Elkmagnet
Well-known member
Your cotton balls may have absorbed enough moisture to cause your problem try pre soaking them in Vaseline and it will repel any moisture.
Cold weather fire kit?
- Thread starter Paul in Idaho
- Start date
These work really well. https://www.amazon.com/Survive-Outd...TF8&qid=1481551697&sr=8-4&keywords=fire+cubes
el unit
Well-known member
This saved our butts in the Colorado wilderness in 2009.
airlocksniffer
Member
Yep, I keep a few of these in my kit. I've also been keeping vaseline soaked cotton balls stuffed inside crimped straws for little fire sticks. Lastly, I always keep a fire steel in my pocket attached to my belt loop. It's been fun starting fires with just the spark and some dry moss.
2ski
Well-known member
I always keep 2 things on my person....a lighter so that it stays warm and easier to use and a knife. And if I have those two on me and I lose my pack, then I've at least got something.
A few other things for you to consider. I dip some matches in wax that I melt. Then they burn longer. Also, I've gone and bought a cheap bottle of finger nail polish, or something like that. Paint the matches with that to waterproof and they burn hotter and a little longer.
I also have these cups that I've bought from a company called Grizzly Firestarter. Basically, they are wood shavings mixed with wax in a small little paper cup. The cup might be coated in wax by them or just come coated in wax. You start that on fire and they burn for at least 15 minutes.
A few other things for you to consider. I dip some matches in wax that I melt. Then they burn longer. Also, I've gone and bought a cheap bottle of finger nail polish, or something like that. Paint the matches with that to waterproof and they burn hotter and a little longer.
I also have these cups that I've bought from a company called Grizzly Firestarter. Basically, they are wood shavings mixed with wax in a small little paper cup. The cup might be coated in wax by them or just come coated in wax. You start that on fire and they burn for at least 15 minutes.
rideold
Well-known member
I too use Vaseline soaked cotton balls. Steel wool and a 9v battery is a good trick as well. The biggest thing though is moisture from below. I put the cotton ball on a piece of aluminum foil and build the fire on top of that. When in doubt a little white gas goes a long way too.
LOL, Love my white gas, but have seen too many too much, too late,too bad incidents around campgrounds.Too many burn patients as an EMT for me.
NEVER put it on a fire after it has been lit or use more than a capfull.
I have been a bad boy around the burnpiles before too,but that was plain old gas.
Better yet,don't use it. Use bbq junk if you have too.
Gut Shot
Well-known member
Yup, you can get them on ebay too. Trioxane and a bic lighter. I learned a long time ago that the Bic brand works better at high altitude than other brands, not sure why.
Ohio Blue Tip match production stopped in 1986. Every strike anywhere match out there today just sucks regardless fo brand. It all has to do with saftey and liability.
I remember when I was in the Boy Scouts back in the 70's we were on a camping trip and there was a kid running someplace and he had a pocketfull of matches. Obviously there were strike anywhere because the went up in his pocket and he was screaming like a banshee till he got his pants off.
Those were good times!
Geez I feel old.
And agree about a lot of things made today are total crap.
I do still have a couple boxes of the Ohio Blue tips & have been using one to light the stove.Time to get some junk from the store and put those back in my mom's match collection she gave me. I had been using some JFK for Prez ones and thought better save those.Hundreds of matchbooks from around the world back to WWII.
The old green match safe I carry in my pocket w/Bic lighter now adays and your story about why I started using a match safe many years ago.Same reason my old Zippo I carried in the Nam stays out of my pocket now. Fuel burns from fluid when it gets hot...lol I forgot why I carried it in my kit and not in front pants pocket.LOL Too funny,I can see the kids pocket going up too.
Last edited:
JoseCuervo
New member
road flare
tinder is less important, hate looking for good tinder when it is wet or frozen, Just grab a flare and light whatever you can find, it will thaw it, dry it and burn it. That and the wind will not blow it out.
We split up to hunt one day, when it was raining and cold. couldn't stay dry and couldn't get warm. My dad missed the meet time and location, so we had to move to stay warm, we hiked to the nearest high point to see if we could locate any sign of him. We did, he had gotten too cold so struck his road flare and jammed it in a rotten hole in a big larch snag on the mountain side, by the time we noticed it it was a raging inferno, by the time we got there you couldn't even get close to it, way too hot. Survival 101 build a fire that is big and warm and can be seen by a search party haha
tinder is less important, hate looking for good tinder when it is wet or frozen, Just grab a flare and light whatever you can find, it will thaw it, dry it and burn it. That and the wind will not blow it out.
We split up to hunt one day, when it was raining and cold. couldn't stay dry and couldn't get warm. My dad missed the meet time and location, so we had to move to stay warm, we hiked to the nearest high point to see if we could locate any sign of him. We did, he had gotten too cold so struck his road flare and jammed it in a rotten hole in a big larch snag on the mountain side, by the time we noticed it it was a raging inferno, by the time we got there you couldn't even get close to it, way too hot. Survival 101 build a fire that is big and warm and can be seen by a search party haha
Skeeter 20I
New member
Road Flare
+1 try to put them out once you get them going, saved our butts too.
Last edited:
sbhooper
Well-known member
There are some outstanding tips here. I always have carried (but fortunately never used) the cotton balls/Vaseline and some fire sticks, along with a magnesium/steel fire starter, all vac sealed to keep out the wet.
I may have to re-think a few things after some of these tips.
I may have to re-think a few things after some of these tips.
Next time you open one of those plastic costco nut jars, keep the foil circle from the top. Really good to put those vaseline cotton balls on when you're starting a fire in the snow. It'll keep burning long enough to get wet tinder going. I keep a couple folded up in the fire kit.
ShootsManyBullets
Well-known member
Good stuff. I'm going to have to try that road flare one of these days when it's really F'n cold and we need a big fire.
I keep a Bic lighter in my pocket and one in my pack. I swear that stupid Bic lighter works way better than my expensive lighter 100% of the time.
I use vaseline most of the time and those little fire cubes some of the time. Pitch balls tend to work well too, but they aren't going to help the monkey butt or the red irritated nose when it runs for a week straight.
I keep a Bic lighter in my pocket and one in my pack. I swear that stupid Bic lighter works way better than my expensive lighter 100% of the time.
I use vaseline most of the time and those little fire cubes some of the time. Pitch balls tend to work well too, but they aren't going to help the monkey butt or the red irritated nose when it runs for a week straight.
Similar threads
