http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/cokeandchocolatebar/

If you have a coke can and a chocolate bar, you can start a fire!
Anyone tried this method?

They did on MYTHBUSTERS.

did it work?

If I remember right it did but it took several hours of polishing with the chocolate because its such a mild abrasive.

I tried, I failed. They used Toblerone at that website, IIRC. That is sacrilege! Chocolate abuse. If you need to do this, try something cheap and mediocre like Hersey's milk.

Or better yet, combine two parts sand with one part Crisco. Tried that to, but I don't think Pepsi cans are as shiny as Coke cans. Problem for me- I drink Mountain Dew. In a can, warm. Yes, I am picky and weird.

well it works, but i never even tryed chocolate. Such a waste and time consuming. Go for toothpaste, way more efficient.

And if you use a homemade cola-can stove, you can always polish the bottom. Using some mechanical help and steel polish is way easier.

I tried this last year.. i used toothpaste to get the bottom shiny. the chocolate didn't work so well. the only thing i could get to light was a dark piece of shredded cotton cloth. anything that was white or light colored didn't catch. the PJ cotton balls wouldn't even smoke. i figured the white cotton was reflecting to much light and heat to burn. the black cotton cloth only took a few minutes to get it to smoke and burn. you really have to use it on a very sunny day any and focus all the little pinpricks of light into one beam. the sun reflects off the can and makes a small circle of lights you move the can until they come together as one beam and focus the beam on the cloth. i was amazed it worked!! i thought it was just an urban ledgend. if it dosen't work the bottom isn't shinny enough. it should have a mirror finish on it. took me two hours of rubbing and a few failed attemps at lighting the cloth to figure it out.

i did a search on making fire without matches and then tried to duplicate them all. still can't get a fire plow to work.

Similar to the aluminum foil firestarter I have seen work.

So they do work with char cloth.