Tinder preferences???

[munkiboi182]

Hi guys n gals. just wondering what everyones preferable tinder is and in what context you use it. i.e whether you use thistledown to light bowdrill embers or light birch bark directly with a fire steel.

ill start


i use a fire steel to light birch bark shavings directly


cheers

munki

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

If its dry ill use whatever is available at site with a preference for birch. if its wet ill use some fatwood and a lighter. if its really wet i still use fatwood and batton out dry wood. If its monsoon i go for a mega tealite with rope wicks

 

[outdoorpaddy]

Gotta be feathersticks, reliable and always available.
Great thread!

paddy

 

[Retired Member southey]

Gotta be feathersticks, reliable and always available.
Great thread!

paddy

YUP! gotta love a feather stick

but I really like honey suckle bark and some kind of ember, hmmmmmm lovely!

 

[Thenihilist]

Depends what's available at the time.

Grass lets you keep blowing on it for ages but its unreliable in wet
Birch bark is easy to light, good longevity, hot and useful in wet but not great for lighting with embers
seed heads are hot, easy to light but go out quickly and any humidity makes them useless
Pitchwood, is hot, long burning good in wet weather but require shaving which isn't always possible with cold hands
Feathersticks are most reliable tinder form but difficult to make with cold hands or nowhere except wet ground to make them on

Generally the easier a tinder will light in warm weather the more useless it is in wet or humid weather while the tinders that don't light quite as easy do better in cold weather.

Personally given the resources I use a combination of tinders for example, lighting seed heads which in turn lights grass which lights feathersticks which light birch bark.

But again just whatevers available is good enough

 

[drewdunnrespect]

my answer is

feather sticks but since it is usually as wet as an otters pocket i usually use either tinder card or heximine or both
depending on how wet it is

drew

 

[mace242]

Charcloth lit with flint and steel on to tinder made from either bark, grass, etc. depending on weather and season. If really wet I have some jute twine in my fire kit I use. Then feather sticks or really fine twigs, building up in size, etc. Never fails me.

 

[santaman2000]

Mine is definitely because of my location; a good fat piece of litard (fatwood) Wet or dry, warm or cold, it doesn't matter. If you have a piece the size of your forearm with at least one jagged end, it will light easily and burn for 20-30 minutes until you get your fuelwood burning. Always keep a good stock near the fireplace at home (back when I had one) It's the standard here. Not always so easy to find on the trail though unless you start early and/or carry some with you.

 

[jackcbr]

Still playing with different types. Prepared in advance and on site. Personally I'd like to get familiar and comfortable using what's around me so I don't become too relient on one technique.

 

[spandit]

If I'm going to carry it with me then I'll use Vaseline & cotton wool. If I'm gathering it outdoors, then fluffed up birch bark is fairly easy to come by

 

[Lister]

petrol and a firesteel

 

[spiritwalker]

birch bark and firesteel it just doesnt let me down. But carried with my brew kit tends to be some cottonwool and vaseline, alco gel etc. For when im feeling sporty i use my old fashioned tinder kit with charcloth or amadou.

 

[Man of Tanith]

carried in-tindercard wax impregnated card brilliant stuff lights from match,sparkstick,lighter etc
old school-charcloth and bundle of rosebay willow herb seeds
and of course birchbark

 

[Skaukraft]

What ever is available.

 

[Tor helge]

I use birch bark as tinder 99 percent of the time. It grows everywhere up here.
The birch bark is lighted with ordinary houshold matches or a bic.

 

[Stringmaker]

As most of my fire work with kids is on the same site I have the luxury of being able to harvest and dry materials in advance.

To that end I always use flint and steel onto charcloth, then dried bracken and wood shavings in a dried straw nest.

That said, when I'm on site at 8.00am to get the cooking fires going then you can't beat a couple of firelighters!

 

[Thenihilist]

Just out of interest what is the definition of tinder?A few of my books have different definitions.I assume its definition would be whatever lights easily to get kindling going, but with a match a fairly common method is to light a faggot but if you were using flint and steel a faggot would be considered kindling.I've seen it described as anything that'll light from an incendiary spark but that would change depending on your method.Just interested

 

[Dannytsg]

If I'm going to carry it with me then I'll use Vaseline & cotton wool. If I'm gathering it outdoors, then fluffed up birch bark is fairly easy to come by

+1 on the preference to vaseline & cotton wool from me

 

[England Ram]

As others have said it varies.
I love using a fire steel so birch bark in 99.99% of cases works fine.
I have a small tin of Vaseline in my pack for muliple purposes, one of which is to aid fire starting in bad weather.
For Me the tinder choice isn't the problem, the challenge comes when you get people trying to add damp twigs or pieces of wood too quickly to the fire you get going.
I find feather sticks ok, but as others have said, with cold or wet hands a bit of a challenge.
Sheltered birch bark with well shaved and battoned wood has never let me down.
However, for extreme conditions I also have a length of bycicle inner tube that can be used as once alight it wont go out and burns high for a long time even in a downpour.

 

[Will Bowden]

I light the campfire at exmoorcentre.co.uk pretty regularly and try to stash a good quantity of dry kindling; usually feathering up a few sticks has it roaring in no time but there are times when its damp and visitors have snaffled my stash of dry stuff that I have resorted to swiping the WD40 out of the Land Rover


I like the bike tube idea, I'll give that a crack, I seem to have an ample stash of them with 2 kids and 9 bikes between us

Will