Fire tin

[wpick]

Hello Everyone

This will be my first “real” post w/ pictures. So please be nice, I bruise easily.

Introducing Walter’s Fire tin. I have been working on a way of starting fire several ways.
I live in Southern Arizona. It’s mostly dry here with moments of absolute-total-monsoon-apolyptic-Honey-let’s-ask-the-next-door-neighbor-Noah-if-he-has-more-room-on-his-boat rain storms.

My situation is having something that is lightweight (under 2 oz.), able to start “Quick fire” in all weather conditions, as well as to make tinder for later fires. Why lightweight? Because we don’t have rivers or streams with water so we have to carry our own water. Here’s an FYI, west of the Missippi, hikers and backpackers normally use hydration bladders (unless you’re tactical). East of the Missippi, hikers and backpackers carry a used Gatorade plastic bottle to dip into the stream they cross constantly, or the water that comes bubbling out of the rocks


Fire tin 002 by azsingle, on Flickr

So I start out with a tin flat container that 2 1/2 “in diameter. It has a non screw top lid that is reasonably water tight. http://www.specialtybottle.com/tinflatc ... cover.aspx

I hold the container together with two simple Ranger bands. Not only can they be used as rubber bands, but they are flammable and can be used as an accelerant.


Fire tin 003 by azsingle, on Flickr


Fire tin 004 by azsingle, on Flickr

In to that goes a book of matches (I had some matches from an old MRE). In my travels, I found some Betty Crocker Relight candles. These candles will relight 60-90 seconds after blowing them out. And they survive the Arizona sun, unlike the gag candles you get at the magic store http://www.going4groceries.com/product_ ... dle-p-4339
I also have a piece of char cloth in the bottom of the tin

I put wet fire tinder in case it’s wet and my main fire starting device is a spark-Lite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qgUZyWQSho
The Spark-Lite kit is the smallest and lightest fire starter. The U.S. Military is using the kits in Aviator Survival kits, so they must be easy to use! The sparker will light all the tinder device (except the Ranger bands) using one hand.

So, what do you all think? Anyone see the Dave Canterbury influence? How about the Ray Mears influence

[Guy Fawkes]

Nice idea.

I've also got a tin that I use for my fire kit, but I use an Altoids tin.

Is this supposed to be your entire fire kit for EDC/BOB/GHB/etc? If so, I'd say it's kinda small and poorly stocked. My kit's got two Bic lighters, a Fresnel lens, an off-brand Firesteel, a thick birthday candle, two alcohol prep pads, a little dryer lint, and at least a dozen stormproof matches. I also keep a standard size prescription bottle full of cottonballs and petroleum jelly as a tinder kit.

Just FYI.

[wpick]

Hey

Thanks for the FYI. For me, this kit is suited for my enviroment. Right now the Sonoran desert is hitting over 100 during the day and in the 70's at night. <http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/156834465.html>

So fire is not a big priority, unless you bag something with the rifle/shotgun/pistol/throwing stick. The majority of the weight in my BOB is in water (minimum 6 liters, maximum is 12). So in order to keep the weight within a r4esonable limit, everything else is lightweight and multi-purpose.

Wpick

[Woods Walker]

Here is my fire tin but it is a bit more old school.

[Caenus]

In AZ a magnifying glass works really well, or just take what you want to burn out from under the shade.

Seriously though, nice kit.

[wpick]

I have cousins who saw Dual Survival where Dave uses his urine in a bag as a magnifing glass! They think this side of the Family is crazy for living in AZ. Thank you very much!

wpick

[Woods Walker]

Here is a question. Have you ever tried that spark thingy on natural tinder? Somehow it looks almost like an empty Bic lighter and wonder is a larger, but still small firesteel might be better. On a side note good first real post.

[wpick]

Woods

I have not tried it on natural tinder (sounds like a FTX coming up). There are several people who think the same thing: it looks like an empty bic lighter. U.S. Army Ranger Rick has a youtube video on how to make a bic into a spark-lite (BTW, he hates them). Anf also BTW, I know of one indivdual who was lsot that signalled a passing helicopter by flicking his empty bic, (the crew were using NVGs).

Thank you

wpick

[Woods Walker]

Not sure what yea got out there in AZ for tinder. If you have any problems with natural tinder igniting directly maybe find something that will work like that char cloth to catch the spark. Punk wood or if you have any species of false tinder fungus. The coal could be tossed into a tinder bundle and blown into flame. Then again you do have a tin and could char natural tinder or cloth. Granted it should work great for the manmade tinder in your tin.

[111t]

Nice tin. I use bulk film cans that I obtained from work back when we used film. They're larger than yours which is good and bad. I like the idea of having a more compact system though.

[Kiwi Bowhunter]

My bushcraft kit has a flint and steel, and an IMCO triplex lighter, along with a tin for making charcloth and chartow.

My backpacking kit is basically a mini-bic and a firesteel, with some vaseline soaked cotton balls.

BOB is firesteel, 2 bics, waterproof matches, vaseline soaked cottonballs. Thinking about adding a lens to it. I've been working on learning how to make friction fire, but the indigenous people here used only 2 specific kinds of wood in a fire-plow. I've tried with others, but can't quite get a good enough coal.


Cheers,
Sean.

*EDIT* My EDC is a peanut lighter on keychain, and some strike-anywhere matches in EDC/GHB bag.

[Niblick]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but how do you "soak" a cottonball in petroleum? Heat up the jelly and dip?

My fire tin is a mini altoids container full of dryer lint and a little baggy with a match striker and some water resistant matches. I supplement this with at least 2 bics (usually 3).

[GunsUp]

yes you can melt the vaseline and dip it, you can melt it and pour it over or you can just massage it in with your fingers....

massaging works best usually, dipping can often over-saturate.

You want a bit of un-soaked cotton in the middle to catch the spark.

[Niblick]

Awesome, thanks GunsUp.