I have been trying to practice with my spark-lite using natural tinder, without much luck. I can light cotton balls, q-tips ect without trouble. But when these run out?

Has anyone had any luck using natural tinders? Thanks in advance for any ideas <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yes, with caveats (and actually, I've only experimented with BSA FC rod, although I have sparklites):

1. All the fuzzy stuff I've tried works great to catch a spark and burst into flames. Milkweed down, cattail, etc. But talk about a flash in the pan! It needs to be nestled into something else that it can catch on fire. See next...

2. Anything fine and dry with char in the center to catch the spark. I've used char cloth, charred fungus, and charred punky wood. Char cloth is the easiest for me. About anything finely shredded an a bit of char cloth works well - the technique (there are a couple that work well for me) is the thing.

Pound, shred, mangle, etc, then use something in it to catch the spark.

Others probably have more experiance with this than me.

Tom

Try a handful of dry pine needles... but be careful, sometimes they go up like gasoline. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Troy

I would not rely on any natural tinder. If you have the SparkLite - have 6-8 treated cotton balls.

I've had pretty good luck with the following:

Dried shredded cedar bark.

Fir cones covered with pitch (Douglas fir predominantly).

Brown-dried fir needles (see warning from other posts).

Busted up cow chips.

Feather whittled pine sticks (really dry).

Fat wood.

Dried fungus works pretty good as a punk to keep an ember going. You gotta be kinda careful though. There's another bark that bird's nests pretty well. I think it comes from cottonwood, but I could be wrong. It will catch an ember like cedar bark and burst into flame with a minimum of coaxing.

I've done fluffy white dandilion heads etc. I've also lit paper, by scrapping it with a knife to make a fine dust or shreds. Tinder generally needs to be finely divided, ideally fluffy, and dry.

It's safer to carry tinder rather than rely on what you can find, because you might not find anything suitable in a hurry. That said, I know I can usually improvise tinder, at least if I have a knife and plenty of time, so in that respect SparkLite and similar are better than matches.

Cedar and Cattail are two things very common in the places I frequest. and both catch flame quite easily if they are try. When went almost any natural tinder is challenging.