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Originally Posted by Docbill
Triox bars are available by the case on AMAZON.


Thanks. I hadn't seen them in my usual surplus stores for awhile and hadn't looked much elsewhere.






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The Esbit type fuel tabs wrapped in vaseline soaked cotton balls light easily and burn hot for about 9 minutes. I put a lighter in every pocket of my pack , 1 in my shirt pocket and 1 in my HPG recon.

When my wife and I get stuck w/ a rainy day we use the stuff in our packs to build a fire. In conditions like Okanagen shows it has taken up to an hour to get a real fire going. I keep a 2 ft square piece of aluminum foil as a dry base and put up a quicky tarp 1st.

Keep a chem handwarmer w/ your kit so you don't fumble the critical actions.

I use yellow dishwashing gloves in my aid kit instead of disposable.These help keep your hands dry and somewhat warm while collecting and prepping your wood.


I find firestarting skills to be perishable as well as essential.



mike r


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Originally Posted by Talus_in_Arizona
Cut strips from an old bicycle inner tube. Make sure there is a point at the end of the cut. Add local tinder.

If tinder is needed, dryer lint or some kind of paper.

And, of course, bic lighter smile



NAILED IT!

Bicycle inner tube cut in thin strips, wrapped around a Bic lighter works wonders. weighs nothing, Burns GREAT.

Less messy than others and super easy to deal with.





THE CHAIR IS AGAINST THE WALL.

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Where is whamblasted when we need good advice on fire?


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Originally Posted by Mackay_Sagebrush
Originally Posted by Talus_in_Arizona
Cut strips from an old bicycle inner tube. Make sure there is a point at the end of the cut. Add local tinder.

If tinder is needed, dryer lint or some kind of paper.

And, of course, bic lighter smile



NAILED IT!

Bicycle inner tube cut in thin strips, wrapped around a Bic lighter works wonders. weighs nothing, Burns GREAT.

Less messy than others and super easy to deal with.






Now that you said that, I do believe that was suggested in one of our courses years ago... I had forgotten that. As hard as rubber/tires are to put out once on fire, makes total sense.

Will make that mental note to try to find some bike tubes, even if I have to go buy a few new ones, and stuff in the packs...


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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If I had some old gunpowder around I'd do your acetone thing, but the little I had we experimented by mixing it into the fatwood sawdust.

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Eventually you'll have some, at least I always do find a can partially gone that I don't want to use for anything anymore.

But I bet its just fine in the fatwood.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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A couple of pages from an old phone book make for great tinder. Keep it dry in a ZipLok bag. Roll them up to form something like a wand and place them burning under the natural tinder and kindling that you have gathered from the area. Works great.

KC



Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.





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Originally Posted by Okanagan
If I had some old gunpowder around I'd do your acetone thing, but the little I had we experimented by mixing it into the fatwood sawdust.


Someone gave me some old blackpowder.

I put it in some old prescription bottles, in a ziplock bag, with a bic lighter, that has the strips of bicycle tube wrapped around it. Add some tinder, and it is as close to foolproof as a person can get.

I have a few of the flint and steel type tools as shown, but while fun to play with, when I am cold, and my fingers are numb, like on a December elk hunt, I just grab the bic and start a fire.


THE CHAIR IS AGAINST THE WALL.

The Tikka T3 in .308 Winchester is the Glock 19 of the rifle world.

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blackpowder is safe to light with a bic? I"ve heard varying stories...

The last case of that I have is circa 1964 dupont and its still in fine shape and not sure thats what I'd want to carry, but it would be nice to know its safe.

Not sure where I heard or if its true, that it can boom instead of burn.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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Rost,

Much like most things, common sense and moderation helps. A small amount sprinkled out, and then some dry grass/tinder on top works like a charm.

If you pull a Butch Cassidy.... cool


THE CHAIR IS AGAINST THE WALL.

The Tikka T3 in .308 Winchester is the Glock 19 of the rifle world.

The website is up and running!

www.lostriverammocompany.com

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Fresh 9-volt battery
0000 steel wool

Wrap the steel wool over the connectors when you want it to light, and in about a minute the entire thing will be glowing red hot with sparks.


Also, a good "woods skill" to teach kids is that the best firestarting equipment is always available anytime you have an engine around, either get something soaked in gasoline/diesel, or at least some oil.

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Quote
Also, a good "woods skill" to teach kids is that the best firestarting equipment is always available anytime you have an engine around, either get something soaked in gasoline/diesel, or at least some oil.
Along with that, the kids...and adults...need some serious training on how to safely get the gas out of the truck and light it without setting off an inferno. Diesel's a lot safer if you have it.


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Originally Posted by Mackay_Sagebrush
Rost,

Much like most things, common sense and moderation helps. A small amount sprinkled out, and then some dry grass/tinder on top works like a charm.

If you pull a Butch Cassidy.... cool
'

I was leaning to the fact of thin/small use might be fine.

Thanks for verification. I've never tried to light black with a lighter, due to old warnings and such...


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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I don't want this to sound like I'm the only dude who's ever almost died but having sorta recently broken through lake ice while backcountry skiing I learned that the cutesy fire starting methods won't work when you actually need a fire right now, and space blankets take forever to unroll when your flesh is freezing and are useless in the wind. I've switched to road flares and the SOL bivy sacks.


Originally Posted by jackmountain
I’m not an organ donor. I don’t believe in an afterlife, but I’d rather cover my bases in case there is and I need everything. You just never know.
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Sounds like you're in the same school as the guy in Jack London's 'To Build a Fire'.


“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell

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There's a difference between practicing the art and not dying. I understand the lightweight game and have been sewing my own gear since before Ray Jardines ideas became mainstream. But if everything you need to live is in an Altoids tin, you probably won't. An ounce here and there is ok in the right places.


Originally Posted by jackmountain
I’m not an organ donor. I don’t believe in an afterlife, but I’d rather cover my bases in case there is and I need everything. You just never know.
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Originally Posted by Mackay_Sagebrush

I have a few of the flint and steel type tools as shown, but while fun to play with, when I am cold, and my fingers are numb, like on a December elk hunt, I just grab the bic and start a fire.


Like you, I start a fire the quickest way unless practicing with more minimal gear-- or unless my hands are so cold they are losing dexterity.

More than once my hands have been too cold to flick a Bic type lighter using the normal motion. Don't know if that has happened to anyone else. Only once were they so cold I couldn't get the lighter to light by using two hands. If my hands are really cold, I prefer the ferrocerium rod and steel. The flint and steel can be gripped by larger hand muscles that still function after fingers have lost dexterity in the cold.

With a little practice it is virtually as quick to light a greased cotton ball as it is to light it with a lighter. Also, in extreme cold, lighters don't work unless they have been kept warm by body heat inside clothes, and then you have one to three or four tries before having to warm it again. I don't have exact numbers but my experience would say cold below -15 F.

Photo below was well after dark in the Canadian Rockies in late November, -15F or colder. Fingers cracked so painfully in the dry cold that I could not run a zipper. blush But CDN Rockies are an easy place to start a fire compared to rain forest.

[Linked Image]

Last edited by Okanagan; 07/11/16.
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Extreme cold is exactly what makes BIC lighters a non-primary source of emergency fire.

As for the strips of inner tubes, a simpler method is to just get a big package of rubber bands from an office supply store. Wrap them around something in your kit and you have tinder.

And from a guy who was an Air Force survival instructor, a SAR consultant and went on to start his own company teaching survival (40+ years experience), the only truly waterproof matches are the ones sold by REI.


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I camp/hike with a portable woodstove and have discovered that alcohol-based hand sanitizer gels like Purel work great. You squirt it on the wood and then put in the stove and woomph. Off it goes.

It is not something you'd bring along just in case you need to light a fire, but it does have other uses. I personally think a hand sanitizer is more important for preventing giardia than using a water filter - but that's just me (1 in 8 people is carrying giardia).

And hand sanitizer really does a good job with getting the stove going - so why not carry it?

Patrick


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