New tinder

[Adi007]

Cotton wool mixed with coal dust. Easy to light, burns well and long.

This weekend I'm going to try is with vaseline too. :-D :-D :-D

 

[JakeR]

Does vaseline burn? I know it is made from petroleum but i thought it was completely useless when it came to burning!

thanks,

 

[Adi007]

Cotton wool and vaseline is brilliant. Waterproof yet will light from a spark! :!: :-D

 

[Powderburn]

Jake, it burns like mad, providing it has some sort of wick. Vaseline-soaked cotton balls burn for several minutes. Great tinder.

 

[JakeR]

Brilliant, we have a tub of it somewhere, i'll have to try it!

 

[Smudge]

If like me your too cheap to buy cottonwool just to set it alight, dryer lint works great too on it's own or with vasaline

 

[Tony]

Both the cotton wool and the lint have to be made up of natural material. Cotton wool can come as a mix of cotton and man made stuff, as can the lint, neither of these burn so well.

 

[Andy]

belly button fluf and vasaline then should work great, the fluff burns out far too quickly

 

[Buckshot]

JakeVaseline-soaked cotton balls burn for several minutes. Great tinder.

How do you soak anything in vaseline ? Surely it's far too solid, unless you heat it up first :-? or is it just a case of smearing the cotton wool with a load of vaseline?

Cheers

Mark

 

[Strider]

spose you could melt it then pour it on..but everyone just smears the cotton ball with the stuff -burns for quite a while.

 

[sargey]

smearing is good. sparks won't work if the cotton wool is overly soaked with vaseline. lots of guys will stuff a 35mm film canister full of vaseline smeared cotton wool balls. eventually the vaseline seems to even out.

i got a load of tiny zip lock bags from a rock'n'gem show. i can make great little individual packets. it seems that the vaseline degrades the bags after longterm storage, or perhaps it's just hard to open a vaseline covered bag. but they often rip. so i just cut the bag and burn the lot, works a treat.

cheers,and.

 

[Martyn]

smearing is good. sparks won't work if the cotton wool is overly soaked with vaseline. lots of guys will stuff a 35mm film canister full of vaseline smeared cotton wool balls. eventually the vaseline seems to even out.

Yeah, that's what I did, just rub the cotton wool with vaseline, it's messy and takes time, but if you do a big batch of it, it's worth the effort. You'll be amazed how much you can tightly pack into a film can or old aspirin container. You also need very little to cath a flame and burn for some time, you should be able to pull apart the cotton balls to get a few fires from each.

 

[Adi007]

That's it - the cotton wool catches the spark, the vaseline acts as fuel and the coal dust adds a bit more heat and longevity to the deal, meaning damp fuel is less of a problem!

 

[Buckshot]

I'll try that.

:ekt:

Cheers guys

Mark

 

[Curdog]

In my experience, a plain cotton ball will burn for about 45 seconds, a vaseline smeared ball will go for about 4 minutes with a hot flame.

 

[Tony]

If you do heat the stuff up to melt it be aware that it can really stink. I have had some success dipping the balls in the molten Vaseline, be careful no to get to much Vaseline soaked into the cotton balls though or it will not ignite. Another way of coating the balls is to put one in a bowl or mug, pour a little molten Vaseline in and shake it about, this way you have more control over how much it absorbs.

 

[Adi007]

Don't heat it up in the microwave either!

I use the duel bowl method (like melting chocolate). Vaseline in one bowl heated by another bowl of water.

 

[Andy]

vasaline does indeed react to degrade plastics which is why it isn't used a a lubricant in pnematic sytems. (the lube they use is the same as the stuff used for ultrasound)

 

[Bear Stone]

Here's a good read on tinder:

http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/tinder.html

Bear