Red pine fatwood by Manuel Ortiz, on Flickr

I really like using fatwood. Works great in snow, rainy conditions. Easy to process. Oh yeah, it smells great!

Fire starter? White Birch bark...

9V battery, steel wool, and dryer lint.

Lighter/waterproof matches
dryer lint
Cotton balls with Vaseline


I like the idea of flint and other older school stuff but when I want a fire especially when backpacking I just want a fire. Collecting tinder and firewood is enough.

uh diesel fuel?

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Fire starter? White Birch bark...

I like birch as well. I prefer fatwood, just because it has a longer burn time. Birch is easier to process to catch a spark though.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
Lighter/waterproof matches
dryer lint
Cotton balls with Vaseline


I like the idea of flint and other older school stuff but when I want a fire especially when backpacking I just want a fire. Collecting tinder and firewood is enough.

I have cats, so dry lint from my dryer is a no go. Smells terrible to me. Cotton balls are great, but I like just being able to find the stuff instead of carrying it out, but it all depends on what is available in the area.

Potassium permanganate and glycerine. From a suppository.

They make great portable glycerine containers.

quote:

Originally posted by eLLegitLegit:

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
Fire starter? White Birch bark...

I like birch as well. I prefer fatwood, just because it has a longer burn time. Birch is easier to process to catch a spark though.

Birch Bark to 'start' the fire, Fat Wood to 'kindle' the fire...

Orion Fire Pit Pro. Actually a mini road flare.

Ust Blastmatch with vaseline impregnated cottonball or lint in water resistant Rx bottles or similar

I finally gave in and purchased a Lighting Strike. It's the Cadillac of fire starters. The GobSpark is great as well.

Tinder in no particular order:
-Fire cubes
-Fat rope
-Fatwood
-TinderQuik
-Vaseline and beauty cotton (round/flat makeup remover)

Whatever you have, practice with it. There's nothing worse than not being able to get a fire going when you need one. A BlastMatch (for example) might seem fool-proof...until you're cold, wet, hungry, and have frozen fingers, and you're trying to get the damned thing to throw sparks without pushing your pile of tinder all over the place.

I'd also recommend carrying a back up method (or two), for when (not if) your chosen method fails to work.

I like to dunk cotton balls or rounds in wax. This helps waterproof them, and they tearooen for lighting. Take a spark from a ferro rod easily, burn for several minutes.

More recently, I'm experimenting with self lighting ones. Stormproof match, cotton pad wrapped around the stick with the head exposed. Tied with jute twine to hold it while it dries, dipped in melted paraffin and dried. Strike the match to light it, and place it in the fire lay. Got about 9 minutes of good flame from the last one.

For natural, I like fatwood. Lots of pine around here.

Swedish firesteel I'm a big fan of KISS

I like to challenge myself. Learned how to find and use chert combined with a knife and char cloth made using weapon cleaning patches.

I learned how to make and use a bow drill, not fun for me. But do it anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by eLLegitLegit:
I like to challenge myself. Learned how to find and use chert combined with a knife and char cloth made using weapon cleaning patches.

I learned how to make and use a bow drill, not fun for me. But do it anyway.

When I build up the skill level I want with flint and steel, bow drill will be next. I have several options in my kit for starting fires. I try to practice with the most difficult, but keep the easier methods as back up plans.

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Potassium permanganate and glycerine.

I remember mixing these in chem lab one day. It's impressive. We also mixed the K with sugar. With some friction, it lights off pretty much the same.

For some reason, I never thought to carry any in a survival type situation. I'll have to change that.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Potassium permanganate and glycerine.

I remember mixing these in chem lab one day. It's impressive. We also mixed the K with sugar. With some friction, it lights off pretty much the same.

For some reason, I never thought to carry any in a survival type situation. I'll have to change that.

Just be sure not to follow the directions on the glycerine suppositories when choosing where to carry them.

Usually just use a Swedish Firesteel to get some sparks and if it's winter or rainy season, I carry Trioxane fuel tablets to get a flame started and then start adding to it.