Originally Posted By: Paragon

For less than $10.00 you can purchase enough potassium permanganate (16 oz), glycerin (8 fl oz), and poly containers to start literally dozens of fires. For 20 cents worth of chemicals weighing less than an ounce (including the poly containers) you could very easily start a fire in less than half a minute, using damp tinder and kindling, one-handed, in the above described scenario.

Between these two non-toxic chemicals, they can be used for numerous other beneficial purposes including drinking water treatment and deodorization, as a disinfectant, to kill germs and prevent bacterial infections, as a gargle, medicinally to treat oral and sinus infections, dermatitis, canker sores, dry skin, chapped lips, athlete's foot, wound cleansing, and as an antidote for phosphorus poisoning. They can also be used to make soap, as a bleach, a solvent, a thickening agent, a laxative, or even as a food sweetener.


Also for the sake of argument, I would have to ask, with three broken fingers and hypothermia, how would opening two separate bottles and combining the two chemicals together be easier than just flicking a bic lighter? For less than $1 and a fraction of an ounce, I can buy a 4 pack of butane lighters capable of starting thousands, if not tens of thousands of fires. Not trying to be argumentative, but you can always come up with a hypothetical situation where this specific method might be the best one, but you gotta ask yourself, how realistic is it? I suppose if I were stranded in the wilderness, with a severe case of athlete's foot, chapped lips and constipation, had nothing but bland, unsweetened food and suffering from a minor case of phosphrous poisoning and body odor, then I'd be grateful to have these chemicals. But then I'd have to ask myself, would i rather start a fire or take care of my athlete's foot?