Burning glass?

[rapidboy]

Anyone use one?
What size / magnification is required?
Do you use char cloth or tinder?

Cheers
RB

[ChrisKavanaugh]

I carry a fresnel lens in my PSK. These flat card sized lens are adequate for fire starting and help read small print such as the Collins GEM survival book. Some of the reproduction tinder kit boxes come with a lens in the cover. A few compasses now come with magnification lens incorporated into the baseplate for map reading. There is the lens from ice trick to impress people. I've managed to start fires with everything from eyeglasses to broken glass.

[TheViking]

Hi...

I have a Waltex with a diameter on 6,3 cm. I believe if it is less than about 6 cm., the tinder will not ignite. The small ones in some SAK's (Explorer, Champ)
doesn't work and are too small. I use tinder. Cattail downs. Once dried, they burn fantastic.

[Ed]

Char cloth works brilliantly with this method..... takes about 20 seconds ;-)

Not sure about the magnification.... its a cheap plastic lense out of a pair of toy binoculars..... but it works all the same

:-)
Ed

[Strider]

Magnification is not really that important... its size(area) you want.
To start fires, you want to concentraten the greatest amount of light possible into one place. A higher magnification will simply move the focal point(where all the light is concentrated) closer to the lense. I think those fresnel ones like Chris mentioned are the best as they are light, less fragile than glass, and have a large area.
Cheers.