I just made up a fresh batch of my "fire candy" to throw in my fire kit in preparation for a camping trip. It goes in a zip lock back with a bunch of previously collected birch bark and some fat wood. It is pretty wet where we camp so I want to make sure the fire starts fast since there will be a bunch of hungry kids waiting for their grub.

The fire kit also includes a disposable lighter, ferro rod and matches. Gotta have the matches for lighting the lantern.

Here is a pictoral of the fire candy:



Start with a piece of wax paper (candy wrapper)




Add a piece of cotton with vaseline (starts the flame with the tiniest of sparks, once fluffed)




Add some wax covered cedar shavings




The final product. The wax paper is twisted and tied with a piece of jute (also catched the tiniest of sparks once fluffed)




Fluffed and ready to take a spark. I used the BSA Hotspark with the lousy striker that it came with. The spark was tiny (it is much better with the awl of an alox farmer)




Houston, we have ignition! Lit up nicely. I purposely left it in an unsheltered area and it lit up easily even in a stiff breeze. If I had thought about it in advance, I would have tried lighting it in a puddle. The wax paper, vaseline and the wax on the shavings make it pretty water resistant.




Flame at about the two minute mark. The near horizontal flame shows how windy it was.




Still going after three minutes.




Flame out but still smoldering after over four minutes. I suspect more cedar shavings will extend the burn time, but it is more than enough to get a fire started with proper preparation of the tinder bundle, kindling and fire wood.


My firend's son is a pryomaniac especially after I gave him his first ferro rod and told him how to use it and how to make a tinder bundle. So he will enjoy getting some "candy" to play with. Of course his dad supervises. I turned his dad on to using a kukri too. And now son likes chopping. But that is another story.

Aloha,

Cool! Now I know what to pass out next Halloween.

-Blast

Aloha Blast,

I never thought of that. That's what the pyro kids will be getting!

Are you getting enough sleep? The old dad trick is to pretend you are still asleep until DW handles the crying baby. To all the mom's on the forum, I am just kidding. To all the dads... <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I like it!

I didn't know that you had birch in Howareya. Being a former flatlander from CA, I had never had a chance to play with birch 'til we went to Alaska last year. It is really neat stuff. My son had given me a book that, in addition to a lot of other great info, showed how to make cups and other goodies out of birchbark. And it does burn well! I even bought a bunch back with us, just to play with...

We have some paper birch here. At least I am pretty sure that's what it is. Whatever it is, it works great. Lights up with a spark and starts up kidling pretty well.

As long as it works, who cares what it is called...

OBG,

When you're right, you're right.

My typing is really messed up today. I meant kindling, not kidling, unless my kids make me really mad.

Interesting

Other than being cheaper, how does it compare performance wise to a fuel tablet like esbit, hex, or triox?

Having a lot of carpal tunnel going on lately, I understand typos. You are forgiven...

Aloha Burncycle,

I haven't even thought about comparing it to an Esbit, et al. I was just using it as a piece of tinder to start up a fire, not stand alone.

But as far as an Esbit tab goes, I think the burn time is probably about half. I get about 4-5 minutes out of the "candy" but I really couldn't tell you about output.

This is version 2. Version 1 had a piece of birthday candle in there instead of the cedar with wax. Version 2 works much better!

For firestarting, the "candy" works fine. Maybe when I have some free time, I will try one in an Esbit stove and see if it will heat up or boil water. The Esbit tab doesn't really work well for boiling, only heating.

I can start a fire with this in minutes, even when things are damp. When wood is damp, I will use this in a birch bark tinder bundle with a few pieces of fatwood to supplement the other gathered kindling.

Lights up hot and fast.