Well I decided to put together an emergency/survival kit for hunting. I will be using vaseline and cotton balls in a pill bottle as fire starter material. Anyone know how long this stuff will hold in the bottle? Would it matter how long this stuff is bottled up for? Will it have the tendency to liquify or break down the cotton if stored for too long?
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Fire Starter Shelf Life
- Thread starter Ma$$hole
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shouldn't ever break down. I suggest throwing some dessicant into the pill bottle and running some duct tape over any places air can penetrate. Also, consider using dryer lint. It's an excellent fire starter, and I guarantee you can find some
It will last a loonnnnggg time. You shouldn't worry about it. If you are nervous about it you can always take the cap off and try a piece out of it before every season.
In the early 80s when I was doing a lot of camping I used to take wooden matches and stick them in corrugated cardboard then roll them up and dip them in melted wax. This has worked great as a fire starter for me. Last year going throught some old stuff in the attic I came across about 10 of these I hadn't used. I used them last camping season and they worked great.
Dave
Dave
It will last long enough for you to practice starting fires with it. Then replace what you have used.
You should practice all your survival skills occasionally. Especially fire starting.
Don't think that you'll need your fire starting skills on a warm, clear, summer day. You will most likely need it when it has been raining and you have slipped on a log, fallen chest deep into a fast running creek - spraining the thumb on your dominate hand in the process. Oh yeah - it will be getting dark and it is still and hour (or more) hike back to the truck. Did I mention it is January?
Try collecting wood and starting a fire with one hand as your core body temperature plummets and you start to shiver uncontrollably.
Owning a guitar doesn't make you a rock star - Owning a survival kit that collects dust doesn't make you a survivor.
![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
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It will last long enough for you to practice starting fires with it. Then replace what you have used.
You should practice all your survival skills occasionally. Especially fire starting.
Don't think that you'll need your fire starting skills on a warm, clear, summer day. You will most likely need it when it has been raining and you have slipped on a log, fallen chest deep into a fast running creek - spraining the thumb on your dominate hand in the process. Oh yeah - it will be getting dark and it is still and hour (or more) hike back to the truck. Did I mention it is January?
Try collecting wood and starting a fire with one hand as your core body temperature plummets and you start to shiver uncontrollably.
Owning a guitar doesn't make you a rock star - Owning a survival kit that collects dust doesn't make you a survivor.
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LOL!!! You've heard me play guitar haven't you? even my stunning good looks don't seem to help!
You make some valid and well constructed points. I was planning on just keeping a kit in my travel kit and practicing with the extras I have. I'll just have to circulate the stuff and stop being lazy.
It will last long enough for you to practice starting fires with it. Then replace what you have used.
You should practice all your survival skills occasionally. Especially fire starting.
Don't think that you'll need your fire starting skills on a warm, clear, summer day. You will most likely need it when it has been raining and you have slipped on a log, fallen chest deep into a fast running creek - spraining the thumb on your dominate hand in the process. Oh yeah - it will be getting dark and it is still and hour (or more) hike back to the truck. Did I mention it is January?
Try collecting wood and starting a fire with one hand as your core body temperature plummets and you start to shiver uncontrollably.
Owning a guitar doesn't make you a rock star - Owning a survival kit that collects dust doesn't make you a survivor.
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i would actually get a commercial fire starter for 6 bucks made out of magnesium that shit will burn over 1K degrees and dry out anything wet that your trying to burn like small tinder
this man speaks truth. The commercial grade ones are awesome.
Stay away from these:
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Why? I swear by mine. I'd love to hear why you don't like it.
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I use a similar setup. I carry chapstick or similar (Carmex, I think it is called.) It's either wax or petroleum based. I mix it with cotton balls that I carry. Toilet paper works in a pinch. I usually carry a small butane lighter and a ferrocerium rod such as the DOAN block shown above or a Boy Scout hot spark. These work for me. YMMV.
They work okay under ideal conditions, but it is not under ideal conditions that we will need our fire starting (and other skills) the most.
Reference the situation I described in post #5 of this thread. The one environmental condition I did not include was a strong wind.
In my experience, shaving the block with two warm, dry hands was difficult at best. I suspect it would be even more difficult with one set of cold, wet, shivering fingers. In addition to that, the small shavings never fall into a neat little pile, which is required to catch a good spark and start a flame. Even when shaved close to the ground, they tend group themselves into a loose pattern about the size of my palm. Catching them in a leaf or a piece of bark never proved effective. This is where you add in the strong wind, which only adds to the trouble of keeping the shavings gathered up.
I suppose you could build a windbreak, but now you have just added another task to complete before starting your fire.
Shaving magnesium is not the ideal employment of your knife. You need to keep your knife sharp for other tasks - like cutting kindling and larger fuel.
I think you would be better off shaving the magnesium (with a rasp file) ahead of time and storing it in a film canister or small pill bottle. That way when you need it, just pour it out and strike a spark to it. Like Madball13 said, "that shit will burn over 1K degrees" (it is closer to 4000*F), but you need to have your tinder, kindling, and sustaining fuel ready.
The magnesium blocks seem to me to be too much work and effort when speed and efficiency are crucial. After using them several times (under ideal conditions), I sought out something easier and more effective to use.
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A bick lighter is a great thing to have. It kills me that people will get all this cool involved stuff but not add a 2oz lighter that has the ready capability of starting hundreds of fires.
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Also with the bic lighters, if the fluid happens to leak out or become depressurized (subzero temperatures), you still have that small flint that you can extract to spark with.
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Exactly! Not only that, you have a convenient handle, can use it one-handed and can control where the shower of hot sparks lands, ie you stand a good chance to see that it hits your tinder. If the gas is gone, I've found it helps to pry off the steel cover/windscreen, being careful not to pop out the flint. A Q-tip can be helpful to get a flame.
I think the thing to realize with any piece of kit or gadget is that they can fail for their intended purpose. Ifit does, the question is what do you do next.
Unless of course:
Have you ever taken note of how long it takes to dry out a lighter so that the flint starts to spark again? I recommend trying it before you find out the hard way.
Items like the Blast Match, Strike Force, and Swedish Fire Steel all work when wet. The Spark-Lite fire starter, Wet Fire Tinder, and Coughlin's Firesticks are spark catching materials that all work after being submerged.
Why would you constrain yourself to one method (a lighter) when the task (fire starting) can be so critical?
Lighters are a great convenience and easy to use, but they are not a talisman.
Great point there!
At a minimum carry a lighter, some tinder, and a sparking device.
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