Tinder lists

[Celtic Dragon]

Having done some reading of past threads on here, and listening to a few conversations at Ashdown. I thought I would start a thread (maybe sticky) of all the materials you use for tinder and where you find it, I suppose this relates to the more unusual materials the the common ones. As we all experiment (ok we are a bunch of pyro's!!!!! Sorry Espy :o): )

Anyway here are my suggestions and what I've used to ignite them

Shredded Motorway service station servettes (only works when the weathers dry) lit by accident form a firesteel

Tesco's baby cotton buds are 100% cotton (very small amounts from this) again by a firesteel

I have yet to try out their baby line cotton wool.

Look forward to seeing your materials
Simon

[TheViking]

Only unusual materials I've used is kerosene and fireworks powder. :-)

[leon-1]

I have a list on my computer at work, but you can add fine grade wire wool (0 or 00 grade works with a battery and firesteel) and the lint from a tumble dryer to the list on the man made side of life shredded bark (inner bark of cedar works with ember from firebow and birch bark are common ones). I have a plant in my garden that gives a clock like a dandelion but slightly more fibrous, this seems to work well enough with a firesteel.

[TheViking]

If it must be bushcrafty tinders I use: charcloth, birch bark, dry grass and very fine small spruce twigs. :-) If at home an old newspaper is the preffered.

[Celtic Dragon]

Nope this list can be anything used to light fires!!!! from the common to the unusual!!!

[Toddy]

Fire crackle once you've got a coal or to encourage enough flame to start small timbers. That is, the dried hollow stems of common mallow or of old fireweed or nettle broken up into short lengths. They work well in a domestic fire too.
Toddy

[hootchi]

How about old fire dogs. I tried it once and it worked but I tried it another morning and the wood was a bit too damp.

Edit: This is used to take the spark and then be blown into an ember and spread to two or three other logs which will produce a flame.

[arctic hobo]

Who carries cotton buds?? A good cheap bog standard cotton sock catches like anything I've seen, and I've always a pair handy

[Abbe Osram]

Having done some reading of past threads on here, and listening to a few conversations at Ashdown. I thought I would start a thread (maybe sticky) of all the materials you use for tinder and where you find it, I suppose this relates to the more unusual materials the the common ones. As we all experiment (ok we are a bunch of pyro's!!!!! Sorry Espy :o): )

Anyway here are my suggestions and what I've used to ignite them

Shredded Motorway service station servettes (only works when the weathers dry) lit by accident form a firesteel

Tesco's baby cotton buds are 100% cotton (very small amounts from this) again by a firesteel

I have yet to try out their baby line cotton wool.

Look forward to seeing your materials
Simon

Hi
I collect the fibres caught in the tumble dryer filter then I collect the stumps of candles, which I melt and fill in the discharged egg-packets, mixing them I get 12 small tinder bombs :wink:

cheers
Abbe

[Celtic Dragon]

Who carries cotton buds?? A good cheap bog standard cotton sock catches like anything I've seen, and I've always a pair handy

I don't, I just happened to have some handy whilst sitting here bored silly :wink:

Working on going larger and finding out what else I could use.

[Snufkin]

jute string, the cheap stuff that you get in garden centres, it's great stuff you can reverse twist it to make stronger cordage, it's biodegradable and if you unravel it and fray it it makes great tinder.
Birds nests.

[KIMBOKO]

I'm never too sure what people mean by tinder. Is it the materials that you use to turn an ember into a flame or the material you use to turn a flame into a fire. Or is it the materials to catch a spark from a firesteel or flint/ steel or pyrites/flint. I have heard the term "tinder" used for all these areas of fire lighting and although some tinders are perhaps goods in all these circumstances you cant assume that they are all good for all of the purposes.
The term "Tinder box" refered to a flint and steel in a box along with charred cloth or tinder fungus to catch the spark. There may also have been sulphur mathes to turn the ember into a flame without all that huffing and puffing. In this case tinder has a very definite use.
Perhaps anyone listing here could advise for what purpose the tinder was used.
I have had a lot of trouble trying to catch a pyrites/flint spark it seems very low temperature and seems to need a very specially prepared and dried "tinder" to catch.
Slightly off topic but I particularly like using finely separated tissue or fluff from jeans in an old lighter to make fire. Or using the spark from earthing my finger across the flow of gas from an old lighter after having walked on a synthetic carpet. A friend once lit a cigarette from the sparks of a cars distributor.

[Andy]

Lint from my tummy button

alco hand cream

bike inner tube is common

fat from the pan I've cooked stuff in (in my case sosmix)

[hootchi]

Perhaps anyone listing here could advise for what purpose the tinder was used.
Done :biggthump

[Carcajou Garou]

The one I like the most as it is very available here is cat-tail fuzz, very explosive in ignition :shock: , along with fine birch bark, dryer lint, pocket lint, woodshop shavings etc...
just a thought

[DOC-CANADA]

The pappus (fuzz) from Thistle (Cirsium spp.) and Common Milkweed (Asclepia syriaca) and probably other Milkweeds as well, will ignite from the sparks from a fuel depleted lighter.

:smile: Doc :smile:

[Stuart]

I'm never too sure what people mean by tinder. Is it the materials that you use to turn an ember into a flame or the material you use to turn a flame into a fire. Or is it the materials to catch a spark from a firesteel or flint/ steel or pyrites/flint. I have heard the term "tinder" used for all these areas of fire lighting and although some tinders are perhaps goods in all these circumstances you cant assume that they are all good for all of the purposes.
The term "Tinder box" refered to a flint and steel in a box along with charred cloth or tinder fungus to catch the spark. There may also have been sulphur mathes to turn the ember into a flame without all that huffing and puffing. In this case tinder has a very definite use.
Perhaps anyone listing here could advise for what purpose the tinder was used.
I have had a lot of trouble trying to catch a pyrites/flint spark it seems very low temperature and seems to need a very specially prepared and dried "tinder" to catch.
Slightly off topic but I particularly like using finely separated tissue or fluff from jeans in an old lighter to make fire. Or using the spark from earthing my finger across the flow of gas from an old lighter after having walked on a synthetic carpet. A friend once lit a cigarette from the sparks of a cars distributor.

Tinder is any material which will ignite from a spark or ember.

Kindling is any material which will easily catch alight from a small flame, such as dry matchstick thick twigs. Bundles of kindling are added to the flame produced by your tinder until the fire is hot enough to deal with less easily combustible materials.

Natural tinders include but are not restricted to:

The seeds of:

Cotton grass
Thistle
Clematis
Willow herb
Black popular

The outer bark of:

Red cedar
Honey suckle
Clematis
Birch

The inner barks of:

Oak
Willow
Sweet chestnut
Elm

Herbs such as:

Dry grasses
Bracken
Gorse

And animal products such as:

Some animal hairs
Very dry dung

(this list was from my woodsmoke course notes)

[match]

The important thing to remember is that tinder can b divided into two categories - igniters and extenders.

Extenders are those tinders that, when heated, begin to glow and make the coal 'grow' - but don't usually come to flame by themselves. Fluffy seed heads, tinder fungus, charcloth etc are all good examples of extenders.

Igniters are tinders that, when heated, burst into flame - tinders such as pine needles, bich bark, grasses etc.

Extenders will usually begin to glow with minimal heat, but will not ever come to flame. Igniters will begin to burn and are enough to start small kindling burning, but usually require more heat to 'get going'.

Thus, the best approach for a tinder bundle is to make the outer layers from igniters and the inner core (where you place your coal) from extenders which will begin to glow and provide enough heat for ignition.

[Celtic Dragon]

Just been up to Tesco's, and good news!!! All their baby products are 100% cotton, so I just got 200g of cotton wool for 92p!!! Should keep me in tinder for a while!!!!!!

[Toddy]

I've been spinning flax this afternoon, and husband and son no1 were playing around with sparks and the fungi I've got drying out at the kitchen radiator. I gave them some of the scrap tow threads and it starts easily and flames well enough to start bark shaving burning. :-) Good stuff especially when you realise that flax is spun damp, not dry.....must try this out doors sometime. It took a spark better than *any* of the fungi I had sitting dry :cry:
I've got spare flax (I teach spinning, beginners inevitably make a mess of flax at first) if you want some for try outs.

Toddy

[Green]

Hi
I collect the fibres caught in the tumble dryer filter then I collect the stumps of candles, which I melt and fill in the discharged egg-packets, mixing them I get 12 small tinder bombs :wink:

cheers
Abbe

Hi, Abbe,

Just wondered what proportions you use with these tinder bombs – and at what stage do you use them? I would think the wax would make them more useful as a type of kindling, but dryer lint is so great as tinder, I suppose it wouldn't matter.

Any pictures?

PS: this was my first post, and I'd like to say this is a great place for sharing thoughtful, meaningful information and opinions. I'm glad to be here.

[simonsays]

Hi, Abbe,

Just wondered what proportions you use with these tinder bombs – and at what stage do you use them? I would think the wax would make them more useful as a type of kindling, but dryer lint is so great as tinder, I suppose it wouldn't matter.

Any pictures?

PS: this was my first post, and I'd like to say this is a great place for sharing thoughtful, meaningful information and opinions. I'm glad to be here.

Welcome! I'm still a bit of a 'new boy' here myself but it seems like a really nice place. Pull up a log and we'll make a bit of room for you round the fire.

simon

[Abbe Osram]

hi guys,
you are right, I miss read the thread title. Its not a tinder but a starter help after you got your tinder rolling.

Stuart put it in good words here it comes:

Kindling is any material which will easily catch alight from a small flame, such as dry matchstick thick twigs. Bundles of kindling are added to the flame produced by your tinder until the fire is hot enough to deal with less easily combustible materials.

thats what my stuff is all about.

The proportions are exact the size of on egg place holder in that box, you melt the rests of your candles. ( I am not throwing them away)
Take the fibres you collect from the tumble dryer and will each of the little holes where the eggs are supposed to be, then you fill in some of the melted candle. Then I break of one egg holder and got my little kindling.
Pictures I don't have yet but will make some when I am fixing them again and put them on my webside under the craft section.

cheers
Abbe

[pe1pme]

For the occasions that i'm tired after a long walk and i don't want to use the bushcraftkind of tinder, I could use a lighter but that is no fun at all. I always carry two small bottles with me. One contains powdered potassiumpermanganate (KMnO4) and the other contains glycerine. If you mix together a small spoon of the KMnO4 with a few drops of glycerine you will get, after some time( between a few seconds and half a minute or so depending on the weather) a very hot flame for some seconds, depending on how much you use.
This flame sets fire to your kindling very fast! :chill:


Wim

[Adi]

I have always carried Potassium permanganate in my FAK as a very last resort back up for a number of things. I Have used it to light fires using antifreeze as it contains glycerine and have even used fertilizer on one occasion but dose anyone know of any other easily available products that contain glycerine or pure glycerine in the UK.

[Abbe Osram]

For the occasions that i'm tired after a long walk and i don't want to use the bushcraftkind of tinder, I could use a lighter but that is no fun at all. I always carry two small bottles with me. One contains powdered potassiumpermanganate (KMnO4) and the other contains glycerine. If you mix together a small spoon of the KMnO4 with a few drops of glycerine you will get, after some time( between a few seconds and half a minute or so depending on the weather) a very hot flame for some seconds, depending on how much you use.
This flame sets fire to your kindling very fast! :chill:


Wim

Where do you buy that stuff, I am looking for a survival extreme firestarter.
We have a problem here that a lot of people die going through the ice while driving a scooter. I even know a survival instructor 10 years ago who died, the guy fell in the water, he managed to swim on land and died there, he had no power more to get a fire going. Last night a 26 year old guy in my area froze to death in the fjälls he fell in the water, got out while it got minus 25 celsius he died sitting in his snowshelter he made for himself, he could not find back to his cabin. Today they told us that he died 200 meters from the cabin. One gets stiff real fast in minus 25 being wet and shocked. I want to fix myself a survival pack with secondary protected cloth and a ready fire starter which burns for a while until I find some wood.
Where do you get the explosives LOL :wink:

cheers
Abbe

[Pict]

I use a variety of tinders in varying conditions.

Commercially Prepared Tinder

Trioxene Bars – These have the added advantage of being a cooking fuel in their own right. I use these for low impact camping.

Wetfire Tinder – I keep these in my PSK and scattered through various kits.

Sparklite tinder – same as above

Votive Candles – I use these to heat and dry tinder during rainy season. The hardest fire I ever had to light was during monsoon type rains here. I had a group of six first time students who managed to get themselves and their bedding soaked through because they didn’t listen to me on the first night. It took an entire candle and a half hour to get the fire to light. It took a half hour for them to dry their bedding around a 1-meter flame.

Stuff I make myself

Cotton wool treated with Vaseline (petroleum jelly) – This is the number one tinder to get in the habit of using. Treated cotton is a very suitable, low-cost, easily assembled tinder.

Jute Twine treated with Vaseline – The Jute twine will light with a spark even if untreated but I find it burns longer and lights quicker if treated with Vaseline. I use treated Jute twine with my BSA Hotspark. I braded a section of twine and attached the steel and scraper. This gets rolled up and stuffed into the handle of my daughters Cold Steel Mini-Bushman.

Recycled paper egg carton bottoms filled with sawdust and paraffin wax – These will burn for a few minutes and cost next to nothing to prepare. I carry these in rainy season here in Brazil for when everything has been soaked from weeks of steady rain. I’m thinking they’d work well in the UK! If you really want to get fancy then cut down some strike-anywhere matches and embed 4 of them heads up in the center. The wax will hold them in place and seal them from moisture. To light you scrape away the wax and strike them against a rock, hold sideways and they light right up.

Charcloth – I take sections of cotton cloth, denim, sacking, whatever, lay it flat and wrap it with several layers of aluminum foil, crimped and pressed to seal out the air. I then poke a small hole in the foil and toss it on the coals of my grill after the meal but before the coals are out. When the smoke stops jetting out of the hole I remove it and let it cool.
I sealed a section of charcloth in plastic and taped it inside the case of my binoculars. It lights very well using an unscrewed lens. This was done more for instruction purposes than survival.

Techniques

Cotton Lint – I have everyone in the group turn out their pockets and collect all the lint they didn’t know was there. I usually scrape a pair of jeans with a knife and collect some more. This gets hit with a firesteel.

Tinder Collection - I give everyone a ziplock bag and teach them to collect anything that looks like it would burn easily. Plant wool especially but also tiny tinder, very dry grasses, and toothpick-sized twigs. The idea is to have a “birds nest” already collected along the way rather than having to search for it when they need a fire. There is also a wood that is commonly found growing here in the mid-elevation scrub forests. I’m sorry but I can’t even give the local name for it let alone the Latin. It has a very distinct, sweet, rotten cheese smell that is unmistakable. The stuff burns with atomic fury and pounding a small stick into splinters results in fantastic kindling. To imprint the smell on them I have them walk along periodically sniffing a broken chunk of it. The smell is not pleasant, so this is a forced exercise. The next time I run into woodcutters out there I’ll have to actually write down the name!

Teaching Methodology – In the basic kit for the students I include a small firesteel and a mini-bic or waterproofed matches. I have them use natural tinder and the steel first to gain an appreciation for modern means and tinder. I’ve toyed with the idea of having them attempt a friction fire first but #1 I’m not that good at it myself and #2 it would eat up too much time. Once they can manage the steel and natural tinder I introduce them to treated cotton and the steel. The lights come on about preparation! I then show them the waxed sawdust fire starters and allow them to use the Bic. I find making them work for a fire impresses upon them the value of forethought.

Mac

PS I've found hypothermia to be highly subjective to the physical makeup of the victim. In Alaska this past year my brother-in-law, Alaska native took the cold in stride while I (PA born and bred) froze. Here (Brazil) I have only ever been shivering cold once. My Brazilian students are another thing entirely, get 'em wet in a tropical rain and you'd think you'd soaked them in meltwater! Mac

[leon-1]

A couple of people mention bits from first aid kits, I always carry sterets in my kit (Alcohol swabs for injections), they are soaked in isopropyl alcohol, at a push these would work pretty well.

Shredded wax paper is another one that can be used.

[match]

I have always carried Potassium permanganate in my FAK as a very last resort back up for a number of things. I Have used it to light fires using antifreeze as it contains glycerine and have even used fertilizer on one occasion but dose anyone know of any other easily available products that contain glycerine or pure glycerine in the UK.

You can buy bottles of glycerine in one of two places - either the home baking section of bigger supermarkets, or in chemists such as boots. Glycerine is used in a lot of recipes, cough syrups, and also in some soaps, so you might be able to find a glycerine soap that has enough glycerine in it to start fires as well as keeping you clean :-)

[falling rain]

Lint from my tummy button

alco hand cream

bike inner tube is common

fat from the pan I've cooked stuff in (in my case sosmix)

Lint from your tummy button ????? :shock: are you sure ??

Char cloth carried in one of these This isn't the actual one I've got but virtually the same with a sea shell engraving http://www.trackofthewolf.com/categories/partDetail.aspx?catId=17&subId=105&styleId=396&partNum=BOX-1790-B or one of Gary's ultimate tinder pouches. Picked up the Tinder box (brass) at a car booter last year for £4 and it goes great in a leather pouch with my flint and steel (hoping to make my own leather pouch soon) I love char cloth because it dosn't blow out in the wind, in fact it gets stronger. Wetfire tinder for really bad weather days. Excellent stuff :super:

[hawsome34]

Aside of what most have said, and you may think this is cheating a little, but always gets a good hot flame, with very little effort from a fire steel.

Cotton wool soaked in vaseline.
It resists soaking in water or damp
Can be fluffed up for kindling that catches a flame easily
Or left quite compact to concentrate the heat on a smaller bundle of kindling.

It also packs very small, my preference is to use a tampon fluffed up, and then saok in vaseline, I usually get around 8 good pieces. I then wrap them in clingfilm, so I can cut them off a strip one at a time.

But as many have said, without this birch bark, with shavings, and the fluff you get whilst getting the shaving is very good. My son tried his first fire using the birch bark and firesteel, with instant success. He's 9, and never even used a steel before.

Just keep trying whatever you can, that way u remember more methods.

Good luck

[Abbe Osram]

Aside of what most have said, and you may think this is cheating a little, but always gets a good hot flame, with very little effort from a fire steel.

Cotton wool soaked in vaseline.
It resists soaking in water or damp
Can be fluffed up for kindling that catches a flame easily
Or left quite compact to concentrate the heat on a smaller bundle of kindling.

It also packs very small, my preference is to use a tampon fluffed up, and then saok in vaseline, I usually get around 8 good pieces. I then wrap them in clingfilm, so I can cut them off a strip one at a time.

But as many have said, without this birch bark, with shavings, and the fluff you get whilst getting the shaving is very good. My son tried his first fire using the birch bark and firesteel, with instant success. He's 9, and never even used a steel before.

Just keep trying whatever you can, that way u remember more methods.

Good luck


Hi mate
what is clingfilm??
cheers
Abbe

[David Moulds]

I have found that plumbers flax works very well it is made from hemp and you can buy it in b+q for three quid for a big bundle. :)

[hawsome34]

Hi mate
what is clingfilm??
cheers
Abbe

Not sure what it is called elsewhere Abbe. Maybe foodwrap, Glad Wrap, Saran Wrap.

Its a thin clear sheet, used for mainly wrapping food to keep it fresh. It seals through magic, or static not sure which. :)

[monkey_pork]

Hmm, I wondered about mentioning this, but what using some newspaper which has been soaked and dried in potassium nitrate (KNO3, k/a "saltpetre"), assuming you can still get it easily of course ...

I recall from my err, yonger days, :bandit: that it smouldered well, and didn't seem too bothered by a bit of wind, not sure how it would translate into a useful flame tho as I never used it for that, but we'll move on from that now ...

The potassium permanganate / glycerol idea is a good one, you can get a reliable bit of heat off that, plus the potassium permanganate is generally quite useful (if you don't mind the funny brown stains it leaves behind on things). Could be a bit complex (ok, messy) to carry tho'.

I find that cotton pads work well, if you fluff them up first.
I've recently started to carry sisal cord, which is really good.

Out and about lately, thissle heads and bracken have been reliable.

We did try some dog hair (from just brushing the dog, nothing untoward), which caught a treat, but it stinks, so it's not going to be a standard item, even tho' there is a big walking tider store alongside most of the time (albeit often a wet one).

[Jeff Wagner]

[QUOTE=monkey_pork]Hmm, I wondered about mentioning this, but what using some newspaper which has been soaked and dried in potassium nitrate (KNO3, k/a "saltpetre"), assuming you can still get it easily of course ...

I shoot a percussion lock Sharps rifle that is loaded through the breach with nitrated paper cartridges. The end of the cartridge is sheared away upon closing the breach block to expose the powder.

The nitrated paper used to form the cartidges will light in a fire piston and I have no doubt it will also catch a spark.

[tagnut69]

I had a bit of luke the other day with some kitchen role that had been soaked in either danish oil or linseed oil. I had left them to dry laid out flat so they dont spontainiously combust. They took a spark very well indeed. :)