Reusable fire starter - maybe!

[Andy BB]

Many of us on here use "magic biscuits" as fire-lighters/tinder. However, they can be a bit messy to make, and is a guaranteed way to upset "her indoors" during the process as you melt the wax in an old tin on the stove (and I speak here from bitter experience!)

The normal use for these in my case is to start woodfires - either an open fire or in a wood stove, and also as a firestarter in my tent stove. However, I got to thinking about carbon felt. Instead of taking a pack of magic biscuits/vaseline cotton balls etc, why not just take a single pad of carbon felt, suitably soaked in alcohol/alcohol gel? It should be recoverable from the fire after use as it should withstand normal fire heat, and be ready to be soaked again in alcohol/alcohol gel for the next time.

Now I haven't tried this out yet, as I've only just had the brainwave However, I will try to do so tomorrow subject to the weather, maybe in a woodstove if I can dig one out. Just wondered if anyone else had used this method, because there's very little new in bushcrafting!

 

[dave89]

Why wouldn't you just take the alcohol gel and put it on the fire wood? it the carbon felt isn't flammable its not lighting the fire

 

[Clouston98]

Good idea- though I can't see myself using it. I have made magic biscuits with a bit of liquid parra fin added to the wax and there's great! We use them for the fronteir stove- very small and don't smell either. You can fit enough for eight fires in an alto ids tin. It's a canoe trip thing, we do the whole birch bark, flint and steel etc thing. But it's a six in the morning when there's ice out and you just want the stove going that a few of them is dead handy .

 

[bilmo-p5]

Tilley owners have used a similar sort of thing for lighting their lamps for donkeys years

 

[Andy BB]

Tilley owners have used a similar sort of thing for lighting their lamps for donkeys years

Good point - they normally use a bit of wick to soak up the meths and improve the pre-heat. Wonder why I didn't think of that, particularly as I use exactly the same - a bit of carbon felt - in my Optimus 8 as a preheater!

 

[Andy BB]

Why wouldn't you just take the alcohol gel and put it on the fire wood? it the carbon felt isn't flammable its not lighting the fire

Fair point! However, I'll almost always have some meths/alcohol - not necessarily gel - with me, and meths tends to burn better and longer (and is much more capable of being focussed onto the right place) with some sort of wicking agent. And unlike other wicking agents, carbon felt doesn't burn up. So instead of carrying 8-10 magic biscuits, I can carry just one carbon felt disk and reuse it as often as needed.

Theoretically, that is

 

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Yeas ago I saw a game butcher who had his own incinerator and he used some really fine wire wool with a mix of fine wire wool and ignited it with a 9v batteries. While not reusable as such there was often a clump of wire left down in the bottom, fragile stuff but if you played around with the gauge of wire wool it could work.

 

[bladeymae]

Pumice stone has been used in starting fires for years by soaking it in whatever flammable liquid is available. It's as close as your local store that sells healthcare products and inexpensive.

 

[robevs73]

Sorry if this upsets people but you really should be going narural for firelighting not using home made gizmos soaked in fuel.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Sorry if this upsets people but you really should be going narural for firelighting not using home made gizmos soaked in fuel.

na that would mean bushcraft without all the kit.

 

[Clouston98]

Sorry if this upsets people but you really should be going narural for firelighting not using home made gizmos soaked in fuel.

To true really.

I'm natural all the way(chaga, amadou, birch bark, flint and steel, bow drill etc) I only have the manic biscuits for the stove in winter.

I know what you mean though- there are some queer and expensive 'bushcraft' labelled Firelighters selling on the internet.

 

[tom.moran]

Sorry if this upsets people but you really should be going narural for firelighting not using home made gizmos soaked in fuel.

Why? Is it a rule? Surely people can use what they like

 

[bilmo-p5]

Sorry if this upsets people but you really should be going narural for firelighting not using home made gizmos soaked in fuel.

Is alcohol un-natural?

 

[Blaidd]

As a last resort I rub a cheap lip balm on cotton wool, no messiness at all. When I get out and about again I plan to pick up tinder before I need to make a fire which should make everything more orgasmic, sorry, I mean organic. (Predictive text!)

Depends what you mean by "natural", my Bic rubs a steel against "flint" (manufactured), or are you banning all processed materials which I'm thinking leaves you with a bow drill or flint and iron ore (a knife, being manufactured, would not be natural), and then why stop there, only "natural" clothing, "natural" food, and you can only travel by foot or horseback to get to your camp site. You pays your money and you take your choice.

 

[robevs73]

I'm not saying every one has to rub sticks together every time they go to the woods but there's enough kindling available out there wheather you find it or have to make it (splitting and feather sticks), surley if you want to be a "bushcrafter" and practice "bushcraft" skills then very basic fire making and fuel gathering should always be practiced.

 

[ged]

I collect a load of little twigs, put them in my ghillie, squirt a bit of meths on them from a small squeezy bottle that I carry with me everywhere, and light it with a lighter.

I do keep a few makeup pads (or whatever they are) soaked in wax in the kit too, but only for emergencies. Of course I'd class running out of alcohol as a dire emergency.