Prefered fire lighting method

[Dave Budd]

I can and do ligth fires using friction and more usually a flint and steel, but that is normally when teaching the skill or demonstrating as an iron Age blacksmith.

If I'm honest though, my prefered mehtod of lighting a fire is with a lighter and a splash of parafin! that's how I do it when i'm at work everyday and it never fails, no matter what I'm trying to light!

 

[Nat]

I also voted firesteel. I have a zippo but if that runs out of fuel as is often the case, a firesteel and cotton wool balls gets my fires going.

Never tried friction methods, they look difficult unless you have the right sort of wood to hand from what i've read and been told.

 

[SOAR]

I voted flint and steel.

But I also like my firesteel

Simon.

 

[Thrym]

Matchiesss with a lighter and firesteel backup.

 

[kmystry]

Well,
I carry a firesteel in my pocket every day but my PREFERRED method is traditional flint and steel. I live in a area where the trappers and mountain men of the 1820's trapped and hunted and it just kinda feels "right" for me to carry on the tradition. There's just something magical in bringing a flame alive with a steel and a flint, watching that spark run through the charcloth and blowing the tinder into a bright flame like it was done for centuries. I know that sounds corny....! People have just forgotten the good things in life...it's all Ipods, cell phones, and TV now.

 

[ady05]

after using traditional flint and steel for the first time a few days ago i will admit this is my preffered method now but i still carry my normal steel in my sheath

 

[Alberto Hernandez]

Hand Drill all the way!

 

[Mang]

Hey SOAR, you must have a big tongue to balance your firelighting kit on to photograph! lol.

Can't see that anyone has mentioned magnesium shavings with a fire steel...

A link to another firelighting thread if anyone's interested...

 

[Wayne]

Fire Plough is currently my favourite.

 

[andy_e]

I like to carry some balloons stuffed with a few cotton balls, the balloon keeps the cotton dry and if it's really wet you can light the rubber. Not done it but I suppose you could pre-soak the cotton in vaseline before stuffing it in the balloons.

 

[Graham_S]

Thermite filled arrows

 

[andy_e]

LOL! Graham_S, you don't have a Keegan perm, red bandana and a penchant for sneaking up on little black-pyjama-clad South-East Asian fellas do you?

 

[John Fenna]

Re cottonwool stuffed balloons - if you use Vas on the cottonwool you may be endangering the rubber of the balloons! Vas is a petroleum jelly and this will degrade rubber (this is advice given re lubrication and condoms...by experts in their field....) and the ballooons may fall apart getting your cottonwool wet.
Not ideal it would seem...

 

[KNC]

I like the firesteel as I find it to be the most reliable, but I would like to learn to use the bow and drill properly.

 

[Karl5]

I voted for matches.
Mainly because I've never managed to light a fire with any friction method yet, and I still have to produce good feathersticks for the firesteel...

/ Karl

 

[Nightwalker]

I've started using vaseline soaked cotton wool buds with my firesteel for the first time. Superb stuff, must be one of the easiest methods for getting the job done quick.

 

[SOAR]

Hey SOAR, you must have a big tongue to balance your firelighting kit on to photograph! lol.

Can't see that anyone has mentioned magnesium shavings with a fire steel...

A link to another firelighting thread if anyone's interested...

I've had no complaints

 

[Greg]

I originally voted for the use of a ferocium rod & striker set as my favourite, but now I have become relatively competent with a bow drill and the tradition flint & steel to get a fire going they have now become my personel favourites.

 

[Mike Ameling]

Thermite filled arrows

I guess they'd do in a pinch. Especially now that they made me give up my Willie Pete rounds and jellied gasoline!

The authorities just don't have a sense of humor anymore.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

(white phosphorus and napalm for all you youngsters out there)

 

[Nagual]

I thought long and hard about this. Two minutes later I came to this conclusion, that I didn't know enough about any fire starting method to have a favourite, there is just so much to learn even with a simple lighter and match. Perhaps in a few years I'll have it figured out.


Cheers, Nag.