1. Vaporised butane gas as in disposable butane lighter. Ignites from a small spark even.
2. Petroleum jelly and cotton is always in any kit I've made.
3. Maya dust (or any other highly resinous sawdust) mixed glued together into wafers with petroleum jelly and dipped in paraffin work too.
4. Alcohol sanitizing gel (from my FAK).

-jh

I'm going to keep the quick tinder, cotton balls and birch bark, but add a little hit of dyer lint to the kits. it's just so easy with the firesteel. i'll have to play around with storage and quanity.

How about just keeping the dryer lint after doing a load of whites, as this will be cotton, and mixing in the petroleum jelly. Any difference between that and regular cotton balls? I would think the lint would be finer, but maybe not after mixing in the petroleum jelly. Good quick experiment to try.

I prefer cotton balls over dryer lint. I have found cotton balls are easier to light, are cleaner and have multiple uses. There is no practical price difference because cotton balls are so inexpensive. Dryer lint provides a good learning experience for fire starting generally, but I carry cotton balls.

I would say fatwood in various forms and Tinder-Quik.

PS: I am not exactly sure what PSK stands for. Pocket Survival Kit or Personal Survival Kit? Thanks...

PSK, to me means "pocket survival kit". I've always been prone to thinking of a "personal survival kit" as a combo of pocket kit, EDC and/or whatever other kits you are have with you. (Hiking pack, camping bacpack, GHB, BOB, etc...)

Reguarding my pocket kit, I just added a couple more tinder-quicks and a wad of dryer lint, rolled into my blaze orange balloon. I also realized I had room for the flint match from the box of tinder-quick so I thew that in too.

I also made a new tinder kit for my edc bag. (My pocket kit is usually in there, but often gets carried on my body when I leave the edc bag at home or in the car in favour of something like my hiking or camping pack.) Shoved in an orange coglan's match safe, I put some strike anywhere matches, a birthday candle, some dryer lint, cotton balls and 3 tinder-quicks.

I have had inconsistent results with dryer lint; I've experience it lighting extremely easily, but I've also had some that just didn't want to light.

I think its effectiveness is dependant on the materials which were being dried before it was collected. I guess if I were to put some aside for a fire starting kit, I'd want to test the batch it came from to make sure it was the super flammable type.

That said, I've started using cotton balls when camping with good results; they are now my preferred method for fire starting. The only other type I carry right now are the Tinder Quicks that came with the Ritter PSP.

Quick question Anyone here know how well the coghlans Tinder lights up with a spark? The Oily wax chunks with cotton in um tinder.

I got some a while back to test out. They work fine, but they require a little prep work. As in, you have to pull it apart a bit to expose the cotton fibers.


Personally, I'm still a huge fan of Cotton/Vaseline tinder. You can buy big bags of raw ginned cotton for pretty cheap, you throw a little Vaseline in, kneed it up, and you're set for a long time.

The trick is not to use too much Vaseline. If you use too much you end up with a slimy mess that is difficult to light.

I use/have in my kits: Magnalium powder(coarse grit),Tinder quiks,fatwood,Pj cotton,candles,waxpaper,rubber,plastic& the means to make feathersticks.These are my favorite PSK tinders!