THE very best, absolutely dependable, tinder for ANY firelighting HAS TO BE (in my humble, tried and tested opinion) cotton wool soaked in vaseline.

It can be cotton pleat, cotton balls,cotton make-up pads, Qtips ...whatever .

The vaseline (petroleum jelly) waterproofs it completely if its massaged-in enough to make a dough-like plug. 

You don,t need to make dozens of these though, just a few each time they need replacing.

You just tear open a piece and the tiny fibres catch light from the dullest of sparks, let alone from matches or a firesteel...and they burn hot for a long time too!

Just have a go at making some for yourselves folks and they,ll never let you down.

GUARANTEED.

Si 

 Re: BEN BLOGGS

 Hi Ben.

Don,t know if you were aware of this but your invention of steel and lighterr flints was one of the original ideas behind the swedish firesteel.

I read somewhere that in the olde days climbers would tap lighter flints into a strip of wood and strike a knife blade along them to light their Primus paraffin stoves.

Probably something to do with damp matches, altitude etc.

I believe it may have been mentioned somewhere that a leading swedish army survival instructor "Lars Feldt" or something like that, (an associate of Mr Mears i presume) came up with the idea of combining several metals (including magnesium) into a solid bar that would create a shower of sparks when stuck with a carbon blade ... hmmm.

Its worth noting that new "firesteels" have a black anti-oxidising coat on them when new, and require a couple of scrapes to expose the good stuff beneath. 

I find the serrated scrapers and hacksaw blades supplied with various models of firesteel work great but absolutely destroy them in no time. (wear em out and buy more????) Although magnesium blocks do need an aggresive scraping tool to create the required filings  for ignition.

I only use the cleanly filed BACK edge of my mora carbon steel blade with my firesteel.

I have the thicker ARMY model from "Light-my-Fire", and another thinner Cadet model goes in my Emergency Tin... 

Talk about reinventing the wheel eh  

Hi PETER GREENE

I absolutely agree with you on your comments about the WET FIRE TINDER.

Secret formula and all that - a small piece crumbled up lights instantly and the whole tablet burns for that long it can be set aside after firelighting, blown out and reused another time.

Watch the kiddies (or yourself) dont mistake the pretty gold wrapper for a toffee  

Only gripe is regular use of these nuggets can be costly.

The stearin (waxed paper) strips are good too, just tear a piece off and fluff it up by scraping back and forth with your blade - just as with birch bark. 

I just think oiled cotton wool is tops. But to be honest any self respecting outdoor type should carry different sorts of tinder and several means of firelighting when out in the sticks.

Blast match is another coo tool, the best solution for someone injured and only able to use one hand to start a fire in an emergency.

I also rate their survival tool, with the flick blade, firesteel and whistle in one item.

Men and boys and their toys.......................

Simon,

currently I carry cotton wool and vaseline separately in my first aid kit - they therefore serve as useful first aid padding / lubrication or could be turned into tinder for fire lighting. The only disadvantage with this approach is if I ever needed to make the tinder balls in the wet...

another angle on this is the use of alcohol-based sanitizing handwash as a firestarter. I always carry a small pot of this for "washing" my hands when out and about and dont want to waste my water or find any running water. It burns well and in combo with cotton wool would do the job a treat

I keep a tiny Spiderco knife attached to a swedish fire steel in a clear plastic tobacco pouch with some cotton wool. The spark will light gas or multifuel stoves, a tiny piece of cotton wool will light a trangia or similar (float it on the meths and apply a spark) and a bigger piece of cotton wool will take a spark to start a proper camp fire. The spark will work whatever the conditions and if you want to be really sure about the cotton wool you can soak it in vaseline.

This kit weighs very little and will allow you to start a fire in any conditions. Getting your stove going is easier than using matches and requires no training or practice. Lighting a camp fire (local laws and conditions allowing), managing it safely and tidying up completely afterwards so that you leave no trace requires some preparation, thought and practice. As good a tutorial as any can be found on the Ray Mears DVDs (I'll check which one and post it later).