by Leon Pantenburg

In elk hunting, it’s always the idea of bagging one that sucks us hunters out in crappy weather into remote mountainous areas. The day was bitterly cold in Idaho’s Selway wilderness, the snow was knee deep and there were miles between us and the nearest road.

Being able to make a fire under adverse conditions can be critical to survival.

Back at camp, the first order of business was to start the fire. I took out my waterproof match container and tried to light a strike-anywhere match on the side. All the matches had been replaced a couple months ago, but not one of the 20 in the container would light. Then I tried my backup butane lighter. Because of the cold, it didn’t work either. Luckily, we had backup matches, and the fire was soon thawing us out.

“So suppose one of us had gotten hurt and couldn’t move – what would we do to start a fire?” I asked my partner. We both agreed it could have been fatal.

That frigid hunt was in 1993, and for years, I experimented to find a reliable firemaking method.

In 2002, as part of a project for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon, Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to find the ultimate, practical fire ignition method that would work for the average person.

Criteria to be tested were: ease of operation, ability to use one-handed (in the event of an injury), reliability, widespread availability, durability, practicality and ease of carry. We ruled out any items that seemed to rely on expensive, gee-whiz technology.

Over the course of the next several months, we laboriously tested and re-tested conventional firemaking methods. When something showed promise after initial testing, we turned the Scouts loose on it. If the method survived the torture test, we’d ask average outdoors people to try and then comment on the materials.

Here’s what we found:

This firebow setup works well, but takes considerable skill to use. It would not be a good choice for survival firemaking for most people.

Fire bow or other primitive wood friction methods were not even in the running. In a survival situation, even if you have the time and skills to make and use a fire bow, you’d first have to find the materials to build it. If rubbing two sticks together to fire was easy, or even just moderately difficult, the native peoples would never have developed ways to carry a live coal between camps!

The people who depended on the friction method for twirling up a fire carried their own specialized sticks with them. Even in a forest, you might not be able to find dry, suitable materials to build your kit.

Matches: Best case scenario: You should be able to make one fire with every match, right? That points out a real problem with matches: there is a finate number of them, and when they’re gone you’re out of luck. And what if you use all your matches to make one fire because of a low skill level?

Every brand and type of match we tried was unreliable as a survival tool. But if forced to make a recommendation, I’d say the best match choice is the REI Stormproof matches. They work well under many adverse circumstances, but you can only carry a few (10, with striker strip) in a standard match case.

Always keep survival matches in a waterproof case, and rotate them regularly.

The advantage is that most people can strike a match, and you can get them anywhere.

The disadvantages are that matches deteriorate over time and fail, even if they’re waterproof. While coating the heads with paraffin or other sealants will work for awhile, that doesn’t make the matches dependable. Most regular book matches are useless if damp, or if they’re even exposed to moisture.

Another critical aspect is the abrasive strip on the match box or book. If it gets damp, wet or worn out, the matches won’t work. And one brand of match may not ignite on another’s abrasive strip!

Even strike-anywhere matches don’t necessarily light when struck on an abrasive surface. Try standing in knee-deep snow, during a snow and sleet storm and finding a dry, abrasive surface to strike a match on!

Butane lighter: I carry a butane lighter in my pants pocket, another in my jacket pocket and a third in my pack. If I need a fire quickly, I hope to flic a Bic and get the job done. A standard Bic lighter, according to my tests, will have about an hour’s worth of flame in it. But I don’t trust any butane lighter, and you shouldn’t either.

The Achilles heel is temperature. The boiling point of Butane is approximately -0.5 C at sea level, according to answers.com (This boiling point will drop with an increase in altitude given the reduced pressure). This means that as the lighter nears freezing, less gas will be vaporized inside of the lighter and will make it hard to light. And the higher in elevation you are, the less chance you have for ignition!

Butane lighters work great when they work!

My experiments show that placing a butane lighter in ice water (33 degrees) disables it almost instantaneously. If the lighter is removed from a one-minute ice water bath, and placed in a 70 degree area, several minutes will pass before it is warm enough to function. This time varies on the size, brand, and make of the lighter. If you warm the lighter in your already warm hand, it can take at least  90 seconds under ideal conditions, and probably closer to four minutes, to make it functional.

So,  if you fall into an icy river, wade to shore and desperately need to make a warm-up fire, your butane lighter won’t work for what seems like an eternity. In a situation where your hands are freezing, you may not be able to warm the lighter quickly. Your cold, numb fingers may not be able to work the wheel, either. By the time the lighter is warm enough to fire, you may not be able to use it.

Any lighter’s durability is suspect. All it takes is one grain of sand in the wrong place and the machinery is disabled.

And don’t forget this little tidbit: if you inadvertently drop your butane lighter into a campfire, an explosion will follow!

A magnesium block, with flint stick attached on top, can be a reliable firemaking method.

Magnesium block:

A favorite of the survival shows, the magnesium block with a flint stick on top, has some merit. The idea is to shave off pieces of magnesium into a small pile, then ignite it with a spark from the flint stick. The magnesium block is waterproof.

The problem in the system is that it takes a long time to scrape enough shavings off the block to ignite, and it’s really easy to scatter the pile if you bump it or the wind comes up.

A magnesium block is OK, but not your best choice.

Zippo-style lighters: For a while, this appeared to be the winner. I filled my Zippo with lighter fluid to the saturation point, then sat down to see how many fires it would make before it failed. Over the next two days, (I suppose this is some comment on my social life), the total number of lights was 974!  When full of fluid, the Zippo worked immediately after a one-minute ice water bath. It came out the freezer overnight and fired on the second try. I sealed the hinge and opening with a piece of duct tape, and left it alone for a month, and it still fired.

The fuel supply of a Zippo-style lighter tends to dry out quickly, making it non-functional.

But the Zippo-style lighter was wildly inconsistent in other areas. A fully saturated lighter dried out completely in three days in the desert. Having it sealed didn’t matter. And sometimes, for reasons I couldn’t figure out, the Zippo just wouldn’t light.

While you can fuel a Zippo with gasoline if need be, the system is too unreliable to recommend.

Flint sticks: I carry a flint stick on my key ring survival gear and have several in different parts of my gear. When used in combination with cotton balls saturated with petroleum jelly, the system is nearly foolproof.  Put the cotton balls in a plastic case or ziplock bag.

But it takes some effort to learn how to use it, and like anything, there is no substitute for practice. Using a flint stick with only one hand can be done, but not as easily as using a butane lighter.

At the end of all this research, Grenfell and I concluded that there is no ultimate firemaking tool, and you should never rely on just one type.

So here’s the best recommendation: take at least three different methods. Environment  factors that might disable one method should not  affect all of them. So, include a fire tool out of each of these categories:

Flint stick, cotton balls and petroleum jelly: If  forced to pick just one method of firemaking, this would be

Cotton balls, petroleum jelly and a flint stick are effective firemaking tools.

it. With practice, the combination is quick and reliable. But without a lot of practice and experimenting, you probably won’t be able to use it with one hand. If you’re disabled or unconscious, an untrained person might not be able to figure out how it works. (How well does it work? Read this unsolicited testimonial that was sent to survival expert Peter Kummerfeldt!)

Butane lighter: If you’re lucky and can keep your lighter warm and dry, a butane lighter make take care of all your firemaking needs. I’ve noticed many kids can’t operate a butane lighter without practice, so some training  may need to be done with your juvenile outdoor partners.

REI Stormproof matches: Most folks don’t need instruction on how to light a match, so that’s why it’s a good idea to include matches. Invest in premium matches that may work when you need them, and rotate your stock regularly. Be sure to take along the abrasive strip from the match box, and store all matches in a waterproof container!

No matter which firemaking methods you use, take along charcloth and firestarter in a waterproof plastic bag! If your Zippo or butane lighter leaks or runs out of fuel, you can use the wheel and flint to make a spark that can be caught on a piece of charcloth. Also, any other ignition methods that involve sparks can be used with charcloth.

Firestarter should be compact, durable and easy to carry. It can make the difference between dying of hypothermia or getting a fire going with damp tinder and kindling!

One last suggestion: Include a road flare in your survival gear. It is a fantastic signaling tool, burns for at least 15 minutes and will ignite virtually anything!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

The ability build a fire under survival conditions may save your life. The inability may cost your life!

by Leon Pantenburg

I met Peter Kummerfeldt several years ago at the Deschutes County Sportsmans Show, in Redmond, OR after I dropped in during his “Myths of Survival” presentation.

The ability to build a warming campfire, under extreme conditions, could save your life.

With no idea of who this guy was, or his abilities, I sat in on the seminar out of curiosity. (After all, I had a survival kit, and had been knocking around the backcountry for decades while backpacking, hunting and fishing. I knew what I was doing…I thought!) At the end of the hour-long session, and numerous “ah-ha” moments, I followed Peter back to his booth and plied him with questions.

Later, Peter became an expert source for a winter survival guide I wrote for the Bend, OR “Bulletin.”  Since then, Peter have become my friend, mentor, guest contributer for SurvivalCommonSense.com and my main go-to source for any question about wilderness survival. Peter is also on the short list of people I like to hang around with.

With that disclosure, how can I do an unbiased review of Peter’s latest E Book ” A Better Way to Build a Fire”?

Well, I don’t claim to be a wilderness survival “expert,” but I do claim considerable expertise in survival  firemaking. My experience, based on independent research, use and testing over many years, has taught me many things related to building a fire during an emergency. (To read the “best ignition sources” story, click here).

As a Boy Scout survival skills volunteer, I have helped teach well over 10,000 people basic flint-and-steel firemaking skills over the past ten or so years. This instruction has been done during all sorts of weather extremes. I have tried and tested many different firemaking methods, with the goal of being able to recommend the right tools to make a firemaking kit that could save a person’s life.

One thing I learned after all this research and training is this: The average person, even if given matches and gasoline,

Cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly, combined with a metal match, make an effective and reliable firestarting method! If you want to include matches, make sure they are high quality!

couldn’t start a fire under survival conditions! Firemaking, like any survival skill, must be practiced, and you have to start out with the right tools and training.

Our ancestors used an open flame for light, heat and cooking, and everyone, of necessity, was an expert at building a fire. But today, there are people who have never needed to make any sort of fire. They may have some vague idea of what a campfire looks like from the movies, but the idea of making a fire in the rain or snow would be completely foreign to them.

Or worse, they may believe they can just pick up a couple sticks, like the heroes of the “reality’ survival shows do, and twirl up a flame. For beginners, the place to start is with some realistic education.

One of the first, best tools might be the “A Better Way to Start a Fire” eBook. Just out, and available from the OutdoorSafe.com website, Peter starts from the ground up and discusses everything from the theory of firemaking to what tools you should carry with you.

The primary ignition tools are mentioned, as well as the steps to making that initial flame grow into a fire. Natural tinders are discussed, as well as techniques for finding dry firewood under extreme wet conditions.

Butane lighters work fine as long as the conditions are ideal and they are warm and dry.

Peter also introduces the platform and brace method of starting a fire. While the traditional tipi stack or “log cabin” arrangements can and do work well, the platform and brace method of stacking wood to build a fire works particularly well in wet or snowy conditions.

Think all matches are the same? Guess again – Peter discusses the different styles and brands, and why you should shy away from them. I’d already made my mind up that I don’t trust matches as a survival firemaking method before I read this ebook, and Peter’s research reinforces this.

Peter also discusses some of the myths related to survival firemaking. He debunks some of the commonly-accepted, though unproven, practices.

As you look at your survival training, and decide what skills you need to get better at, consider what instructional tools would make a good addition to your library.

Take a hard look at “A Better Way to Build a Fire.” You can download it for $10 from the Outdoorsafe.com website right now, and be reading it in a few minutes. The publication belongs in any wilderness survival training course, and should be in every prepper/survivalist library.

I recommend “A Better Way to Build a Fire” without any reservations whatsoever, and the skills you learn from it could very well save someone’s life.

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness and emergency survival for more than 40 years.

Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

The wind blew sheets of rain sideways and the water dripped off the brim of my hat as I hunched over my charcloth and flint and steel. The original idea had been to demonstrate to Boy Scouts of Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon how to start a fire in the rain using one match, and available natural materials.

The waxed firestarter will burn on snow, or when the weather is wet and nasty.

By Leon Pantenburg

It had rained in the area for two days, and everything was soaked. We found a juniper tree that offered some shelter. I demonstrated how to find the dry side of the tree, strip off dry inner bark from underneath a limb and gather relatively dry twigs from under the trunk. Then I reached from my waterproof match container.

My 11-year-old son Dan had other ideas.

“Oh, c’mon Dad,” he said. “You can get a fire started with a flint and steel, can’t you?”

Typically, Murphy stands at my elbow when I attempt such demonstrations. And Murphy’s Law (as it relates to firemaking) is very explicit. It states: The more people watching you try to show off, the harder it will be to start a fire.

But Murphy had stayed home. I caught the spark on the second whack of the striker, placed the glowing charcloth into a prepared nest of dry and shredded juniper bark and in a matter of minutes had a roaring fire going. Nobody was more impressed than me.

Getting interested in one aspect of history generally leads to other rediscoveries. In my case, an interest in primitive

firemaking lead to a search for an effective firestarter. Surely, I reasoned, the oldtimers had some sort of flammable material that was compact, portable, effective, simple to make and that used easily-obtained local materials. Pitch wood, cedar bark, dry grass, weed stalks, pine needles etc. all work great when the weather is nice. But usually, the fouler the weather, the more desperately you need a fire (another axiom of Murphy’s firemaking law). There had to be some sort of old time firestarter.

The answer came from another seeker of esoteric knowledge, my buddy, Dr. Jim Grenfell. Jim is a former UCLA

Charcloth, made from old denim, will catch any spark and should be included in every survival kit! The finished product should be completely black, but flexible and not brittle.

instructor of dentistry who took up blacksmithing upon retiring. He makes knives, replica tomahawks, fire strikers, and anything the local Boy Scout troops need. Jim is also a former fighter-bomber pilot combat veteran of the Korean War and a graduate of three Air Force wilderness survival schools.

Jim already had the answer to the firestarter situation. We went out to his shop and he pulled out what looked like a waxed pillow case.

“You could make a hat out of this, cover your feet, or use it as a mat to sit on,” Jim said. “But it’s really firestarter. Try it.”

Well, I did, and the waxed firestarter works very well. Here’s how to make it.  The idea is to melt equal proportions of beeswax and paraffin together and dip 100 percent cotton cloth in it.

First, find a large flat pan and a source of heat to melt the wax. I use my propane Camp Chef double burner camp stove outside to reduce the potential mess.

Get some 100 percent cotton that tears easily. Denim from jeans and the stretchy material from old T-shirts will work, but the material is difficult to tear or fray the edges. I prefer old cotton sheets or pillow cases. The material can be torn easily to whatever size is needed.

Paraffin is available in grocery stores. Beeswax can be expensive, so a good alternate material is the wax liner ring used to seal the bottoms of toilets. These rings cost under a buck at most hardware stores and they provide about eight to ten ounces of wax. The toilet sealer wax starts out slightly sticky, but after it’s diluted with paraffin that disappears. I always add a crayon to the mixture. The crayon’s only purpose is to color-code the batch, so if it works particularly well, you can duplicate the recipe.

Set your fire extinguisher nearby. Then heat the wax/paraffin mixture to almost smoking hot, SHUT OFF THE HEAT, and start dipping the cloth. Molten wax can burn you, so wear oven mitts or gloves. I use kitchen tongs to handle the hot cloth, and after dipping, let the excess wax mixture drain off.

Set the dipped cloth out the dry on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. And that’s it.

To use the material, rip off a piece and roll it diagonally, and fray the edge. It should light almost instantaneously. For lighting campfires, I generally use a piece of firestarter about the size of a cigarette paper. If your tinder, kindling and wood have been gathered correctly, this will be overkill. If the fire starts quickly, you can extinguish the starter and re-use it.

How well does this stuff work? Well, it will burn almost completely up while resting on top of a snowdrift. An eighth-inch by one-inch piece, rolled loosely, will burn for several minutes. I’ve used the firestarter many times in driving rain.

Because the wax mixture is so hot when the cloth is dipped, individual threads completely absorb the wax. This makes

Firestarter, left, charcloth and a signal mirror can all be carried in a wallet. The compact, easy-to-carry firestarter can be included in your everyday wardrobe without ever noticing it!

the material completely waterproof and virtually indestructible.

Several springs ago, a Boy Scout campout south of La Pine, Or., turned into an exercise in sleet and snow camping. In the dark, somebody dropped a piece of  the waxed firestarter in the main path, where it was ground into the slush, mud and snow.

The next morning, assistant scoutmaster Dave Colton of Bend found the piece and brought it over to me.

“Do you think this will work now?” he asked. We brushed off the mud, patted the firestarter dry on my pantleg, and it started like it had spent the night in a waterproof container.

Since discovering the waxed firestarter, I’ve replaced all the commercial versions in all my survival kits. I carry a credit card-sized piece in my wallet. The waxed firestarter takes up virtually no space, is light and doesn’t leave a mess. (But don’t leave a piece on the car dashboard in the summer sun!)

Like all survival tools, this one will do you no good unless you know how to use it. So make some waxed firestarter, practice with it and add another tool and skill to your survival arsenal. (Original story published in the Volume 28, No. 2,  April/March edition, 2006,  of “The Backswoodsman.”)

Check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com Making Survival Kits blog by clicking here

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Inevitably, at every firemaking seminar I teach, somebody suggests using dryer lint as firestarter. According to some folks, you should carry dryer lint and a flint stick in your survival kit. My response is that I have tested and tried dryer lint, don’t carry it, and recommend you don’t either.

by Leon Pantenburg

You stake your life on your firemaking kit components. Let’s apply the common sense filter to this dryer lint firestarter idea.

This dryer lint ignited, then for no apparent reason, just went out. Dryer lint is unreliable as a firestarter.

Here’s some related information: According to a 1999 report (the last information available) developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 14,500 dryers catch fire every year, killing 10 people. Two years ago, a dryer fire at an Alabama day care center claimed several children. (How many millions of dryers are used every day?)

Experts cite “failure to clean” as the reason for 70% of dryer fire operational contributing factors. And a standard construction practice is to run the exhaust pipe through the drywall with a 90-degree elbow. This can cause the lint to accumulate at that angle, next to the hot dryer.

So the question might be, based on the evidence from the house fires: Is dryer lint really that flammable? Or is it the combination of heat, improper venting and an accumulation of dry lint next to a hot dryer that causes house fires?

Our concern is survival firemaking though, so let’s consider the pros and cons of dryer lint as it could be used as a survival situation firestarter.

Proponents of dryer lint firestarter claim:

• Dryer lint is easily ignited with a match, lighter and/or flint stick.
• Dryer lint is  compact and easy to carry.
• Dryer lint is free for the taking, compact and easy to carry and apparently flammable. There are multiple internet postings showing the material being ignited, along with directions for making lint-based fire starters.

My first concern about dryer lint has to do with reliability. In 2002, as part of a project for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to find the ultimate, practical fire ignition method that would work for the average person.

We also tested practical firestarters. Dryer lint was one of the initial items tested and it never made the first cut.
The material used for the field trials came from my dryer, and I tested the lint from virtually every load of clothes for week or more. That ended up being a lot of testing! At the time there were three active teenagers and a Lab in the house, along with all the clothes drying associated with skiing, hunting, snowboarding, winter sports and school athletics.

Cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly and a flint stick are effective firemaking tools.

The testing method was to take whatever handful of lint was in the filter, go out into the garage and ignite it with a flint stick. This is where the reliability issue surfaced. (Dog hair was a constant in all the test samples!)

Some lint, such as that from a load of  cotton jeans, ignited readily. Lighting lint from a mixed load of natural fabrics and wool and microfibers was iffy, and sometimes the flame went out before burning up the lint completely. And several times, the lint from a load of polypropylene, wool and various synthetic microfibers didn’t ignite.

My recommendation is to substitute cotton balls in any application where you might currently be using dryer lint.

Here’s why:

• While dryer lint is free, a jumbo 100 percent cotton ball will cost less than a penny. The cost of filling a 35-mm film container with five cotton balls is less than a nickel!
• Cotton balls start out as a sterile medical item and can also be used for first aid needs, such bandaging or cleaning a wound or abrasion. Among the particles in dryer lint is dirt, dust, allergens and all sorts of airborne spores and microbes.
• Both cotton balls and dryer lint can absorb moisture from the air. The difference is that cotton has long fibers which can be dried easier than lint, which is composed of small particles, pet and human hair, pieces of plastic and other, unknown materials.
• Dryer lint mats and compacts more than cotton, making it harder to light. It’s more difficult  to fluff up to light.
• I carry cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly as one of the firestarters in my survival kit. If I start
  to feel a hot spot or blister rising from a boot chaffing, I rub the area with the cotton ball and petroleum jelly. In a pinch, a petroleum jelly and cotton ball, along with duct tape, has been used to create a makeshift band aide. Never rub any skin abrasion, or try to stop a blood flow, with lint!

Grenfell’s and my conclusion was that there is nothing dryer lint can do that a cotton ball can’t do better. The advantages of cotton balls over lint easily make up the cost difference.
If dryer lint is still in your survival kit, please test before trusting it! Personally, I’ll spend an extra few cents and use cotton balls. My life is worth that to me!

For more info on making survival kits, click here!

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Some urban or wilderness survival items, if the quality is not compromised, should be cheap.  This allows you to have multiple pieces of good, effective equipment, stashed in strategic locations, so you’ll never run short.

(From left) A Red Bull energy shot bottle; prescription bottle; diabetic test strip container and a 35mm film container all make good, FREE firestarter containers.

One of the best survival firemaking tools is a combination of  cotton balls and petroleum jelly, and you can make these firestarter kits for pennies.

Basically, you infuse (or gob) the cotton balls with Vaseline or some petroleum jelly derivative (such as Chapstick, Purell handcleaner, etc). When you need to make a fire, fluff up the cotton (as much as you can), and light it with a shower of sparks from a magnesium stick, match, or butane lighter.

The combination is very reliable, and effective and is my firestarter of choice. I also frequently carry jute twine as a cordage backup. Jute fiber, slathered with Vaseline, is an even more effective first ignition source. An infused cotton ball can burn for several minutes, making it a great tool for ignition and firestarter to start damp tinder.

The combination is also cheap. Cotton balls cost less than a penny each, and the petroleum jelly is also inexpensive. Buy a large jar of Vaseline at the local Dollar Store and 100 cotton balls, and you have the potential to make manysurvival  firemaking kits.

And, when you are hiking, if a hot spot starts to develop on your foot from the  boot, rub the hot spot with one of the infused cotton balls. In a pinch, you can improvise a band-aid for your foot with the cotton ball and a piece of duct tape!

Now, somebody is bound to ask about using dryer lint instead of cotton. Isn’t dryer lint more flammable than cotton balls?

The short answer: NO! (Click here to read the comparison between cotton balls and dryer lint as a firestarter)

Actually, the big expense in this cotton ball/petroleum jelly system is the containers to carry them in. Here are some free or really cheap containers that work well to hold the infused cotton ball firestarters. You decide which size is best and most effective for your needs:

• Plastic pill bags: These small, resealable bags will hold several infused cotton balls. An advantage is that the filled bags are waterproof and can be flattened to fit in small spaces in your survival kit.
• Prescription bottles: It seems like everybody has a prescription for something, and an ongoing supply of the plastic bottles. Many, if not all,  have a snap-and bayonet twist-off lid. This makes it easy to access the materials if your hands are cold! There are also a variety of sizes, so they can be adapted to any size survival kit.
• Diabetic Test Strip Containers: These are some of my favorites because they hold three infused cotton balls, and have a pop-off lid that can be opened with one hand. For smaller kits, these are perfect.
• Red Bull Energy Shot Drink Bottles: These work well because they hold seven infused cotton balls, have a large mouth opening and a screw top. The cotton balls are easy to dig out with a key, the end of a magnesium stick or a pocket knife blade.
• 35MM Film Containers: These may be a vanishing resource, but I can still get all I need from the local
  

  Two plastic match containers have been taped together. One holds cotton balls and petroleum jelly, and the other carries REI Stormproof matches. A Boy Scout Hot Spark is taped to the kit.

  Costco. The disadvantage is that the tops pop off easily, so they could self-open in your pack. Murphy says this will happen at the worst possible time, so be aware!

• Plastic Match Containers: These will set you back a buck or so at Walmart or Target, but the advantage is that they are very sturdy and have a screw top. If need be, you can hold the top in your teeth and twist open the container with one hand.

The point is: This is one instance where you can take the cheap route to prepping, urban survival and/or wilderness survival. If you look around and give it some thought, you may find other inexpensive ways to stock up on other survival or preparedness tools.

Then, there will be more money in the prepping budget to spend on tools you can’t compromise on, such as boots, a survival knife, sleeping bag, or rain gear.

And some of the most important survival tools are free – such as the information from  SurvivalCommonSense.com! Make sure you take advantage of  it!

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories about firemaking, click here!

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Making a fire under survival conditions could mean improvising with whatever materials are available.

The firebow setup works well, but takes considerable skill and practice to use. It would not be a good choice for survival firemaking for most people.

Here’s a fun post that a reader sent in. It demonstrates how to to make the best of available materials if a survival situation happens in a box store at the mall!

Currently Sean Jacox (Senior Patrol Leader of Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, OR) and I have invested about six hours in attempting to find natural materials to make a fire bow. Our self-imposed requirements are that the materials to build the firebow would have to be gathered inside the city limits, from vacant lots.

We’ve tried mullein and cattail stalks and willow for the spindles; and sagebrush and juniper wood for the hearth board. So far, we haven’t even been able to make smoke! (But we also picked up an amazing amount of trash, including a Gerber folding knife, a hammer, piece of rope and a piece of plastic that would make a pretty decent shelter.)

A reader, Eric, sent this urban firebow video to me via

Facebook. He points out it’s: “Handy cold weather survival instruction should you find yourself stranded with a handful of Ikea products.”

Another reader, Dustin, sent a link shortly after this story was published. The post takes you step-by-step through making a firebow and getting it to work, and the author provides good information.

(I know a firebow will work: Peter Kummerfeldt demonstrated how to use one last year at the Deschutes County Sportsman’s Show. I just need to stick with it. I love the readers SurvivalCommonSense.com has been attracting – they are polite, informative and willing to learn or teach. All of us know more than one of us! )

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Regular readers of SurvivalCommonSense know that survival firemaking is one of my pet subjects.

Regardless if you’re a survivalist, prepper, or just a well-prepared backpacker; if you are making a wilderness survival kit, a bug-out bag, a set of Ten Essentials

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The best firestarting system can also be the cheapest and the materials are the easiest to find at any drug or grocery store.

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This Boy Scout Hot-Spark and a prescription bottle filled with cotton balls and petroleum jelly makes a reliable firestarting method that is cheap enough to be placed in all survival kits.

by Leon Pantenburg

After extensive testing, my nomination for the best overall survival firestarting method is cotton balls, slathered with petroleum jelly, combined with a magnesium or flint stick. I ran across this method several years ago at a Peter Kummerfeldt seminar at the Deschutes Fairground Sportsmen show.

Kummerfeldt demonstrated the method at his booth, and it looked so easy, I figured there had to be a catch. So, I got the materials and tested it myself, then had some of the scouts from Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, OR. wring out the system.

Everybody likes the system because of  its reliability. There is nothing to break, it requires no fuel, and temperature has no affect. But an additional benefit is how cheap it is to produce!

Here’s how you can make one of these firemaking kits.

• Get a locking cap, waterproof prescription bottle. These days, everybody has a prescription for something, and the meds usually come in a small, plastic pill bottle. The bottles with the snap-and-bayonet, waterproof top work very well for storing the cotton balls, and probably won’t cost anything. You can also use an empty 35mm film plastic container, or a standard waterproof matchbox. I use all of these containers, since I carry the cotton balls/petroleum jelly firestarter in all my survival kits. Just be careful with any snap-off or non-locking cap – if they’re easy to get off, they may come apart in your pack!
• Cotton balls: Get extra-large, 100 percent cotton. They generally cost less than a penny each. Don’t waste your time with dryer lint: the material  is unreliable and the savings cost is not worth consideration.
• Petroleum jelly: I paid $1.99 for a 13-ounce jar at the local department store. Many of the lip balm sticks will also work with this system, so experiment at home.
• Magnesium or flint stick: One of my favorites, the Boy Scout
  

  Flint or magnesium sticks come in different sizes. Find a size that is handy, so you'll take it with you! The keychain size, center, is a good choice for everyday carry.

  Hot-Spark, costs about $2.50 at the Scout store. You can buy bigger, more expensive models, but the scout version does the trick. I have the smaller sticks on zipper fobs, key chains, and in every survival kit I own. Your Swiss Army knife can become a better survival knife if you attach a Hot-Spark to the split ring on the handle.

• Label with directions: Put a label on each container with what is inside, and how to use it. You may not need the reminder, but then again, you might be injured, disabled or unconscious, and someone else might have to build that life-saving fire. Make their job easier by including simple instructions.

I use a standard Avery 5160 1″x2-5/8″ labels, with Wordperfect software in the “labels” dropdown.  Use 11 point, Aerial type, and this spacing, and all the information fits nicely.

On the labels, type:

Firestarter: Cotton balls and

petroleum jelly. To use: Remove

pinch of firestarter, fluff and light.

This dry cattail fuzz can be used as a firestarter if you infuse it with petroleum jelly.

I include my website name and give them away at events. These containers, filled with cotton balls and petroleum jelly, are fantastic promotional give-aways and cost pennies. Scouts can make up a bunch, and give them out at their next campout or public gathering. I give the containers out when I go cross-country skiing or snowshoeing as a public service – it’s scary how often this firestarter is the only survival gear some people have!

Total cost of the complete firestarter kit, with Hot-Spark, is about $2.75 to $3! If you opt to buy  a waterproof match container for the cotton balls, that will set you back another $2-$3. You’re still looking at a complete firemaking system for about five bucks!

Carry this combination in all your survival kits. When you need to make a fire, pull out a pinch, fluff it out and strike a spark onto the cotton ball with the flint stick. If the wood is damp, and the tinder in short supply, use a whole cotton ball. My experiments show that a cotton ball gobbed with petroleum jelly will burn for several minutes.

The cotton balls and petroleum jelly have another use. On a Boy Scout 50-miler hike a few years back, I started to get a blister on my heel. I took out my cotton ball firestarter, and rubbed the hot spot with the petroleum jelly. No blister formed!

When it comes to your survival kit, you decide how much you want to invest. Personally, I want the best equipment available for me and my family, and price is not a consideration.

But prepping or making multiple survival kits can be expensive. Find the areas – like this one – where you can cut costs without reducing quality, durability or safety.

Then, invest the money you saved on items you can’t compromise on, such as  boots, a survival knife, sleeping bags, tents, navigation gear, etc.

Use common sense in all of this. Find the best, most reliable systems for your survival kits, then practice, research and decide how they can best serve you.

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Catching a spark and blowing it into a flame is a skill that can save your life. Charcloth is a material that has been “cooked” like charcoal is at high temperatures until it becomes black. Properly-made charcloth will easily catch a spark and grow into an ember.  This ember can be transferred to a tinder bundle and blown into a flame.

Put the pieces of 100 percent cotton cloth in a tin with a hole in the top for ventilation, then heat it until the smoke comes out and ignites.

by Leon Pantenburg

Once you discover how easy it is to make charcloth, you’ll never have an excuse for running out, or not having some in your survival kit. This is the method used by Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Or.

Every scout is expected to know how to make and use this material, and charcloth is part of every survival kit. It should be part of your kit, too!

Here’s the items you need, and what you need to do:

Materials:
A regular-sized Altoids or other brand of mint tin, with a small hole punched in the top. The photos show a larger tin can for increased production.
Blue denim from old Wranglers or Levi 501s or work jeans works very well as the material to be charred. Other 100 percent cotton items and some organic materials can also be used. Another favorite material is 100 percent cotton insulated underwear. We favor denim because there is never a shortage of old jeans in any group of growing boys!

Also, if you ever need to make charcloth in an emergency, chances are somebody will be wearing jeans! And don’t forget that a 100% cotton bandanna can provide lots of charring material. (But test every batch before including it in a survival kit – you never know when some charcloth might not work!)

This charcloth is undercooked and needs to be put back in the sealed tin and cooked longer.

A source of heat – campfire coals work well, and so does a backpacking or camp stove. You can use a barbecue grill or propane heater in your backyard. Charring is a smoky process, so make sure you go outdoors.

Once these items are assembled, tear up the denim and pack it loosely (so the contents have some spring to them) to the top of the can.

Place the can on the heat source and cook.

Actual cooking time will vary, depending on heat intensity, outdoor temperature etc. The heat should be high enough that the can starts to smoke through the hole in the top.

At some point, in about five to ten minutes, the smoke should ignite. Then adjust the heat, if possible, so the flame stays about two-to-four inches high. When the flame dies down, and the smoke lessens, take the can from

Finished charcloth should be completely black, but flexible and not brittle.

the fire and let it cool completely. When you open the can, check the charcloth to make sure it is completely black and somewhat flexible.

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In an emergency, many media “experts” promote different ways to make sparks as a way to ignite a fire. But the advice sometimes fizzles out there. There may be a vague reference to catching the spark with some material called “tinder.”

Charcloth, made from old denim, will catch any spark and should be included in every survival kit! The finished product should be completely black, but flexible and not brittle.

by Leon Pantenburg

Sometimes tree fungus, or dry, rotted wood called “punk” is mentioned as a spark catcher.  The media personality makes a spark somehow, there is a camera angle change, and presto! We have ignition!

But in the real world, during an emergency, there isn’t time to search for such specialized items, even if they are available, and even if they do work.

Of all the firemaking tools at your disposal, charcloth is one that should be included in every survival kit.  It works with every method of firemaking.

Charcloth is a material, usually 100 percent cotton, that has been “cooked” like charcoal at high temperatures until it becomes black and flexible. Properly-made charcloth will easily catch a spark from any source and will spread into an ember.

A spark can come from a flint and steel, flint stick, broken lighter,  jumper cables and battery etc.  You could even light charcloth with a damp match that flares but won’t ignite. In fact, if you only have a few matches, (and matches are always a finite resource) your best move might be to light some charcloth.

Once caught, a spark on charcloth is virtually impossible to blow out.  If the tinder bundle and small kindling are ready, it should only take about a one-inch square of glowing charcloth to get a fire going.

Carry survival gear in your wallet. I always have (from left) firestarter, charcloth and a signal mirror with me.

Lighted charcloth extinguishes easily with water. But all you have to do is dry the soaked material out and it will work again.

Maybe the best thing about charcloth is that you make it yourself, and the materials are free. (Click here to learn how to make it!)

You could even make charcloth while you’re lost if you took along a bandanna and an Altoids or similar tin. (It will give you something to do while sitting by your signal fire, waiting to be rescued!)

You can also try charring some organic materials, such as tree bark (cedar and juniper) and others. There might be a great natural charring material in your area, just waiting to be discovered.

It goes without saying that any experimenting should first be done in your backyard!

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