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Coolest wet weather fire trick I have ever seen is carrying a bit of carbide. Papa Bear Whitmore , IIRC, during a survival video when I took my CO hunter safety course in the early 90's

carbide + water = acetylene.

More water? flame gets bigger!!!!!

Ultimate Survival's Wet Fire Tinder. A little pricy but the best I have used. I keep them mostly for emergency or real wet conditions. I collect and carry several pitch balls for most use.

http://www.basegear.com/wetfiretinder.html

What a great idea from the good doctor! I've never imagined this use for good old duct tape! Red Green would be proud. Thanks for this one. I'm stealing it!

PC

i have done just about all of the mentioned above tricks....
well, except this


they WILL all work, i may also suggest some standard run of the mill jute string/twine...unravel it and 'spark up' works exc both dry AND wet, though a bit tough to 'untwist' when wet...keep some in a ziploc in your "pyro" kit and worry not.

When it's cold and wet, I want a fire NOW:

Along your lines of thought Rock Chuck��I always use my Jet Boil now.

I keep the cotton balls, matches, etc on me also, but the Jet Boil will get a handful of tinder going RIGHT NOW just like a torch.

Where would one get "carbide" and how does one use it safely?

Road Flares

Right now I am sitting in a air conditioned office with the hi today of 75, so starting a fire would be less taxing in the present conditions, come hunting season when I am outside with the elements for a week and it 20-32 degrees outside and I my dexterity is not the same as today lighting matches or using a flint and steel might have its challenges. Road flares will work in any condition and do not require fine motor skills. What convinced me was a story from an Alaskan hunter who was out hunting when he ran into an overflow and got stuck, he had to set up camp at -40 and relied on his road flares to get a fire started to allow him to get through the night.

P.S.
I do have the cotton balls in Vaseline as well as three other sources of fire starter but am most confident that the road flares will take less manual dexterity and ignite when I did them.

the local hardware store still crries carbide here. nitelite has it too. it is not at all as dangerous as most think. carry it in a small pill bottle or film cannister and you will be ok. air will degrade it over time and all you will have is a pile of useless powder. seal it tight. for instance if you take a film container half full of carbide and put some water in it[spit in it] all you will get is a fizz and the lid will come off. a spark will cause a pop and small flames will be visible. the fire will go out unless you get a few frops of water on it again. i still have grand dads carbide light and it works. i used it up untill led lights got popular. it starts a fire quick too.

Hello Guys

Good thread but to all these I would add that when things are a bit desperate, the biggest things in getting a fire going are preparation and attention to detail.

I've started a couple of fires in difficult situations, one of which I consider to this day to have been essential to our survival. For what its worth I use bike tube as mentioned above cause I can't really be bothered with any messy stuff, or stuff that looses its punch over time like some of the tablets do.

Anyhow its essential to take plenty of time with any fire to get a base of throughly prepared material that will start and sustain whatever else you have.

Cheers - Foster

Will bike tubing start with a spark like a V-CBall?

nope B. it needs an open flame to get it going


I used to carry some real thin ones, they come off PT bands for strengthening rotator cuff.

When hiking in the Adirondacks I carry small vacuum sealed pouches of dryer lint,PJ,and rubber tire slivers --All in one package. If one carries any type of bacitracin ointment or chap stick --this can be used in place of PJ. Web

I've never tried inner tube chunks as a fire starter, but I'd always thought they must be similar to burning a truck tire--------hard to start, but harder to put out.

My vote still goes to the vaseline/cotton ball system.

and your vote is correct 222, to get started vcb, to keep going then the rubber comes into it's own.

most useful ime in wet conditions to get wet tinder cracklin

was part of my kit in SW AK, not so much in the Interior


but will say this, there's a big gulf between those many times we want a fire and hopefully the very few when we NEED a fire.

redundancy is a good thing gents.

all the firemaking stuff in the world does you no good if you flip the boat in freezing weather and your kit isn't upon you.

firemakins in the pack, check


firemakins on you person, hopefully it's on your AMEX list

I love an excuse to start a fire, so I'll experiment with inner tube chunks. I just replaced my mtn. bike tires, and haven't thrown the tubes away yet.

How'd that rubber burn? Not that rubber. Get your mind outa the gutter! The intertube rubber..

I got side-tracked doing a bunch of other stuff and totally forgot about burning some tube chunks. Thanks for the reminder. I'll get after it shortly.

This guy has some great info for starting fires and making a fire starting kit you can carry with you.

http://www.trailgear.org/

All do it your self stuff.

I have three preferred fire starting materials:

- Vaseline Cotton Balls/Dryer Lint (a little messy, but good for teaching the kids how to start a campfire at the campground)

- Tinder Quik Tabs : about as light as it gets when counting ounces in your pack





- UST WetFire Tinder : these are great because I can also use them in my WetFire Tinder Titanium Stove for cooking thus saving even more weight overall (.2 oz. for the WetFire Cube and .46 oz. for the WetFire Titanium Stove) ... Dual Purpose is good ... plus titanium is just cool ...











Mike
www.High-Mountain-Outfitters.com
csHigh-Mountain-Outfitters.com