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

This dryer lint ignited, then for no apparent reason, just went out. Dryer lint is unreliable as a firestarter.

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 seconds. It didn’t burn up completely.

The handfull of lint I got from my dryer was about the same volume as that of two fluffed cotton balls. The last cotton balls I bought cost 89 cents for 100 jumbo-sized.

Moral of this story? For a few cents, I can replace questionable dryer lint that may or may not work as a firestarter with reliable cotton balls. 

Some people have included dryer lint as the firestarter in their survival kits and feel safe with it. I urge these folks to replace the lint and here’s the research to back it up: dryer lint.

You stake your life on your survival firemaking kit.

What’s your life worth? Probably more than a few cents! – Leon

by Leon Pantenburg

The best firestarting system can also be the cheapest and the materials are the easiest to find at any drug or grocery store.

.

This Boy Scout Hot-Spark and a prescription bottle filled with cotton balls and petroleum jelly makes a reliable firestarting method that is cheap enough to be placed in all survival kits.

After extensive testing, my nomination for the best overall survival firestarting method is cotton balls, slathered with petroleum jelly, combined with a magnesium or flint stick. I ran across this method several years ago at a Peter Kummerfeldt seminar at the Deschutes Fairground Sportsmen show.

Kummerfeldt demonstrated the method at his booth, and it looked so easy, I figured there had to be a catch. So, I got the materials and tested it myself, then had some of the scouts from Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, OR. wring out the system.

Everybody likes the system because of  its reliability. There is nothing to break, it requires no fuel, and temperature has no affect. But an additional benefit is how cheap it is to produce!

Here’s how you can make one of these firemaking kits.

• Get a locking cap, waterproof prescription bottle. These days, everybody has a prescription for something, and the meds usually come in a small, plastic pill bottle. The bottles with the snap-and-bayonet, waterproof top work very well for storing the cotton balls, and probably won’t cost anything. You can also use an empty 35mm film plastic container, or a standard waterproof matchbox. I use all of these containers, since I carry the cotton balls/petroleum jelly firestarter in all my survival kits. Just be careful with any snap-off or non-locking cap – if they’re easy to get off, they may come apart in your pack!
• Cotton balls: Get extra-large, 100 percent cotton. They generally cost less than a penny each. Don’t waste your time with dryer lint: the material  is unreliable and savings cost is not worth consideration.
• Petroleum jelly: I paid $1.99 for a 13-ounce jar at the local department store. Many of the lip balm sticks will also work with this system, so experiment at home.
• Magnesium or flint stick: One of my favorites, the Boy Scout
  

  Flint or magnesium sticks come in different sizes. Find a size that is handy, so you'll take it with you! The keychain size, center, is a good choice for everyday carry.

  Hot-Spark, costs about $2.50 at the Scout store. You can buy bigger, more expensive models, but the scout version does the trick. I have the smaller sticks on zipper fobs, key chains, and in every survival kit I own. Your Swiss Army knife can become a better survival knife if you attach a Hot-Spark to the split ring on the handle. Strike It, Matchless Firestarter

• Label with directions: Put a label on each container with what is inside, and how to use it. You may not need the reminder, but then again, you might be injured, disabled or unconscious, and someone else might have to build that life-saving fire. Make their job easier by including simple instructions.

I use a standard Avery 5160 1″x2-5/8″ labels, with Wordperfect software in the “labels” dropdown.  Use 11 point, Aerial type, and this spacing, and all the information fits nicely.

On the labels, type:

Firestarter: Cotton balls and

petroleum jelly. To use: Remove

pinch of firestarter, fluff and light. More info:

SurvivalCommonSense.com (Thought I’d sneak that in! My site could use the publicity! For Boy Scout or Girl Scout troops, here’s were you put your name out! You could put compliments of your particular organization, or whatever will fit on the bottom line.)

This dry cattail fuzz can be used as a firestarter if you infuse it with petroleum jelly.

These containers, filled with cotton balls and petroleum jelly, are fantastic promotional give-aways and cost pennies. Scouts can make up a bunch, and give them out at their next campout or public gathering. I give the containers out when I go cross-country skiing or snowshoeing as a public service – it’s scary how often this firestarter is the only survival gear some people have!

Total cost of the complete firestarter kit, with Hot-Spark, is about $2.75 to $3! If you opt to buy  a waterproof match container for the cotton balls, that will set you back another $2-$3. You’re still looking at a complete firemaking system for about five bucks!

Carry this combination in all your survival kits. When you need to make a fire, pull out a pinch, fluff it out and strike a spark onto the cotton ball with the flint stick. If the wood is damp, and the tinder in short supply, use a whole cotton ball. My experiments show that a cotton ball gobbed with petroleum jelly will burn for several minutes.

The cotton balls and petroleum jelly have another use. On a Boy Scout 50-miler hike a few years back, I started to get a blister on my heel. I took out my cotton ball firestarter, and rubbed the hot spot with the petroleum jelly. No blister formed!

When it comes to your survival kit, you decide how much you want to invest. Personally, I want the best equipment available for me and my family, and price is not a consideration. Our lives are worth that to me.

But prepping or making multiple survival kits can be expensive. Find the areas – like this one – where you can cut costs without reducing quality, durability or safety. Then, invest the money you saved on items you can’t compromise on, such as  boots, a survival knife, Cold Steel SRK San Mai III Knife 38CSM
sleeping bags, tents, navigation gear Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigator
etc.

Use common sense in all of this. Find the best, most reliable systems for your survival kits, then practice, research and decide how they can best serve you.

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• About Leon Pantenburg

by Leon Pantenburg

Inevitably, at every firemaking seminar I teach, somebody suggests using dryer lint as firestarter. According to some

This dryer lint ignited, then for no apparent reason, just went out. Dryer lint is unreliable as a firestarter.

folks, you should carry dryer lint and a flint stick in your survival kit. My response is that I have tested and tried dryer lint, don’t carry it, and recommend you don’t either.

You stake your life on your firemaking kit components. Let’s apply the common sense filter to this dryer lint firestarter idea.

Here’s some related information: According to a 1999 report developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 14,500 dryers catch fire every year, killing 10 people. Two years ago, a dryer fire at an Alabama day care center claimed several children. (How many millions of dryers are used every day?)

Experts cite “failure to clean” as the reason for 70% of dryer fire operational contributing factors. And a standard construction practice is to run the exhaust pipe through the drywall with a 90-degree elbow. This can cause the lint to accumulate at that angle, next to the hot dryer.

So the question might be, based on the evidence from the house fires: Is dryer lint really that flammable? Or is it the combination of heat, improper venting and an accumulation of dry lint next to a hot dryer that causes house fires?

Our concern is survival firemaking though, so let’s consider the pros and cons of dryer lint as it could be used as a survival situation firestarter.

Proponents of dryer lint firestarter claim:

• Dryer lint is free and readily available.
• Dryer lint is easily ignited with a match, lighter and/or flint stick.
• Dryer lint is  compact and easy to carry.
• The material is a reliable method of starting a fire under adverse (i.e. cold, wet, and nasty) conditions.

Dryer lint is free for the taking, compact and easy to carry and apparently flammable. There are multiple internet postings showing the material being ignited, along with directions for making lint-based fire starters.

My first concern about dryer lint has to do with reliability. In 2002, as part of a project for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to find the ultimate, practical fire ignition method that would work for the average person.

We also tested practical firestarters. Dryer lint was one of the initial items tested and it never made the first cut.

The material used for the field trials came from my dryer, and I tested the lint from virtually every load of clothes for a week or more. That ended up being a lot of testing! At the time there were three active teenagers and a Lab in the house, along with all the clothes drying associated with skiing, hunting, snowboarding, winter sports and school athletics.

The testing method was to take whatever handful of lint was in the filter, go out into the garage and ignite it with a flint stick. This is where the reliability issue surfaced. (Dog hair was a constant in all the test samples!)

Some lint, such as that from a load of  cotton jeans, ignited readily. Lighting lint from a mixed load of natural fabrics and wool and

Cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly and a flint stick are effective firemaking tools.

microfibers was iffy, and sometimes the flame went out before burning up the lint completely. And several times, the lint from a load of polypropylenes, wool and various synthetic microfibers didn’t ignite. Swedish Firesteel – Scout Model, Green Handle

My recommendation is to substitute cotton balls in any application where you might currently be using dryer lint. Here’s why:

• While dryer lint is free, a jumbo 100 percent cotton ball will cost less than a penny. The cost of filling a 35-mm film container with five cotton balls is less than a nickel!
• Cotton balls start out as a sterile medical item and can also be used for first aid needs, such bandaging or cleaning a wound or abrasion. Among the particles in dryer lint is dirt, dust, allergens and all sorts of airborne spores and microbes.
• Both cotton balls and dryer lint can absorb moisture from the air. The difference is that cotton has long fibers which can be dried easier than lint, which is composed of small particles, pet and human hair, pieces of plastic and other, unknown materials.
• Dryer lint mats and compacts more than cotton, making it harder to light. It’s more difficult  to fluff up to light.

I carry cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly as one of the firestarters in my survival kit. If I start to feel a hot spot or blister rising from a boot chaffing, I rub the area with the cotton ball and petroleum jelly. In a pinch, I have used a petroleum jelly and cotton ball, along with duct tape, to create a makeshift band aide. Never rub any skin abrasion, or try to stop a blood flow, with lint!

Grenfell’s and my conclusion was that there is nothing dryer lint can do that a cotton ball can’t do as well. The advantages of cotton balls over lint easily make up the cost difference.

 If dryer lint is still in your survival kit, please test before trusting it! Personally, I’ll spend an extra few cents and use cotton balls. My life is worth that to me!

Recommended Reading

Surviving a Wilderness Emergency
Build the Perfect Survival Kit

Product Links
Swedish Firesteel – Scout Model, Green Handle
Frost Moro Knives
Cold Steel Knives

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
• About Leon
  
  Pantenburg

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

Heat the loaded tin until the flame goes out and smoking stops.

and grow into an ember.  This ember can be transferred to a tinder bundle and blown into a flame.
Once you discover how easy it is to make charcloth, you’ll never have an excuse for running out, or not having some in your survival kit. This is the method used by Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Or. Every scout is expected to know how to make and use this material, and charcloth is part of every survival kit. It should be part of your kit, too!

Here’s the items you need, and what you need to do:

Materials:
A regular-sized Altoids or other brand of mint tin, with a small hole punched in the top. The photos show a larger tin can for increased production.
Blue denim from old Wranglers or Levi 501s or work jeans works very well as the material to be charred. Other 100 percent cotton items and some organic materials can also be used. Another favorite material is 100 percent cotton insulated underwear. We favor denim because there is never a shortage of old jeans in any group of growing boys! Also, if you ever need to make charcloth in an emergency, chances are somebody will be wearing jeans! And don’t forget that a 100% cotton bandanna can provide lots of charring material.

This charcloth is underdone, and needs to be put back in the tin and cooked longer

A source of heat – campfire coals work well, and so does a backpacking or camp stove. You can use a barbecue grill or propane heater in your backyard. Charring is a smoky process, so make sure you go outdoors.
Once these items are assembled, tear up the denim and pack it loosely (so the contents have some spring to them) to the top of the can.
Place the can on the heat source and cook.

Actual cooking time will vary, depending on heat intensity, outdoor temperature etc. The heat should be high enough that the can starts to smoke through the hole in the top. At some point, in about five to ten minutes, the smoke should ignite. Then adjust the heat, if possible, so the flame stays about two-to-four inches high. When the flame dies down, and the smoke lessens, take the can from the fire and let it cool completely. When the flame dies down, and the smoke lessens, take the

Finished charcloth should be completely black and flexible. It will catch a spark from any source and is windproof.

can from the fire and let it cool completely.

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.

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 between us and the nearest road. 

Being able to make a fire under adverse conditions can be critical to survival.

Back at camp, the first order of business was to start the fire. I took out my waterproof match container and tried to light a strike-anywhere match on the side. All the matches had been replaced a couple months ago, but not one of the 20 in the container would light. Then I tried my backup butane lighter. Because of the cold, it didn’t work either. Luckily, we had backup matches, and the fire was soon thawing us out. 

“So suppose one of us had gotten hurt and couldn’t move – what would we do to start a fire?” I asked my partner. We both agreed it could have been fatal. 

That frigid hunt was in 1993, and for years, I experimented to find a reliable firemaking method. 

In 2002, as part of a project for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon, Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to find the ultimate, practical fire ignition method that would work for the average person. 

Criteria to be tested were: ease of operation, ability to use one-handed (in the event of an injury), reliability, widespread availability, durability, practicality and ease of carry. We ruled out any items that seemed to rely on expensive, gee-whiz technology. 

Over the course of the next several months, we laboriously tested and re-tested conventional firemaking methods. When something showed promise after initial testing, we turned the scouts loose on it. If the method survived the torture test, we’d ask average outdoors people to try and then comment on the materials. 

Here’s what we found:
  

This firebow setup works well, but takes considerable skill to use. It would not be a good choice for survival firemaking for most people.

Fire bow or other primitive wood friction methods: Not even in the running. In a survival situation, even if you have the time and skills to make and use a fire bow, you’d first have to find the materials to build it. If rubbing two sticks together to fire was easy, or even just moderately difficult, the aboriginal people would never have developed ways to carry a live coal between camps! 

The people who depended on the friction method for twirling up a fire carried their own specialized sticks with them. Even in a forest, you might not be able to find dry, suitable materials to build your kit. 

Matches: Best case scenario: You should be able to make one fire with every match, right? That points out a real problem with matches: there is a finate number of them, and when they’re gone you’re out of luck. And what if you use all your matches to make one fire because of a low skill level? 

Every brand and type of match we tried was unreliable as a survival tool. But if forced to make a recommendation, I’d say the best match choice is the REI Stormproof matches. They work well under many adverse circumstances, but you can only carry a few (8, with striker) in a standard match case. Match Box – Plastic by Coghlans 

Always keep survival matches in a waterproof case, and rotate them regularly.

The advantage is that most people can strike a match, and you can get them anywhere. 

The disadvantages are that matches deteriorate over time and fail, even if they’re waterproof. While coating the heads with paraffin or other sealants will work for awhile, that doesn’t make the matches dependable. Most regular book matches are useless if damp, or if they’re even exposed to moisture. 

Another critical aspect is the abrasive strip on the match box or book. If it gets damp, wet or worn out, the matches won’t work. And one brand of match may not ignite on another’s abrasive strip! 

Even strike-anywhere matches don’t necessarily light when struck on an abrasive surface. Try standing in knee-deep snow, during a snow and sleet storm and finding a dry, abrasive surface to strike a match on! 

Butane lighter: I carry a butane lighter in my pants pocket, another in my jacket pocket and a third in my pack. If I need a fire quickly, I hope to flic a Bic and get the job done. A standard Bic lighter, according to my tests, will have about an hour’s worth of flame in it. But I don’t trust any butane lighter, and you shouldn’t either.  

The Achilles heel is temperature. The boiling point of Butane is approximately -0.5 C at sea level, according to answers.com (This boiling point will drop with an increase in altitude given the reduced pressure). This means that as the lighter nears freezing, less gas will be vaporized inside of the lighter and will make it hard to light. And the higher in elevation you are, the less chance you have for ignition! 

Butane lighters work great when they work!

My experiments show that placing a butane lighter in ice water (33 degrees) disables it almost instantaneously. If the lighter is removed from a one-minute ice water bath, and placed in a 70 degree area, several minutes will pass before it is warm enough to function. This time varies on the size, brand, and make of the lighter. If you warm the lighter in your already warm hand, it can take at least  90 seconds under ideal conditions, and probably closer to four minutes, to make it functional. 

So,  if you fall into an icy river, wade to shore and desperately need to make a warm-up fire, your butane lighter won’t work for what seems like an eternity. In a situation where your hands are freezing, you may not be able to warm the lighter quickly. Your cold, numb fingers may not be able to work the wheel, either. By the time the lighter is warm enough to fire, you may not be able to use it. Disposable Lighters, Assorted Colors, Sold As A 50 Pack 

Any lighter’s durability is suspect. All it takes is one grain of sand in the wrong place and the machinery is disabled. 

And don’t forget this little tidbit: if you inadvertently drop your butane lighter into a campfire, an explosion will follow! 

A magnesium block, with flint stick attached on top, can be a reliable firemaking method.

Magnesium block: 

A favorite of the survival shows, the magnesium block with a flint stick on top, has some merit. The idea is to shave off pieces of magnesium into a small pile, then ignite it with a spark from the flint stick. The magnesium block is waterproof. 

The problem in the system is that it takes a long time to scrape enough shavings off the block to ignite, and it’s really easy to scatter the pile if you bump it or the wind comes up. 

A magnesium block is OK, but not your best choice. Genuine Issue Magnesium Survival Fire Starter 

Zippo-style lighters: For a while, this appeared to be the winner. I filled my Zippo with lighter fluid to the saturation point, then sat down to see how many fires it would make before it failed. Over the next two days, (I suppose this is some comment on my social life), the total number of lights was 974!  When full of fluid, the Zippo worked immediately after a one-minute ice water bath. It came out the freezer overnight and fired on the second try. I sealed the hinge and opening with a piece of duct tape, and left it alone for a month, and it still fired. 

The fuel supply of a Zippo-style lighter tends to dry out quickly, making it non-functional.

But the Zippo-style lighter was wildly inconsistent in other areas. A fully saturated lighter dried out completely in three days in the desert. Having it sealed didn’t matter. And sometimes, for reasons I couldn’t figure out, the Zippo just wouldn’t light. 

While you can fuel a Zippo with gasoline if need be, the system is too unreliable to recommend. Zippo Candy Apple Red Pocket Lighter 

Flint sticks: I carry a flint stick on my keyring survival gear and have several in different parts of my gear. When used in combination with cotton balls saturated with petroleum jelly, the system is nearly foolproof. 

But it takes some effort to learn how to use it, and like anything, there is no substitute for practice. Using a flint stick with only one hand can be done, but not as easily as using a butane lighter. Strike It, Matchless Firestarter 

At the end of all this research, Grenfell and I concluded that there is no ultimate firemaking tool, and you should never rely on just one type. 

So here’s the best recommendation: take at least three different methods. Environment  factors that might disable one method should not  affect all of them. So, include a fire tool out of each of these categories: 

•  Flint stick, cotton balls and petroleum jelly: If  forced to pick just one method of firemaking, this would be
  

  Cotton balls, petroleum jelly and a flint stick are effective firemaking tools.

  it. With practice, the combination is quick and reliable. But without a lot of practice and experimenting, you probably won’t be able to use it with one hand. If you’re disabled or unconscious, an untrained person might not be able to figure out how it works. 

    

• Butane lighter: If you’re lucky and can keep your lighter warm and dry, a butane lighter make take care of all your firemaking needs. I’ve noticed many kids can’t operate a butane lighter without practice, so some training  may need to be done with your juvenile outdoor partners.
• REI Stormproof matches: Most folks don’t need instruction on how to light a match, so that’s why it’s a good idea to include matches. Invest in premium matches that may work when you need them, and rotate your stock regularly. Be sure to take along the abrasive strip from the match box, and store all matches in a waterproof container!

No matter which firemaking methods you use, take along charcloth and firestarter in a waterproof plastic bag! If your Zippo or butane lighter leaks or runs out of fuel, you can use the wheel and flint to make a spark that can be caught on a piece of charcloth. Also, any other ignition methods that involve sparks can be used with charcloth. 

Firestarter should be compact, durable and easy to carry. It can make the difference between dying of hypothermia or getting a fire going with damp tinder and kindling! 

One last suggestion: Include a road flare in your survival gear. It is a fantastic signaling tool, burns for at least 15 minutes and will ignite virtually anything! Orion Safety Prod. 3153-08 Safety PlasTcap Flare 

For more related Survival Common Sense tips, click on the highlighted words: 

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Write a note to let people know where you went, before you left.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter  6 ft. x 8 ft. Ultralight Backpacking Tarp
  
  .

by Leon Pantenburg

In an emergency, many media “experts” promote different ways to make sparks as a way to ignite a fire. But the advice sometimes fizzles out there. There may be a vague reference to catching the spark with some material called “tinder.”

Finished charcloth should be completely black and flexible. It will catch a spark from any source and is windproof.

Sometimes tree fungus, or dry, rotted wood called “punk” is mentioned as a spark catcher.  The media personality makes a spark somehow, there is a camera angle change, and presto! We have ignition!

But in the real world, during an emergency, there isn’t time to search for such specialized items, even if they are available, and even if they do work.

Of all the firemaking tools at your disposal, charcloth is one that should be included in every survival kit. It works with every method of firemaking.

Charcloth is a material, usually 100 percent cotton, that has been “cooked” like charcoal at high temperatures until it becomes black and flexible. Properly-made charcloth will easily catch a spark from any source and will spread into an ember.

A spark can come from a flint and steel, flint stick, broken lighter, Primus Power Ignitor Lighter
jumper cables and battery etc.  You could even light charcloth with a damp match that flares but won’t ignite. In fact, if you only have a few matches, (and matches are always a finite resource) your best move might be to light some charcloth. MATCHCAP Waterproof Aluminum Match Case with Striker

Once caught, a spark on charcloth is virtually impossible to blow out.  If the tinder bundle and small kindling are ready, it should only take about a one-inch square of glowing charcloth to get a fire going.

Carry survival gear in your wallet. I always have (from left) firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror with me.

Lighted charcloth extinguishes easily with water. But all you have to do is dry the soaked material out and it will work again.

Maybe the best thing about charcloth is that you make it yourself, and the materials are free.

You could even make charcloth while you’re lost if you took along a bandanna and an Altoids or similar tin. (It will give you something to do while sitting by your signal fire, waiting to be rescued!) You can also try charring some organic materials, such as tree bark (cedar and juniper) and others. There might be a great natural charring material in your area, just waiting to be discovered.

It goes without saying that any experimenting should first be done in your backyard! Strike It, Matchless Firestarter

For related Survival Common Sense tips, click on the highlighted words:

• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter
  

  .

by Leon Pantenburg

The wind blew sheets of rain sideways and the water dripped off the brim of my hat as I hunched over my charcloth and flint and steel. The original idea had been to demonstrate to Boy Scouts of Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon how to start a fire in the rain using one match, and available natural materials.

The waxed firestarter will burn on snow, or when the weather is wet and nasty.

It had rained in the area for two days, and everything was soaked. We found a juniper tree that offered some shelter. I demonstrated how to find the dry side of the tree, strip off dry inner bark from underneath a limb and gather relatively dry twigs from under the trunk. Then I reached from my waterproof match container.

My 11-year-old son Dan had other ideas.

“Oh, c’mon Dad,” he said. “You can get a fire started with a flint and steel, can’t you?”

Typically, Murphy stands at my elbow when I attempt such demonstrations. And Murphy’s Law (as it relates to firemaking) is very explicit. It states: The more people watching you try to show off, the harder it will be to start a fire.

But Murphy had stayed home. I caught the spark on the second whack of the striker, placed the glowing charcloth into a prepared nest of dry and shredded juniper bark and in a matter of minutes had a roaring fire going. Nobody was more impressed than me.

Getting interested in one aspect of history generally leads to other rediscoveries. In my case, an interest in primitive

Charcloth is used to catch a spark, which will create an ember that can be blown into a fire. Charcloth can catch a spark from any source and is windproof.

firemaking lead to a search for an effective firestarter. Surely, I reasoned, the oldtimers had some sort of flammable material that was compact, portable, effective, simple to make and that used easily-obtained local materials. Pitch wood, cedar bark, dry grass, weed stalks, pine needles etc. all work great when the weather is nice. But usually, the fouler the weather, the more desperately you need a fire (another axiom of Murphy’s firemaking law). There had to be some sort of old time firestarter.

The answer came from another seeker of esoteric knowledge, my buddy, Dr. Jim Grenfell. Jim is a former UCLA instructor of dentistry who took up blacksmithing upon retiring. He makes knives, replica tomahawks, fire strikers, and anything the local Boy Scout troops need. Jim is also a former fighter-bomber pilot combat veteran of the Korean War and a graduate of three Air Force wilderness survival schools.

Jim already had the answer to the firestarter situation. We went out to his shop and he pulled out what looked like a waxed pillow case.

“You could make a hat out of this, cover your feet, or use it as a mat to sit on,” Jim said. “But it’s really firestarter. Try it.”

Well, I did, and the waxed firestarter works very well. Here’s how to make it.  The idea is to melt equal proportions of beeswax and paraffin together and dip 100 percent cotton cloth in it.

First, find a large flat pan and a source of heat to melt the wax. I use my propane fish cooker outside to reduce the potential mess.Camp Chef Outdoorsman High/Low Pressure Double Burner Camp Stove

Get some 100 percent cotton that tears easily. Denim from jeans and the stretchy material from old T-shirts will work, but the material is difficult to tear or fray the edges. I prefer old cotton sheets or pillow cases. The material can be torn easily to whatever size is needed.

Paraffin is available in grocery stores. Beeswax can be expensive, so a good alternate material is the wax liner ring used to seal the bottoms of toilets. These rings cost under a buck at most hardware stores and they provide about eight to ten ounces of wax. The toilet sealer wax starts out slightly sticky, but after it’s diluted with paraffin that disappears. I always add a crayon to the mixture. The crayon’s only purpose is to color-code the batch, so if it works particularly well, you can duplicate the recipe.

Set your fire extinguisher nearby. Then heat the wax/paraffin mixture to almost smoking hot, SHUT OFF THE HEAT, and start dipping the cloth. Molten wax can burn you, so wear oven mitts or gloves. I use kitchen tongs to handle the hot cloth, and after dipping, let the excess wax mixture drain off.

Set the dipped cloth out the dry on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. And that’s it.

To use the material, rip off a piece and roll it diagonally, and fray the edge. It should light almost instantaneously. For lighting campfires, I generally use a piece of firestarter about the size of a cigarette paper. If your tinder, kindling and wood have been gathered correctly, this will be overkill. If the fire starts quickly, you can extinguish the starter and re-use it.Revere – 405-0104 – Gale Force Butane Torch Windproof Survival Lighter – Gold – 1 W x 2 H in.

How well does this stuff work? Well, it will burn almost completely up while resting on top of a snowdrift. An eighth-inch by one-inch piece, rolled loosely, will burn for several minutes. I’ve used the firestarter many times in driving rain.

Because the wax mixture is so hot when the cloth is dipped, individual threads completely absorb the wax. This makes

Firestarter, left, charcloth and a signal mirror can all be carried in a wallet. The compact, easy-to-carry firestarter can be included in your everyday wardrobe without ever noticing it!

the material completely waterproof and virtually indestructible.

Several springs ago, a Boy Scout campout south of La Pine, Or., turned into an exercise in sleet and snow camping. In the dark, somebody dropped a piece of  the waxed firestarter in the main path, where it was ground into the slush, mud and snow.

The next morning, assistant scoutmaster Dave Colton of Bend found the piece and brought it over to me.

“Do you think this will work now?” he asked. We brushed off the mud, patted the firestarter dry on my pantleg, and it started like it had spent the night in a waterproof container.

Since discovering the waxed firestarter, I’ve replaced all the commercial versions in all my survival kits. I carry a credit card-sized piece in my wallet. The waxed firestarter takes up virtually no space, is light and doesn’t leave a mess. (But don’t leave a piece on the car dashboard in the summer sun!)

Like all survival tools, this one will do you no good unless you know how to use it. So make some waxed firestarter, practice with it and add another skill to your survival arsenal.  

(Original story published in the Volume 28, No. 2,  April/March edition, 2006,  of “The Backswoodsman.”)

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• Use charcloth as an effe
  ctive method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.

(This story was written by reporter Jim Witty and published in the Oct. 20, 2004 edition of  “The Bulletin” in Bend, Oregon.)

     Jim Grenfell and Leon Pantenburg like to play with fire.
     “Kids like to play with fire,” said Pantenburg. “So we let them play with fire.”
      Grenfell and Pantenburg have rediscovered the (nearly) lost art of making fire using flint and steel. That is, steel and hard, flinty rock like certain types of jasper.
     It’s pretty nifty, what these guys do.

    http://bbedit.sx.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041020/SPORTS0411/410200707/1013