Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Matthew Locati on July 29, 2009 at 11:00pm

I'm sure everyone knows this one, but I most usually gather the long, dark brown strands of moss from the Spruce or Fir trees. Wad it up into a sort of ball, but not packed too tightly, and use that for tender along with dry pine needles if available.

Permalink Reply by Sandra on August 1, 2009 at 5:10am

Matthew -- actually, no I haven't tried that with the moss. Will have to try that. Pine needles though? I didn't think they burned all that well, at least not for tinder.

Permalink Reply by Tammi Delancy on October 5, 2009 at 8:42pm

I also use the pine needles and moss trick As well yep i use he lint from my dryer. and they all work out great

Permalink Reply by Tammi Delancy on October 5, 2009 at 8:44pm

ohh yeah.. i have been known to use Cheese doodles and doritos to start fires too. Merely just for ha ha's since i am pyro at heart

Permalink Reply by Sandra on October 5, 2009 at 9:35pm

lol -- I'll have to try them. I've been going through a pyro phase this summer myself. Lighting everything with everything I can.

Tammi Delancy said:

ohh yeah.. i have been known to use Cheese doodles and doritos to start fires too. Merely just for ha ha's since i am pyro at heart

Permalink Reply by Sandra on October 5, 2009 at 9:38pm

One critical thing to do with natural tinder is to make sure it's light and fluffy. Pound it between two rocks first, before trying to light it -- it will light much easier. Also, mix your tinder with things that burn quickly (like cattail down), things that take a few seconds to light, and things that are slightly harder to light. I've been trying different mixtures of stuff in a bunch of different terrains to see what works the best. Just for kicks.

Permalink Reply by Greg Brosey on October 8, 2009 at 9:48am

Check out UTUBE for making Char Cloth. I made some and used it during a basic survival skills class I taught about two weeks ago. It's easy to make and will take the smallest spark from your steel/flint. You blow on the spark and the Char Cloth glows red hot. Put it in the middle of your tinder bundle and it works great! Also found that hand sanitizer works great too. If you get the thick, gel stuff, you need to break it down a bit with your finger so that alcohol fumes are released. You can ignit this with a lighter or flint/steel. Watch you don't set your finger/hand on fire though !

Permalink Reply by Lon colvin on October 8, 2009 at 10:38am

In Missouri we do not have many Pine needles.........so, my wife came up with this:
cardboard egg container
dryer lint
melted candle wax
each compartment of the egg container has enough fire to start one...smells good too.

Permalink Reply by Sandra on October 8, 2009 at 12:22pm

Sounds like a great idea & something that would work great, too!

Lon colvin said:

In Missouri we do not have many Pine needles.........so, my wife came up with this:
cardboard egg container
dryer lint
melted candle wax
each compartment of the egg container has enough fire to start one...smells good too.

Permalink Reply by Jon Slagter on August 21, 2011 at 10:41am

      This last month we held a mini camporee for the boys in our Boy Scout troop. Each leader held a small group event teaching and allowing the boys to work on their skills.

      I taught the section on fire starting. I researched and presented multiple ways of fire starting as well as fire starting aids. A few of the items we worked on were common starter items, Dryer lint, cotton balls soaked with vaseline, egg crate filled with saw dust and then soaked with parifin are all good. The best item was char cloth. We made this on site in an Altoids tin box. Punch a single nail sized hole in the lid, put a few small scrapes of cotten cloth inside (we used old tee shirts) and place the tin above a fire (we used a backpacking stove) until it stops smoking. This can be found on you-tube. This char cloth takes a spark very well and smolders quite hot and long enough to ignite your tinder pile. We were able to light this from a ligher flint and make a fire. Another way we found interesting was to remove the lens from a large flashlight and focus the light from the sun on a small bundle of dry grass and char cloth.