Survival Kit Tools to Ignite Your Fire
Hey guys, as most of you probably already know fire is one of the most important tools you will ever have when going into the outdoors. This video will be about the various tools and options you can use to ignite your fire. Fire provides warmth. It allows you to boil water, cook your food, make tools, and frighten predators. It’s also good for mural such as the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. And your fire can be use for signaling to your rescuers.
Also, I recommend that everyone have at least two ways of starting a fire in their survival kit. If not more, it’s also very helpful to have homemade or manmade fuel or tender to help you start that fire in case it’s wet. Matches have to be the most common tool of use to light fires probably all around the world. Here are some various examples of different kinds of matches and waterproof containers you can hold the matches in.
This is a common match look. Everybody seeing this, they’re small and compact that’s why they’re good to put in your survival kit. Also you could split one match into two giving you two chances to light a fire with just one match and I’ll demonstrate that right now with the smaller piece.
The next kind of match you have are waterproof matches made by different companies. Also you can waterproof your own matches by putting wax on the head, paraffin wax preferably. These matches are strike anywhere matches that had been cut in half. They’re easier to put in your kit that way. It saves space. Another type of match are store matches. These are really long matches and they burn for a while. And back to the waterproofing, your own matches, all you have to do is take a knife and scrape the wax off and you’re ready to go. These are strike anywhere matches in a water proof container. I highly recommend strike anywhere matches for the reason that you can strike them anywhere. If you do use regular matches in one of these containers put a striker pad, cut it off and put it in a container so you have something to strike on.
Also with strike anywhere matches for example on this one, there is sandpaper on the top so you can easily light the match and there are various different containers for storing your matches. They’re all pretty match waterproof. This is a nice aluminum one with compost on it. It also has a hole for a lanyard. It’s made by silver and they also make very good composes. This is a cheaper fire function whistle match holder that if this one had a flint on it right there but it fell off, it has compost, a mere for signaling. It will hold your strike anywhere matches and it has a whistle. This is a brass container which is good for strike anywhere matches because it has the threading on the side that you can strike it on and that’s basically yeah on matches. A very good thing to have in your survival kit except for they don’t last forever and I’ll show you something that will last a very long time.
Your next fire starting option is probably one of the best of them all, just because they last so freak and long. It’s a flint or also known as Swedish fire steel. The fire steel can light thousands of fires reliably even when wet. The shower of sparks hitting mitts is between 3000 and 5000 degrees Fahrenheit. What you do, I’m not going to do inside is take your striker. It comes with the different one. I added this sole one because I believe it works better and you scrape it like so. I’ll do it a little bit and in a matter very hot shower of sparks and it will ignite your tender very easily. The only thing I don’t like about the fire steel is, if you use your night flayed, I worried that it might deal it but I would have to say that everyone should have a fire steel in their survival kit. It’s a little pricey between $10.00 and $20.00 probably about 10 or 12 for the small one and 20 for the large but believe me its all worth it.
Another tool for igniting your fire is a lighter obviously and it’s a very good option. As you can see, there are so many different kinds of lighters. In your survival kit, I would definitely go with the disposable ones not the refillable ones like this three just because that refillable ones run out a lot faster. It’s good to get a clear or a white one like this because you can see how much has left in it. I personally prefer the Bic’s over the disposables because the Bic seem to last for a lot, lot longer. Also they make tiny ones that you could fit into a very small survival kit. So once again a lighter is a very good option, its quick and easy way of starting a fire.
Another option for lighting fires is a magnifying glass. Its not your best option, you can only do it in a day time if there is a bright sunlight but it does work and it could get you a fire going. What you do for those who don’t know is you make the smallest up possible with the sunlight and put that on your tender and it should start smoldering and you can blow it into a fire. What you’re looking at right now is a magnesium fire starter. This is another long lasting fire starter similar to Swedish fire steel. This is obviously going to last to a lot longer than matches.
First I’ll explain, this bar is made of magnesium and on top of it is a mesh metal flint which when you scrape sparks. What you do is take your knife. It does not come with this little saw I added that. They recommend you use your knife. You take your knife and on one of the edges like right there you can see it, you scrape off little shavings like this about a quarter size piled just like that and what you do is take the mish middle flint and strike it right on that and just like the Swedish fire steel it burns between 3,000 and 5,000 degrees even when wet. Once again I worry about dealing my knife that’s why I added this on to it.
One of the bad things about on magnesium fire starter is the shavings can blow away when its windy out. Also it takes a while to scrape that when with a fire steel you can just scrape it once and you pretty much have your fire going. So this takes a while but it does last maybe a thousand times. Here some various homemade and manmade tenders that everyone should bring at least one these in their survival kit, in case it’s a rainy day or you can't find tender.
On the left are military style Trioxane compress fuel bars. These are use for water and ration heating. They can also be use as a fire starter. It’s this bluish material right here, you just break off a chunk in it. It stays left for a very long time. The next one is my favorite, its petroleum jelly cut saturated cotton balls and these are homemade cheap, easy to make and they burn for a very long time. Check out my video on that. Another one that people commonly use is drier lint. Obviously it’s free and it works really good and this is probably a petroleum base fire paste made by Cogans, there is probably different kinds of products like this out there but this also works very good. These are my personal favorite options for fire starting, the Swedish fire steel that last forever. Strike anywhere matches dip in wax. See through disposable Bic lighter and I think everyone should have at least two options of starting a fire in their survival kit in case one fails and like I said on the beginning, fire is one of the most valuable tools you’ll ever have out in the wilderness and it could save your life someday. Thank you for watching.
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