I was fooling around today with making tinder, when I thought "vaseline and cotton balls... why? So I just got some neosporin and smeared a light coat on a stick. It worked beautifully, in conjunction with the normal tinder/kindling set up. So... why not just keep those old/expired packets of antibiotic ointment, and use them to help with fire starting?

I realize this probably won't work that well with a wet stick

Anyone else ever try this?

Antibiotic ointment has petroleum jelly as its main (inactive) ingredient.

I know. But it's all I had on hand with petroleum jelly. Besides, it's about 4 years old and reaching it's expiration date anyway. Just thought it'd be a good use for all those packets we probably have in our FAKs.

Hey, I think that is a pretty good idea. Like Alton Brown, I am a big fan of multi-taskers too. For that matter, your chapstick will also work, as will bag balm, carmex, etc, all of which are things I have edc'd off and on.

Expiration date aside, I see this as a big plus from a practical view. How about loading a guaze pad with antibiotic ointment and using that as a tinder? Works for me, but more importantly, you are MacGyvering, which is a zen moment, as Chris would likely call it.

Bully for you!!

This makes me want to start a new thread about MacGyvering.

Although Neosporin may be one of the drugs that may degrade in storage, most drugs retain potency and safety for years after the arbtrary expiration date of three years (one year in Tenn.) Google -military drug expiration test- to see a slew of articles on this. Cipro is famous for being so stable as to last for years and years. On the other hand insulin, Nitroglycerine and some others don't last that long. This can have a huge economic impact for all of us and can decrease the cost of keeping our emergency supplies up to date.