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.