Tinder that takes a spark: options?

What all is out there that can be lit with sparks from a large firesteel? I use the term "tinder" loosely - what I'm really after is "firemaking helpers that work with a spark"

I know of:

cotton balls with vasoline
char cloth
alcohol in a burner

What else is good and a reasonable thing to consider carrying on day hikes, etc.? Something that would work well in damp conditions and wind gets a bonus of course. "Fire Paste" would seem ideal IMHO, if it will take a spark. But I kind of doubt it will, and I don't have any to try experiementing with. Does anybody know if Fire Paste + spark = fire? I've got plenty of powder from ammunition reloading, but that fails under "wet" or "windy" conditions. Not to mention the safety aspect. Plus, you only get a flash of fire to singe your eyebrows with, not the more desireable slow burn to get other materials (tinder) ignited.

I am not concerned with weight and/or size that much. This would be for day hikes and bug out bag use.

sorry i can't help but this why i have a fire lighter that makes fire and not sparks.i always thought the fire steels were the sort of thing that was packed away in a sealed kit to be used if all else failed but they seem to have moved into the everyday fire lighting mode.
thinking about it for a minute i'll bet a steel would light those Army fire tabs and once you get those going you can burn just about anything.

Sure, if the BIC lighter works, then by all means I'd use that! And I carry one of those BIC's. But I'm looking for a backup that will basically work under the worst of conditions, when the BIC might fail. Of if the BIC leaked out it's butane after years and years of sitting in a bug out bag.

For lighting alcohol burners like my Trangia, I prefer the firesteel over the BIC though. The firesteel always lights the Trangia first try, and your hands stay farther away as you're lighting it (not that alcohol lights up that hot initially to be a significant danger if you're holding a BIC or a match up close).

I can think of several.

1) Tinder-Quik: This stuff is cotton treated with something to make it waterproof and extend the burn. It's designed to be lit with the relatively weak spark from a lighter flint. A 1" tab of the stuff will light very easily and burn for around 2 minutes. An empty BIC will still light this stuff.

2) Jute twine: In my experience you really do have to keep it dry, but when dry it will light easily with sparks from a fire steel. The empty BIC may light this, if you choose finer jute cord.

3) Cotton balls dipped in wax: Much the same as vaseline but not messy. You have to take care not to get too much wax to get it lit. I like to compress a large cottonball as tightly as I can, then wrap it in a bit of cling film or a square cut from a plastic shopping bag. I wrap the cottonball and melt is shut if it's a bag. Then I wrap cotton cosmetic pads or another cotton ball around this core, secure it with rubber bands and dip it in wax. This leaves the inner core of bone dry cotton to light and a lot of wax to protect and extend it. To use this you cut the ball about 2/3 in half, pulling out and fluffing up the naked cotton in the center. It can be lit with an empty BIC.

4) Weber Grill Lighters: This stuff is essentially the same as WetFire but larger and much, much cheaper. You have to keep it sealed or it won't keep for long but it lights easily with sparks and burns around 9-10 minutes. It's completely waterproof and will burn while floating. I haven't tried lighting it with the relatively faint sparks from a BIC, but I'll test it when I have time.

5) Hexamine: The most well know brand is ESBIT. You can use a knife or other scraper to scrape some shavings off the edge, and those shavings can be readily lit with a fire steel. It doesn't need to be sealed and has a near-infinite shelf life. Since it's made as a fuel for stoves (and model trains) it burns well. A cube will go for around 13 minutes. If it's not sealed though it reeks like a 7 day old dead fish. This probably won't light reliably with the faint sparks from an empty lighter but again, it can be lit pretty easily with a fire steel, especially a very large on like the Firesteel.com Bunker. The BlastMatch also lights them very reliably in my experience. Again, you do have to shave it first.

6) Fatwood: This takes a bit of work, though. First, cut some thin strips off for intermediate fuel. Then use the spine of your knife or the striker for your 'steel to rub fine shavings/dust off the fatwood. If you keep the rubbings fine the dust will easily light with a fire steel. The dust will burn hotly, and for long enough to light the slivers, which in turn will light your other fuel. Not sure if an empty lighter has enough oomph to light it, but again, I'll also try this as time allows.

1 - Alcohol wipes in your FAK

2- Hand sanitizer ( some brands )

3 - Smear a little lip palm on some TP. Should be same as cotton/Petroleum jelly... I think

4 ?? Haven't tried it, but was thinking about ear wax on a cotton Q-tip. I don't know if it would catch a spark

I have recently done a wilderness survival merit badge campout with my scout troop, and we tested some. I have lit the following with a spark:

cotton (w/vaseline)
Wetfire (must not be exposed to air for too long)
Crumbled Weber grill starters
Esbit cubes crumbled
dry grass (with a blast match)
paper (with a blast match)
alcohol
cedar bark
pine needles (rubbed together to make finer fibers)

I also tried another type of grill starter, and I am trying to track down some more as I can't remember the name and it is not on the small packages. I have had them for several years, and they are packaged in a nice waterproof plastic. You are supposed to light the package with a match. I tore the open and crumbled the stuff inside and it ignited with a spark.

It's not intuitive, but the best thing I've ever found was fine steel wool (not Brillo pads; the soap does them in). It will catch a spark and burn very hot. A little unraveled steel wool and a little unraveled twine and you have yourself a happy little flame from your sparking device.

Dryer lint, pocket lint, the threds hanging around the hole in the knee of your jeans. I've used them all with my poor mans sparklite. I don't advise gun powder, but there are some slow burning ones out there, like the old string powders like cordite, we took some out of WWII .303 British rounds with a bullet puller. Experimented with them as fuses so the burn slow in the open air. You could soak cotton balls in kerosene or gasoline and allow to air dry fully or till they are just barely damp and store in an air tight container. Hope this helps.

DW found that dry milkweed fluff will burst into flames with a firesteel spark.

I agrveryone seems to want the fire steel as a last resort. I say use it when the wheather is good and progress to matches and lighter etc as it gets worse. Why use it when you're cold and wet, the wind and rain or snow is blowing and you're shivering badly? That's when I want a hot steady flame and excellent solid state tinder. Yup I've lit Trioxane on fire with the ferro on my mag bar. Just rough it up a bit with the edge of your knife. Or there's always Wet Fire cubes.

I use an old hemostat to pinch a cotton ball in half and dip one side into meld wax and let dry. I call them bunny tails. One side is fuel, the other is the spark catcher. Lay them on thier side and they work well.

White powder? Clear package with black print? I have a few somewhere. Just read an old article where a survival class tried to light the closed package with fire steel. Didn't work until they tore them open.

Birch bark catches a spark well if shaved into thin strips. Pine resin also works great. If you combine both you have natural tinder as good as it gets.

Old mans beard works, but it has to be really dry.

I don't think you can beat PJ cotton balls for effectiveness, compactness, weight, waterproofness, availability, and cost. Make them fat & juicy, then package them individually in an aluminum foil envelope (as was discussed here lately). I would like to experiment with using wax instead of PJ as long as the wax is as effective.

Be careful about dryer lint. Its willingness to light from a spark depends heavily on whether or not there are a lot of fibers like polyester, rayon, and olefin in there. Anything other than cotton, no matter how dry, detracts from lint's performance.

I'm with you on this one; fire steels are my primary method for making fire. This also helps ensure I know how to get a fire going using this tool, where as if it was only my back-up I'd have limited experience with it which could complicate things if I did have to rely on it in an emergency scenario.

Thanks for the heads up about the lint. Never had a problem with it but good to know there is a potential for one. Wax works great and burns long and hot.

My philoposy exactly. Sorry about the poor spelling today.

Good points on using the firesteel as your primary, and then BIC lighters, matches, etc. as your backups. Keeps your skills honed. I think I'll switch my choices based on this. I thought about why I had been choosing a BIC as my primary in the past. The only reason I could come up with was "because it's easy". Poor reason. Thanks for setting my head straight on this thought process. Firesteels definitely aren't difficult - so long as you have something that will catch a spark. You're not going to be lighting a wooden pencil with a firesteel (you might be able do that with a BIC - maybe).

Cotton Soaked Tinder Cubes

My Recipe is to melt 1 lb of Wax (old candle ends normally) which I then pour in 1 cup of Kerosene (after I remove it from the camp stove). Then I dunk in half cotton balls and place them on a sheet of foil to dry. PS: I make these outside, not on my Kitchen stove.

These tinder cubes work just great and last 2 years at least. I store my bulk cubes in jars. I place the ones I take to wilderness in small baggies.

I rip them apart to light them with a striker. They light first try with nearly any striker and will burn for 2 or 3 minutes if you use the entire cube.

Magnesium shavings! Even though it burns quickly, it still ignites from a spark rather easily.



By the way, the tinders mentioned in this thread can catch from a tiny firesteel also!

glad I could finally be of help on here. As for pencil size sticks and bic, make the sticks into fuzz sticks. Works mighty good.

As you know, a lighter is technically like a firesteel and PJ cotton. A lighter makes a small spark from a flint, and the tinder is a wick covered in liquid fuel. A firesteel needs to be about 50 times bigger than a lighter's flint because a firesteel can make about 50 times more sparks.

Don't get me wrong. A lighter is my number one, but a rugged firesteel as backup gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

as airballrad commented... OOOO steel wool works well, and for fun the next time you find a piece of dark chert ie. "flint", try a traditional flint and steel fire with char cloth and compare it to the steel wool... the chert and steel was always a fun demonstration for my students... always took bets on whether steel wool would burn...could have retired a few years earlier

+1 Taurus.

Pine resin and old man's beard are all great fire tinder materials and I always have good results with either. There is not a lot of birch in my area but I have a couple of pieces of bark kicking around in one of my kits somewhere and I can attest that birch bark is one of the best natural fire tinder materials, even when thoroughly wet.

Pine Resin



Old Man's Beard


I also use my firesteel as much as possible if only just for the practice just in case I ever need it in a real survival situation. This particular steel has had quite a bit of use over the years and is due to be replaced before this year's outdoor adventures are in full stride.

The TinderQuiks are the proven leader in this category,IMHO!They are Waterproof,compact-(more so than anything out there at present),readily take the slightest spark to ignite,yet are very safe to store,even outside of a container if need be!They are cheap&small enough & clean enough, to have them through out your person,pack,anywhere & everywhere!They don't get Gooey when the temps get hot,nor freeze solid when the temps are cold,they take abuse & perform as expected! I have no affiliation with the above brand of product,other than being a convinced user!

Yes, fire paste will light easily.

Also some of the fungi like daldinia concentric (aka cramp balls, coal fungus)and Amadou, if prepared properly

I wouldn't argue against you there. I buy them from eBay for less than $20 per 100, a very good price. There's a video I watched at youtube that compared TQs, WetFire & PJ Cotton; very interesting, I'll have to find the link. Even when left in a puddle during a long T-storm the TQ could still be made to light, albeit with difficulty. The PJ cotton was useless. Of course, the smart person will take care to keep their chosen tinder dry but >stuff< can happen. A TQ is very compact, very effective and very water resistant. I really like them.

One of the eBay stores where I buy offers special pricing on quantities of 300 or more. I will probably check into that as cheap as they already are.

Here's a quick update on the Weber cubes: Yes, they light on the first strike with the Spark-Lite (essentially a BIC without any provision for fuel). I was vacuum sealing some single cube mylar packets and had a bunch of shavings left from cleaning up the Webers, so I tested it out. I'd say it's a robust YES.

They will work as packaged with a flame (match or lighter) but you have to open them up to use a spark. The benefit of these is that packaging is durable and waterproof and they last on the shelf for extended periods.

What is the advantage of using something other than PJ cotton balls? Is it burn time for dealing with wet tinder? I never have a problem getting one lit from a spark, and they burn well for around 5 minutes.

I actually make mine much like Tinder Quik, I apply some PJ, work it into the cotton ball, and then roll into a tight cylinder wrapped in a single ply of tissue paper, trimming the ends to make a cylinder. This cuts down on the mess when I go to pull one from a small ziplock bag. If I'm using a spark to ignite I just pull the cylinder apart to expose loose fibers and its good to go.

I might have to pick up some of those Weber cubes to see what the fuss is about.

Mark, you may want to read this about weber cubes


http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43957

Cotton is very cheap and it works well. The Weber stuff does have a few things going for it. First, it seems to be utterly non-hygroscopic; you can soak it in water indefinitely with no ill effects. I don't think you can get enough PJ into cotton to duplicate this trick, and if you could it would probably very difficult to light. Weber also burns very hot; it seems to me hotter than a PJ cotton ball but I've not actually measured the temps (no IR thermometer). Weber cubes are also easier to light (depending on how you make your PJ cotton).

Another cool thing is that you can scrape off just a little if you don't need a whole cube. You can also put out a block that's burning and reuse it later. It's instantly cool to the touch, just like WetFire.

Ditto X 2? X 3? Doesn't matter. I agree!

I carry PJ cotton balls, at a minimum. They are extremely dependable but I like having options, especially natural ones, and those take practice. Besides, it's fun!

Does Tinder Quik seem to have an indefinite shelf-life?

Yes

Yeah, seems to. At worst case, even if whatever-they-use was to "evaporate" off, it would still be woven cotton.