Easy, offbeat fire starters

[Jst83]

Cotton lint off your socks; tissues. And a match.

Belly Button Lint

[sushidog]

I have used C-4 as a fire starter with excellent results - it burns like Sterno, just hotter.

How does one obtain C-4? I've heard of some people cutting open Claymores or melting it out of opened grenades, but that's too much work (and maybe a little dangerous) not to mention damaging good ordinance. It's far easier just to pull a M112 stick out of a satchel charge (M183), cut off a small slice, and put it back. You get to start your fire and keep your ordinance.

Don't try stomping the fire out though, or you could lose a leg.

All out of satchel charges? I guess you could use a little Sterno, but where's the fun in that?

If you want to start a large bonfire, there's always napalm... but that's another story. Ran out of Napalm? You can get some more here: http://www.napalm.net/ j/k

[dakotamouse]

We use "magic wood"! Seriously. Where my husband works they had an old cedar fence blow down. My husband cut up the boards and brought them home. To light a fire we make a little box out of four pieces of the wood, fill with crumpled newspaper, lay one piece of wood across the top and light the paper. It's frightening how quick the cedar wood takes off. Makes you wonder about how safe cedar shake shingles are and why anyone would fence in their house with something so flamable.

[WarPony]

Once, I tried an experiment with one cardboard egg carton and several different ingredients. The carton was a 12-pack job and I used four things - dryer lint, wood chips, wooden match heads (broken off) and charcoal. I put each ingredient into 3 different cups and poured melted wax over the whole mess and after it cooled I cut the cups up separate chunks.

I liked the charcoal the best because even after the wax has burned off, the coal still is glowing red hot which is great for damp wood that needs some extra heat to burn off the moisture. Three or four of them in a wet pile are nice on a canoe trip.........

Jeff

[bobhenry]

Charcoal hum

Now I know what to do with all the crumbs in the bottom of the
bag

One of the tent campers at our last gathering gave me a fire starter of his design. He simply took a " block of 2x4 and drilled a 3" hole in it's side not quite thru with a forsner bit and stuffed all the shavings backin the hole. Coated with candle wax from candles gathered at odd yard sales and such, this was his fire starter.

[pjsauls]

Here is the Southeast, small sticks of "Lightard"are often used. These are split from pitch pine (longleaf pine) knots still to be found in the woods and pastures. Knots in this case are the undecayed boles of tree branches & roots - can be decades & decades old due to the pitch. There still exist property corners that were marked with them in the 20's & 30's.

"Lightard" got its name from early settlers -- hunters and others used them for torches at night. It was the right wood to "light".

JS

[sushidog]

Wow I haven't heard or thought of lightard knots since I was kid.

We used to call it "fat lighter" down here in Louisiana.

[fireaunt]

If you like long matches to light a fire either a campfire or home fireplce, you can take strips of newspaper and roll it up. You don't roll it real tight. One end should be about the size of a pencil. When it gets about 8"-12' fold the other end over and it will stay rolled. My sis keeps some on her mantle to light the fireplace logs, she doesn't have a gas starter. You use a match to start the folded end which is just single thickness. Because it gets more layers it burns slower. Can you get the idea?

[PresTx82]

If you're really bored, save some bottle caps, melt some wax into them with string (like a wick) and use them to start your camp fires. It last long enough to get your tinder going. I have a abundance of these at home and when I go camping I fill an "Altoids" can (spray painted green) with my fire starters.

They work great!

[jadine]

We just keep most of the firewood in the trunk so it stays dry, and use twisted-up junk mail for tinder. Guess we're boring that way

Though I have enjoyed camping with folks who kept the bare ground burning with a white gas spill

[devigata]

We carry last year's phone book and use a few pages under twigs.

[RN]

Dryer lint burns well, and you can accumulate a mass of it in between camping trips. You can also buy a fire starter log from any grocery store and cut it into small chips when you want to start a fire and not use all of the log in one burn.

[M B Hamilton]

Puffed cheetos.

Side benefit, you probably won't want to eat them anymore after you see how they burn.

[yuskis1]

i always bring a bag full of dryer lint with us. works every time and i always have plenty of it.

[Rvankeur]

Ed says:

LOX

Estes rocket engine with cardboard removed - used with supplied ignitor

Grind up a road flare

He mentioned something about Dreft detergent.


Me? I stand nearby with the wound care kit.