What fire starter

[Dave Budd]

A fire is the only way to make a cup of tea every day in the workshop (along with the woodburner, forge and torches I probably light a fire 5-10 times a day). Being a lazy scrote I normally use wood shavings and a lighter, old faithful clipper or cricket usually. If I haven't been doing any work to produce shavings recently, then it's a handful of sawdust (chainsaw, bandsaw or planer/thicknesser) from behind the machine and a splash of red diesel from the genny jerrycan.

If I'm demonstrating at a lrp event or living history context, then it's a flint an steel with clematise, honeyscuckle, birch bark etc. I normally catch teh spark on charcloth but also king alfreds cake if I have them to hand

 

[Nice65]

I like the idea of the bone bearing block, might try that

I love playing with fire, I love flint and steel, the satisfaction of bow drill, the ease of prepared cotton wool and all those things, but I think my favourite is my blowtorch, it just gets the job done, petzo ignition, pull trigger and it's like a dragon spewing fire on hobbits and fire is born. I've had numerous people tell me i'm wrong to use it, that it's not the 'bushcrafty' way of things etc but the fact is, my fires burning, my family is warm and we're cooking food very very quickly.

As I said, I love other methods as well and i'd not be so easy on myself if I couldn't use them, but I can and I do and I would teach them first, but hey, I can't resist a dragon spewing fire

I'm a great lover of playing with sparks etc, but am guilty of using a jet flame lighter and firelighters when things need getting done.

 

[forrestdweller]

since over 6years only magnifying glass, flint and steel and friction (usually bow drill) -- evil magic (a.k.a. lighters) are forbidden at my camp....

 

[Nice65]

since over 6years only magnifying glass, flint and steel and friction (usually bow drill) -- evil magic (a.k.a. lighters) are forbidden at my camp....

That's probably because you're well organised

I generally get there several hours later than planned, find darkness beginning to creep in, hurl the hammock between a couple of trees, set up a chair, open a beer, and bung a couple of firelighters and logs together, have a sit down for a half hour before getting some food on.

I've a lovely fire kit, well two with the Spitfire that arrived a couple of days ago. I won't use waxed jute, Vaseline cotton balls, char cloth, or anything like that if I want to enjoy a proper fire lighting. I'll knock out a dead Pine knot, scratch up Clematis, prep up twigs and dry wood. This is something I thoroughly enjoy, but it's not always the solution to an enjoyable camp out.

 

[forrestdweller]

That's probably because you're well organised
.

admittedly i keep some dry tinder in my kit (stored in a small and hopefully waterproof tin i found in Japan when cleaning an old house) and more dry tinder in shelter (which a baby fer-de-lance choose as its sleeping place recently....) but on occasion it takes a while before my fire burns as desired....

 

[Nice65]

If I had a Fer de Lance in I think I'd be building myself a new shelter.

 

[dwardo]

Last weekend in the woods with sub zero mornings and no prepared tinder,,, Doritos and a lighter worked great! First brew was had in no time several mornings in a row. Not much other use when the salsa and humus has gone

 

[Broch]

Years ago I was having real difficulty getting a fire going. I was on an unplanned forced stop in a downpour with no pre-prepared kindling. However, I did have a bottle of spray insect repellent that contained alcohol - works a treat, got a fire going in no time. Sometimes, being forced to think things out is far better than using the same stuff all the time.

 

[forrestdweller]

If I had a Fer de Lance in I think I'd be building myself a new shelter.

I broke the world record in throwing a snake infested plastic bag and gave my shelter a VERY good clean-out...

 

[Tony]

Bowtorch when I want it lit immediately and we're camping somewhere for a while, it's a very useful thing to have and will get most things going in a jiffy. Otherwise, it's matches and twigs or feather sticks, Ferro rods and then we start getting into the embers from flint, steel and charcloth, or king Alfred cakes etc. I do like doing things this way when I feel I've got some time to enjoy it. I've been caught out a few times cold and wet and not able to get a fire going, ended up just wrapping up and going to sleep

I've got a big load of shavings that I've been thinking about mixing with wax and then band sawing the big lump into smaller blocks for fire starters, we'll see how that goes

 

[Wayne]

When on exped I always have a SFA or equivalent axe so I pretty much guarante I’m going to get dry kindling carving feather sticks.

I will carry a sheet of waxed tinder card for emergencies.

 

[Robson Valley]

A feather stick has the surface area.
That's so important that wax& sawdust should be poured in sheets not lumps.
Kind of a suggestion from the construction of birch bark.

 

[Janne]

Nothing we can use, but when I served we used the Swedish type of C4. We took a piece the size of a walnut, pressed it on a piece of split birch and lit with a match.

Basically an oil soaked in something dry and powdery should work fine too .

Edit: Crayons, do they burn well? Oil based modeling clay ( Plasticine), does it burn well?

 

[Robson Valley]

One way or another, hydrocarbons can be made to oxidize/burn. Thermodynamics.
My central heating furnace runs on a burning spray of modified diesel fuel.
Even our highways burn in wild fires ('black-top/bitumen').

Simplest for me is a big handful of dead twigs from a spruce tree. Right in near the main trunk is always the driest.
Put then on a rock and bash them to fiber with another rock, that's my feather stick.
Works perfectly well in my environment but probably not so, outside the Boreal Forest Biome.

 

[Hammock_man]

Edit: Crayons, do they burn well? Oil based modeling clay ( Plasticine), does it burn well?

Crayons will burn but need something like cardboard to act as the wick. Think of them as a poor mans candle. Plasticine did not work for me when I tried it. I think it is the oil to filler ratio. Like a poor coal that is more grit than carbon.

 

[Nice65]

Crayons will burn but need something like cardboard to act as the wick. Think of them as a poor mans candle. Plasticine did not work for me when I tried it. I think it is the oil to filler ratio. Like a poor coal that is more grit than carbon.

If you're going to carry crayons you might as well settle for a candle really.

 

[Robson Valley]

If I have to carry crayons,
a) I might as well bring the grandkids.
b) I can explain biology to politicians.
c) I can shave a couple and get an evening soft campfire going.

 

[Hammock_man]

bring the grandkids. I can shave a couple

One hopes the two items are not related!

 

[kard133]

My preference is a ferro rod and fatwood, but I have been experimenting with magic biscuits lately, by far the most effective ones I have made have been done by:
Spray the cotton pad with WD40 so that the centre is soaked.
Dip in a mixture of parafin and beeswax, let them cool, and repeat

The WD40, as well as being flammable, stops the wax completely soaking into the pad, thus when you break them open the fibres fluff far more readily than just soaking in wax. These take a spark instantly. And if the WD40 evaporates over time, you still have the fluff for ignition, and the wax for fuel.

 

[oldtimer]

Great tip kard133. That's an idea I'll be pinching!

Is there no end to the usefulness of WD40?