A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

This stage of tinder or accelerant catches a spark or small flame and intensifies it for extra heat (or for damp fuel). Most of these items are commonly called “fire starters”—although they lack the initial spark or flame needed to light them.

Preps

Consider keeping the following things in your pocket, backpack, or survival pack for times when you don’t have easy access to natural, dry tinder.

• Knife: Use to create fuzz sticks or split wood into small, dry pieces by striking the back of the knife with a baton.
• Paper: Newspaper, note paper, food wrapper, lunch bag…
• Tissue or toilet paper: flattened roll in a zip tight plastic bag (for multiple purposes)
• PencilSharpener: Use to whittle pencil-sized tree branches into small, wood shavings that are easy to light. A pack of several these can be purchased at a dollar-type store.
• Cotton Balls (Cotton patch, swab, cloth, denim, etc.): These light quickly from sparks or small flame, getting damp tinder burning—add accelerant to cotton balls (see below) for even better lighting and duration
• Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline): Worked (or melt) into a Cotton ball or patch, this burns 1 to 5 minutes and can be stored in plastic straws or zip bags to keep dry, clean, and isolated—more messy than wax, but easier to light.
• Paraffin Wax: Melted and soaked into all or part of a Cotton ball or patch burns 5 to 10 minutes and can be stored in plastic straws or zip bags—not as messy as petroleum jelly, but more difficult to light.
• Wax & Jelly Balls: combine the two previous components on each end of a single Cotton ball or Cotton patch for optimal lighting (petroleum jelly end) and extended burn time (paraffin wax end).
• Paraffin Wax: Add to a small container of Cotton, cardboard, lint, paper, etc. for a long-lasting flame burning 10 to 30 minutes, providing both heat and light—consider a small tin can, Styrofoam egg carton sections, or pill bottles as forms.
• Candle Stubs: Save the last half inch of any sized candle—with the wick still intact, to provide a steady flame for tinder.
• Lighter Fluid: A few tablespoons of fuel burns 30 to 60 seconds and can be stored in a small, glass, eye-dropper bottle.
• Alcohol Fuel: A small amount of this non-volatile camp stove fuel is a great accelerant to get damp wood burning. It is also available in a number of other (less expensive) products, like “Gas Line Antifreeze and Water Remover” available in 12-ounce bottles a dollar-type stores.
• Char Cloth: This scorched cloth, heated without oxygen to prevent burning, is like charcoal that easily catches low-temperature sparks or helps to bring a small coal to flame.
• Magnesium: In shavings or powder, a small pile burns very hot for 10-20 seconds to kick-start your tinder or kindling.
• Wax Paper: Fold palm-size piece like an accordion, sprinkle with magnesium shavings, and light with a striker.
• Trioxane & Hexane: These commercial fuel bars are the single greatest method for quickly building a campfire—if you don’t mind the price tag.
• Never Dull: This commercial polishing product, made of soaked cloth fibers, lights quickly and burns hot.
• Duct Tape: Wad up a small ball and light it.

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

This stage of tinder or accelerant catches a spark or small flame and intensifies it for extra heat (or for damp fuel). Most of these items are commonly called “fire starters”—although they lack the initial spark or flame needed to light them.

Natural

You can usually find suitable tinder out in the woods, even in wet weather—saving room in your pack for other essentials, like marshmallows.

• Bark: Birch bark, juniper bark, cherry bark
• Inner Bark: Particularly aspen, poplar, and cottonwood trees
• Fungus: Birch fungus and similar growths often burn well
• Pine or Fir: Pull off dead branches, pine cones, bark, needles, sap, or fatwood (sap-soaked wood near branch bases or tree injuries) from standing or dead trees.
• Wood Shavings: Use a knife for fuzz sticks, or use pencil sharpener to create shavings
• Split Wood: Split into the size of match sticks and pencils; and remember that even wet firewood is dry inside—split open with axe, hatchet, or knife and baton.
• Dried: Grass, leaves, dead weeds, dead plants—these may produce excessive smoke, so not always the best choice
• Fuzz: Any dry and fuzzy plants like cattail fuzz, pussy willows, moss, flower petals, or dandelion fuzz

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

Emergency: Electricity

In most cases—especially in an urban or suburban environment, there are tools around you to assist with fire starting.

• Electric Cigarette Lighter in most vehicles
• Car Battery and jumper cables or other wire: The spark produced by touching the wires together is hot enough to light most tinder or fuel.
• 9-Volt Battery & steel wool: Slide terminals across steel wool, next to tinder, to capture the heat of the burning metal.
• AA or AAA Battery with a gum wrapper: Cut foil wrapper to create an hourglass shape, funneling and intensifying the electrical current through a tiny space, heating it to a flame.
• Improvised Battery (remember those high school science experiments with potatoes?)

Emergency: Sunlight Refraction

Use any of the following to focus bright sunlight on a tiny spot of highly-flammable tinder. To help, consider making your tinder as warm as possible, like placing it in an aluminum box like a solar oven. This requires bright sunlight, focused on good tinder, with skill and practice to bring a smoking ember to full flame.

Lenses (convex)

• Magnifying lens
• Eye glasses
• Binoculars
• Telescope
• Rifle Scope
• Spotting Scope
• Camera Lens
• Camera Telephoto Lens
• Fresnel lens
• Car headlight/taillight lens
• Clear light bulb filled with water
• Wine goblet filled with water
• Icicle
• Ice lens
• Glass bottle
• Plastic water bottle
• Clear bag of water

Parabolic (concave) Reflectors

• Soda can bottom (polished)
• Flashlight reflector
• Aluminum foil in bowl shape
• Car headlight/taillight reflector
• Steel ladle

Emergency: Other

• Road Flares, which burn hot and bright for half an hour
• Flare Gun, flare ammo from a shotgun, or incendiary ammo
• Shotgun, by firing cloth wads after removing projectiles
• Model Rocket Igniters for a burst of sparks
• Grinding Tools to throw sparks
• Chemicals—if you are a Chemist, you have many options

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

Be careful not to confuse “fire starters” with your initial spark, flame, or hot coal. Most commercial or homemade “fire starters” assume that you already have a spark or heat source to light them.

Natural

If you find yourself unprepared to start a fire, consider these methods that use only tools found in nature.

Friction from Wood

• Assemble a bow, drill, thong, spindle, plough, saw, or other configurations to generate sufficient heat from friction and tinder to create a small coal
• Then add enough oxygen to the coal for it to burst into flame and light your tinder

Sparks from Rocks

• Look for flint, pyrite, or quartzite rock
• Striking a pointed edged against the back of a pocketknife blade can throw sparks into your tinder

Be sure to practice using these methods to improve your skill—don’t just get the tools and expect them to work for you the first time you try.

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {