The Tinder Experiment

 I have heard for years about various fire starting tools that one can add to their 10 essentials kit. In the event of an emergency, the ability to make a fire can also mean health and safety. While I'm not sure if it's ever really been studied, I would imagine that if you find yourself in dire straights, having a fire can ease your nerves and provide a level of emotional comfort as well as physical.

 Last week, M and I hiked out for a night of camping. I brought with me a couple of empty film canisters filled with things I had heard made great fire starter. I had a brand new Light My Fire Fire Steel. I didn't take a picture of mine, so here's what I'm talking about:

 

I also took some dryer lint as its highly flammable and a tissue smeared in Vaseline.I would have preferred a few cotton balls in Vaseline but we were all out...so we made use of what we did have. 

 Here's what we're starting with. Our teepee fire.
By the way-yes, that's a giant lighter. We had to have backup in case none of these great ideas paid off.

My photographer (M) apologizes for the blurry photos to follow. I think you'll still get the idea.

 Prepping the tissue in vaseline

 Tissue is ready to go on one side of our fire

 Tissue on the left. Wad of dryer lint on the right (it looks like a blurry gray mass)

 Pulling out the Fire Steel to light my fire

 Once both sides were lit. The tissue is winning by a mile!

 And we're off!

Bracco approves of our cozy campfire.

 

So do we!

 So, while the dryer lint surely did burn, it was more of a slow smoldering burn. I found this a bit difficult to work with it trying to light other twigs etc. The tissue burned long and strong. In hindsight, I shouldn't be too surprised that a petroleum product burned so well. Now I'm curious to know whether a tissue, paper towel, cotton ball or other paper will burn better in vaseline. I guess that will be my next experiment. 

I kind of like the idea of bringing a small container of vaseline without having it pre-made into a cotton ball fire starter. It makes it more versatile for other possible needs on trail. Also, I'm a big proponent of having at least two different ways to make fire if needed, particularly for extended trips. So, if you're headed out bring a spare lighter or weather-resistant (proof) matches along as well as your fire steel.

As a side note, let me just list the difference between a magnesium fire starter and the fire steel. A magnesium strip looks like this:

  You can sort of see in the picture that first you shave a small pile of the magnesium from the "shaving edge." You then use a pocket knife to strike the "sparking edge" in order to light the little pile of magnesium you just made. The magnesium bar does not burn whole and is waterproof. The filings burn hot and fast so it's necessary to have additional tinder easily accessible or your fire will quickly burn out. The more shavings you've put in your pile, the longer the burn BUT it takes a decent effort to get this built up.

The Fire Steel is ONLY your spark. It will not ignite, which is why you need a tinder, such as the Vaseline cotton balls or dryer lint options. All of these options are lightweight, easily packed and ready to go when needed.Earlier, I noted that the fire steel was new. This is important because it took a minute or two to make it spark as you need to get through the outer coating.

Has anyone else tried the dryer lint and had better luck? Mine might have too much dog hair in it to be useful.