While squashing it down try to make it into as much of a square shape as possible. You'll need at least one flat side.
- Leave it on a window sill (inside) or airing cupboard to dry out for a few days.
- When it's thouroughly dry, place it in a plastic bag and take out with you.
- When you need tinder, unwrap the tissue brick and, holding the blade of your knife perpendicular to the flat side of the tissue brick, scrape up a good amount of tinder as you would when preparing birch bark for lighting with a spark.
- Scrape this tinder off the tissue brick and onto a dry surface (piece of dry bark, flat side of a large, dry split stick etc.) Basically anything that can be moved and added to your prepared fire.
- Use your firestick to drop a few sparks into the tinder.
- Once you have an ember, add more tinder (perhaps tinder that won't catch a spark but will take from an ember) and blow into a flame.
- use this flame to make your fire.
Don't touch the 'brick' with your fingers - the moisture from your sweat will soak into the tissue and prevent it catching from a spark. Just unwrap and expose the top part of the brick while holding it still inside the plastic bag. In the same manner as you may do when eating a chocolate bar etc.
You'll get several uses from a brick 30mm x 30mm x 50mm.
As I said, this is a work in progress - I've had very mixed results using this form of tinder.
Perhaps if you fancy trying this out you would post up your results?
Thanks for reading
