I agree. A crayon is basically a candle and not a very good one. It's not even tinder. You can't start a crayon by using a spark. That even sounds weird saying it.

As a kid, we'd find paraffin on the RR Tracks. We'd melt it down with crayons (for color) and pour it into a toilet paper cardboard center to make candles. We tied the wick to a toothpick resting on the top of the roll.

Those candles were a little smokey and the wax would run down the sides but they worked.

I went on a short overnighter this weekend. The air was dry and the wind was calm, but the 22-25 degF nightly temps made the fire most welcome. Again, conditions were perfect but I was amazed (as always) at what a large, fast blaze can be made from [tinder + twig bundle + finger-sized sticks]. I ditched the backpacking stove and just used the fire to heat water.

PJ balls are excellent but I have found that if you carry them off-body in cold weather they can become very hard to pull apart for use as tinder. If you kept some in a pocket of your clothing that may be enough to keep them warmer, though the outer pocket of a parka might not be enough. Then again maybe I used too much PJ in those things. I know that a tube of Bacitracin ointment (which is like 98% PJ) gets very hard to squeeze in weather below freezing.

I really like the idea of a small, dedicated piece of emergency fatwood wrapped in wax paper and foil. The foil helps keep the melted PJ from running out into the ground.

Glock-A Roo,exactly.The foil also acts as a thermal layer/moisture shield also.If snow or frost is on the ground it could steam up and make a fire harder to get going.At least in theory.Emergency fires justifies my inner pyro.....

BOATMAN
John

What do you all do to protect PJ balls and TinderQuiks from water? I thought PJ balls would be impervious to a dunking until I saw this video. Couple things I thought: 1) maybe he didn't use enough PJ on the cotton ball and 2) he wasn't doing a good job of separating the PJ ball to create those long, thin fibers that take a spark so well. See this video at about the 4:45 mark.

GearWard's Fire Cord seems to do pretty well after being soaked.

I dunked a cotton ball in water, wrung it out the best I could with the help of a paper towel, and tried to light the cotton by using a ferro rod spark. I learned three things from this experiment:

1. A fluffed out cotton ball that is just a tiny bit damp will NOT catch a spark.

2. A fluffed out cotton ball that is just a tiny bit damp will NOT even ignite if I put a naked flame to it.

3. A damp cotton ball (and therefore damp cotton fabric) is a good way to put OUT a fire.

This messed up my confidence. Thus, I'm going to buy some of that Fire Cord Waterproof Tinder and try it out.

I carry TinderQuiks in a waterproof match case...right next to the waterproof match case full of matches .

I have various tinders vacuum sealed into 3"x4" mylar bags. The pouches are very very sturdy; I've sent a few to some fellow ETS'ers and none of the packages have failed so far as I know. I make up little micro-kits by using about a 2" x 2" square of Tinder Card- this stuff is awesome. It's stiff so it makes a great backer and it burns like a candle. A 1/4" x 1" strip will burn for about a minute or so. You can score it with a knife and light it with a spark if need be. Generally I will set one x 4gram ESBIT tablet on it along with four or five Tinder-Quiks, then seal it up. The mylar keeps it all dry and has a zip-lock so you can open it and reseal what you don't use.

Occasionally I'll make a slightly more deluxe version with a few matches or even a Spark-Lite sealed in with the tinder.

Awesome, Phaedrus. I'm totally copying that.

Why the need to protect them from water?

Usually the method of carry takes care of any water concerns, zip lock, match safe, pill fob ... duck tape, aluminum foil



all you need is fuzz, can be real short fuzz but if you've got water in your cotton sponge, it will interfere with flames

See U5pmQj_GD0k ? WetFire and Cotton ball fire starter soaked in water - YouTube
You know what is different? The whole cotton ball gets a coat/shell of petroleum jelly, so it doesn't soak up water like the cottony sponge that it is


That made me chuckle, I didn't know a butane lighter could kill you by exploding


Another man made "fatwood" ... needs a bit more work to light with a spark than actual fatwood ... but its $10 for 450 pieces of "waterproof tinder" each burning for 15 seconds .. total 6750 seconds, or 112.5 minutes, or 1.875 hours burn time

compare to dollar store tea light, 16 tealights for $1, 9 grams each, 3-4 hours burn time, tape a cotton ball on top of the tea light and you can light it with a spark

compare to dollar store wax paper, 65-square-foot for $1, about same weight/BTU as 16 tealights, from which tear/roll into 780 individual one inch tubes , torn edges ought to take a spark and ought to burn more than 15 seconds easy ... more BTU than one dollar 4oz vaseline, can carry loose in your pocket, water proof ...
wax paper is universal like a crayon