One day me and a few of my friends were testing out different firestaters and my friend pulled out some steel wool. <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I said what are you going to do with that? He put it on the ground and sparked it. The steel wool burst into embers he blew on it and with some tinder it ignighted. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Just thought that was some cool info that you might want to know.

Frank

another trick to ignite steelwool, is to let a 6 or 12 volt battery's + and - side agains some steel wool and it will iginite..... <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

yep, I've ignited it using two AA batteries and tried it again with a couple of D batteries. Line the two batteries up end to end like you're placing them into a flashlight. Hold a part of the SW to the negative end and then touch the wool to the possitive and poof, it's smouldering. Needless to say, it got added to the trucks kit. <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

We used steel wool in Cub Scouts as tinder for our flint and steel badge. We never used char cloth....probably my continued failing <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I also usually carry steel wool in my ski repair kit to use as packing along with epoxy to replace binding screws that have pulled out.

I forgot you could ignite the SW with a 9 volt thanks for reminding me. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Frank <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Longbow;

Have you managed to actually start a fire with it? I've done this and gotten it to glow brightly, but I've never managed to actually ignite something - as soon as you remove the battery from it, it goes out.

Of course, I was using an SOS pad which had a lot of soap powder, so that might have had some adverse effect <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

You need to insert some cotton wool or other tinder into the steel wool so it can catch the embers, before you hook up the battery.

Must be the soap, because mine sure doesn't go out when I break contact. I used 0000 wool because it's what I had on hand, but don't know if the type of wool makes a difference or not.

Putting the wool and tinder together before igniting worked well for me.

And you've gotten that to work? I just tried it in the kitchen, with both cotton wool and Purell Hand Sanitizer. Lots of cool glowing steel wool, but no flame. I did manage to ignite a paper match <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> but that wouldn't be much good in a survival situation, unless I somehow found myself with a safety match and no striking surface.

Not that I doubt anyone - I'm fairly inept when it comes to starting fires (hence my attempt at a thread on miniature butane blow torches <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ) one of which is definitely going to find a permanent home in my flight bag. <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Must be either the soap or the type of steel wool they use in soap pads. Guess I'll just have to experiment some more.

Thanks for the feedback.

Oh, yes. The grade of steel wool definitely makes a difference. I found some steel wool that a fellow student had handed out as a "freebie" (I think the Brits call it a "gizzit") at the Wilderness First Aid Instructors class I took back in February. I could see as soon as I looked at it that it was much finer than the coarse soap pad I was using. I took a tiny sample (about the size of a postage stamp when it was stretched out) and applied the 9V battery. The cotton wool burst into flames within a few seconds.

Oh, well, my one consolation is that it's better to kill a patient in training than in the real world. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

It must have been the soap pad because if you use just plain SW you should be able to take away the 9 volt and have the SW stay lit.

Frank

That stretch is possible if you have a good hunk of SW. Otherwise, one could take a bit of stainless steel wire and tape it to one of the contacts (+) and then down the side of the battery towards the other pole so that the two are easier to touch to the SW. Both the stainless steel wire and elctrical tape or duct tape are in my kit.

Of course, those with brass wire would be out of luck as it is a poor conductor of electricity. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Er, Bill, are you sure about that conductivity? Copper resistivity is less than 2 microhm-centimeter. (The lower the number the better the conductivity is one way to look at this.) Typical brass (a copper alloy) has a resistivity of about 7 microhm-centimeter. Steels typically range from a low of about 10+ (pure iron is 10) to over 70. The stainless steels tend to the higher end, IIRC - IOW, worse conducters than "ordinary" steels.

However - either will do for lighting off steel wool at 12vdc, I'm sure. Worst case, the resistance in the wire is higher than that in the steel wool and it gets red hot (even melts) and... FIRE!!! <grin>

But if you've got an automobile and juice in the battery, just use the cigarette lighter you tossed in the glove box - it gets plenty hot enough if you have tinder - try it out.

SS wire in an auto has lots of jerry-rigging potential anyway - I carry steel and copper wire in my vehicle kit, and you can guess which one is used for "structural" emergencies... Example: recently, one of my kids - new driver, clunker car - called to say that his right rear wheel had "fallen off" in the middle of the street. When I arrived, I found it pancaked, but still attached - the ball joint on the upper control arm was worn out and popped out. Jacked it up, squeezed it back together with a C-Clamp (those have been invaluable in the car kits over the years, too), lashed the ball joint together with steel wire, and took the clamp off. He drove it home several miles without incident. (And since then he has replaced ALL the ball joints and a bent radius arm all by himself, which tickles me.)

Drag out your CRC and see if I'm on-target about the resistance, but I think that I'm pretty close.

Be Prepared

Tom