The mess that is PJ and cotton balls

In an attempt to add another tool to my preps today, I got some petroleum jelly, cotton balls and a zip lock bag. Then I looked at them and wondered how to do this without making a mess? Then I thought one step further and wondered how do you actually use them without making more of a mess? So, is there a way to make and use these that I'm not seeing, or is this just a messy way to make fire?

Aloha Malpaso,

Check out my "fire candy." I think this is a link to it: http://www.equipped.org/ubbthreads/showf...amp;amp;fpart=1

Somehow i have never found PJballs to be too messy, so you get a little vaseline on your hand. Can't heart, it keeps our hand smooth. Maybe it's just a state of mind.

Just to pass along a tip that I picked up from the late Gene Ward.

A cotton ball saturated in petroleum jelly then wrapped in foil like a small raviola. When ready to use make a couple small cuts in an X over the cotton ball pull a few cotton fibers out and light. leave the cotton ball in the foil case. The one I tested burned well over 40 minutes.

I put a handful of cotton balls in a ziplok bag, then use two fingers to scoop out a good sized glob of PJ and smear it inside the bag. I use a paper towel to wipe off my hands (after applying some to my lips to reduce chapping). Zip up the bag and start massaging.

I leave it all in the bag until needed. When I pull out a cotton ball and fluff it up for starting a fire, yes the tips of my finger get some PJ on them, but not much, and I just spread it on my hands. Its not so bad.

They can be kind of messy to make, but not all that messy to use.

You can use Ken's way, and do it inside the bag. I like to make sure I'm doing it right <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> so I just grab a smallish gob of petroleum jelly and a cotton ball and wirk them together. I don't usually make a large number of them, so I do them one at a time. A fairly light smearing will produce a ball that burns for about 30 seconds. A little more and it will burn for 2 minutes. If you add a cotton ball to a large glob of jelly, it will probably burn for several minutes or more. Cotton is the wick, petroleum jelly is the fuel.

Leave them wadded together and put them into your container. When you get one out and fluff it up, it just gets your fingertips a little greasy, so just rub into your skin or wipe them on your pants <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />.

Tip: don't wad them tightly into a tiny container. If you can't get your finger in far enough to grab the cotton, you're going to have a real problem when you're shivering from cold or fear and can't feel your fingertips.

They're cheap, quick, simple. You don't need to use the whole bag of cotton balls. Experiment with some of them and you'll know how much jelly to add the next time you make them, or for your other BOBs.

Sue

they are a mess..just because something works does not
mean it's ok to use when there are much cleaner and
faster fire lighters..heat tabs to candle stubs and back--
it's like the 9 volt battery and steel wool..it works but it's
a gimmick..

Neat idea. Made up a half dozen of those last night and added them to the truck bag.

i use a chapstick instead of PJ. i keep a few dry cottonballs in my wallet and kits and i always have a chapstick on me .it works and i find it easy to use

One of these days I have to try something I have been planning for a while. Make up a few PJ&balls, then stuff them down inside an empty chapstick tube. If all goes according to plan, you could remove the cap and crank up one ball at a time. Maybe tape the cap on and the little twisty knob to help prevent leakage, or maybe drip some candle wax on the seams. I know for a fact that you can get at least four dry cotton balls inside of the tube...

Please tell us if in worked!

Might be a while. Feel free to try it and report, just send the royalty check to me general delivery. Oh wait, seems to me I got that idea somewhere else (don't remember where)...

I use a small ziplock bag. I get the cotton ball and stretch it and flatten a little. Then I put a glob a PJ in the middle and fold the cotton ball so the outside is dry and the inside has the glob of PJ. To use it I massage the ball of cotton to spread the PJ then fluff it a bit. Not that messy!. And if you get a bit of PJ in your fingers is not too much. Just spread it on your hands.

I just use latex gloves to make it and throw out the gloves when finished. No mess at all. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I am going to try an experiment and see if I can't come up with something a little better.

I'll let ya know how it goes.

As other have posted, a bit of jelly on the hands is not much trouble.

As for storage, I like to use plastic straws, cut in 1.5" long pieces.
A lighter to heat the plastic and the pliers of my Leatherman to seal one end ; then bits of jelly (slightly) soaked cottonwooll are pushed inside the straw ; lighter and Leatherman again, to seal the other end of the straw.

No leak. No mess in the PSK.

Mixing the cotton and vasoline will be a little messy, but is not very messy to use. The cotton should be lightly coated, but mixed through thoroughly. I filled a Fuji film conainer with the mix. The container holds a lot of compressed cotton. I like the Fuji conainers because the cap fits on the inside, and if necessary, I can sqeeze the conainer to pop the top off. The opening is wide enough to put two fingers in, or even a stick can be used to dig it out. I have ususally carried it loose in an outside pocket of my fanny pack with a Boy Scout hot spark. Never tried to put cotton in an Altoids tin or whatever. A film conainer will hold a lot of fires worth of cotton.

I take a jar of PJ and put it in a water bath (about halfway up the side of the jar) and melt the PJ, then I take my CB's and soak them in the melted PJ, using wife's tongs pull them out and let airdry on a paper towel then I wrap them like raviolis, when I need one just pull one out from my pack and cut an X pull out the fibers and presto 30 min of fire <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Mike

For those of you using 35mm film containers, Susan's tip ("don't wad them tightly into a tiny container. If you can't get your finger in far enough to grab the cotton, you're going to have a real problem when you're shivering from cold or fear and can't feel your fingertips.") got me thinking (always a dangerous thing). How about cutting a disc of thin plastic, poking a hole in the center of it, threading some bright colored string through the hole, and putting the disc on the bottom of the film can before stuffing the cotton balls in, leaving the end of the string sticking out the middle of the mass? That way you could pull on the string, using your teeth if necessary, and the cotton balls would kinda pop out...

Tested this yesterday. Made two and both burned like a tea candle for about 25 minutes. I then removed the burnt cotton balls from the foil, re-lit them, and got another 30+ seconds of fire.

Wrapping them in foil also solves the messy fingers problem in the field.

Pat

Or pull out your Leatherman and pull a cotton ball out.

Have used the "foil ravioli" trick - and it works great - with a twist. I use Bag Balm (BB) instead of PJ. It's mostly PJ but also antiseptic (used by dairy farmers for udder chafing - no kidding!). That gets multiple use out of the mess - always a goal in my kits. BB is great on scratches, itches, rough skin, chapped lips - you name it - and burns like a champ!

And get my Leatherman all greasy, are you insane?

That would be waayyyy to simple...

Really, that is good advice. A 35mm film canister is a fairly wide open top container. Why limit yourself on the amount of cotton you can carry? Pack it in. If you are so far gone that you cannot dig a piece of cotton out of that 1 1/2 inch diameter opening with a finger, stick, knife tip, leatherman pliers, etc, how do you expect to light a match or strike a hot spark rod? If you can create a spark, you can dig cotton out of a 1 1/2 inch hole. Worst case, you take your knife (it is sharp isn't it?) and split the container lengthwise. It is just thin plastic. Any leftover can go into a pocket. I have mine packed full and have never worried about it.

I tried that one time, and the balls were so saturated there were no "dry" fibers left, and the PJ soaked stuff didn't want to light all that easily. Must have done something wrong. Again...

Lubrication

I pack them in tight. It is easy to get one out by poking a twig in there and twisting it around a few times to snag the fibers. This allows you to light it and then move it under your kindling setup without ever touching it. Fire lollipop.

What I do now is, since my hands are already messy, roll them up in strips of wax paper. I seal the end with a little hot glue but you could use tape or whatever. Then, when you need one, you never have to touch the cotton or vaseline. Just take one out, unsheath your favorite knife (probably a sharpened prybar )and hack or baton your way through that thin layer of wax paper to expose the cotton. Once it starts, the wax paper will burn right along with it. Try a couple saturated with parrafin oil if you have it...less messy and adequately effective.

I go about this a little differently.
I think I make a fare amount of this kind of firestarter as I build and maintain preparedness kits for all our fleet vehicles at work as well as some friends (excluding my personal and family use), so I have had of opportunity to practice and come up with methods that work better for me. I have found that I have better luck getting the PJ/cotton ball ignited in all conditions (and only with a spark from a dead lighter) if I don’t have it completely covered with PJ. For this reason I put the PJ in the center of the ball, so there is plenty of cotton to catch the spark and act as a wick to the PJ.

Cotton balls are actually not balls, but rolls of cotton. They are made the same way cotton candy “balls”are; basically by rolling up the fiber around a central core.
I un roll the “ball” so it looks like a strip of cotton fiber about 1 inch wide and maybe 6-8 inches long.
I then take a small dollop of PJ, roughly about ¼-3/8 inch in diameter or the equivalent, with a small spatula (I made mine from a ½” strip cut off of one of those faux credit cards I seem to get in the mail all the time) and spread it in the center of one end of the strip of cotton.
Then I simple roll it up and tuck it in a container of choice (film canister, PP bottle, mini zipper bag, etc).

Several years ago I revisited my very early days of fire starting and updated a technique I used to use.
When I was a child in southern Oregon I used to collect pine or fire pitch from scars and wrap Old Man Beard lichen around it. I would carry these wrapped in a piece of denim in my pocket (so the pitch wouldn’t get all over my pocket). This worked very well and I used this for many years.
Years later I read about cotton ball sand PJ and used them thereafter.
A couple of years ago I thought I would try my pitch again, but with cotton balls. It works great (plus I love the smell!). So I now stock most kits with a mixture of PJ balls and pitch balls.

I keep a large mason jar about ¾ full of pitch that I melt in a pot of boiling water. I collect the pitch I find when I am out and about. It is very sticky stuff, but once molten can be worked very much like PJ.

I have tried in the past a mixture or 10% paraffin and 90% PJ melted in a jar in an oven. I then dip the cotton balls in this, leaving a bout 1/3 or ¼ of the ball unsaturated. Once dried to room temp, they were more solid and the PJ didn’t get everywhere like it usually does. These burned well, much like a candle, but I still prefer my pitch balls.

I also like the Fuji film canisters. I find the tops seem to stay on better. I get them by the bag-full free from my local film developing center. I prefer the clearish ones, so I can quickly see how full they are. I also pack my balls in tight, and haven’t (yet?) had any problem retrieving them when I am cold. I have used a small twig to pry them out if need be, but I do think it is a good point to think about how this stuff will work when you may be cold and wet… I have also just squeezed the side of the film canister and they fall out on their own. I have also used the squeeze technique to remove the lid (as well as my teeth).

Anyway, just some other experiences on the subject.

Brome

PS: Love the new look of the Forum!!!

Stretch, you don't even have to bother opening your little waxed paper raviolis, just set them on fire. Waxed paper itself ignites beautifully.

Sue

Yes, you're right Sue, but I'm always thinking of the need for flintsteel methods, not that I always use them, but I try to practice with them whenever possible (usually without the homemade tinderquicks). With a lighter or matches, as long as the tinder is dry and the weather accomodating, I'll just use dry tinder. But, as you said, if you have a lighter and still use the wax-paper cotton balls, they fire right up through the paper, like you said with the paper acting as the tinder.

Here's a couple other improvements to consider:

Melt the PJ with a little wax and use that to wet the cotton balls. It will set up a little firmer. (I believe this is actually what Couglan's Tinder Quicks are made from)

Tie a small piece of floss or thread around each of the balls, then stuff them into the container keeping the end of the threads draped over the lip of the container and oriented so you know which thread to pull out first. Close the lid on the threads and this will make it much easier and less mess to deal with in the field.

Wow, a new way to mess up the kitchen. Now I have to go searching for some pitch (which shouldn't be all that hard, since I am gonna be assisting with using a monster wood chipper tomorrow)...

CARRY PJ AND COTTON BALL'S SEPARATELY COMBINE AS NEEDED NO MESS

Guess I live a tough life, cuz if all you have to worry about is the mess a dab of petroleum jelly and a cotton ball makes.......???????


Take a dab of petroleum jelly and massage into a cotton ball. Stuff in a 35mm film canister. Repeat until can is filled. Wipe hands on paper towel.

Aloha Mike,

What's the secret? I tried to duplicate your idea and I can't get mine to even stay lit very long, much less 30 minutes. It also blows out easiliy in a breeze. I must be making it wrong somehow.

Does the PJ have to be melted first? I only smeared it and kinda squoooshed it around in a zip lock bag. I appreciate your advice.

What i use is ladys flat circular Makeup Removers, made of cotton
they are all ready compressed flat, i put a dab of PJ on the top, add another MR and more PJ and other MR and more PJ
Works great
if you cut the circles down abit they fit in a film container
works great in the tinfoil package as well

Yukon

Bag Balm is great stuff!
But it is rather obscure...
I was amazed when I found out that a girl I knew used it all the time... For her hands, for all the dirty minded guys out there...

I use the square version of those. I always have one or two in my wallet, but without the PJ since I usually have some chapstick in another pocket so I can smear on as I need it.

I think I am going to try rolling one of the cotton squares up with PJ in it and wrapping it with duct tape. Maybe it will work like a long burning candle. I'll post again after I try.

Turn the ziplock bag inside out, put your hand inside of it, scoop out your pj, then with your hand that is inside the bag, grab it, and turn it rightside out. You've just gotten a bunch of pj without getting ANY on your hands. Put in the appropriate amount of cotton balls, seal it, and knead. Done.