Fire starters which one is the best?

I am checking out some different fire starters like RAT Cutlery Strike force & Blast match and wanted to see what kind you folks like and why.

Mag block- big enough to use, useful enough to carry.

LMF and BSA Hotspark type ferro rods- handles make it easy to use, good for thousands of fires but still compact, light weight, and nearly idiot proof.

Sparklight and similiar one handed spark wheels- Compact, good for hundreds of fires, and you can use it one handed.

Thermite- because some times you REALLY need a fire and no questions, not even from that menacing thing from another world who is drooling in the corner.

BTW, welcome to the fire new guy.

Those are what I consider back-ups. Primary fire starters are bic lighters (mini-bic if space is limited) which I think are amazingly reliable, Zippos (if regularly topped off) or sturdy matches in a good match case. REI Storm Proof matches are good, and K & M makes superb match safes.

I consider Spark-Lite the best of the back-ups. All back-up or sparking fire starters are infinitely easier to use if you carry some sort of prepared tinder with them. Spark-Lites include good tinder in the kit.

Blastmatch is on the bottom of my list. The only reason I have one, my DS gave it to me.

1) Torch Lighter
2) Bic Lighter
3) Fuel Lighter (Zippo)
4) REI Matches
5) Doan Mg Block
6) Sparklite & Tinder
7) LMF Fire Steel
8) Potassium Permanganate & Glycerine
9) Magnifying Glass
10) BlastMatch


And yes, I have used all 10.

I keep all but #8 available in my BOB, and all but #'s 8 & 10 in my GHB.

But I often work in the boonies.

If I could ONLY have one, it would be the DOAN Mg Block. I have NEVER had it fail me.

Thermite..... Real subtle......

Yup. What they said. And try a bunch of different fire starters while your at it. Find one you like.

For me, a Bic is the first in line, since it's in my pocket all the time. Plus extras in every jacket, kit and pack I own.

I'll go along with the crowd - try several until you find what works for you. Here is what I have settled on.

1) Refillable butane lighter (carried and spare in BOB) - I have good luck with Colibri Brand
2) Mini Bic in a C2 case (in all cars and small kits) - stores a long time w/no accidental button pushing

3) Strike anywhere matches (in all BOBs and small kits) -Keep in a water proof container
4) Sparklite (in all BOBs and small kits)

Tinder always makes lighting a fire easier so figure out something that works for you and is easily carried.

- Eric

The best?
A zippo and a bottle of lighter fluid.

Second best? A zippo and a half bottle of lighter fluid.

Next down the list goes Bics and bic clones.

Then matches in dry sealed containers, then sparkers like the Doan or Swedish fire steel.
Even though one hand operation is an advantage, mechanical ones like Blast Match are next just because the more parts are involved the higher the chances are that it will break.


Flint and steel, fire drills, magnifying glasses, plow sticks and all the rest are all extreme measures.
Nice to know just in case you have nothing better, but not to be preferred over functional lighters.

a refillable tank lighter,a bit heavy in the pocket but was kept in the day bag on canoe trips for lighting fires in the evening.
a small Bic,light weight and carried in pocket.also this lighter was "altered" from directions found on the web to throw a larger flame than it was made to do.
wood kitchen matches in a small WP plastic bottle.
the Aviation Spark-Lite with three REI flamers and a striker,sealed with duct tape as a "last ditch" fire lighter.
i have found it's not the lighting but keeping a fire going that's the problem.a knife of any kind to scrape the wet bark or moss from firewood or split small branches should be part of a fire kit if you don't carry a belt knife.

Imo the Mg blocks are awesome in some conditions. High wind makes them useless for other than a flint. I edc a disposable lighter. A DJeep when I can find them, a Bic when I can't. I have trusted strike-anywhere matches for years to light my grill, and have carried them into the brush also. I found out the hard way to dip the tips in wax, even ones that are in a match-safe.

Well, I haven't seen a road flare mentioned yet. I have used them several times over the years in the snow and found that about a 6" section will get the wood started.

Was the thermite mentioned in jest? Thinking about the most compact, hottest way to start a fire a while back, I looked at thermite... then I looked at what ignites thermite. Research "Microfuse" 'it is somewhat new, and the formula originated from MircoTek'. It is easilly home-made, but like any pyrotechnic, caution is advised.

And, for the record, I have at least the items mentioned here (except the LMF Fire Steel and Potassium Permanganate & Glycerine) but usually use strike-anywhere matches.

I'm not a fan of magnesium blocks because of the difficulty in scraping it off, stopping it from blowing away, and then igniting it. It's hard to do with one hand. If you manage it, the magnesium doesn't burn for long anyway.

I'm also not a fan of matches as they are bulky for the number of lights you get, and in my experience they don't age well. Plus they are surprisingly hard to use - give an average Joe 3 matches and he'll really struggle to light a fire with them, especially outdoors.

My preferred methods are:

• Butane cigarette lighter. Doesn't have to be BIC. I've not found a liquid fuel lighter I like enough to carry.
• Spark-lite. It's what I've had the most success with, given good tinder.
• Ferro rod. Simplest and therefore most reliable, but hard to use one-handed.

What ever you use, good tinder really helps. Nowadays when I'm camping I use a combination of lighter and tinder-card. (Tinder-card isn't ideal, because it's not water-proof, but I happen to have masses of it spare.)

I wouldn't worry abnout the actual lighter.

But be careful about your tinder.

Cotton wool/vaseline balls, Tinder-Quick and lengths of rubber tyer. Esit cubs and the like.

Put a selection in a smokers oilskin. that will give you a serious fire lighting kit. If you can't do it with that lot than your either a deserving Darwin Award or under water!

I have seen several "campfires" started with road flares. The "camp site" numbers the state used to identify them usually started with the letter I.

Kind like I-5 or I-10 or I-35. In fact, I almost started one on the I-35 campsite my self by accident in 1992 or 93.

Thanks for al the suggestions, I was asking about back-up starters. I have lighters and wind proof matches I have used wetfire tinder a number of times. I am just curious about the experiences some of you have had. I have used Mag. blocks and found that as long as its not windy and you have a good file they work rather easily.

Thanks again for all your ideas and for the warm welcome.

Anybody tried the new metal spark lites yet?

Not Yet

Then you should be sheltering your fire a bit. Wind screen if windy, roof if raining.
My problem with a lot of the primitive methods is if it is damp out they are much harder to make work.
Dry tinder matters a lot.

This one? http://www.tadgear.com/shop.php?id=503

Yep, very solid. It "spins" in the hand, had to get used to it, also, you may want to put some light-weight loc-tite on the flint screw - it tends to back out in your pocket.

Other than that, really cool, solid and classy!

P.S. Look at the "product views" to see what the groove is for.

I think you could turn it into one of these just as easily:
http://goinggear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10

Magnesium block + ferrocerium rod
- not ideal in every situation but overall good solution
- an advantage is you always carry tinder (not long burning tinder but at least some tinder)
- at first I didn´t like it and almost ditched it but I gave it another try and now it´s my weapon of choice

Plastic Spark-Lite
- it seems it´s quite popular here but I have the opposite opinion
- for me it just didn´t work at all, it was very unreliable
- after several promising tests it suddenly failed to light even fluffed-up Tinder Quick
- it´s very small and therefore very EDC friendly but at the same time it can be its drawback (for example if you need to light a fire with numb fingers)
- the advantage is definately one-handed operation
To be fair there´s possibility that I had just bad luck and received a bad piece. If you decide to buy it test it a lot.

Strike Force
- excellent firestarter but quite heavy and bulky for some people
- another all-in one solution (there´s a compartment for tinder)
- I would probably replace the default tinder in the compartment with something more reliable (there were some issues with the tinder)

Swedish FireSteel (LMF etc.)
- reliable classic
- it comes in various sizes
- no tinder compartment so you have to carry it separately or attach it somehow
- it´s my EDC (on my carabiner)

But like someone before me said it´s best to try out several types if you can and see for yourself. Not every solution suits everyone.

Depends on how you define 'best'.

Calling in an air strike works first time and every time. The only requirement is that you have friends with airplanes and ordinance, and some way of telling them when and where you want it.

On the other hand if I was tossing a fire source into a capsule set to be dug up in a thousand years a good size lens might be the way to go. Flint and steel, packed in wax, might be a close second. Both are light, compact and will last a long time and light many fires without wearing out.

Ferro rods are the basis for a lot of units. Ferro rods can, if exposed to moisture and salt, corrode away. The Doan's mag bars are even more prone to corroding away if exposed to moisture, salt, or in contact with dissimilar metals. But, of course, the risk has to be put into context. In normal use and a limited time , say five years, you may never see any sign of a problem. Wrapping them in wax paper or oil cloth, both of which make good tinder, largely eliminates the issue in the near term.

Blastmatch and similar are great, some can be operated one-handed, but they are mechanical devices and so subject to failure and they are not as small or compact as they might be.

All the spark based sources, lens, ferro rod, flint, depend on having dry tinder. Finding dry tinder in the rainy Pacific NW or the damp Southeast can be quite a challenge. Having to carry your own tinder and being dependent on it means the source of sparks and the tinder have to be viewed as a unit.

Simple and disposable Bic, Cricket or mini-Bic lighters are remarkably reliable. So much so that the armed forced, which used to demand waterproof matches in a match safe and/or ferro rods, allow the butane lighters as a substitute for either. Small, light, cheap, reliable and producing a relatively strong, hot flame without resort to fine, dry tinder they have a lot going for them. Which explains why they are the mainstay for fire lighting in a lot of groups.

When a forestry crew needs fire they often carry glorified road flares, called fusees, they are bulky, heavy and entirely one-time-only, expendable, they have their issues. But they are reliable self-contained units that are rugged and once lit they produce a very hot and relatively large flame that lights damp materials quickly. Once lit they are difficult, verging on impossible, to put out.

Ground troops use either a trip flare or a thermite grenade to guarantee a fire gets going. About one and two pounds respectively they are pretty heavy and bulky. They are also likely to raise eyebrows, and require some heavy duty 'splainin', if they are spotted during a routine traffic stop.

Matches are still a viable option. One you don't see as much of in the last quarter century. IMO the best, the gold standard for matches, are the genuine "Lifeboat matches" that are truly waterproof, burn strong even in wind, and come in their own protective vial that keeps them viable for decades. Strike-anywhere, blue tip kitchen and even the old-time, but often free, paper matches are lesser varieties but they are often good enough.

The weakness of matches are that they are to some extent vulnerable to moisture and they are single-use devices. On the other hand they are so light and compact that a half-dozen strike-anywhere matches dipped in shellac and tightly wrapped in wax paper and foil with a striker can be slipped into a pocket or two or the seam of a coat may some day save the day.

There are also the traditional woodcraft methods of using a fire bow, fire cord and fire plow. They work and perfecting the creation of, and use of, one of these devices is a worthy skill. The fire bow seems to be quickest, easiest and most efficient of these friction methods. Nothing quite so impresses people as collecting a few select sticks and using nothing but a knife and a boot lace to crate fire. Kids will idolize you. Hard core fire makers will dispense with the lace and manufacture their own cordage. Fanatic hard-core survivors will do it without the knife.

It is comforting to know that in a pinch you can produce fire with such primitive methods but they aren't always reliable. Damp materials, misting rain and fog can make the method difficult, verging on impossible. Pulling out a Bic or Zippo is far easier.

In the end the term 'best' depends on a lot of factors. How much weight are you willing to dedicate to lighting a fire. If your car camping a set of three fusees, are not to burdensome and you can use them as road flares. The same flares would be a real burden to an ultra-light backpacker. Air strikes and thermite grenades work for the US Army but aren't realistic for most civilians. Methods that are highly resistant to moisture and corrosion, or a really good method of preserving vulnerable devices, are going to be preferred for long-term storage, cashes, remote stocks. Cost, bulk, weight, ease of use, and ability to overcome difficulties like wind, rain and wet materials are values that vary in importance according to the situation.

My preference is for a couple of mini-Bics, one wrapped in wax paper and sealed in foil, and a ferro rod with steel striker attached is generally sufficient. In the remote area I might add a small match safe with lifeboat matches.

Many of my coats have small packets of matches stuffed in various places. making and using a fire bow, or a lens from the binoculars are both options. IMO carrying more than three, perhaps four in a very remote area, dedicated fire starting methods is counterproductive.

If you carry duct tape, make a loop, sticky side out, stick it in a sheltered spot, and scrape the Mg onto the upper sticky side. Less of it will blow away. If yo pinch the ends together, it creates a little canoe shaped hollow.

I'd like to tell a little military story fit for this topic.

A young soldier stumbled upon one special forces, really tough guy who was on his own doing the hardcore outdoor survival training. He was struggling with the bow-and-arrow method of firemaking, it was pouring down and tough going.
- Howdy, what's up? What are you doing?
- I'm making a fire with this bow drill method.
- Good luck with that. Personally, I'd rather use THIS (producing a BIC lighter).

Whereupon the SF guy gives a long and windy lecture of why and how lighters can't be trusted. (They leak, get emptied, crushed, forgotten and so on and so forth... this gives him motivation for working real hard on the bow drill, which STILL won't work). The soldier consider this for a moment:
- You know what? You're dead right! That's why I always carry two! (producing second BIC lighter...)

I believe there is a lot of truth to this! What you need more than the "best" firestarter is the one that works for you and you've worked with it in different environments and weather conditions. Any firestarter will likely fail if you wait to take it out of the box when the emergency is in progress. I know I can start a fire with a $1.29 bic lighter simply because i've done it and i'm a far cry from any sort of survival expert.

But doesn't that mess up the waterproofing on a tent fly?

No I mean the real metal Spark lite, not some copy of the idea.

True, redundancy in critical equipment is very important.

But so is the awareness of technique, the awareness of local materials, the ability to make good kindling in a proper location in the worst conditions. These things are learned the hard way, which is why primitive firemaking is excellent training. It's the attention to the fine details that ensures reliable results.

Now give your two guys identical firemaking equipment in tough conditions. Who would you put your money on?

And doesn't it depend at least a bit on munitions are used.
- Napalm has the highest reliability
- B-52 ArcLight is also highly reliable
- cluster munitions/multiple 5" rockets are pretty sure bet
- a single 500lb bomb, the results depend a lot on the target environment
- MOAB not very reliable as a source of lasting fire
- New Small Diameter Bomb - not enough data to determine reliability


- Eric

I am partial to the Sparklite tinder ignited by the Blastmatch

Being new to this, I read a bunch of info here & elsewhere, then bought a Coghlan's magnesium firestarter & a Swedish Fire-steel Scout.
I collected the lint from the dryer for a week (to my wife's amusement) and mixed it with a liberal gob of Vaseline.

In the warm dry calm environs of my garage, I begin to practise.

Using a sawzall metal blade, I grated off a small pile of magnesium onto a strip of duct-tape.
I tried several square edge blades to create a shower of sparks onto the magnesium.
Lots of sputtering & sizzling, holes melted through the duct-tape, no flame.

Added the lint/vaseline to the mix & tried to fuzz it up to create as much surface area as possible. No flame.
Maybe too much vaseline in the mix (?)

Next tried the fire-steel. Lots of brilliant sparks, no flame.

Next tried the fire-steel with shredded Fire-fly beeswax/cotton tinder. After dozens of tries, managed to get this to ignite.

The fire-steel & mag fire-starter are looking a bit ragged by now.
REALLY glad I did not use a good knife on either the fire-steel or the mag block.

Tried the lint/vaseline tinder with a Bic lighter.
Messy as hell, not really easy to ignite, but once going burns well & long.

Tried the beeswax/cotton tinder with a Bic lighter.
Easier to ignite, far less messy, burns well & long.

Next is to find a place that sells the Djeep lighter, which I read about here.

Do you have a link or manufacturer?

Y'know Fasteer, I never had much luck with dryer lint either. I found shredded up grasses, or shredded cedar bark, birch bark and the linty stuff from cat tail heads to work good.
The key to all of them is they have to be really dry.
They have to be made really fine too. Think of the centre of a mouse nest in the middle of your tinder to catch the spark.

I usually wear out the spark rod on a Doan's magnesium block (coughlan's is the same thing with a different stamp on it) long before I have even made a serious dent in the magnesium.
The magnesium has to be very fine and in a pile is what I found. I tend to make the pile a bit flat, not a cone.

I also found out you are less likely to hit the tinder with the striker if you hold the striker upright and solid against the tinder and drag the sparker back towards you over it.

The best strikers I have found so far are broken hacksaw blades, fairly fine tooth, like 18 or 24 teeth per inch.
The strikers that come with the Swedish Firesteel sparker rods are pretty good too.

One thing I like having with me to light a fire is a wax candle.
If I have a lighter sometimes I light the candle first and use the candle to light the fire.

My hunting knife and my machete have areas on the spine (back) of the blades that have been given a square edge with a coarse file. It makes an effective scraper and saves the working edge from damage.

Dryer lint needs to be full of German Shepherd Dog hair to work effectively. Then you have motivation to get the fire going to kill the burning hair smell.

Or at least that is how it works around my house....

I bought a bag of 100 cotton balls at the local drugstore for a buck. Wow, they ignite easily & go up fast & hot. Most of you knew that.

As I always have WD-40 onhand, I gave a few cotton balls a good shot of WD-40, then left them for a few hours to let the carrier evaporate.
They still ignite easily, but burn much longer.
A lot of them cram into a recycled pill-bottle.
What do you think of this?

IMHO cotton balls with PJ are still your best bet because they have other uses besides just fire starting. I've used the PJ to protect windburned skin on a long hunting trip in cold high winds. Grubby, but it seemed to help. I've also used it to lube a cracking leather washer in a balky camp stove fuel tank pump. And, of course, to start fires.

As far as tinder goes, I've always had very good luck with cotton balls mixed with Vaseline.

The trick, though, is not to use too much Vaseline. The purpose of the Vaseline is to make the cotton ball burn longer and possibly to increase its water resistance a little, too much Vaseline will inhibit the cotton ball's ability to catch a spark and pretty much just give you a useless gooey mess.

So how much is too much? It's tough to describe without showing/feeling in person. With that said, if the tinder, when you're done making it, can stick to the wall....it has way way too much. What you should have when you're done will look just like normal cotton, but slightly yellowed and only a tiny bit greasy to the touch/squeeze.

Cotton balls soaked in Colemans White fuel gas stored in an old air tight sealed empty metal boot polish tin takes a spark quite well. So does rubber cement used for bicycle inner tube repairs.

I recently went through a fire starting test, too. The normal fire starters I carry camping are waterproof matches and a lighter.

Here's what I found:

Dryer lint, if fluffed up, works with a spark-lite or the flint on a mag block, but it's tough to do. My clothes are almost all cotton, which probably makes the lint light easier than other types.

Magnesium shavings, by themselves, are easy to light but burn too quickly. A combination of magnesium shavings in lint works much better than either one separately. (I'm sure a big enough pile of shavings would burn just about anything. I'll have to experiment more with that.)

As finely as I could shave wood (pine), I could not get it to light with a spark. Same goes for a pile of shavings from the router, which surprised me because they are very fine.

I could not get cotton twine to light from a spark. However, cotton twine with just a drop or two of alcohol or kerosene catches easily from a spark and burns great.

The tinder tabs packaged with the spark-lite work great. Mine are several years old. I opened one up, tore it in half, fluffed it up, and it caught and burned great. These things are a very good value, IMO, and I'll be buying more to stuff into various kits.

One last thing I tried was an alcohol based hand wipe. This caught easily and burned well, but the cloth itself did not burn after the alcohol burned off. I wouldn't depend on this as a carry item because the alcohol could be evaporated from the wipe before it's opened. (DR pointed that out years ago in a review I read.) Good to know that they catch easily, though, that could come in handy.

If you EDC -40, give the cotton balls a hit just before use, and add sparks while they are still juicy. Watch your eyebrows.

Me, I always have Carmex. White PJ base, with menthol and soothing stuff in it. Or Neosporin, which is white PJ with low order antibiotics. I carry the cotton balls dry, add a dab when needed, and fire it up. Even if the cotton gets a little bit of rain, the PJ burns enough on it's own.

If you really want to wreck your eyebrows, try starting a fire with IMR 4064. Lousy fire starter (burns too fast) but it is entertaining.

Good tip on the carmex/neosporin.

Mnt_Man, perhaps, you can make a new thread with the poll engine (when creating the new thread use the Poll Manager option under the message text) to consolidate the collective wisdom from this one. This way you will see at least what's the most popular fire starting method among the crowd.

I agree that lighting shavings using sparks is sometimes tricky. But it depends a lot on what kind of sparks are we talking about. For example a spark from Spark-lite is too small to light almost any wood shavings. However if you take some big ferr. rod like Strike Force and strike it really hard you get burning pieces of ferrocerium that keep burning for quite some time on top of the tinder and it makes a difference. I tried it with pine (Maya sticks) shavings and it does wonders. Though the pine wood shouldn´t be fresh. I have read that a fresh pine wood doesn´t burn well.

I love 000 or 0000 seel wool. It is the most reliable source of tinder and the one that can be lit the most ways.

It will charge with a battery. everyone here has a cell phone. the battery works well to ignite the steel wool, unless it's an i phone. Camera batteries and radio batteries are also a source of ignition. It will ignite with a magnifying glass, it will ignite with sparks from a ferro rod, or even a lighter with no fuel.

Steel wool is very inexpensive and found at all hardware stores.

Once lit, it will continue to glow in even high wind conditions. In fact, it makes it hotter.

... Just don't store your steel wool in the same container you do your batteries. Yep! I've seen it done several times and each time it wasn't pretty.

the ferro rod is very easy to use one-handed and even teach the one-handed method in my courses... No hands is another story, LOL! In combination with Steel Wool the ferro rod is even more of a guarantee then VIC balls or tinder-quik.

What steel wool won't do, rather rarely does, is burst into flame. Instead you have a big, very hot glowing ember ready to ignite whatever comes in contact with it.

Alan

I have read quite a lot about steel wool but never tried one. Reading your post reminded me that I should finally get it and try it out. It sounds like very interesting option. And the fact that you can start a fire using accumulator if you have the steel wool is kind of cool .

When it's brand new it works Okay. But after you purposelessly handle it in your bare hands it seems to absorb sweat/oil and can't catch a spark anymore.

That reminds me of a TV show, "The Unit", where one of the guys crash landed in a helicopter. He was busily working away with a firebow (or some other primitive method - I forget which) trying to start his fire. Dude! Look over your shoulder. Right behind you is a burning helicopter! Why don't you go take your stick and poke it in there to get it lit?!

Alex, interesting. I've never had that problem and my hands really sweat. Of course, there really is no need to over handle it. You pull it out of its container and zap it with a battery, No fuss no muss.

Another interesting thing I demonstrate is submerging steel wool in water. I take it out, squeeze it out, and wrap it in my shirt for a few seconds to help draw out whatever moisture is left and zap it with a battery. It works.

Alan

thanks for the info, I'd never heard of that before.

some questions:

how exactly do you use the battery to ignite the wool? and does this have any detrimental effects on the battery itself? are rechargeables affected differently than standard?

how much wool do you use? like the whole pad or just a tuft pulled off?

you mentioned it can be ignited a number of ways. how do you know when it's ignited since there's no flame?

it sounds like it burns for a very long time, how do you safely extinguish it? or does it not out-burn the fire itself?

Almost any shower of sparks or ember will ignite fine steel wool. A brief touch of both contacts of an electrical source to a wad steel wool closes the circuit and sends a current through the steel wool which causes it to "burn." The steel wool glows a highly visible orange-red as it quickly "burns away" without flame. The steel wool is consumed very quickly, but a big wad is consumed slower than a small bunch.

Four Seasons Survival Gear has reintroduced their aluminium Spark Light.This is the same maker of the original Spark Lite except one is plastic(economical,disposable)the other is metal with replacable flints.These are a great quality item that is prized by those who have them.They are listed for $18.00 on their web site.
Is the Spark Lite the best fire starter? For a one handed fire starter the answer is YES!This is not just my opinion either.Backpacker magazine has even stated this.It's size and negligible weight makes it to easy not to have it on you all day-every day.A metal one is just too good to be true.
(Not afiliated with this company Blah-blah-blah etc.)

BOATMAN
John

Great find! Here is the direct link.

Though, I've saved $18 by drilling and tapping my plastic spark light. It accepts regular flints easily now.

And the wind also just causes the steel wool to glow hotter. In other words, it doesn't go out like a flame does.

I have one of the original Brass Sparklights. The new ones are aluminum, but just as nice. I do beleive, but I could be wrong, at this point, the new metal ones are exclusive to Survival Resources.

Ohhh yeah! Steel wool lights real easy with a sparklight, hehehe!

Alan

dweste,
thanks. so how much wool do you typically use as a fire starter?

Halcon (or anyone else),
re: my questions above...

does starting with a battery damage or drain the batteries? does it matter whether you use rechargeable or alkaline batteries?

how do you know when the wool is lit if there's no flame? do you just keep sparking until the steel is glowing?

and since it doesn't go out like a flame, how do you safely extinguish it?

Drain battery, yes. Damage, I do not know but doubt it.

I use a loose golf ball size wad of steel wool on the rare occasions I use it as a fire starter. It burns itself out quickly, just make sure you put it down on a fire-proof surface -or just into the fire.

You will see the steel wool begin to glow orange-red and shrivel up as it "burns" right away. the orange-red is like filaments in old tube transistors or electric heater elements. Try it once and you will get it right away [do not hold the steel wool when you try this].

Undoubtedly, it can damage the battery, since you are shorting it out. Practice with a nine volt battery. Just touch the battery terminals to the steel wool.

Make sure it is completely out. Even after seemingly stomping it out, any slight breeze can reignite it if not snuffed out completely.

Steel wool is no joke try it and you will see

Alan

thanks to you both! I wanted to get some more info on that before I tried it out so I didn't ruin some good batteries or set the neighborhood on fire.

About once a year our Sacramento Tracking And Wilderness Training group assembles every spark and ember creating device and every type of tinder we can find and have at fire-making. Different types of batteries, matches, lighters, bow and hand drills, flint and steel, ferrosteel, etcetera are turned on steel wool, lint, petroleum jelly soaked cotton balls, hemp twine fluff, dried leaf and grass, flares, fire gels, tinder pellets packs, ecetera. It takes most of a day to go through most of the variations. So far the Fire Department has not been called.

I have a couple of spark lites, and I like them a lot. I'm not sure if I'd like the aluminum, especially if it were cold, which is usually when I'd expect to want a fire the most. The obvious advantage is one handed use, but it's also handy because the sparking motion is less likely to cause you to bump into the tinder, moving it around.

Today I bought a roll of jute twine. $1.50 for 150 feet. It's not as nice as cotton string as far as string goes, but it lights way easier. So far this is the only solid household product I've been able to light with a spark. (Liquid fuels are easy, as are the commercial tinder tabs that come with the spark lite, and magnesium shavings.) At $.01 a foot, I now have little excuse to not have tinder everywhere.

Does anyone know where to get a metal sparklight?

Just thought I'd echo the post about using too much petroleum jelly: it really is a pain to get going using traditional sparking methods. What had happened was that I'd stored the cotton balls in a small ziploc bag, which was then packed too tightly into a backpack. The cotton fibers became completely smooshed and saturated with the jelly, thus becoming quite useless in a barren area with no other easily available tinder. If I'd been in a survival situation, I would've perhaps used the packet of tissues in my pocket, ripped up part of a cotton bandanna, or else shredded up some inner bark from the wood with my knife.

However I wasn't in a survival situation and had brought along my lighter. Moral of the story: even with good fire starting tools and techniques, always (and I mean ALWAYS) have a backup.

You can get a metal spark-lite here for just under $19 plus S/H:

http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/FirestarterProducts.htm

(No affiliation and all that).

That's useful information -- I always have Neosporin in my pack and car.

Thanks.

Along with the metal sparklites, you have this guy from TAD Gear. They are prone to being out, but if you need a metal sparklite-like item, between TAD and John McCann's site you should find one having them in stock at any one time

I really dislike VIC balls. I understand they work and burn well, but I despise having to need a separate container, because they're so messy. I also don't like the prep part of it, again, messy. For me, tinder-quik works better anyway and it works after having been submerged in water.

if nothing else was available, I would use VIC balls, I'm glad that's not the case, lol

Alan

I'm looking at the ingredient list for "Burt's Bees Hand Salve" and wondering if this could be an accelerant combined with cotton balls. It smells a bit like Vick's Vapor Rub. Will try it tomorrow.

Ingredients, in the order they are listed on the .30 oz tin

Sweet almond oil
olive oil
beeswax
tocopheryl acetate
tocopherol
comfrey root extract
rosemary oil & leaf extract
lavandin oil & flower extract
eucalyptus oil

This is a handy little tin, about the circumference of a poker chip.

At survival school thay gave me 2 macthes
to light a fire in wet soggy woods. learn
how to youse macthes and you wile find thare prety
reliable. try the REI storm macthes.

litlefoot01
rember 9 11 2001