Okay, this is a bit long so bear with me. Many of you have probably used Esbit tablets before. I like them more as a fire starter than as fuel but they're good for that, too. Hikin' Jim has mentioned that Hexamine lasts essentially forever, even when left unsealed. It burns pretty hot and I've been able to shave it and light it easily with a firesteel. It's a bit, um, "aromatic" in use but nothing you can't deal with.

Only one local store had carried them (Sportsman's Warehouse) and they closed a couple years ago. Everyplace I see Esbit the shipping is killer. Last summer I found some good Hexamine, the same as Esbit fuels, for a good price from Coghlan's. The tablets are smaller but pretty cheap- I've been getting them 24 tabs for $4 with free shipping. Here's a pic of the stuff.




Here's another pic of just the tabs with a coin for size reference.




One item I used to keep in my 1st Aid/survival stuff was the glucose tablets as my dad was diabetic. After he passed away I didn't think I needed the glucose stuff badly enough to carry it around so I tossed it, but by a fluke 5 those Hex tablets fit the tube nicely.




I thought this is a nice, clean storage option for them, but short of spending $2.50 and throwing away the sugar I'd been stumped as to where to source another tube. Then it struck me that maybe a tube meant to organize the same US quarter I included for size reference. And it turns out to fit nicely. They cost me $1 each at Amazon.com with free 2 day shipping (Prime Member). In bulk they can be had even cheaper.




The tubes are made to hold 40 US quarters and have a screw on cap. If they'd been made made to hold 41 quarters I could have fit 5 tablets; as is the cap won't quite screw on. Not a big deal, I fill it with 4 Hex tabs and half a cotton ball. That gives me a super flammable tinder for lighting with a firesteel and stops them from rattling around.

The cool thing is that Hex burns even when wet. It lasts forever, and since it can be lit with a firesteel it serves as tinder and kindling/fuel.

Nice!

ok...time for some shopping!

Thanks

Great tip - thank you!

If the fuel tablets fit in plastic tubes that hold quarters, they should also fit in the commonly available paper tubes that hold quarters. Not quite as sturdy as the plastic tubes, but you can surely fit in five tabs, seal the ends with tape, and you will have additional tinder as well. Put a water repellent coating on the tubes and they will make even more effective tinder.

I haven't tried this, but it ought to work. Must get some Gouglan's fuel tabs.....

After my first response of "cool!" I started wondering if the wafers could be sliced to make thinner wafers. It would reduce the burn time for each wafer, but for a single tube you would have more than 5 fire-starts. I'll have to pick some up the next time I see them and give it a try.

I hope they've improved it -- a lot. Last time I tried the Coghlan's product (over 10 years ago) it was worse than useless.

Nothing at all like the British military hexamine cubes I bought at a surplus store. That stuff lit easily and burned hot.

Great idea. Also, look in the craft stores for the coin tubes that have pressure fit caps. They may be cheaper. They may be in the bead area. Here is the link to the pictures of the "tube EDC" kit in the Photo Gallery I made: http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showgallery&Number=131209#comments They may be a bit longer. They are made of different material, so the impact-resistance may suffer a bit.

My $.02

Depends how you light them, with a firesteel it's not easy to light, with lighter/match no problem.


They crumble easily, so almost impossible to slice.

That's something I'm always concerned about: Will the "off brand" stuff be any good? All I can tell you is it's worked well for me. Since this was a different batch than I used last summer, I just tested one of the fresh tablets. I thought I'd share my results.

I used my Kershaw Scallion to shave a bit of the hexamine onto to the top of a large inverted stainless steel doggie dish. It's crumbly stuff and cuts/scrapes easily into fine powder. I wanted to see if I could light this stuff with my (fairly recently aquired) BlastMatch. Now, I'm still a little awkward using it since it's new to me and I'm more used to a regular firesteel (with the Firesteel.com com being the best IMO). It did take me maybe 10 strikes to light the dust but to be fair, about 1/2 the time I forget you have to push down on the striker tab really hard with your thumb to engage the striker. At any rate light it did, and I was easily able to light the tablet with the burning dust. Not bad.

I noticed this batch doesn't smell quite as "fishy" as Esbit, although it's close. It does feel exactly the same but doesn't stink as bad. Of course, it could be just because there's less of it. It quickly gets burning, and I noted that the flames off the small tab were over 3" high for around 5-6 minutes. It was burning strongly enough that you could probably cook on it at minute seven. From that point on the flame dropped off a bit, with flame strong enough to light stuff up til about 9 & 1/2 minutes. It finally flamed out at almost exactly 10 minutes. Unlike Esbit there was a little bit of solid matter left but not very much.

Overall I think that's pretty decent for the size. The tabs measure exactly 7 grams on my kitchen scale. That's good burning time for 7 grams of fuel, IMO. They're easy to light and burn very well. I would encourage anyone interested in these to shoot me a PM- I'd be willing to send a few of you a couple tablets to test out. I don't wanna build my survival gear around sub-standard products, and several of us testing under safe conditions is better than just me!

That's a good idea. I'll admit to having something of a "container fetish"... I'm forever buying pencil boxes, glasses cases, kitchen containers etc to re-purpose for camping & survival uses! While hexamine doesn't strictly need to be kept dry (so far as I can tell) I like the idea of having it in a sealed plastic tube, if for no other reason to keep it from stinking up the rest of my gear. But you're right, you could tape it up and burn the wrapper. Good thinking.

I will say that I have found some other, larger tubes of the same size. They require a bit larger quantity purchase but I may still go that route. For now the coin tubes are about $.60 each and ideal for a small fire kit.

Thanks! Another source I'll have to investigate. BTW, I like the kit!

It would be akin to trying to slice a frozen Hershey's bar. Pretty crumbly. If you put the tablet out you can reuse it and get extra starts that way, but I don't know if I'd be keen on dropping the warm tab on top of the other ones! Since they're only 21-25 cents each I'm not too concerned about getting extra lights. For the most part I envision using them as emergency tinder; I generally enjoy keeping regular "scheduled" fire making a bit more prep intensive and "low tech" (although I confess to being utterly infatuated with potassium permanganate & glycerine!).

One thing that might be interesting would be too pulverize some tablets and fill a container with just the "dust." Would it remain as flammable all crushed up? How long would it burn? Hard to guess without some testing.

M&M tubes can be repurposed too.


http://www.instructables.com/image/FDZPHJAFYG85RNC/Fill-empty-tube-with-quarters.jpg

I've never seen those before. Are they from the M&M candy? I haven't seen a package like that.

In my neck of the woods ( the other side of the planet) we have them in almost every store. But you can get them on-line as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Ms-Chocolate-Minis-1-08-Ounce-Tubes/dp/B003N7T55I

Nice! M&M's in any form is a WIN!

I use fire starter packets from the grilling stuff at lowes.. I use a different brand but they are the same thing as these pictured below. I like them because they are in self contained packs (about the size of a condom). You touch it with a flame and you have a fire. I have other methods on me, fire steel, cotton, etc.; but in an emergency when your cold and wet; you do not want a spark, you want a FIRE & you want it NOW. Thats what I save these for. I keep a ton of them on hand for charcoal grilling in the back yard as well..lol

I got beat to it but M&M tubes are what I use for all kinds of stuff. Quarters, Q-Tips, tinder.... They are great for a lot of stuff. The small ones also hold 20 bucks in quarters perfectly. Pretty nice.

M&M tubes come in two lengths. Shorter ones I have found at dollar stores. The longer ones have been seen at Walmart.