The Pa's Homemade FireWick

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Old Pa

Tenderfoot
Jul 4, 2009
59
0
Northwoods
Bushcraft, both knowledge and technique, builds the individual’s ability to know what’s important, to effect what needs to be done, and to do both with the minimum of muss and fuss. While there are few ideas new under the sun, I took care of a couple of things that needed doing this morning; solving a waste problem and solving a fire starting aid issue.

SWMBO and I enjoy eating our dinners at home (which is most of them) by candlelight. While it’s not a crackling fire, it’s pleasant and well worth the effort. My latest batch of Ikea votive candles, however, seemed to be engineered to guarantee 25-30% waste. I am not fond of waste. So I saved the spent candles for a project requiring the remaining wax.

A fire can make a big difference in the Northwoods. Whether it’s a cooking or comfort item or one of survival should you be cold and wet, nothing beats a good fire. Getting a fire going can be problematic; conditions for firestart are least propitious whenever the need for a fire is greatest. You can have satisfactory tinder and a reliable source of ignition and still need something to “bridge the gap”. And that something is worthless if you do not naturally have it with you.

So, with my left over candles and some medium cotton twine, I set about to make some matchstick-size firewicks for my matchsafe. The votive candle remains were already in metal cups and the wax was quickly melted over low heat on my ceramic cooktop. Melting flammables is one time when I was happy to have the electric cooktop and avoid a flame source of ignition. With the wick assembly removed, match size lengths of twine were soon soaking and then cooling and hardening in a nearby saucer. I straightened each one as it cooled for later storage in the matchsafe. A test firewick burned for almost a minute in still air, was oblivious to a little water in the sink, and held a much stronger flame than a simple match.

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A dozen firewicks fit into my garish Coghlan’s “5-In-1 Survival Aid” with another dozen “strike anywhere” matches (get yours now – the current Administration will soon be banning production). I’ve been leaving my forty year old Marble’s matchsafe home since getting this thing; 1) it works, and 2) it’s decidedly not bushcraft chee-chee. :D

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But if anyone was on the cusp of laying out for somebody’s nifty-swifty “fire in a box” kit, this might be the $2 solution for you.
 

masongary44

Need to contact Admin...
Aug 6, 2004
127
0
48
Leeds, England
That looks like a great idea...

I tend to have a box of matches encased in a block of wax to give me a fire-wick match.... quite useful, although they got so hot while in storage in the loft the wax melted all over my rucksack... and ... after a while the strike anywhere matches seem to stop working..... not something I would want to find out when I needed them the most.

I have also tried chopping up the fire-log things made from wax and wood chippings into small cubes fro use as a kind of fire-lighter.... seems to work OK, but, can be a pain to chop into small pieces.
 

Old Pa

Tenderfoot
Jul 4, 2009
59
0
Northwoods
I should probably mention that my primary firestart for the last thirty years has been a disposable butane BIC lighter. I've seen and tried the range of "turbo supreme" gas lighters and none has really "lit my fire" :D We can still get the old standard BICs that are not "kiddie proof" and I buy them by the six pack. One in my pants pocket, one in the pocket of each jacket, and several variously through the ruck. Matches/flint/etc. are there for backup, and I can't remember the last time a BIC failed me. While I practice the old firestarting ways at least once a year each (they are, after all, mechanical skills), I remain perfectly content to "flick my BIC" at my stove, into my gas grill, or into a mound of dry tinder. Even when you're out of gas, there's still a nice hot spark. It's a device that just doesn't need any improvement.

Will they take a spark from a ferrocerium firesteel?

Good question. Never tried it. You'd have to be a pretty accurate spark flipper to hit a piece of waxed twine and I myself prefer a much bigger target for my spark flipping. :D But once you get a piece of fluff and char cloth going, the FireWick kicks things up to another level quite nicely. The FireWicks also wrap nicely around and stick to light twigs to get some wood burning sooner.
 

gregorach

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 15, 2005
3,723
28
50
Edinburgh
Yeah, I've managed that once or twice, but I didn't find it easy...

My usual "extreme" tinder is cotton wool (or other fluff, reedmace fluff works well) rubbed with vaseline - you spark a firesteel anywhere near that stuff, and it's up in flames. Sure, I normally use a cigarette lighter, but the point of having a firesteel is for when normal methods are unavailable...

Survival firelighting kit should be extremely reliable and easy to use. I can't say that lighting a candle (or feathersticks) with a firesteel falls into that category - they're show-off tricks. At least, they are at my level of skill...
 

ForgeCorvus

Nomad
Oct 27, 2007
425
1
52
norfolk
I've just made some slow-match, when its dried out I'm gonna be testing it out with several different ways of lighting

Like the wax idea, I've done something like with cloth in the past
 

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