Fire starters

[willc453]

No doubt we all have ferro rods, petroleum soaked/regular cotton balls, matches, hand sanitizer, etc. to start a fire with. I'm always looking for different ways and while going thru Home Depot's barbque section found these items. First is Webers barbque starters, 24 cubes to a pack. Suppose to peel the tin foil cover off, then light it with a match where it will burn for several minutes. I'm thinking of what if you have nothing but soaking wet wood and your ferro rod can't cut the mustard in getting your tinder to ignite? The other is, what if your matches are wet or lighter simply won't work? These WILL catch fire using a ferro rod and I've also tried some other things with them such as soaking one in water for 15 minutes and it still caught fire. You also don't have to use the entire cube either as I broke one cube up into 4 separate, small piles and each still caught fire. Remember the snow we got on the 31st? ALL my wood was soaked, but after making some tinder shavings, with larger pieces on them, used just a 4th of the cube which got my fire going. These are $3.24 a box and already bought 4 boxes, with me having at least 6 per bob/edc.

Next is Ignit-O, also sold at Home Depot. There are 12 packages to a box and a bit expensive, like $8?. Made of the same stuff as the cubes and works the same. Think for what you pay vs what you get, it's a rip off.

Next is Extreme Fire and these things look like a nasty/greasy/waxy tootsie roll. Suppose to lit the paper it comes in and the paper has a slight waxy feel to it also. Thinking bad things happen, can I start the paper on fire with a ferro rod? No. Then tried starting a couple of chunks of this stuff with a ferro rod and then, some matches. Again, no. In fact, I tried lighting the chunks of this stuff with SIX matches and it still wouldn't catch fire! Then took a bit of the waxy paper and wrapped it in the small chunks, with the match catching the paper on fire and of course, then the chunks not only caught fire, but burned for several minutes. So this stuff is good, but ONLY if you have matches/a lighter. Don't remember what this stuff cost me.

I'm going to stay with the Weber cubes as they give me the best bang for the buck. Also going to try the matchless fire system, something I saw on YouTube. Pour so much potassium pomegranate and then a VERY small bit of glycerin. The potassium stuff is available at Lowes, $37 for 7 pounds. The glycerin, I'm not sure about as there are several different kinds of glycerin such as vegetable and animal. CVS has it, but I refuse to pay $6 an ounce for it and been told Walmart carry's it, but haven't found any on the shelves of the 2 stores I check out. Once you combine the two, a spontaneous fire will start, no ferro rod, etc. needed. Will do a write up on it once I've tried it.....or maybe someone else has already done it and if so, how about posting how it went for you? 

[willc453]

Forgot to mention the Cricket fire starters which look like a big match and made of compressed saw dust or something like it. These are available at Home Depot, Winco and Walmart. I soaked one in water, wiped it off and it lit right off the bat when using the striker on the side of the box. BUT you can't start it with a ferro rod. Good idea, but what if the striker on the box gets wet/useless? But you can start them on fire with a match/lighter and think it's still a good idea and have about 4 boxes.

Next is Fire Starters sold by Cabela's. Think they're $15 for 50 of these rolls. Suppose to unroll a little bit of it, then hit it with a match and they burn for several minutes. I've also cut one in half to get 2 fires out of it and probably can get 4 if you work at it. They do not respond to a ferro rod attempts. Enclosed is fire starting kit I made up with a couple of these in the small tin box.

I've also tried using a pure (99%) magnesium bar and strip with NO results. I got nothing but little flakes of magnesium, which were smaller than a grain of sand. I couldn't even get them to catch fire with a match.

Of ALL the fire starting videos I've seen on YouTube, only ONE guy used a tube to blow air on his embers. Last year, got tired of getting a bunch of smoke in my eyes/nose or better yet, ashes. I build plastic models, so have a lot of different diameter tubing made of plastic, aluminum and brass. My tubing (plastic) is only about 1/8th of an inch in diameter and about 14 inches long. That is, until I got it too close to blowing and lost a couple of inches when the flames flared up from my huffing and puffing. Don't bother getting a bigger diameter tube because you won't get a lot of force coming out of the tube vs the smaller diameter tube. And I keep the tube several inches away from the embers/coals so the air can spread out a bit coming out of the tube. Hope this helps.

[TWP]

Will,  Just a note re the name of the chemical you cite in your first post.  It is Potassium Permanganate, (not pomegranate).  Be careful with this, it a a Strong oxidizer and will cause many things to burn simply by mixing them.  Keep it in a sealed, metal or glass container.

Thanks for your posts