Fire making

[verz]

Here in Colorado fires are never a problem plenty of dry stuff.

I have built fires in Oregon in the winter and jungles were all the wood was soaking wet, I've tried many things but oil is the best I have found. A little motor oil poured over kindling and split wood will usually burn it enough to simmer the water out of the wood. When the wood has so much water it just boils and steams the water out before it is dry enough to actually start to burn.
I have built fires with soaked wood them with out oil but it is a frustrating deal, burning more time and energy then fire.

The standard Bic lighters are the bomb.. IMO they are dependable, don't leak and last for a long time.

[Josh66]

The standard Bic lighters are the bomb.. IMO they are dependable, don't leak and last for a long time.

HAHA - yeah, I've seen people refuse to use them though, because it was "cheating".

I've also seen some people refuse to carry anything but a Zippo, and while they are cool lighters - they just don't make a lot of sense compared to a bic in a survival type situation.
You have to carry spare fuel, which is bulky, and I'd hate to try using one after it's been submerged in water...

[verz]

The standard Bic lighters are the bomb.. IMO they are dependable, don't leak and last for a long time.

HAHA - yeah, I've seen people refuse to use them though, because it was "cheating".

yeah I have heard this also, but buying a manufactured flint and steel is not? Just buy a Bic they are cheaper and work way better. lol

[Capt_Tom]

My resources bag has several layers of ignition. I have a large box of "strike anywhere" matches, two Bic lighters, and then a magnesium firestarter block in the same bag with a steel match striker. The layers of tinder/chips are the same for either source. I am not a purist... I BELIEVE in redundancy!


yep, get this training to the kids and grandkids, before there is no one to teach it!

[MBI]

I put together emergency kits for my kids, loaded in one of these bags. http://www.countycomm.com/minebag.html

I spend about three months last year searching over various preparedness sites, picking out items from a half dozen sites before giving them the bags for their birthdays a year ago. Over time they're learning to properly use each piece of gear in the bag.

I've shown them how to make fire using a magnifying glass, flint strikers of several different kinds, matches, lighters and the bow drill. I told them they need to learn to be proficient with at least three of them, but one has to be the bow drill or some method that doesn't involve using any piece of commercially manufactured firestarting equipment. If they lose that emergency bag or are otherwise caught flat footed, I told them that in an emergency their life might depend on being able to start a fire with nothing but what items they can scrounge around them. They do well if they have their gear, but so far they haven't mastered starting a fire using only improvised items.

Throughout their childhoods, the rule has never been "don't play with matches". Our rule has been "playing with matches is just fine, but make sure you do it in a safe place."

We set up a couple of paver stones in the yard, about 15 feet from any structures or trees. I told them they could make fires there anytime they wanted. The rule was that they could only burn paper or wood (definitely no flammable fluids), and the fire couldn't be any bigger than the stones we laid out.

[Riyame]

~wishes he had MBI for a father when he was a kid~

[rai]

fire is a dangerous servant and a fearful master,
bic lighters are useful, but you might notice that the thumb lever that releases the gas sticks out and in a full pocket, or a tightly packed backpack, it is likely to leak gas you would have liked to use. I use a toenail clipper to reduce the size of this gas release lever cliping the length and the width. As with pens, very useful and you should carry two because they do fail and murphys law states that what can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time.
its good to be able to start a fire for cooking, warmth, and signalling, but if its really cold your fingers will start to numb and the wind will make the process much more difficult.
a cardboard box can shelter a young fire from wind and light rain, and will give the fire a furnace effect, holding the heat in as the fuel heats up and dries out, then when it finally dries and burns its fuel.

[ironmangler]

A Bic wont work up here unless you keep it in inside pocket I like flint n steel made from a garage door spring and blue jeans for chare cloth or a bow drill from three pieces of soft wood and a shoe lace (leather). I find its not getting fire but making use of it like blocking the wind, getting more fuel and keeping the heat for the reason at hand be it cooking ,drying or getting warm

[elbowmacaroni]

The standard Bic lighters are the bomb.. IMO they are dependable, don't leak and last for a long time.

HAHA - yeah, I've seen people refuse to use them though, because it was "cheating".

I've also seen some people refuse to carry anything but a Zippo, and while they are cool lighters - they just don't make a lot of sense compared to a bic in a survival type situation.
You have to carry spare fuel, which is bulky, and I'd hate to try using one after it's been submerged in water...

HAHAHAHA! I'd LOVE to see the look on the faces of those that consider a bic lighter "cheating" on the times when I break out the yard torch!

[youluckyfox]

There was a time when I would take the flint out of a bic lighter and put it in my wallet behind my driver's licence. Over time the flint worked its way into the leather and a small pocket was formed to hold the flint. I also carried one of those small moist towelletes they give you in MREs and a cotton ball that had been flattened and waterproofed in the wallet. I was visiting some friends who had to start a fire outdoors and couldn't get it going and this set-up came in very handy. I ought to start doing that again, but I'd use one of those flat cotton makeup pads coated with candle wax instead of a cotton ball so my wallet didn't bulge as much. If you carry a P-38 in your wallet in addition to this setup (in the place of a knife) you'll have a low profile, waterproof, fire kit that can be taken on an airplane.

[DR2]

My primary emergency firestarting tool is always going to be a Ferrocerium Rod. What most people are mistakenly referring to as a "flint and steel." Ferrocerium rods are also known as Metal Matches, for obvious reasons.

I don't consider Bics or Crickets or Zippos to be "cheating." As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to survival, if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough. What good is it to be the most "original" or "historically accurate" corpse dead from totally preventable hypothermia? Just doesn't make sense to me at all.

When you use real flint or other naturally occurring rocks to obtain sparks from certain high carbon steels, like you find on some, but not all, knives, those sparks are very small. Light and frail. It takes very good conditions and excellent tinder to make the most of them. Ferrocerium and Misch Metal Rods, on the other hand, have sparks that are incredibly hot. In the case of Misch Metal, you can actually throw molten gobs of burning metal into a prepared tinder pile.

The Bic or Cricket is preferable to the Zippo, to be sure, but I don't believe them to be superior to a Ferrocerium Rod. They are good to have for just more emergency life insurance though! Once you know what you are doing when it comes to fire construction and finding and preparing tinder, three quarters of the battle is won, anyway. If you can't do that, it doesn't really matter what you have to start a fire with. I have, literally, watched a frustrated man start cussing a fire instead of himself and go to bed after being unable to light a fire at a KOA and he was using charcoal lighter fluid.

I carry a 2-liter bottle preform with 50/50% sections of 100% pure cotton balls and #0000 Steel Wool for tinder and Ferrocerium Rods, a K & M Matchcase with REI Storm Proof Matches in it and then a Doan Magnesium Firestarter as well. All of this weighs nothing and takes up hardly any space whatsoever. It insures that I can start a fire in any environment I am likely to find myself in on this continent.

[rai]

bic lighters have a gas release lever that sticks out, in a full pocket or a tight pocket, the lever is easily pressed enough to release gas, more gas is lost this way than gets used to make flame.
A jeep lighter is probably better.

[DR2]

There is a little work around that people who won't let the idea of the disposable cigarette lighter as a survival aid die...they take a very small, some of the smallest available, zip tie. They place that under the fuel paddle and zip tie it in the (valve) closed position.

[elbowmacaroni]

Okay, comeon peeps... haven't any of you mastered the projection of mind-fire to ignite a roaring campfire?

[MBI]

Okay, comeon peeps... haven't any of you mastered the projection of mind-fire to ignite a roaring campfire?

Well, I didn't want to brag...