If you're out hiking, hunting. riding a quad or snowmobile and for whatever reason and you get stranded over night
this info can save your life. All you need is some steel wool and a 9 volt battery and you have an instant fire.
This should be part of everyone's Bug Out Bag and Survival Kit.
http://deckhand.multiply.com/video/item/32/How_to_start_a_fire_without_matches

Matches and a disposable BIC lighter are my first two choices.

Second choice is a flint steel and cotton balls soaked in vaseline. I keep em in a film cannister.

For about $5 you can put together a great little "fire kit".
Wouldn't "leave home" without it.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to carry an actual lighter as it would be a 9 volt and piece of steel wool?

What I wonder is if it will work in wet conditions. I think a field test is in order! If it works I'm carrying this as a 3rd choice firestarter.

all are great ideas, esp the cotton ball and petroleum jelly. i carry a "strike force" on my kit and its use is very simplified, the "wet fire" that is stored in handle lights in water or dry, was hooked on it the minute i got to use it during a SERE class i took.

http://www.ultimatesurvival.com/product_view.cfm?product_line_ID=164

but what if your were injured and say could only use one arm/hand to light a fire and it was your off hand? the steel wool and 9v would would work...but the above company makes a one handed striker (was made for downed pilots if injured) called a "blast match"

http://www.ultimatesurvival.com/product_view.cfm?product_line_ID=156

hope i dont sound like a salesman but i have used both and own both after trying them out in field.

goose out

I've been using the Blastmatch for a number of years now - and couldn't be happier. Its salient feature is that it can be used with only one hand. Most other "primative" lighting methods (flint/magnesium and steel) require the use of two good hands - which you may not have in a real survival situation.

cheers

tire iron

The 9V battery and the steel wool will work in a pinch but in reality it's probably more in the catagory of a McGuiver trick. It's a good thing to know if you have those materials handy and you have nothing else to work with. I thought it was interesting so that's why I posted it. Like others have mentioned "why not just use a lighter"? I wasn't familiar with the BlastMaster so I looked it up on the web and saw some comparrisons with other fire starter kits. I was impressed by it so I ordered 2 of them. One to keep in my ATV kit and the other for my 1st line gear.

Dryer lint - free fire starter

.....and when that runs out I can burn what I dig out of my belly button too!

I got my BlastMatch in the mail today. I tried it out and it works like a champ. It puts out a lot of spark and you can do it with one hand as advertised. It's so easy a cave man can do it!

Who did you order it through? The Site it self seems to make it as difficult as possible to get there product.

OK - Found this site, with other good stuff also:

http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/FirestarterProducts.htm

I got mine from www.gearforadventure.com although you can get it from just about any where on the web if you do a Google search for BlastMaster. They all cost about the same price. The only difference is what you will pay for shipping. They all will rip you off, Gear For Adventure seemed to be a couple bucks less than the others.

I'm on my 3rd blast match in 15 years. The first one melted when my bug dope leaked onto it and I didn't discover it for 2 weeks.

The second one broke the plastic that holds the small steel. Local supplier replaced it at N/C under warranty.

Local Scheel's stores stopped carrying them 4 years ago as they were too expensive. They sold out their remaining stock for $5 each.

Don't forget the "Fire Tube".

Also, Finely Powdered Magnesium works great lightly mixed in the steel wool or under wood/other tinder to ignight a fire. Magnesium Powder can be started with those butane torches with the blue cone flame or the "Metal Match".

One big "caution" with magnesium powder is that it should never be used on anything that has gotten wet. Water mixed into a magnesium flame will make it spit fire in very unpredictable directions, and it's very hard to put out. But the stuff is great in winds!

IHTH

Michael

Fire tube?

Fire tube?

I believe it is a flammable jelly that comes in a tube similar to a toothpaste tube. It's usually green in color. It's sold in camping stores. It woork pretty good, although not as well as C4 I'm told.

My bad. The fire tube is also known as the fire piston. Basically its just that, a two piece unit wich uses the diesel principle to ignite a piece of punkwood or "Char" (this is not charcol).
The piston part has a cupped end in wich the flammable is placed it is then inserted into the tube and given two sharp raps. The increase in pressure causes the temp to rise igniting the flammable and letting you start you'r tinder.
If you can find them a Fresnel lens from an overhead projector is a real firestarter. O a sunny day it will start a fire in seconds and you can focus the beam to a pinpiont that will cut through a soda can.
It goes without saying they will incinerate flesh!! Be careful.

No mention of thermite?

Or napalm?

I taught a class on this at our Winter FTX . If you are considering binary components (i.e. 9v and steel wool) you're alot better off with potassium permanganate and antifreeze. Makes a hell of a flame as an exothermic reaction. Plus pp can be used to make an astringent solution or purify water.

Though I have seen bonfires started in the pouring rain with a road flare.

inner bark of a aspen tree is a good fuel source for a fire....The rest will be in my book on survival...

Efraim:
I use the PP and sugar for fire starting, but am wondering about the antifreeze. I have to assume that this is straight antifreeze and not the 50% diluted as used in a radiator. Is it possible that it is actually the glyserin(sp) in the antifreeze that helps ignite the PP? If so, wouldn't it be better to carry just that?

I used a road flare to start a fire during a winter campout. Temperatures dropped lower than expected. Actual temps were about -15 while the windchill was -31.

I amases me that we have all or these different methods of starting a fire. I show my scouts several different methods to start a fire, but I always come back to the best method; use a match or a lighter. Carry those with you and you shouldn't have any problems lighting a fire. Carry some tinder with you so that you have something that burns a little longer in case it's wet.

Yes, its basically the glycerin in the antifreeze (straight w/o water dilution) that is creating the reaction. You could carry just glycerin - but what i have tried which is glycerol doesn't seem to work.

Another method I've used is to take the accessory packet in the MRE apart, fluff up the toiletr papaer, light that with the (included) matches. When it catches, sprinkle the creamer packet on top, and it flares right up. Pretty effective, and it's all included in the MRE anyways!