Greetings, all...
I bought a spark-lite and the associated cotton tinder last week. I went through two of the little cotton rolls before I figured out I had to fluff the cotton on the end. Left with half the supply of tinder, I began to wonder what else would work. Cotton balls worked. Alcohol in a pepsi-can stove lit up easily with the spark-lite. Steel wool, maybe. Nothing else. Not even dryer lint.

Now, I'm a two matches or less kinda guy and have no experience with sparks and tinder. I usually start fires with stuff much too big for a spark.

So the question is: What sort of tinder (natural or manmade) have you used sucessfully with a spark-lite? I guess I am wondering whether I am up the creek with a spark-lite if I have run out of cotton weenies during an emergency.

BTW, my wife, an avid sewing person, thinks that cotton roll tinder that came with the spark-lite is nothing more than cut up (insert name I can't remember here) that can be had for $0.29 a foot at the local fabric store.

Thanks in advance for any experiences you might share.

Try a search. We have had MANY a discussion about tinder. ;-)

And no, you are not out of luck. :-)

-john

i've only used mine on cotton balls to save the tinderquik's (which is supposed to be wax-impregnated so it will light when wet). fyi, backpackinglight.com has 50 packs of tinderquik's. i'd be curious what this fabric store stuff is...

Blackswan ,
As someone said, do a search and there are some interesting threads.

I don;t have a sparklight yet - I want to get two of them. I use a Doan's magnesium flint striker and a knife (I don;t use the magnesium). You can buy cotton swabs in disk form - they're about 1- 1/2" in diam. x 1/8" thick. If you warm vaseline up to where it's nice and maleable, you can spread it on both sides of these disks. Or, soak them in parrafin oil. Then, cut the disks in half, roll them up into a small "log", roll that in small strips of waxpaper, and seal the last of the "roll" with a small dab of hot glue.

These will ignite with a good spark, even on blustery days... and they'll burn for a solid 60 seconds or more.

Steel wool (super fine 0000) is good too, especially if saturated with parrafin oil, though it won;t burn for more than a few seconds - enough to get some dry tinder going.

I think the key to any method you choose is preparation.

Also, you're NOT out of luck without your tinder quicks. A good flint sparker (and I've heard the sparklight is a good one), coupled with good preparation and patience, will start dry tinder. It's not easy, but it can be done - I've done it a couple of times sucessfully and if I can do it <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> so can you.

"i'd be curious what this fabric store stuff is..."

I think what you are talking about is Cotton Batting. Cotton batting is the matt of cotton fiber that you use as the "stuffing" in a quilt. Please excuse my ignorance of sewing terms, but Batting is the stuff that is used for "stuffing". Sort of like a loose cotton felt.

I have never tried it as tinder, but now that you mention it, it probably would work. You will also find polyester batting and poly blends that would probably not work.

Funny, I just recently went through this myself. Use 100% cotton balls, with vaseline rubbed onto them (about a fingertip full, with the large cotton balls). Coat the outside, seal in something. When you use them, break the cotton ball open, to get to the dry center. Shoot the sparks into it. It will catch, and the vaseline will keep it lit for quite some time.
I just experimented with this last week, and did it incorrectly. I asked here AFTER the fact. Now, I'm passing this on to you <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Oldsoldier: I also tried cotton balls with vaseline without sucess. Too liberal with the goop! Your tip is a good one, I'll try it.

Morph,
Thanks for the tip.
I went with my wife to the fabric store last night to check this stuff out. Turns out it is "piping cord", 100% cotton. It does indeed resemble the tinder-quiks but is a long rope-like affair. The good news is that it is not $0.29 a foot, it is $0.29 a yard! So I "splurged" and bot a yard. The bad news it is vastly inferior to the tinder-quiks. Oh, it lights up OK, but there just isn't as much cotton (less dense per unit volume) as in the tinder-quiks, so it did not burn long when I cut it to the same size as a tinder-quik. Might work well if one dipped half of it in paraffin.

I took your advice and did a search. I found many alternate CARRIED tinders that people use with the spark-lite, nothing really about impromtu tinder that could be used in either an urban or wilderness environment and that had been tested with the spark-lite. I guess I need to backup and learn the basics of starting fires with tinder now. Pyromania is good...

I bought a flint/steel combo at REI a few weeks ago and tried it with a few items around the house with good success - tissue paper and drier lint both worked for me.

Like you I also wanted to try some natural tinder. So while out on one of my dirt bike rides last week I grabbed a plume of Pampas grass and stuffed that in my backpack and brought it home.

I stripped a bunch of the material from the top of the plume and piled it into a little spot on the sidewalk and with garden hose handy I set to work with the flint and striker.

Wow! I almost burned my fingers. The stuff lights very easily and burns hot and fast. The little stalks that hold the plume material then burns with a more sustained glow that you can blow on to keep going for a while.

That stuff grows all over here in So Cal. I figured that I'd look for more different materials on my next ride and continue to experiment until I've developed a reasonable list of alternates and improved my starting skills.

I'll only bring the materials home to practice in a safe environment however because one has to be really careful around here when starting a fire as the whole area is basically a tinder keg waiting to go off.

Yah, I think you have a couple of different questions here. One about creating your own carried tinder of which there has been a lot of discussion; Which manufactured one is best, and lots of how to make your own.

Personally, I'm partial to the WetFire tinder by Ultimate Survival, who unfortunately recently went out of business, although there does appear to be at least some product still in the channels.

I found it burns well and it kind of melts and merges with the materials near it. As such, you can often use a very small bit of the material in conjunction with some small twigs, needles or leaves.

But you have a good point that there is much less discussion about improvised tinder.

Obviously that will depend a lot of your location and situation. In the Pacific Northwest, finding things that will burn isn't a problem - but finding dry materials.

If things are dry, it is a lot easier. I think one of the keys is to "fuzz" your tinder. For example, if you have some dry grass, break up the ends into fine strands. You should also be able to "fuzz" items including wood with your knife, held perpendicular to the item your are fuzzing.

There is also talk about using "fluffy" seed pods and while you sometimes encounter stuff like that here in the NW, it depends on where and when you are.

Of course you also asked about how the Spark-Lite tinders are made. As your wife points out, the material itself isn't overly sophisticated, but I recall they are impregnated with a couple of materials which is soaked all the way through. Perhaps someone who remembers can comment on what they are.

Also, the different fire starters work to different effect. My recollection is Doug has done some reviews that you should be able to find from the Equipped home page. I don't recall how well the Spark-lite performed, but I do recall that they all have different attributes to be considered. Personally, I have never used the Spark-lite, instead opting for the Swedish Firesteel, "Scout" model and the back of my knife.

You also hit on an other important issue. You want to practice ahead of time. Some people don't have much experience starting fires at all, and even with a match or lighter, much less using wet materials and only a sparker.

You want to build good working skill building fires, identifying and gathering tinder and becoming familiar with the attributes of the equipment you carry.

-john

My old worn out copy of the SAS Survival Manual lists the following as good tinder:

Birch bark, dried grasses, fine wood shavings, bird down, waxed paper, and cotton fluff from clothing...
Pulverized fir cones, pine needles, and the inner bark from cedar trees.
Dried fungi are excellent, if finely powdered, and scorcned or charred cotton or linen, especially ground finely, are also among the best.
Where insects such as wood wasps have been boring into trees the find dust they produce is good tinder and powdery bird and bat droppings can also be used. The inside of birds' nests are usually lined with feathers and ignite easliy-dry Fieldmouse nexts are also usable.

Whatever tinder you use MUST BE DRY. It is a good idea to carry tinder with you in a waterproof container. Always keep an eye open for tinder to collect...

Must beg to differ, ever so slightly. I'm very familiar with two natural tinders that need not be dry - in the conventional sense. Bark of the white birch (may apply to other birches, I just have no experience) and fat pine ("lightern"). I've used both after days of rain (and it was still raining). In the case of the birch I can remember one time in Ontario after 14 straight days of rain (summer 1970), took some bark, shook it off, shredded with knife, struck sparks and had fire. Fed with lots of birch bark and twigs - um good! Fat pine is naturally "waterproof" too. When you can find it, I think it's best. I totally agree with you - when you're in the woods and see good tinder - grab it. I always carry a ZipLoc just for that.

"...Bark of the white birch...fat pine..."

Guess the Brits aren't familiar with that stuff...

You really only need enough vasoline to make the cotten balls greasy feeling. I was in a class once and we took a baseball sized ball of cotton and a dollop of vasoline. Work it in good. I tried out my spark-lite on a pinch of that mix I had made and it caught on the first strike.

Thanks to you and everyone for the comments. This is a very civil place with lots of helpful, informed people. I know I will learn alot.