Fire-lighters

[Squirrelcatcher]

A bit lame, perhaps, and maybe someone has already mentioned it on here, but I found something very simple on Youtube (Sorry, no link).
If you have the luxury of a tumble-dryer, instead of throwing out/recycling used toilet roll tubes, save them. Pack the lint from the tumble dryer into the tube, but leave a small hole through the centre, but leave one end sealed. Melt some left over candle wax (assuming that you use candles) and pour it onto the hole. When cooled, you can cut the tube into sections and there is a good fire lighter for starting fires. If you don't have your own tumble dryer, maybe you can nick the lint out of the filters at the local laundrette. I would wait until no-one is watching though, as otherwise they'll think you as barking as I am.

[Djorn]

Dryer lint is often over looked and in some cases might be the cause of the odd tumble fire. We have an open fire at home and 9 out of ten times I use dryer lint and grated wax, it is easy to catch a spark and burns long enough to get the tinder going.

[nickdutch]

Jute rope (thin bits) soaked in wax are also good. You just fray the ends and then set fire to the freyed bits and hey burn enough (a few inches in length) to start the fire going. Its like having a small candle to get the kindling going. It can be used as a step between tinder and kindling in the creation of the fire or if you have lighter just use that to get the jute "candles" going. You can buy jute rope online.

[sethorly]

Thanks Nick, I'll be trying that out.

[pseudonym]

Make up removal pads dipped in candle wax.

http://www.kuenzi.com/tips_e.htm

[Arzosah]

I've never had a dryer, but the bit thats always appealed to me is "fire biscuits", there's a thread on here with that title, and I basically had some fun cutting up an old cotton shirt into very small squares, and storing them with a medium-sized tub of vaseline - great fire starter, apparently. Going to get lots of use next week as I've finally bought a little incinerator off amazon (during my free Prime trial ) and I'll be burning all the branches and whatnot from 7 years of not pruning hedges

[Kentsurvival]

the wax cotton disc starter is probably my favourite simple starter, I have also made wax coated cotton 'string' from a mop head (unused) which works well (like a wick i guess). My favourite that I am still developing though is my own self lighting starter which you can see how to make from the link in my signature (not sure if i am allowed to link directly), takes a bit more effort than others but less effort in a 'survival situation' when time matters (the very meaning of prepping i guess). I also like hand sanitiser lately too as it burns very well.

[Citizen H]

I did survival training in Wales way back and there was this Danish Fella who was previously in the Danish Frogman Corps,

he has this fire lighting recipe of porridge, straw and meth's, mix it all up and dry it out in blocks,

me personally, I prefer my porridge to have Milk, coconut and sultanas / dried mixed fruit, mixed with it.

but hey! each to there own,

[sethorly]

...lint from the tumble dryer...

That was the first question I asked on here when I noticed lint's fire starting applications. I've collected and burnt bags of the stuff, sometimes coating it in vaseline. The trouble is that only cotton burns well whilst the synthetic stuff just frazzles up with little heat. It's just not worth it in my humble opinion - fire is so critical that I'd rather buy a bag of cotton wool pads and cover those in vaseline.

[ForgeCorvus]

I just bought a pack of these, they're basically wax and sawdust


I'm going to try them as both a fire-starter and as a 'fuel tab'...... I'll post results

Another vote for Magic Biscuits here too