Several times, I've mentioned the fire making cannister I keep in my BOB. I figured I'd show it off.

Problem: My BOB is designed to supliment, expand, and refill my ditch kit. So, I had some options when it came to fire. I've got a small fire kit in BOB with a match safe, a lighter, and a hot spark, along with some esbit tabs and tinder. But I didn't have backup/restore capabilities (BoB is basically a mobile basecamp for me).

Requirements: It has to be utterly robust, at stronger than a Nalgene if possible and completely water proof, but fairly small. It has to be able to refill the two match cases in I carry in the ditch kit, if not more, plus carry tinder, and a spare lighter.

Solution:


The construction is a bit of scrap 2" PVC, a solid cap, and a threaded cap. It was assembled with PVC adhesive, then I added a bead of the same around the seams just to be sure.

During testing, I filled it a quarter of the way with cotton balls and a little bit of koolaid powder, some musket balls, then the rest of the way with more cotton. It then went into a bucket full of water for a week. With the threads taped, the cotton was still dry after a week, and there was no staining. I let it dry, put the lead back in, filled it with water, capped it, and put that and some koolaid powder on top of a peice of paper towel for a week. No leaks- it's good.

Admittedly, it has not undergone significant stress testing. But I'm sure it is at least as strong as a Nalgene.

So, I wrapped a couple of Velcro One Wrap straps around the outside, just becuase it seemed like a good place for them, I'd made it a little longer than it needed to be and had a gap. I packed the "bowl" of the cap with cotton balls- more tinder! Then I started packing it.... origionally, this was just going to have a mini-bic and matches, but over a hundred strike anywheres and a lot of room to go seemed redundant even to me. So, a few went out.


I hope that 70-odd will be enough. They are triple coated with shellac to keep them water resistant. At the top of the image is a little black area- that is a piece of electricans tape, with a striker attached to it, striking surface to the inside wall of the container. There is another mounted opposite this one.

There is a peice of light weight plastic that keeps the matches on their side.

On the other side, I have a mini-bic, along with 8 stay lit candles. I origionally had my concerned about these guys, but after tossing my ditch kit in the car for a trip last summer, and then deciding to leave it in there, and the little candles didn't melt, I'm not too worried about these any more. YMMV- 95% is a serious heat wave here. :P

I also have a dozen short fire straws. I'm too lazy to reshoot the picture- they are hidden under a cotton ball. For those that aren't familiar, they are half a cotton ball with vaseline worked in. Actually, I recycled some Neosporin that was two years past it's due date. It's petroleum jelly as a base, and I can not imagine that an OTC antibiotic will go toxic when it tanks, so if there is nothing else available....

There is a circle of plastic over the top of this because... I'm not sure. Made sense at the time, haven't bothered to take it out. Worst case, it burns. Actually, I know why, I used to have a tea light in here, but I pulled it out after it melted down. Fortunately, I had it wrapped in a bit of pallet wrap against that possibility- the plastic was there just in case the pallet wrap failed.

Then I add a coil of sisal twine over the top of this barrier. The blue thing just above the open cannister is a tiny bit of teflon tape that came with a replacement shower head- it was the perfect size, so I reached for my normal roll of plumber's tape and put this little one in there to retape threads in the field. I also tape my match cases, just to be sure, along with the o-rings.

The square nub of the cap is hollow, so I packed it with more cotton balls.

Plans include adding a ferro rod, and taping a bit of hack saw blade to the partition between match/non-match portions. I'm also thinking about a couple of needles and a shortened spool of dental floss. Since this is the rendendant, back up stash, it makes sense to me to do so.

Problems are that it can be hard to open. I carry this in the same pocket as a pair of channel locks in my BoB, so it isn't a major issue. Without that, a couple of longer, thumb-thick branches for leverage will get it open. And I've got three smaller match cases, two ferro rods, 4 mini-bics, and a sparklite between BoB, the Ditch Kit and my PSK, so if I can't get it open right away, I'm not completely hosed.

Hopefully. *laughs*