A couple years ago I was hunting for elk in a blizzard. I came upon three hunters in danger of hypothermia trying to start a fire. They used up the fuel in their lighters and all their matches. They tried their commercial fire starting aids but due the the wind, no luck. I pulled my old stand by out of my pack, got rid of their twig tee pee, got large limbs and had them a roaring fire within a couple of minutes.

My old stand by? Road flare! Cold hands don't work so well but a road flare never fails. Thought I'd pass it on.

quote:

Originally posted by hacksawtom:

My old stand by? Road flare! Cold hands don't work so well but a road flare never fails.

I agree. I learned this trick from an old Craig Boddington article.

You are correct that a flare(fusee) is better than matches in a near hypothermia situation. It is amazing how useless your hands become when you begin getting "really" cold.

I think that I have and improved version of the road flare survival fire starter. I cut two 15min flares just less than half length(from the end that you lighter). I then tape the cut end with electrical tape. I carry two of these in my pack. The pair are lighter than one flare and give me two chances to start a fire instead of one.

I plead total ignorance about road plares.

Having never used one, (only on TV) what does it take to ignite the active ingredients.

I thought there was an "initiator material in the cap.

quote:

Originally posted by TCLouis:
I plead total ignorance about road plares.

Having never used one, (only on TV) what does it take to ignite the active ingredients.

I thought there was an "initiator material in the cap.

You simply strike the "top" end of the flare against the friction pad in the cap. It is similar to lighting a match.

Back when I worked "the road" we'd use fusees as the standard fire starter. Several years ago my family was vacationing in southern BC near the Idaho border. the campground had a big pile of split "firewood" but it was so wet that pressing a thumb against the grain would swell-up water. I took two large wedges and laid them flat, put the fuse on them, then more layers of the wet split wood. touched off the fuse and in a few minutes we had a roaring fire. Several campers came by and asked where we got the "dry" wood. We said from the stack. they were upset claiming we picked out the last dry wood. Oh well.

Cotton balls soaked in vaseline. Small, and work like a champ.

Tiger torch and propane bottle. Packed one for a week long rain every day horse trip. Never failed.

Grizz

These are great. I buy them in a bigger box of 144 and use them for the grill, the fireplace, campfire, and they are in my survival pack. The squares are about 2" x 2".

You can break off as big or as small a piece as you want. I even break the squares down. They light easily. They light when wet, even after being submersed for a long time. They light at any temperature. Once they get going they are very difficult to blow out, i.e. wind resistant. They burn a long time. They are inexpensive. Grocery stores sell them. What more do you need?

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:
These are great. I buy them in a bigger box of 144 and use them for the grill, the fireplace, campfire, and they are in my survival pack. The squares are about 2" x 2".

You can break off as big or as small a piece as you want. I even break the squares down. They light easily. They light when wet, even after being submersed for a long time. They light at any temperature. Once they get going they are very difficult to blow out, i.e. wind resistant. They burn a long time. They are inexpensive. Grocery stores sell them. What more do you need?

Paraffin saturated beaver board.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams: Paraffin saturated beaver board.

Paraffin is a petroleum product and gives off highly toxic fumes containing benzene and toluene when burned. In fact, the toxins released from paraffin candles are the same as those found in diesel fuel fumes.

Safe Lite squares are non-toxic. I don't know what they use for a wax or binder but it isn't paraffin. They might contain beeswax, soy, palm wax, tallow, or combinations of those and/or other non-toxic products.

If I was going to make something like that at home I would use beeswax. But it would be more of a pain in the neck to make and press something like this. The cleanup alone is more than I would want to bother with. That's why I am happy to pay the little bit it costs to buy them ready made.

For our camps in Idaho we take a 5 gallon bucket that has a top, fill it with sawdust and soak it with coal oil to start our morning fire..

For emergency carry, we save the lint from our from our dryer. You can carry a lot of that stuff in a plastic bag...Flares are great but bulky and mostly good for one fire per flare, they can be put out but then the second fire must be started by matches! not so good.

An interesting method used by some outfitters is a small tin of gasoline, carefully placed in a freshly built fire and lit with a match, it burns for 15 minutes..You must not be jumpy or move the tin in any manner or it will explode as gas does, but if you just light it and ease away it works...I, myself, have done it once it but scares me to death so I choose other methods..

If you use dryer lint make sure it is cotton. Drying synthetics and then using the lint does not work at all. Same for cotton balls and vaseline. Make sure the package says 100% cotton.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:

An interesting method used by some outfitters is a small tin of gasoline, carefully placed in a freshly built fire and lit with a match, it burns for 15 minutes..You must not be jumpy or move the tin in any manner or it will explode as gas does, but if you just light it and ease away it works...I, myself, have done it once it but scares me to death so I choose other methods..

I have a friend that does the same thing to start a fire in a cold wall tent barrel stove: tear beer can in half, pour an inch of gasoline in the can and place the can in the stove and pack in some wood then light the gasoline in the can. It works but I am too much of a sissy to try it myself......

Also, the flare thing is only for use in a real emergency. If you fall in a creek or otherwise place yourself at risk of hypothermia you are going to have a hard time using your fine motor skills to start a fire in the conventional manner.

With one half or one third of a flare you can pile up some brush, strike the flare and have a roaring fire going in a couple of minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
Cotton balls soaked in vaseline. Small, and work like a champ.

+1

Easy to make, cheap, lightweight, takes very little room in a pack or pocket and works great.