Your Choice of tinders

[Mouse040]

I love nothing more than playing with different bushy things and this weekend I'm collecting different tinders for a demo I'm doing next week I have my obvious favorates and was wondering what everyone else likes and why

[David_JAFO]

hello,
Likewise it depends what is available time of year etc.. of the natural tinder variety. Horse's hoof fungus or tinder fungus. the fungus it is used as tinder & also used when smouldering as a portable firelighter
Regards
David

[saxonaxe]

75% of the time..Fluffed up Birch bark, sometimes treated Cotton wool.

[Dave ward]

I like waxed jute twine as it burns hot and long enough for even damp (not wet) kindling to catch a light, also cottonballs saturated in candle wax, easy to mold before the wax hardens. They burn for 10mins maybe more and very hot and high flames and 1 cottonball done this way can boil water by its self without any kindling etc. Natural tinders, pine tree fat wood, pine sap on fine scrapings of birch bark makes an awesome tinder combo!

[OakAshandThorn]

As far as natural tinders, I am very fond of thistledown, scraped birch bark (I find Betula alleghaniensis to be the best), juniper bark, and pitchwood. Thistledown is Nature's version of cotton wool (but it burns much quicker) and can be found in quantity in meadows during autumn and early winter. Birch bark is an old favourite particularly because it will catch a spark even when wet - same with pitchwood (which some people call "fatwood"). Juniper is readily available in my area, so one cannot exclude it .

[Ashley Cawley]

Checkout fluffed up cattail reed if you haven't tried it before, it goes up in a flash but can be good for demos and you can experiment with mixing in other extenders.

[FishyFolk]

Birch bark just about every time. Preferably lit by a spark from a steel cought in chaga and blown into an ember :-)

[jacko1066]

Other than birch bark I have not really got a clue when it comes to natural tinders.

I tend to make the wax biscuits at home which are cotton make up pads soaked in a little candle wax.

I also use BBQ natural fire lighters quite a lot. A big block can be bought for a quid and will make up to 24 fires, if you scrape them with your knife it will take a spark from a ferrocium rod.

[David_JAFO]

hello,
Cattail reed I used recently in a demo as it was in abundance on the pond near to our outdoor class, Zip fire lighters *caution they do pong of accelerant, Birch bark or Pine bark shredded latter I keep a Zip Lock bag of this bone dry on the shelf annually for TGO, & as said previous post 'Horse's hoof fungus'
Regards
David

[beermaker]

Red diesel!

Joking aside, for natural tinders i'm a big fan of birch bark, fatwood, king alfreds cakes/cramp balls, and pine resin. I also found that my neighbours elephant grass seed heads are very good too, a little like cattail or kapok.

For pre-prepared tinders, my favourite is always char cloth, closely followed by vaseline and cotton wool balls, jute twine and waxed cotton wool pads