| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| MegC |
Posted - 10/31/2009 : 8:26:27 PM
Posing a question to all the great minds here... what do you recommend for emergency fire starting that actually works when you need it?
Husband and I have messed around with serveral magnesium things without being impressed. In fact, it was a resounding dud when we were caught out in a fast moving storm backpacking years ago, and he resorted to just pouring white gas stove fuel on some dry wood (which worked like a champ). Due to this and a couple other situations I prefer taking lighters with me instead of matches also.
I've heard folks rave about drier lint but haven't had a chance to play with it yet. |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| fr73ed |
Posted - 12/03/2009 : 11:15:34 AM
Well, you do need to be careful placing a lighted carbide lamp under the bag, but it's easy enough to do without damage.Just a short 1/2" flame will heat the bag quickly to warm a person up.
Enclosed space such as a tent? I've used carbide lamps on above ground and below ground camping trips for over 40 years.
For me it's much more dangerous driving to the supermarket or the trailhead .
The metal cans seal tightly , so unless it gets damaged no problem with moisture .
But you wouldn't need to take more than a baby bottle amount, in fact that's how I carry carbide when caving. Baby bottles are completely waterproof when undamaged.
You're correct in a concern about an enclosed container, acetylene will explode if the pressure goes above 18 or 20 psi. That's why an acet. gage on weldors bottles is marked in red above 15 psi.
Acetylene is not a poison gas, as I recall, but can displace oxygen in an enclosed space, just like CO2 or any other gas will do. Burning a campstove inside a tent is much more dangerous due to CO poisoning.
However, all that being said, a lamp is a great source of heat to start a fire as we were talkin about, or just use the pellets of carbide alone.
Hope this helps...
Bill |
| taigasail |
Posted - 12/02/2009 : 10:03:15 PM
Hm,
on secound thought, flesh, plastic bag, and open flame, all in close proximity, sounds very scary. I've used carbide lamps years ago; what about the gas byproduct,(acetylene?) in an enclosed space?
Also, I wonder about carrying calcium carbide in a container. If moisture should get in, could it not then build up enough pressure to explode?
I'm intrigues with the idea but just wondering.
sm |
| taigasail |
Posted - 12/02/2009 : 2:31:39 PM
You forgot the canary.
(But I like it!) |
| fr73ed |
Posted - 12/02/2009 : 11:48:19 AM
I've used a film can filled with chunks of carbide. You only need 5 or so 1/4" chunks, lay these on any tinder you have, add a little water and strike a match or spark.
Carbide will produce gas and ignite even if it is completely submerged in water. The gas bubbles to the surface and bursts into flame from the other flame sites, or match.
Carbide is a manmade chemical that when mixed with water produces acetylene, same thing in a weldor's torch set.
It will ALWAYS burn in wet conditions as long as you have any kind of spark.
You can use water, spit, sweat, pee, snow from your hands, any kind of moisture.
Available in hardware stores in 2 lb cans.
This will last for years if kept closed and dry.
You can also buy a carbide lamp that uses this to provide light, and heat. The lamp has an attached flint striker that will light the lamp in truly horrible conditions. Find them on ebay all the time.
The heat side can be a lifesaver in hypothermic conditions, pull a standard plastic garbage bag over the victims head, ( head and arms thru holes) and carefully hold the lit carbide lamp so heat fills the bag like a balloon.
The bag can also serve as an emergency rain suit.
Not pretty but sure is effective and light.
B. |
| taigasail |
Posted - 11/23/2009 : 8:20:28 PM
MegC,
Oow! Nice storm. Ouch! Just above freezing . . . I'd rather try it at -10C than at 0C!
Not so much wrong, as in a bit of a hurry. If you can get the spark, and the tinder started, then it is the finer kindling, almost as fine as the tinder, of which you need lots!
You said you had a dry log. Bonus: Splinter, scrape, chew, (O.K. not chew but rip), very thin, one to three inch strips, and feed that little flame like a baby bird. Only then can you start moving up to larger pieces. In wet storm conditions, and particularly in the Western soft wood forests, it can take a long time: time to collect enough of the right material, and time to build the fire, using incremental sizes of kindling, to the point it will dry the wetter/greener wood.
We all try to jump-start this process, and in Eastern Washington you can often get away with it. But in those lovely, sodden, soaked, hand-me-a-snorkel, rain forests, make sure you have loads of kindling before you pull out the tinder. If it looks like the fire is going out at the bottom, underneath the larger sticks, then you need to go back to stuffing small, dry stuff in the centre. That's when the time spent collecting/making piles of kindling pays off, because, at this point, if you get up to collect more, the fire will be out before you get back.
Getting magnesium sparks to start the tinder can take a little practice, and the tinder has to be very dry and very fine, and you must have the kindling right ready to accept the flame. You probably know this, but the scraper should be struck in only one direction, from close to you, outward towards the tinder. I have seen people rub the magnesium back and forth, like two sticks, which doesn't produce much. You are actually scrapping off chunks of magnesium that ignites with the friction.
Finely, in the kind of "wind tunnel storm" you describe, you need to block the wind, and bodies standing around you is not usually enough, (besides, they should be getting more firewood!) Once, I resorted to starting the tinder, and some fine kindling, in my shelter, (it was a quinsy), then brought it back to the "prepared" fire pit. This is not advisable in a tent, but you get the idea.
Kudos to you for trying to perfect these techniques. All the suggestions in previous posts are good, but better practiced under easier conditions. My son used to go out and collect different types of material from the woods, and then sit and build "camp fires" in the fireplace to see what worked. Once, he sat for several hours with a fire drill and smoked up the house. His comment was, "Mom, you know that adage, 'where there's smoke there's fire.'? Well, bull tooty!" Ultimately, he found the right combination of wood and technique. . . but not in a snow storm.
I liked your description, "The ground had shook w/ the wind", and it truly does in that country! Love those mountains! |
| AdventureSource |
Posted - 11/23/2009 : 7:57:47 PM
I use Birch bark, Cedar bark, birch bark powder, matches, flint and steel, and or my diving lighter sealed in a waterproof bio hazards sharps container. Fits right in your jacket pocket. Takes some time to fit it in the container, but ready to go.
|
| MegC |
Posted - 11/23/2009 : 09:40:11 AM
We got tiny spark with effort, but it was tough to get the tinder to take long enough to get anything larger started. I'm sure we did a any number of things wrong.
We were right at the tree line in probably the 12th hour of a heavy sideways rainstorm at 40F or less. The ground had shook w/ the wind all night, by morning everything was soaked and low spots had frost. Turn on a few garden hoses full blast in a wind tunnel inside a refrigerator and that would be about right for what we were trying to start a fire in. |
| taigasail |
Posted - 11/23/2009 : 06:23:50 AM
MegC,
Just to clarify, where was the main difficulty in getting the fire going:
1. striker/magnesium would not produce a spark?
or,
2. tinder would not catch long enough to produce a flame?
Apologies if these were obvious.
|
| jarn |
Posted - 11/22/2009 : 4:24:39 PM
I prefer birch bark, but for emergencies I always carry on hand solid fuel tabs (I can use them as well in my wood burning stove (a bushbuddy). |
| cricket |
Posted - 11/13/2009 : 10:24:30 PM
dry birch bark is a great fire starter |
| Sledkids |
Posted - 11/11/2009 : 11:02:43 AM
I used the tuna can/cardboard for cooking on a road trip a few years back. I put the can inside a large coffee can with vent holes in it. I set it up on the tail gait of the truck, lit the cardboard/wax, then I would put my pot on top of the can and warm up my grub. I know there are many other ways to cook that are cleaner and more efficient, but it worked great for someone on a $5.00 a day budget! :)
By the way, if you can find old candles at garage sales, etc. it's a really cheap way to pick up wax. Much cheaper than buying boxes of paraffin wax. Find an old pot to melt your wax in that you can let the wax cool in as well. That way you don't have to try and clean the pot (or can). |
| dogwouldfarm |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 10:22:17 PM
A trick/tip I leaned while working in forestry in BC.We were often working alone or with a partner at high elevations in remote areas (cold and/or wet). As a safety tool we made fire starters out of corrugated cardboard, an empty tuna or cat food can and parofin wax.
1. Simply cut the cardboard into strips at wide as the can is deep. 2. put the cardboard strips into the can starting at the outside diameter of the can working concentrically into the middle. You will use a few strips depending on the length of the strips.
3. Pack the strips in tightly (use as much cardboard as you can without crushing the corrugations in the cardboard).
4. When you get to the centre, pull up the end of the last strip so there is something to light when needed.
5. melt parafin wax (used for canning- "Parowax")
6. Pour melted wax into/onto can and cardboard so that it fills up the corrugations. Try to leave the centre tip of cardboard free of wax!
7. let cool and pack this very small, waterproof firestarter in your sled, pack parka or where ever (all of the above)
8. remember the matches
9. just light the centre and place where you want to start the fire. This will burn for approximately 45 min. to 1 hour by itself. lots of time to get your kindling going!
They are so cheap, easy, light weight and work so well we always have a few around ready for use if and when we are going out.
|
| MegC |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 11:37:41 AM
I'd have to be REALLY hungry to eat a cheese puff, and would probably rather use it to light a fire anyway, lol!
I'm currently collecting dryer lint for experimentation. Just hoping all the dog hair in it is as flammable as 'normal' lint.  |
| Sledkids |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 11:01:36 AM
I have friends that lit a cheese puff and it burned really hot for about 4 minutes. If you have cheese puffs in the emergency kit you have something to eat (sort of) and fire starter! |
| ARTpaws |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 07:59:22 AM
This is probably going to get a few laughs, but I've heard from more than one survivalist that the best tinder to carry around is new tampons. They are compact, can be easily water-proofed, and pull apart into tinder that catches very quickly with nearly any type of ignition. I haven't personally tried it, but have gone the steel wool and cotton ball route before with pretty good success. |
|
|
