Last week, I taught the firemaking part of the Fremont District Boy Scouts adult wilderness training. On my way out the door, I took along whatever was in the lint filter of my dryer as part of a firestarter demo. At the class, the lint ignited readily with a magnesium stick, but went out within a few [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the ‘Make a Fire’ Category
Add a Cheap, Reliable Firemaking System to Your Survival Kits
The best firestarting system can also be the cheapest and the materials are the easy to find at any drug or grocery store.
Read the rest of this entry »Dryer Lint as Wilderness Survival Firestarter? No Way!
You stake your life on your firemaking kit components. My recommendation is to substitute cotton balls in any application you might be using dryer lint.
Read the rest of this entry »Make Charcloth For Your Survival Kit
by Leon Pantenburg Catching a spark and blowing it into a flame is a skill that can save your life. Charcloth is a material that has been “cooked” like charcoal is at high temperatures until it becomes black. Properly-made charcloth will easily catch a spark and grow into an ember. This ember can be transferred to [...]
Read the rest of this entry »What fire ignition system should you carry?
by Leon Pantenburg The elk herd left a tantalizing trail, and we could expect to get a shot at any moment. It’s always that thought that sucks us hunters out in crappy weather into remote mountainous areas. The day was bitterly cold in Idaho’s Selway wilderness, the snow was knee deep and there were miles [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Include Charcloth in Every Survival Kit
Maybe the best thing about charcloth is that you make it yourself, and the materials are free. It belongs in every survival kit
Read the rest of this entry »Old Style Firestarter Fills Modern Niche
Pitch wood, cedar bark, dry grass, weed stalks, pine needles etc. all work great for firestarting when the weather is nice. But usually, the fouler the weather, the more desperately you need a fire.
Read the rest of this entry »The hunt for Jasper: Head Out in Search of Fire-starting Rocks:
“The ability to make a fire can save your life,” said Leon Pantenburg. “The inability can cost you your life.”
“Kids like to play with fire,” he said. “So we let them play with fire
