I was just concerned with youngsters on here not to encourage them to play with sparks and aerosols.
I didn't think of youngsters,will be more specific in future
Some good ideas. I've never used more than just the cotton wool itself but I like the sound of some of these.
We owe the debt of our blood to our ancestors and our skills to their perserverance.
Magic biscuits are a good simple way of helping to light your fire.
There are a few ways of creating these from cotton wool balls dipped in vaseline to face pads soaked in wax.
Items needed are
Candle (supermarket bought for£2)
Vaseline (optional)
Face pads
Old pan
Pair of pliers/forceps to remove from liquid wax.
First step is to shave pieces of wax from the candle into the pan, i have used a knife for this but also an old cheese grater)
Then i add a good helping of Vaseline to the mix
place the pan on the heat and melt the two together slowly until there are no lumps of wax or vaseline left, then turn the heat off. The mix will stay liquid long enough to dip the pads.
Next using your pliers pick up and dip the face pad in the liquid and coat all over. The longer its in the more it will soak up, this may be required but i prefer not to as when you break them open it leaves you with some cotton wool to light instead of having to melt the wax first.
Then carefully lay them out on some greaseproof paper and allow to dry. The greaseproof paper can then be peeled off and your left with flat wax infused cotton pad.
I store some of mine in the bottom of my Wild Wood stove along with some other firelighting bits (thanks BareThrills)
Some good ideas here to play about with, I will be trying a few of them out. Thank's fella's
Try adding a block of beeswax, instead of vaseline to the candle wax, as beeswax burns longer/hotter/cleaner. I've also used this when making a bushbuddy, and instead of cardboard, used the wick out of the candle and made it a 5 wick candle....
non est vivere sed valere vita est life is more than being alive..........ALWAYS GIVE MORE THAN YOU TAKE
Ask not for a lighter load, but a stronger back.....
hello,
Two simple solutions a Tampon (absorbent material usually cotton, rayon, or a mixture of the two)
Brasso Metal Polish (Wadding) look up Wiki for contents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasso
both flamable ignite with very little issue. I've used both for years in my kit.
Regards
David
Can't see the point in this really, I thought the idea was to use materials that you find while your out? These are free and with a little knowledge easy to find. Cotton wool works great on its out and can be used in an emergency if all else fails.
I would say, spend a day collecting natural tinder and keep it with you, when you get low fill it up again. Plus its nice to get out in the woods rather than mess about with flamable liquids???
Just a thought anyway...
Hi Stamp and welcome to the forum,the point is that the guys are trying to show methods of lighting fires when for example all around is soaking wet.
I agree using natural tinder is more bushy but there are times when you just need to get a brew on rather than fafing about trying to get something natural to take a spark.
There is a point so there Paul