A common question I get asked is "What different things can I light with my Firesteel" so hopefully I show a few here...
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What tinder do you prefer to use with your Firesteel?
When I go out, I always try to find the best tinder available in that place (generally it is cat-tail, eucalyptus bark or fatwood). I usually prefer natural tinders and if I can't find any of it I will always have 2 things. The first is my modified Firesteel that has a capsule with fatwood protected from the elements of nature.
The other one is alcohol hand cleaner gel because it's part of my FAK
Never saw a birch in my area (since I can only find them in higher areas) but I've used it before in other places.
In the end I'll stick to fatwood anytime. Waterproof, catches a spark easily, and burns for some time. I mean, where can you find better natural tinder than this:
Here in my part of Oklahoma, pines are usually in landscaped yards as are birch trees. I have found that thistle down works very nice. I carry parafin waxed cotton balls-they need fluffed a bit. Also I carry charclothe. Dried cane can be split and fluff shaved off the sides, it catches a spark well. Cat tail down works but not as nice as the thistle down. Cotton Wood seed fluff works well also.
Last edited by OKBushcraft; 26-11-2010 at 12:59 AM.
I carry several types of tinder with me in my firestarting kit. I have drier lint, cotton balls soaked in alcohol gel, mayan dust, a Weber fire tab, and steel wool (4-O). Any one of these will serve me well in starting a fire.
I generally prefer to use natural tinders, my favourite being Birch bark - can get a good fire going what ever the weather, If I'm in an area where I can find fatwood that this also an option. When it is really dry then just simple dry grass buffed up do the trick.
Just in case though I do carry a tinder box with a length of jute, some previously harvested birch bark and fatwood, char cloth and some pre-buffed jute covered in petroleum jelly or wax.
I rarely need to use the tinderbox though, There is Birch and evergreen in abundance around here and so pretty much always get a fire going with that.
I have used Crampballs and Horsehoof fungus in the past, but the drying and preperation does tend to put me off a bit, especially when there are quicker more readily available tinders. Although when using a traditional flint and steel and natural tinders then it is worth the effort to make some up.
[SIZE=4][COLOR=#8b4513]Wake me up when things are over, and I'm Wiser and older.
[SIZE=4][COLOR=#8b4513]Wake me up when things are over, and I'm Wiser and older.
When I am out in the woods I usually use tissue to light my fire but one thing that everyone should know about fire lighting with a ferro rod is TRIOXANE bars. They are the old US army's answer to British hexi. They are pretty hard to find on this side of the pond and can be quite expensive BUT they are scarily effective. Each bar is foil wrapped (I think that they are supposed to be used directly on the ground underneath the US issue canteen so the foil serves to protect from cold damp ground) and comes with grooves that allow the bar to be split into three pieces if you want to ration it out, when they break the make powder very easily (much more so than hexi) and this helps take a spark to set it off. One other thing about taking a spark, this stuff can be ignited by pretty much any spark, much easier than hexi, sometimes I worry that it will ignite due to harsh language! lol
HTH
Sean
For me right now it's cotton pads coated in petrolium jelly and meths (works every time rain or shine) but it's not very bushcrafty I know and so I will be progressing onto natural tinders ready for the spring....!
Couldn't stand the shame of it for too long :-)
Don't sweat the small stuff - and it's ALL small stuff...!