Change of plans today… I was gonna go to the range but it is slick as snot on a doorknob today. We have been chinooking and the ice and snow melted and froze again and now there’s glaze ice out there you can curl on. Ughhh! I’ll wait till we get some sanding and shovelling done… I could barely make it round on dawg patrol this morn. Even the Niglet was slipping and struggling.
Instead I decided to go over my fire starting kit. I’ve always wanted to try paraffin wax soaked cotton pads so I went down in the Reclusium and made some. They worked okay I guess?
Basically ya get some of these things outta the old lady’s make up stuff, soak them in wax… and ligh5 them off when you need them. Mine burned for 5 minutes or so. Plenty of time and flame to get a blaze going. But… they needed a concentrated, deliberate flame from the lighter to get going. I think Vaseline dabbed cotton balls might be better…but I don’t think they burn as long…?
I made some feather sticks with the new knife and tried it out. It’s nice, but…yeah - I think I need a bit more sharpening than it got at the factory. Not much, mind you - I could live with it as is. Sharper knives are just easier to use with fiddly work.
Steel wool shorted across whatever battery you can find. A friend's OTG capable mobile phone, for instance. Glycerine and potassium permanganate also make a nice conflagration. Get another phone and send video....
ReplyDeleteCoalcracker adds BBQ lighter fluid and they start with a spark - fray the pad edges - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KvTL7gaPjc - works really well
ReplyDeleteTry drier lint stuffed into a cardboard toilet paper tube. I think I remember that from an “Outdoor Boys” video on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteDecades ago when I was in Boy Scouts we used a toilet paper tube filled with dryer lint. Put it under your kindling and you can get a fire really going.
DeleteSteel wool and a 9volt battery works really well
ReplyDeletePlease try the vaseline jelly rubbed into the cotton pads and let us know how that works for you. I tried it myself but had disappointing results, they just didn't burn as well or as easily or as long as I was expecting. I wondered if I wasn't getting the vaseline rubbed into the cotton balls well enough (are you using cotton balls, or cotton pads? maybe I should try changing that) Tom from East Tennessee
ReplyDeleteYou're not fooling anybody Filthie! We know that you're the one crapping in the yard.
ReplyDeleteDon't try to blame it on the Niglet.
Liquify Vaseline in a double boiler and drop in the cotton balls. Then take a paint brush and use the fluid to water proof leather, works great on work boots and gloves, but realize they are more flammable after treatment.
ReplyDeleteIdea taken from an outdoor book by Len McDougall -
DeleteUsing the double boiler method above, immerse cotton sash cord in melted paraffin and allow to soak through (about a minute), Remove from pot with instrument and allow to cool with cord hung. After cooling, cut cord to desired length (1 1/2" will burn about three minutes). I used discarded camera film containers to carrying - they hold about 20 of them. To use, light one end (open flame needed) and stack tinder (teepee works well).
Never read that book, figured it out myself. Its surprising how much stuff gets reinvented thousands of times a day but is never documented. The first time l fired a shotgun with slugs it sucked, by the third shot l figured out to pull forward on the pump to mitigate the recoil. Some gun youtuber claimed to have invented it twenty years later as the “push/pull” method. Nothing new under the sun.
DeleteThese work well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVfek8gPEjk I use a carpenter's pencil sharpener to make the shavings from the dead 1/4-3/8 inch diameter lower twigs sticking out of spruce trees. Just chuck them into my screwgun and grind em down. I'll toss a little sawdust in if I'm feelin' ambitious. Egg crates work great as containers too. Too much wax makes them hard to light. You want just enough to hold it together and keep the flame going.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to go the extra mile, I think a German company sells some pencil sharpeners with a magnesium body. So that you have a back-up just in case.
ReplyDelete