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Fire.... a necessary evil for many reasons. Boiling water, cooking food, signaling for help, SMORES!!!
Lots of ways to make a fire but honestly, what is practical? What works in one location may not work in another. Sure many people put matches and or water proof matches or special cubes that burn on water in their packs and say they are ready. BUT, are you ready? Lets say the cubes are all gone, then what? What can you use?
Well, I'll share something that was passed along to me years ago and has served me well. All materials are readily available in most of our homes already and if need be to scavenge, can be found easily as well.
What you'll need:
- Straws (typical beverage straws for soft drinks and even the larger milkshake ones work as well)
- Vaseline - Yup, take it from your bathroom or nightstand. Most grocery stores even have perfect travel sizes that are CHEAP
- Cotton balls, paper towels, or even napkins
- scissors, knife or sharp object used for cutting the straws into sections
- vitamin or medicine bottle (I use Men's health daily vitamin bottle
** OPTIONAL for Prepping ** --> Lighter or matches
Ok I take the average beverage straw and cut into three sections. Then, I take a cotton ball and saturate in Vaseline; you can take a section of paper towel and smear Vaseline all over it and tear into a few pieces. Take the cotton ball or paper towel and roll up narrow enough to fit into the straw section. The Vaseline is the fuel, the papertowel or cottonball is the wick and the straw helps control burntime. What I do is push the Vaseline "wick" into the straw on both ends and CAREFULLY AND I STRESS CAREFULLY burn the ends of the straw to make a SEAL keeping moisture from getting inside and making less of a mess while being stored.
I fill the bottle with as many as I can. Your creating a slow burning, petroleum based fire starter that will help in almost all conditions, even rain or wet kindling.
How do we use them? Well, when I want to build a fire, I use my knife to cut the sealed end off and pull some of the wick out. I have two flint strikers in my pack (one in survival section and other is built into my hatchet handles). I carefully aim the sparks of my striker at the small section of wick and only takes a few sparks to ignite.
Depending on how much wick, size of straw, Vaseline, etc these buggers can burn for over 10 minutes easy.
Give a try and give some feedback. I've done this at bonfires for friends to show how easy it is.
Again, not necessary to burn the ends of the straws but while I can prep and seal them I will. In the world of survival, firestarters / flints are key. However, do yourself a favor, next time you go to the store, grab a 5 pack of BIC lighters, or two 5 packs and stuff them in your BOB. Having spent time in third world countries... let me tell you....a BIC lighter is like GOLD. Sure you could use a lighter to start the fire however you'll burn through the fluid and or the lighter will be too hot to handle. Using these Fuel-Rods, a few flint sparks and bam all set.
Share your fire ideas and or let me know what you think of the above when you try it!!
Lots of ways to make a fire but honestly, what is practical? What works in one location may not work in another. Sure many people put matches and or water proof matches or special cubes that burn on water in their packs and say they are ready. BUT, are you ready? Lets say the cubes are all gone, then what? What can you use?
Well, I'll share something that was passed along to me years ago and has served me well. All materials are readily available in most of our homes already and if need be to scavenge, can be found easily as well.
What you'll need:
- Straws (typical beverage straws for soft drinks and even the larger milkshake ones work as well)
- Vaseline - Yup, take it from your bathroom or nightstand. Most grocery stores even have perfect travel sizes that are CHEAP
- Cotton balls, paper towels, or even napkins
- scissors, knife or sharp object used for cutting the straws into sections
- vitamin or medicine bottle (I use Men's health daily vitamin bottle
** OPTIONAL for Prepping ** --> Lighter or matches
Ok I take the average beverage straw and cut into three sections. Then, I take a cotton ball and saturate in Vaseline; you can take a section of paper towel and smear Vaseline all over it and tear into a few pieces. Take the cotton ball or paper towel and roll up narrow enough to fit into the straw section. The Vaseline is the fuel, the papertowel or cottonball is the wick and the straw helps control burntime. What I do is push the Vaseline "wick" into the straw on both ends and CAREFULLY AND I STRESS CAREFULLY burn the ends of the straw to make a SEAL keeping moisture from getting inside and making less of a mess while being stored.
I fill the bottle with as many as I can. Your creating a slow burning, petroleum based fire starter that will help in almost all conditions, even rain or wet kindling.
How do we use them? Well, when I want to build a fire, I use my knife to cut the sealed end off and pull some of the wick out. I have two flint strikers in my pack (one in survival section and other is built into my hatchet handles). I carefully aim the sparks of my striker at the small section of wick and only takes a few sparks to ignite.
Depending on how much wick, size of straw, Vaseline, etc these buggers can burn for over 10 minutes easy.
Give a try and give some feedback. I've done this at bonfires for friends to show how easy it is.
Again, not necessary to burn the ends of the straws but while I can prep and seal them I will. In the world of survival, firestarters / flints are key. However, do yourself a favor, next time you go to the store, grab a 5 pack of BIC lighters, or two 5 packs and stuff them in your BOB. Having spent time in third world countries... let me tell you....a BIC lighter is like GOLD. Sure you could use a lighter to start the fire however you'll burn through the fluid and or the lighter will be too hot to handle. Using these Fuel-Rods, a few flint sparks and bam all set.
Share your fire ideas and or let me know what you think of the above when you try it!!
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