Hello, all -<br><br>Have any of you tried rubbing gel Sterno into a cotton ball for firestarting?<br><br>After fooling around with dryer lint, magnesium firestarters, and cotton balls all weekend (my spousal unit thinks I'm nuts), I rubbed some gel Sterno into a cotton ball and placed it under my 'real' dryer lint tinder. I ignited the dryer lint using my mag. firestarter. The dryer lint - which always burns at the speed of light - burned down to the Sterno ball. The fire then burned for a good length of time. I'm thinking this would give me a bit more time to get my fire going with kindling, especially if anything happens to be slightly damp. I'm sure I could use all the help I can get, especially on a dark and stormy night.... <br><br>I'd like to put some Sterno in a film cannister and toss it in my survival backpack. (Hmm, if I mistake it for my hair gel, I'm in big trouble. ;-]] )<br><br>Any thoughts or experiences with this (the Sterno, not the hair gel...)<br><br>Thanks -<br><br>NP

Sterno is great stuff. The only problem I've had is the slow evaporation of the fuel once opened to air.

Last week there was a link to the Home Made Stove Archives web site. One of the articles was how to make a an Gelled Fuel. I've copied the instructions below. This would seem to overcome the evaporation problem, but I have no idea how effective it really is or how safe or unsafe the process/mixture might be. Anyone familiar with this stuff?<br><br>>>>Mix 11 Miligrams of Calcium Acetate (1/2 a film canister) with 10 mills of water. (fills up the canister) Then shake for 10 seconds, let it sit for approximately one minute then shake once more for 10 seconds, make sure the Calcium Acetate is completely dissolved. <br> <br>Measure 10 mills of the solution and pour into can. Slowly add 40 mills of ethanol. As you add the ethanol, the mixture should "Gel" instantly. At this point I poured off any remaining Ethanol (a very small amount, looked like about 1/10 of an oz.) Because this mixture gels instantly, you do not have to combine the two until you need to use it for cooking. Once the solution has Gelled (approximately instantly), it is ready to use. <<<

I keep a can of gel fuel and an Esbit stove with cartridges in my kit. <br><br>I dip half a cartridge of Esbit into the gel and then ignite it with magnesium firestarter. Last weekend I tried this under snow at an altitude around 5000 feet. I managed to make big fire with soaked wood on my first try. The esbit burns very well and the gel catches fire easily. <br><br>The only problem with the gel is that the can becomes very hot and you have to cool it down before you can put it back into your backpack. <br><br>For my PSK I tried to keep cotton rubbed with gel but I came across with problems. It evoparated although I thought I made it airtight :), it took lots of space and all the contents of the tin smelled gel. <br><br>I use esbit tablettes instead now for my PSK and other kits. If you also use the original esbit stove, it can also be held in the hand while burning <br><br>You may check: http://www.monmouth.com/~mconnick/esbit.htm

Sterno is kinda messy. I just carry GI insect repellant (bug juice). Make a little pile of tender, squirt some bug juice on it, add a spark or flame, and whoof, you have fire. The little tubes of glue in bike innertube patch kits burns like crazy too, just squirt out a little onto tinder and you are set.

Barak, I too,use an esbit stove. I am curious. I know turks can be tough, but holding the esbit in your hand?I will be joining friends for the evening iftar next week. Im already bandaged from my fishing kit trials. Do I have to handle hot braziers too LOL?

Chris,<br><br>If you burn the tablette in the original stove you can hold it in your hand. Try and see, no need to be a magician. Esbit's are made for burning in biouvacs and small tents etc. The stove does not reflect heat to the floor (or your hand if you are holding it.) I am not talking about holding the burning tablette, the stove. <br><br>Turks were tough in the past, now we are all ruined like the rest of most of the world <br><br>

What is an esbit tablet?

Esbit tablets are the fuel for the German Esbit stove. This is a small folding unit ( pocket sized.) The fuel looks at first glance like a white ceramic block. It is a very stable ( will not degrade like trioxane etc.) The stoves and fuel are available from many sources. The most readilly accessable one in the USA at first thought is Campmor.