Butcher’s twine.
I bought number 4, which was the thickness I could easily find. It’s about 2 mm and claims a test number of 70 Kg… I’ve broken a few pieces dragging logs with one hand. So it’s not abrasion resistant, or I'm only at 3% of full power.
In terms of knot tying, it’s a little slippery so you want to be confident here.
Rayon doesn’t stretch, meaning tying bindings will be more difficult.
Butcher’s twine is Rayon, which is synthetically made cotton. You can fray the string into incredibly fine, very strong, very thin fibers. It looks like cobwebs.
How I use it: firstly I use tiny amount of shredded rayon to tangle together tinder/kindling made by scraping or whittling wood. This stops the tinder pile falling over or getting blown away. You don’t need to use much rayon here, easily under 1 foot or finger-tip to elbow of cordage.
Then I could use a second bundle of shredded rayon or preferably some cotton wool to catch a spark. Real world, butcher’s twine is more expensive than cotton wool and needs more time to prepare. However its works a treat, plus I carry a lot cordage and can retire the dirty or damaged pieces. It's more about weight... no. 4 is 400 meter per kg so 2.5 grams per meter thus 2 meters or a full arm span for about 5 grams.
My tip is rub the cordage against a candle, or some pine sap to increase the burn time.
I bought mine from “ropesource”.
The sticker says:
“Everlasto
established 1856
Reliable ropes and twines
No 4 Rayon 500g
James Lever, Bolton, England.
www.jameslever.co.uk”
Technically any natural cordage should work. I’ve used cotton string and jute twine. The cotton string I used could be broken down into strands. I could get it to ignite but it took a few attempts. Burned slowest as you might expect.
The jute could be broken down into fine hairs it could burn as a flash tinder, but I think my jute was treated with something. Great practice, great experience but not that practical in the field.
My recommendation is Butcher’s twine.
#answer-1: Butcher's twine could be a pretty cool addition.
Reaction to comments:
I’ve lit Gorilla tape from the ferro-rod before, it’s the glue and reinforcing fibers which catch. So rip the tape up to form a nest. You might find fine needle nose pliers or tweezers helpful here.
#answer-2: Cross loading Gorilla tape could be a pretty cool addition.
I wouldn’t try to use a fatwood handle on a ferro-rod, I think that would break. Or you would whittle it to nothing in only a few practice runs.
If you were burning meths why bother with a wick... I carry a shoe polish tin which I use as a meth burner for cooking. (The shoe polish tin could also make charred material for your next fire).
I wouldn’t expect any survival cords to really be effective in the field. My tip is pair it with a tea light and test it. The challenge being to light a candle. My crazy opinion is: I’d like 5 grams of that wonder tinder… That sounds like A LOT of very expensive wonder cordage, plus if I’m gutting all that wonder cord, I’ll have a tangle of pieces I can’t use then and there.
I could make a lucet cord from rayon, treat it*. Then when I need to unravel it, simply pull.
*Treatment: Soak the cord in cooking oil, wring out the excess and dip the oil-damp cord in candle wax to seal(?). I want the cord to be soft on the inside so I can shred it apart later. I'd need to play with this.
Home made fire lighters:
Cotton wool, plus (50:50 mix) Candle wax with paraffin. Heat the wax, until half as melted the container will often be hot enough to melt the rest. Remove wax from heat, move FAR away from heat source. Add paraffin to molten wax it’s about 50:50 by volume. Dip the cotton wool, I like face pads.
The paraffin makes the wax soft plus it should be very easy to light. Basically what the exotic firelighters use. I haven't cooked too many batches of these. I don't want paraffin smells.
Or Cotton wool, plus candle wax can be mixed with vaseline. I haven’t really noticed an improvement with this. Again the goal is to make the hard wax softer and more manageable. I find vaseline to spits a lot.
I tend to use use:
Cotton wool plus Candle wax, I carry both items separately.
Or cotton wool plus cooking oil.
Birch shaving plus cooking oil works a treat too. Birch has very open pores so it drinks up flammable liquids. Note the black cooking oil will drip out of the wood while burning.
I might carry 97% DEET which is an oil. But burning this would be pretty much last resort.
I ‘m likely to carry an alcohol based hand sanitizer if I'm carrying food. (Technically: Clinell Wipes are more useful for cleaning hands after dressing/cleaning "oranges".) But alcohol makes fire.
Vaseline or lip balm with 45%+ Vaseline/Petrolatum. If a lip balm isn't a soft grease it doesn't work for me as a lip balm in the cold.
Example 1: Carmex classic lip balm / Carmex Original Flavor Moisturizing Lip Balm 45.3%
Example 2: CeraVe Healing Ointment 3 oz with Petrolatum Ceramides for Protecting and Soothing Cracked, Chafed Skin 46.5%
You could buy a pack of 100 tiny alcohol wipes.
