I use an old hemostat to pinch a cotton ball in half and dip one side into meld wax and let dry. I call them bunny tails. One side is fuel, the other is the spark catcher. Lay them on thier side and they work well.

White powder? Clear package with black print? I have a few somewhere. Just read an old article where a survival class tried to light the closed package with fire steel. Didn't work until they tore them open.

Birch bark catches a spark well if shaved into thin strips. Pine resin also works great. If you combine both you have natural tinder as good as it gets.

Old mans beard works, but it has to be really dry.

I don't think you can beat PJ cotton balls for effectiveness, compactness, weight, waterproofness, availability, and cost. Make them fat & juicy, then package them individually in an aluminum foil envelope (as was discussed here lately). I would like to experiment with using wax instead of PJ as long as the wax is as effective.

Be careful about dryer lint. Its willingness to light from a spark depends heavily on whether or not there are a lot of fibers like polyester, rayon, and olefin in there. Anything other than cotton, no matter how dry, detracts from lint's performance.

I'm with you on this one; fire steels are my primary method for making fire. This also helps ensure I know how to get a fire going using this tool, where as if it was only my back-up I'd have limited experience with it which could complicate things if I did have to rely on it in an emergency scenario.

Thanks for the heads up about the lint. Never had a problem with it but good to know there is a potential for one. Wax works great and burns long and hot.

My philoposy exactly. Sorry about the poor spelling today.

Good points on using the firesteel as your primary, and then BIC lighters, matches, etc. as your backups. Keeps your skills honed. I think I'll switch my choices based on this. I thought about why I had been choosing a BIC as my primary in the past. The only reason I could come up with was "because it's easy". Poor reason. Thanks for setting my head straight on this thought process. Firesteels definitely aren't difficult - so long as you have something that will catch a spark. You're not going to be lighting a wooden pencil with a firesteel (you might be able do that with a BIC - maybe).

Cotton Soaked Tinder Cubes

My Recipe is to melt 1 lb of Wax (old candle ends normally) which I then pour in 1 cup of Kerosene (after I remove it from the camp stove). Then I dunk in half cotton balls and place them on a sheet of foil to dry. PS: I make these outside, not on my Kitchen stove.

These tinder cubes work just great and last 2 years at least. I store my bulk cubes in jars. I place the ones I take to wilderness in small baggies.

I rip them apart to light them with a striker. They light first try with nearly any striker and will burn for 2 or 3 minutes if you use the entire cube.

Magnesium shavings! Even though it burns quickly, it still ignites from a spark rather easily.



By the way, the tinders mentioned in this thread can catch from a tiny firesteel also!