That reminds me of this old fart's experience at home... Blazing mouse sets fire to house

I carry a cheap small pencil sharpener in my kit. Reason it takes a roughly pencil sized stick and reduces it to a pile of paper thin shavings. Far faster and much thinner than any fuzz stick. It also gets you to the dry inner core of wet wood. These thin shavings readily ignite with a sparker rod.

I like the idea of the pencil sharpener, I will try it out in the backyard.
In my fire kit I have a small container of compressed drier lint.

Note to self...Buy pencil sharpener for kit.
Awesome idea! Thanks

No, not the birds, just their nest. Birds won't hold still long enough to strike a shower of sparks on them...

"...they'll fly away..."

If that is a worry, nail their little feet down...

LOL!!

A handfull of cedar or juniper bark worked between your hands until it is nice and fuzzy works well around here.

For starting birch bark, find a dead tree lying horizontally. Hold your knife at a right angle to the surface and scrape up a pile of fine shavings. Have a bunch of 1/2" wide strips ready.

Dry grass works well but it has to be 100% dry in order to catch spark and start burning. It´s good idea to mill it using your fingers in order to prepare as small pieces as possible - almost a powder.

Like others mentioned another great tinder is the birch tree bark. But it has to be extremly thin peel - the type of the bark that peels itself off of the surface of the birch. It catches the spark very well and it´s quite water resistant.



I use Maya sticks as my favourite tinder. According to the description it cotains 80 % of resin. I have to confirm that it´s literally impregnated with it. It should be therefore waterproof. I have been testing it quite a lot and it´s great tinder. It burns for a long time. I have yet to test its waterproof attributes. I have made several variations of a tinder from the Maya sticks - from the sawdust to the bigger pieces (in the second bag from the left it´s mixed with birch tree bark):

cotton balls, also dryer lint works Great.