Magnifying glass and cramp ball

[Suffolkrafter]

I found a likely looking cramp ball or king Alfred's cake yesterday - which turned out to be a bit soft and moist on the inside and did not take a spark at all easily.
Today I tried a magnifying glass on the same fungus and I had an ember in a few seconds. I'd always written off magnifying glasses as being a bit pointless. I was wrong. It will now feature in my fire kit.

 

[Tony]

yeah, they can be very useful, I tend to use a plastic Fresnel lens card, it's so light and tough, it's brill, well, as long as there's some sun! There's not a lot of effort needed it's a very efficient method as long as you're prepared and got the right conditions...

 

[swotty]

Hmmm....might try the little one on my sak if it's sunny this weekend!

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[dnarcher]

The key is area of the lens, not focal power. Old fashioned overhead projectors used to have a lens a bit bigger than A4 paper, Nd that was a great way to light a piece of black sugar paper.

 

[Riven]

Got a break in the clouds and took a couple of minutes to catch. Very impressed as have not tried using cramp balls. It's just a cheap kids glass too.