Hello to everyone. I'm new to this forum and have been reading posts for several days before signing up. Great info!
I was reading the thread (started 07/2006) about using the Sparklight firestarter. I am going to buy two of those: one for me and one for my daughter.
We have been using the magnesium/flint (Doan) method. As starter, we've used 000 steel wool, with several drops of parrafin oil soaked into it, stored in a small ziplock bag. We tear out several strans (so it's light and fluffy), place it on top of dried tinder, and use the BACK of my knife blade to strike the sparks. If it's saturated (lightly) with the parrafin oil, the steel wool will produce a nice flame for about 20 seconds to one minute. Then we reach under and wrap the tinder around to get it started.
Anyway, I guess most of you know about the steel wool tinder. I'm going to try the cotton ball/vaseline tinder next.
....just thought I would say "hi" and post this.

Actually, I'd never really thought about storing it with oil mixed in. What are you using for a container?

Right now, we're storing it in a small, zip-lock baggie, but I suppose I'll have to graduate to a small plastic container with a screw-on lid.... like maybe a waterproof match container. Maybe not. The baggie works well because some of the parrafin oil gets squeezed out of the steel and saturates the inside walls of the baggie. Then we can squeeze the wool and move it around in the bag before removing it to tear some off. It picks up a little more oil that way.

Before parrafin oil, I tried using a little denatured alcohol to wet the steel wool. It worked, but I gave up on it because it wasn't producing a flame. However, we didn't "field test" it.... we just did it on a cookie sheet in the garage. Now, I learned by reading that thread I was mentioning earlier, that there was a flame!! We just couldn;t see it because the alcohol burns so clean. Does that sound right?

Anyway, the oil is better. Alcohol evaporates too quickly. If I ever finish making my "PSK", I'll have a little steel wool in there without any additive. It can just lay in there bare and take up very little room.

Stretch,

Welcome! That was a good first post.

I would think the addition of parrafin oil also helps prevent the steel wool from rusting. That would be very useful down here in the humid air.

Thanks.
-Blast

Alcohol + Steel wool + Time = rotted/rusted steel wool which becomes of no use.

IMHO there are a lot better options than steel wool. THe one that comes to mind that's easy to get and CHEAP are alcohol swabs.
You can store 50 seperately packaged ones w/out adding much weight to a pack.
A spark will light one first time, they burn HOT for a decent amount of time (well enough to light tinder and if you need longer burn time light another).

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Try one you may be surprised.

Try the cotton ball method it works good also. I dont see the difference with the vaseline on the cotton ball. When I burned a regular one and a soaked one,both burned the same amount of time. Also I have tried wax paper before and it lights also,the only problem is that it burns up way too quick.

I've found that cotton balls with a few drops of Purell will light quickly and burn for about 2 minutes - enough time to get the tinder around the flame. The cotton could be stored dry and the drops of Purell added just prior to lighting.

There's also the faithful cotton/petroleum jelly combo.

I carry some steel wool in bag when I get camping and such. It's fun showing other people how to start a fire with a battery. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

But now you are partially relying on a bottle of purell that can break or leak.
The ideal manmade tiner is complete, stable, waterproof and ready to light. Everything else falls a bit short of that goal.
The cotton ball with vaseline is the closest homemade version.
Personally for the little expense I go with Tinder Quick and WetFire. All in all Tiner Quick is the most reliable and stable. The WetFire needs to stay in a wrapper or it will lose its effectiveness over time. But I love how you can put it out easily.

Wrap the wax paper around a cube of parafin. I twist the wax paper ends like a piece of taffee candy. Just light the tail and you get a good hot fire starter. It's easier and less messy to pack compared to the vasoline-cotton method.

"There is nothing so frightening as ignorance in action."

I'm always looking for redundancy in items I carry in PSK. For a firestarter I currently carry dryer lint or cosmetic puffs (non-cotton "cotton" balls!) saturated in Bag Balm. Bag Balm is a veterinarian salve antiseptic based mainly in petrolatum (vaseline) and lanolin with an antiseptic as active ingredient. It will start a great fire AND serves as salve for scratches, lip balm, hand cream, etc. Old timers around here swear by Bag Balm as cure all salve. Good to have in an emergency, I figure. I keep in a flat plastic pill case in PSK - contains the mess and handy to rub on a scratch!

Supermark, I always thought that the vaseline in the cotton balls were for waterproofing. I could be wrong though.

Has it crossed anybody's mind to just use tinder-quick? The alternate methods should be just that: use if specific items are not available.

Supermark,
Ok. I tried a few experiments. (Why don;t we have any cotton balls [I'm asking my lovely wife]?) I used these round cotton swabs she bought. They're the size and shape of a thin oreo cookie.

I coated two with vaseline (that was messy) and two with parrafin oil. Then I rolled them up like a tortilla.... tightly... and cut them in half so they look like the little fire tinders in Ritter's PSP. (I know they're not as good as that stuff, because it's compressed, but they look like them.) They both took the very first spark from a Doan's flint and, without even blowing on them, flamed and burned. Both burned a nice flame for more than 80 seconds. Near the end when I blew on them (simulating windy conditions), they kept right on burning. So..... taking your advice a little further.....

I made two more batches each and rolled them up in wax paper. I used a hot glue gun to seal the paper on the last part of the roll. They look just like Ritter's tinder but probably not quite as effective. However, you could just unroll the paper, leave the tinder on top, and when it burned it would also burn the wax paper for a little more flame and heat.

I think the vaseline and waxpaper ones would be more water-resistant, but it sure is easier with the parrafin oil ones. I guess I'll have to do some submersion testing.

Thanks for the advice.

Welcome Stretch.
I knew about the steel wool trick and liked it because it could be started by either a battery or a spark. I tried this a long time ago, but found that the steel wool degraded (rust) in storage, so I tossed the idea. However your addition of parafin oil gives this a new twist, since in theory this would prevent the rustproblem, as well as make the glowing steel wool burst into flame. I'll give this approach a try. Thanks for the tip.
I make my own dependable waterproof firestartes (tinder and first stage fuel). They won't stress your budget and they have infinite shelf life.
They consist of 3 inch pencil-thick pieces of fatwood with a PJ cottonball spun around one end. I looks sort of like a caveman's q-tip. They readily accept a spark and burn very hot and very long. Try this, you'll like it. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Regards,
Pharaoh.

While I haven't tried this myself I've been thinking about using steel wool sparyed with WD-40 and kept in a film cannister. WD-40 would keep the steel wool from rusting and help with ignition I think.

WD-40 contains petroleum products, which can melt a lot of plastics. Make sure you check before you put this in your pack. And make sure your pack won't be eaten but the 40 either.

Never thought of that, good point.