I have a PSK in an Altoids tin, thanks to the advice on this forum, and I carry a copy of John Wiseman's SAS Survival Guide (the Collins Gem pocket edition). Since I'm no great shakes at starting fires without matches, and since I'm a non-smoker, I also bought a credit-card Fresnel magnifying glass and stuck it in with my credit cards/driver's license. <br><br>I guess that's the one thing that scares me most about getting lost, is not being able to start a fire when I need to. (I mean, here it is, April in Calgary and we're still getting snow flurries.) So I've been thinking, off and on, about what you could put inside the back cover of a survival manual that would enable you to start a fire IF you somehow managed to get lost with nothing but the SAS Guide in your shirt pocket.<br><br>What I did was to take a small plastic envelope with a zip-lock seal (I think it once held the spare buttons for a new suit). I took some magnesium scrapings and wrapped then in a small piece of tinfoil (actually a foil candy wrapper) and put that inside the mini-ziploc and stapled it to the inside back cover. <br><br>Recently, I took a half-dozen lighter flints and crazy-glued them to a half popsicle stick; I also took a replacement blade from a mini-boxcutter, broke it in half, and wrapped one of the pieces in electrical tape and put those in as well. This makes for a fairly flat package that fits inside the back cover of my pocket survival manual. I figure this provides me with one "last-ditch" shot at starting a fire if everything else goes south. (I'd use all the magnesium scrapings in one shot; I've found in testing that if you don't have a big enough pile, it tends to just flare up and fizzle out without generating enough heat to ignite anything.)<br><br>Any thoughts? Suggestions? Warnings?

Rather than magnesium shavings, see if you can find magnesium ribbon. It's as effective, and easier to carry. You canfind it through chemistry supply houses, occasionally at welding supply houses and hardware sources, that kind of thing. It has a habit of showing up in the oddest places.

I could make a rude jingoistic remark about Coghlan matches ;O) But my friends from B.C. have a splendid box of canadian made strike anywhere matches. I would merely suggest that whatever pocket secures your GEM should be SECURE. This could be securing the Altoids tin in a quality ziplock bag ( water container) or quality seam tape to quarantee dryness and fitting it in a pocket with a button the size of a Loonie ( Canadian dollar coin folks.) We all are fairly adept and redundant in firemaking. It's the carrying of ready tinder we seem to fall short on. I carry a good quantity of vaseline soaked cotton in a ziplock in one pocket. My area is rich in tinder, but when I go to the high desert, beach etc.I play the 'what if" game and look around.

suggestions, Ditch the magnifying glass. They work when your in the sonoran desert, or elsewhere, where theres plenty of sun, but snow flurries? try using the sun to start a fire in a snow storm try a mini Bic lighter or zippo or something. just a suggestion, maybe im rong but i just figure its going to be couldy most of the time ( hence the snow? ) so i thougt magnifying glass is a nono. they work great here in AZ tho!

Ron; Thanks, but there's no need to "ditch" the magnifying glass - seriously, when I said "credit card size" I was being literal - it's a piece of clear plastic 2 in. x 3.25 in. and it sits in my wallet with my credit cards. Besides, it comes in handy for reading fine print :-)<br><br>But of course you're right, I absolutely would not rely on it as my sole means of starting a fire. Forget about snow flurries - even a thin overcast will make it worthless. (Although where I live, in Alberta, it's normal to have at least brief periods of bright sunshine most days.)<br><br>I carry a mini-torch in my car that takes a standard disposable lighter and produces a blue flame (cost me about $30 in Radio Shack, IIRC) and I'll probably transfer it to my First Aid kit. I also have a PSK (Altoids tin) that I put together based on tips I've read here - it's got 4 strike-anywhere matches with the tips coated in paraffin, a tea-light candle, a hexamine tablet, and half a dozen lighter flints crazy-glued to the lid (plus other stuff). And of course I have an even larger SK that goes in my backpack or my flight bag.

Cyberraven: Thanks. I actually went looking for mag ribbon a while ago but couldn't find any. I'll try your suggestions on where to look - I agree, it would probably be a lot easier to carry.

I agree with the vasaline soaked cotton balls. you could flatten one pretty thin to fit inside the cover. I intend to try adding pre-shaven magesium to some as a time saver. But I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Aard --<br><br> Rather than flints glued to a popsickle stick, someone here not long ago talked about superglueing them into the channel of a house key blank. Drop it into the zip with your mashed cotton/vaseline and the striker, and you'd be set. Or carry the key on your daily carry key chain -- or substitute a Sparky rod, which is even less bulky than a key, if you discard the keyring.<br><br> If you're (logically) counting on having your wallet with you (for the Fresnel lens), you'll probably have a keychain, too. Give some thought to the "mega keychain" previous posts here, which will accommodate fire starting, whistle, a mini-flashlight, and a mini-SAK without pulling your pants down. I hang the flash (ARC-Infinity AAA) out the edge of my pocket to reduce pocket wear by the key chain, and it makes it easy to grab even sitting down. Works even with "dress-up" clothes! <br><br> The mini-zip of cotton tinder will flatten and carry well in your wallet, too, if you can't figure a way to hang it on the keychain (although a keychain Nitro-pill bottle would do that too.)

Cleaning out my catalog box, and found a source- www.firequest.com<br>

>>Rather than flints glued to a popsickle stick, someone here not long ago talked about superglueing them into the channel of a house key blank. <br><br>That's a great idea.<br><br>I'm teaching a Wilderness First Aid course in 2 weeks time - that would be a great (and cheap ;-) keepsake to hand out to the students. I remember you used to be able to get key blanks in bright metallic colours, although it was actually just a regular key with a coloured metallic coating. Can you still buy these? Would Crazy Glue hold on them, or would I be better off just getting a plain key?<br><br>On second thought, why don't I just buy one and try it out? (Experimentation - what a concept. :-)