A while ago I asked readers Do You Have 5 Ways to Make Fire? The article concentrated on fire starters; steel and flight, lighters, and a few less common systems. However, most of those will be useless for building a fire if you don’t have some tinder to put the flame to. Here are 5 great ideas for fire tinder, both natural and homemade.
1. Dryer Lint
Everybody can collect it for free, and even get it from the bottom of your pockets in a pinch. It’s light, compressible, and burns like crazy. Drawbacks are that it really must be dry and lint from some clothes (synthetics) does not burn well.
2. Cedar Shavings
Collect the stringy shavings from the bark of a cedar tree for the best (in my opinion) natural fire tinder. Rub it between your hands quickly to create a small fluff ball of shavings that will light quickly.
3. Cotton Ball and Vaseline
This might be the oldest survivalist trick in the book. Coat some cotton balls in Vaseline and store them in a container in your Bug Out Bag. Vaseline (petroleum jelly) is flammable and this set up will burn great for longer than you would expect.
4. Cattails
Obviously these won’t be available in all areas, but when you can find them the light feathery material inside cattails is like burning paper or cotton. Quick and easy.
5. Birch Bark Shaving
Like cedar, just shave some bark off of a birch tree. The cedar shavings are like stringy wood, whereas birch shavings are basically nature’s paper. Thin, light, and easy to burn. Also very easy to peel off the tree.
What do you use?
I know these are just the tip of the iceberg for survival fire tender. What other natural or homemade fire tinders do you like to use?
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My name is Lucas and I run SurvivalCache along with the help of several great contributing authors. You can read more on the
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Matt,
Thanks for the comment, that's a really good idea. I'm going to try that soon.
I assume you use paraffin wax? I can see how that would make a great weather coating against wind and water.
I would think most people have a newer fire steel these days instead of flint and steel anyway.
can you write somthing about were u should put your fire so that it lasts over night/how to make a fire last all night?(for saftey and protection agianst any animal who wants to snack on an easy pray)
Drier lint soaked in melted wax and rolled up into crude little sticks somewhere between the size of a birthday cake candle and a cigarette works well. It doesn't matter how ugly they are, neatness doesn't much count. Keep them in a ziplock along with some fully wax-coated strike-anywhere matches if you can. I don't know if these firestarters will ignite from a traditional flint and steel, but I know they will from the spark of a modern metallic composition one. These have never failed me in rapidly starting a fire under any conditions – and they're light, small and cheap.
I use paraffin and dryer lint. I put the paraffin in a Pyrex cup and set the cup on one of those candle warmers. It gets hot enough to melt the wax, but I don’t have to worry as much about a fire.
char cloth
+1 on char cloth.
A block of magnesium is a great thing to have. It can be shaved with a knife into extremely flammable slivers. Burns very hot. Many come with a fie starter rod on one side. Most hard wood barks if dry can be shaved up for tinder as well.
Zschell,
That's a good idea on the magnesium block. I mentioned fire starter rods on my other fire starting article.
I especially like the magnesium because it will not be affected by water at all.
When I was first figuring out how to strike the ferrocerium rod thats mounted on the magnesium block, I could not get any sparks with any type of striker. Finally, in desperation I hit the block full on with a hatchet. The result was lots of sparks, a chipped blade, and a broken ferro rod.
Long story short, I now use the broken block for tinder, and a new rod for sparking,which by the way I have become quite proficient at fire starting with "Flint n' Steel".
that is a good thing my friend one thing you might want to try is making a fuzz stick and shaving you magnesium into the stick it works wonders and another thing to try is lighting a trioxcine or hexamine tablet with your strikers. just a hint when you make a fuzz stick do it out of cedar or use a pine cone that has laid on the ground for a while they are good.
A block of magnesium is a great thing to have. It can be shaved with a knife into extremely flammable slivers. Burns very hot. Many come with a fie starter rod on one side. Most hard wood barks if dry can be shaved up for tinder as well.
Out in the west ( Utah and Colorado) I use juniper bark, very easy to make a nest, and set a bow drill fire ember in it and blow it up. I have done this in high winds and 2 feet of snow.
Peter,
That's a good one I've never tried. If it is as impervious to the weather as you say then I will definitely have to try this out soon.
Something that weather proof and naturally available can be a great tool.
Great site you have here! I use sawdust and paraffin wax. Cover a cookie sheet with sawdust and pour melted wax into the pan thoroughly coating the sawdust. Cool in the fridge and then cut into 1 or 2 inch squares. S-Fold a dozen squares (keeps them from sticking together) using aluminum foil or Saran wrap and put in your kit. They burn long and hot and will easily ignite larger tinder.
that is close to a thing my father makes with wood pellets. a paper cup and old candle wax they work great for starting our woodstove so why not for a camp fire i will have to see how well that works.
mstrblstr,
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy the site!
Your saw dust/wax is similar to the dryer lint/wax mentioned above, and it sounds like a good one.
When you mentioned rolling it up in foil or wrap I thought perhaps stacking them like you mentioned but putting them down in empty film containers would work also, with no chance of getting wet.
(Though those are getting harder and harder to find in t his digital age)
Pat,
Thanks for the tip, that's definitely one I have never heard before: The First Aid Kit Candle. Very cool.
How does it do in weather? Wet?
http://www.survival-spot.com/survival-blog/making...?
Steel wool. I’ve caught it on fire accidentally in my shop with grinding sparks. You can put it out.
I meant to say “you can’t put it out…” Sorry
Good call on the steel wool Brian, I actually mentioned steel wool and a 9V battery in my other fire article 5 Ways to Make Fire
http://survivalcache.com/survival-fire-starters/
It's one of my favorites because it is absolutely instant. Batteries are subject to cold weather though.
I read your blog about batteries after posting. Great minds, right?
on the dryer lint- in scouts we put the lint in the bottom sections of a carboard container eggs come in, filled with parafin, and then cut them up into a dozen fire starters. slightly bulkier than the stick method
Till, cool idea. I think I've seen this before. Nice because you can set the egg carton piece on the ground and not have to worry about wet.
Ever light a Frito Scoop? Pretty incredible really……and they're tasty. Guess any Frito would work.
R & D,
Can't say that I have, but if it burns, it burns.
I don't know if it would work wet though.
hi there just joined up. stumbled accross this site a couple days ago and couldnt stay away haha. another method that doesnt realy have any advantages over the other methods talked about but is still worth a mention is potassium permanganate and glycerin. it burns pretty hot and you dont realy need much. i keep mine in a contact lense case the potassium permanganate in one side and the glycerin in the other for when i dont feel like useing matches.
Yeah! I second that. Was having a tough time getting a fire going one wet morning, and yes, turned to the tortilla chip method. Works really well.
Fritos work great, any type of chip that was cooked in oil will work. So grab a bag of chips before your next outing and you’ll have something to eat as well as a way to get your fire going.
most snack foods and dry cereals will burn very vigorously. all the grease. don't forget your cotton pocket linings in your pants and all the other extra bits of fabric in your clothes in a survival situation.
On top of all those, I take some old 12 gauge shells and 16guage shells and put in the 16 shell a mix of sawdust and turpentine. Then I insert the 16 shell in the 12guage shell. It keeps it from being exposed to any sparks and or being contaminated. But a small pinch of that will burn for a long while; very bright at that.
Steel wool and a 9volt battery. Rub the battery across the steel wool and presto! Fire.
Also, I just wrap cotton twine around newsprint and cover with wix. Pretty easy.
Hand sanitizer like germ-x will burn for a long time.
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