Urban/suburban firestarting...

Thought I'd seen or at least heard of practically all the techniques years ago; then there was the fire piston, which was a completely new principle. Now this:

http://www.wmuma.com/tracker/skills/fire/cokeandchocolatebar/index.html

I'll reserve judgement until I actually try it, and it's not on the schedule for this weekend. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Definitely something I wouldn't have thought of, though.

Looks like a source for an improvised signal mirror as well. The wonders of the soda can.

Alcohol / esbit stove

fire starter

signal mirror

rust stripper / paint remover

stimulant

decent beverage container

Well it's not duct-tape but it is useful nonetheless.

Came across that site several months ago and saved the page info. for future reference...as in "when I'm busy not doing anything" <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Hate to think what # it is on the "to do list" . Found it interesting and something to file away in the back of the head as an alternative method for use if I find myself up the creek with a coke can and no paddles or matches. LOL

Who knows? At the minimum, if you are able to do this on any kind of a consistent basis, it might be worthwhile, if only for winning a bet of some sort.

Hehehe - now I would not have thought of that! I think I'll try it, but with some Mother's Aluminum and Chrome polish and maybe a buffer first.

I would expect toothpaste to be a faster polish than the chocolate - hope someone else here tries out the chocolate and reports back.

I have GOT to try this. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

As an aside, my brother once read an article about the prisons (in the UK?) banning the sale of Kit Kat chocolate bars. Seems the inmates had figured out how to make parabolic reflectors out of the aluminium foil the Kit Kat bars were wrapped in, and were using them to melt heroin so they could inject it. (Apparently, all the other chocolate bars sold in the commissary had abandoned aluminium foil in the wrapping.)

As my brother said, shaking his head in wonder, "They can't prevent them from smuggling in heroin, but they think they can prevent them from smuggling in Kit Kats." <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

What a barbaric waste of good chocolate. <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Actually, it might be worth the effort for those of us with Photon pop can stoves to polish the bottom of the can/stove as a backup firestarter.

I tried this a few months back when it first hit the forum. I can report that chocolate is not a terribly good polishing agent. I worked at it for quite awhile, but couldn't get a shiny enough surface with the chocolate. It also makes a really big mess. I hadn't thought of toothpaste though, that's a good idea.

Unless you are really bored, I would eat the chocolate and find a different polishing agent.

Greg

I don't recall that there was any requirement that it actually be good chocolate. They showed toblerone (which is decent but not actually good - don't you live near enough to Giradelli Sq to know <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) But you could probably get away with using a hersheys dark chocolate bar. I suspect that the active element here is the crushed chocolate beans which means it could probably be done with used coffee grounds. (I'd never waste coffee of any level of quality <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />- but after brewing It might be useable for this)

... or perhaps the bottom of a cup of turkish coffee!

That's the stuff fur-sur! Isn't that what is used to polish the copper bottoms of the samovars? Burak?

i had that idea wenn i first came across the cholcate/sodacan fire thing. ipolished mine halcon stove for that purpose, but i was never able to light anything... need some low tempature tinder....

Ah, yes - but to make the coffee, wouldn't you need to start the fire first? <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Just a quick polishing report. There are artifacts in the scans below - reflection overloaded the scanner, I guess. I had an early version vermiculite-filled pop can stove sitting near the keyboard - made from a Squirt can, for the record, not a Coke can. Scanned it as-is:




Walked back to my metal shop and hit it a quick lick with Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish and a shop rag - about 10 seconds. Big improvement, so I put a linen buffing disk on the Dremel and loaded the disk, hit the can for 20 seconds - here is the scan:



If it was a flat piece, it would be a good mirror. I haven't wiped off any residue; that is the way the buffing left it, so it will clean up a bit more. 6061 and 7075 aluminum that I have polished with Mothers and left lying around are apparently as shiny several months later as when I polished them, FWIW.

I'll give toothpaste a whirl in the next day or so and report results. Don't expect to try to ignite anything - I'm too busy right now during the daytime.

Yes you are right. It even has a special name. We call it "telve".

Burak

What's the use of warming up and surviving if you can't, then have a decent cup of joe?

Ever been conscious for a serious bout of caffiene withdrawl? I'd rather poke my eyes out with glowing red knitting needles held in bare scorched hands while standing on a nail!

PC2K first told me about this site and how he polished the bottom of his Halcon stove a few weeks ago. I thought it was a great idea and I tryed toothpaste. I polished for about five minutes and it starto get passibly shiny but no where near as shiny as yours. The aluminium polish is much better. However I don't own any.

The sun has graced us with an appearance, so a quick report before I trudge off to work for some catch-up.

1. Wear sunglasses when you try this <blinking away an afterimage spot> the spot of light is very intense

2. Focus is very important, as I would have expected from a hemispherical reflector. There is for all intents and purposes an exact focus only - not a millimeter in or out. I braced my hands on a picnic table to keep the most steady focus possible.

3. Precise orientation to the sun not critical (again reflector shape) although the closer to right-on the more energy available.

4. A bit of char cloth or charred cotton cord or lantern wick may be more rewarding than other targets. I'll check this eventually, but right now it appears that we may not be seeing ol' Sol for a week or so - just had a break in the cloud cover today. In any event, I got a very perceptable surface temperature rise in about 30 seconds (touch to lip), but my target (scrap of very thin paper) was too reflective. Don't expect flames from this; think glowing ember and it might just work.

I'll give toothpaste-as-polish a whirl tonight, but I intend to "cheat" and use the Dremel tool again - it's not better; it's a heck of a lot faster.

Tom

Sorry Greg, I made the original post and no one seemed interested, so I didn't add what I'd found out from playing with it in the field. Havn't tried Chocolate yet, instead I tried things that i was likely to have or find in the field. The times varied from 5 minute for the stropping compound I use on my belt to almost an hour for dried grass. A small piece of char, tinder fungus or bone dry rabbit pellet works great. The problems i've seen with people learning it , are that people don't point it at the sun and focus to a pencil lead size " steady" spot and they forget that since it is parabolic the holder and target have to be as small as possible or you greatly reduce the amount of energy avaible in some cases to the point that it won't work. So far the most fun i've had with it was at BoyScout camp, It rain 24/7 for the hole week and toward the end some of the boys were [censored] about how hard starting the camp fire was getting. I try to set a good example for the boys and keep them on their toes, So I said, " You know a good woodsman can get it done no mater what his resource are, I'll bet I can get it done with just this can of coke" ( I'd pre polished one of the can in my six of coke) ; ) ; ) ; ) I had some previously gathered tinder fungus in my pocket and their was some dry natural tinder in camp that the boys had completely missed. It took me maybe two minutes to get the fire started and after their shock wore off, i let them in on the secret and broke out the raggs , aircraft aluminum polish, and char I'd brought so they could make their own. The only thing I really don't like about this tech. other than you need the sun, is that finding an aluminum can in the woods when you need one has become " WAY" to easy. : ( : ( : ( <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Nice idea, but the problkem with these is that you are reliant upon the sun. But, definatly something I will try!

I got it to work, but I feel like I cheated.

First, I polished the bottom of a Mountain Dew can using my thumb and a lot of toothpaste. Took about 20-25 minutes. Shiny, formed a reflected image, but fuzzy. A little Flitz fixed that. :-)

I've never started a fire with anything other than matches, so I was guessing at tinder and technique. I used cotton gun cleaning pads smeared with a little charcoal from the grill. The charcoal made the cotton dark enough to really absorb the sunlight well.

After just a few seconds, the cotton smokes nicely. I never could get it to ignite, though. Tried different ways of packing it, holding it, fraying it. Same result.

I finally got a fire by getting the tinder smoking nicely, then wrapping it in some dry grass (easy to find in Florida right now) and blowing, gently, for a minute or so. smoke, smoke, Smoke, SMOKE, Flame! Yay!

What would make a better tinder? And if you're going to do this "for real", what could be done to the standard cotton ball / vaseline tinder to make it more appropriate for solar powered lighters like this? I'm also curious what natural tinders work with this technique. I tried the dried grass by itself, but it would only smoke a little bit, going out instantly after I took it away from the can.

(I say I cheated because of the Flitz and charcoal. But then, toothpaste isn't in my PSK either, so...)

Re: focus

For a pop can stove, one could mark the focal length on the side of the can for furture reference.

A piece of wire could be fashioned, bent into an "L" shape and held in place with either a ranger band or duct tape. That would save your grip as well as keep the tinder in the right spot. Perhaps a thin twig could hold the tinder in a pinch too. If you choose a thin, green branch and bend but don't break it all the way through, into a 90 degree angle. Use a tab of duct tap at the bend as a brace to hold the angle as the twigs tendancey will be to bend back.

Just some thoughts

Congrats, you didn't cheat if it worked <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I've tried the typical PSK tinders like ranger band, tinder Quick ect. without much luck. you want anything that will take and grow a coal, char, tinder fungus ect. then the coal goes into a nest of fine tinder and you blow it to flame. That's the way almost all the primitive methods work.
By the way i consider this a secondary/bushcraft/ match extending tech., but it does have its uses, look at all the burning lens in PSK's and oldtime tinder boxes.
If you liked the coke can you should like the Saran Wrap method Walter has on his site now.

Mike

Ya think that you could take the kit-kat wrapper and simply press it on to the bottom of a can - shiny side out? would that save on polishing time? just a thought. . .