You may have seen an experiment at school or perhaps a demo on social media of an empty 5 gallon jug with a small amount of alcohol or acetone poured into it. When the jug is layed on it’s side and rotated, the alcohol is spread thin, thus causing it to vaporize. When a match is dropped into it, a hellasious flame erupts in the cavernous vessel. By modifying this vaporization process you can create a small scale manageable lighter.

You can take a glass or jar and pour a small amount of alcohol or acetone into the bottom. Then, you can take a paper towel or tissue and fold it into a strip and line the lower portion inside the glass. The paper will act as a wick and draw up the flammable fuel that will begin to vaporize it, thus enabling it to be ignited by the empty peiso lighters spark.

Be aware that the flame will be sudden and large. You can place an intermediate tinder above it to capture the flame to transfer it to a prepared tinder pile to ignite briquettes or campfire. Please exercise caution when exercising this method.

In the past I have tested different brands of sanitizer to learn about their properties and effectiveness in their ability to ignite and sustain a flame. Recently I tested a dab of sanitizer that didn’t want to stay lit. When it extinguished I would spread it out with my finger and re-light only to see it extinguish shortly thereafter. This may have to do with it’s composition or shelf-life.

Awhile back I read an article about mis-use of hand sanitizer by some youth who added salt to it in order to extract the alcohol which they ingested and ended up in the hospital. That technique came to mind and I wondered if salt would release enough alcohol from my sample in order to sustain a flame. I happened to have some salt nearby and sprinkled some on the remains and voilà, it started to melt and when lit stayed lit longer with a larger flame.

I decided to do a side-by-side comparison so I took two small jar lids to safely contain the fuel and put a penny sized dollop of sanitizer in each. I added salt to one and then lit them both. You can see the contrast of the two in the photo. Needless to say that the bigger flame burned out sooner and lasted only a fraction of the time that the unsalted sanitizer did.

After further tests and thoughts I have come up with some “pros” and “cons” of the two burning methods.

– SALTED –

Pros – 1) The salted sanitizer’s flame burned bright yellow, thus giving off useful light. 2) It’s vigorous flame would aid in lighting tinder more quickly. 3) It can help the performance of a weak sanitizer.

Cons – 1) Because the flame is so vigorous it burns out much sooner then the untreated sanitizer.

– STANDARD –

Pros – 1) The flame is low but steady and lasts much longer – good for cooking/heating. 2) The blue flame is almost invisible so that it has low profile visibility if needed.

Cons – Because the flame is nearly invisible, especially in daylight, it can be dangerous if you don’t realize that it is lit.

In the end, each sanitizer method has it’s pros and cons but by experimenting with each method you will broaden your understanding and experience on how to maximize it’s effectiveness for your improvised fuel application.

Unsalted / Salted

On one such occasion there was a mystery death at a home spa where many candles had been lit all around and were still burning but nearly out. There were traces of salt around which seemed out of place and mysterious at the time. The “six hour” candles established a timeline that gave everyone an alibi but the Chief Detective put “two and two together” and realized that the salt had been added to the candles to make them burn longer, thus altering the timeline of the suspects testimonies.

So, what does this have to do with survival skills? I was intrigued by the concept that the duration of burning candles could be altered and extended. In a power outage scenario such as one our community experienced recently, a candle could provide light longer or be used as an ignition source for other purposes, similar to keeping a live coal on hand.

I decided to try this out for myself. I took two tea candles and poured some salt on one, covering the top surface. I quickly discovered that the salted candle wouldn’t lite. The wick burned down and extinguished. It occurred to me that there needed to be enough wax exposed to allow the lit wick to melt enough wax to sustain the flame so I cleared the area around the wick and relit it. Although the candle remained lit it was obvious that the flames of the two candles were different. The salted candle’s flame was suppressed and smaller, thus consuming the wax fuel at a slower rate.

The effective light comes from the unaltered candle but depending upon your circumstances longevity might be a priority so it’s nice to know about this little technique that gives you an option when needed.

I’ve used seed puffs from dandelions, milkweed, and cattail among others to catch sparks. Once lit the fibers almost explode into flame. It’s important to surround the fuzz with light and dry tinder, especially above it to catch the flame so that it can be built into a larger fire. But what if you don’t have seed puffs to catch a spark? What if you were in an urban environment surrounded by asphalt and concrete and not in a wooded area?

You can collect flammable cotton fiber from your clothes by taking a sharp edged device like a knife and scrape it over the surface of your clothing several times. A small roll of fibers will begin to accumulate. Denim pants are a great source for this. The roll of fiber can be pulled apart into a “fuzz-ball” in order to catch a spark from a flintwheel or ferro rod.

Another clothing source of fiber is cotton socks. If you don’t have a knife blade for scraping you can simply pinch off bits of fiber with your finger tips to collect a small fuzzy pile. I often put this tinder into a small cone of tissue paper to catch a flame. This fire method is also known as a “prisoner match”.

A number of folks have experienced similar results using dryer lint, cotton balls, and cotton swabs as their tinder but these fibers would need to be collected ahead of time and carried whereas your clothes require no planning and are naturally with you as part of your everyday life.

As usual, I recommend that you try this for yourself and practice it so that you will have this skill for the time that it is needed… or just to have fun!

The solar cigarette lighter uses a parabolic mirror to direct the sun’s rays to a point of focus where the tip of a cigarette is held in place by a retractable arm or bracket. These lighters are produced in metal or silverized plastic. The cigarette holding arm can be a hinged bracket or a spring mounted wire (as shown in the photo). In lieu of using the lighter as it’s manufactures intended, alternate tinders to start a fire can be lit by moving the bracket to the side while holding the tinder by hand at the point of focus.

 
The flint-less lighter uses a hair-thin platinum wire or grid of wires to ignite it’s fuel. Platinum wire when exposed to methyl alcohol fumes and other flammable gases creates an exothermic reaction that causes it to glow red-hot thus causing ignition. These lighters can come as a wand for stove burners or lipstick style canisters as shown in the photo. It’s quite a phenomenon to behold. If you acquire either style, you may need to pass the filament through a flame or touch it to a lit cigarette to burn off any residue in order for it to be activated more easily.
 
 
 
The “Shepard’s lighter” or “trench lighter” is a flame-less lighter that uses a charred cotton cord to catch sparks from a flintwheel striker. Where a modern lighter uses lighter fluid with a wick or a nozzle for butane gas, a cotton cord that is charred at the end is similarly positioned to catch the sparks produced when the flintwheel is struck. The result is an ember that is enhanced by blowing on it and then touched to a cigarette. It was used during WWII to light cigarettes without a flame, thus reducing visibility to the enemy when lit.

There are more lighters on my “to-get” list. During WWII Japanese soldiers had a brass fire piston that they used as a lighter. Dunhill made a flint-lock lighter with an actual fire pan for gun powder. There are also battery powered lighters, the most recent model having the appearance of a thumb-drive that is charged via USB port. In the interest if obtaining more specimens for my collection I would enjoy receiving any comments regarding your favorite lighters and how they work.

It came by accident. I was wondering if a plastic drinking straw would work as an emergency tinder. When I lit one, it had an unexpected result. There was a small flame but the straw began to shorten while melting and started to drip. That’s when it occurred to me that the molten plastic might be used to glue items together. I had two wooden slats close by so I lit the remainder of the straw and let it drip on the end of one of the pieces of wood. As the flame got close to my fingers I dropped the remaining straw onto the puddle where it finished burning. When the flame went out, I applied the end of the second piece of wood on top of the puddle and pressed it down. Then I put a heavy object on top of them and waited about 5 minutes. I removed the weight and was able to pick the glued sticks up by one end and wave it around like a wand. Then I grasped the sticks at each end and gave it some torque to test it which proved to be quite strong. With increased pressure one of the sticks broke before the adhesive did.

Although it’s a little difficult to control the melting process I would imagine that it could also be used as a seal for small seams or holes. You can try this out for yourself to get a feel for it’s capabilities. Needless to say, use caution when handling molten material to avoid personal injury and only use flames in a safe noncombustible work area.

Why use grass roots for tinder? Each environment that you encounter may or may not have the tinder resources that you need. Survivalists would suggest that as you travel about, collect potential tinder as you go so that you will be prepared when you need to create a fire. Because roots initially contain moisture, they will need to be dried out for several days, so they would be a more long-term prepped tinder.

I decided to take two fire starting approaches: sparks by ferro rod and solar by wallet-sized Fresnel lens magnifier.

When I first applied sparks with the ferro rod it didn’t work. I realized that I needed to fluff out the roots into a wispy ball, much like I would treat cotton or steel wool tinders in order to catch a spark effectively. The next spark caught immediately.

When I used the pocket magnifier I initially got lots of smoke but not a sustainable ember. Although I had compressed the roots for this approach it needed more compression so I twisted the small bundle as if to make cordage into a small ball. That did the trick. I suggest having as much mass as possible with more tinder standing by to supplement the ember once it’s established.

Generally speaking there is a multitude of tinders more readily available but it’s always good to be aware of alternative tinders when circumstances limit your regular choices.

Ignition sources include sparks, flames, embers, and other sources of focused heat. A common “party trick” is to squeeze an orange rind right next to the flame of a lighter or matchstick. The airborne mist ignites with a “poof!” creating a larger momentary flame. I was curious to see if a flame could be created without using a pre-existing flame by using a spark instead. I often use empty flintwheel lighters to experiment with. The “flint” in the flintwheel lighter is actually ferrocerium which is an alloy of different metals that when struck or scraped will produce a very hot and long duration spark. It can ignite tinder that traditional flint and steel sets cannot. So, I remove the windscreen from the lighter and it becomes my spark source.

In this experiment the biggest challenge was coordinating the mist released by squeezing the rind with the spark produced by the flint wheel. At the end of the session I had a small blister on the lip of my “flicking” finger but it was well worth the price of success. My “proof of concept” worked. Although the flame is only brief, it could exceed the ignition potential of sparks alone.

So, for other firecraft enthusiasts, give this method a try to add another method to your list.

It was a rainy day so they had to use an umbrella to keep the tinder dry and they decided to run the engine to support their battery during the pencil heating process. The time from clamping the pencil to producing a flame took less than 1 1/2 minutes. They transported the initial flame over to the campfire ring where they proceeded to build their campfire for the day.

I am proud of their achievement and was delighted that they captured it by video using a cell phone for our enjoyment. Click on the photo to watch the video… it’s amazing!

Typically, most chemical exothermic reactions involve some kind of liquid to initiate the reaction process. Although there are many chemical combinations to create a KMnO 4 fire, to my amazement, there is a fire method that does not require a liquid element in the equation. When mixed with sugar in a 1:1 ratio (a pile of each element about a quarter size in diameter) and mixed, you can lay a knife blade on it’s side or use a flat rock on top of the pile and press down firmly and begin rapid short strokes forward and backward. You will begin to hear small “pops” at some point the combination of heat by friction combined with the mixed chemicals will ignite. This typically produces sparks and embers that can be pushed together and coaxed into a flame using fine dry tinder layed next to the grinding site in ready position. Or sometimes, when technique and conditions are right, it may just erupt into a flame on it’s own as shown in the photo.

Since “9/11″ pyro-related chemicals have become restricted and more difficult to obtain. Potassium permanganate is a chemical oxidizing agent that is used for medicinal purposes and water purification and may be found at pharmacies and veterinarian supplies. It is also used to remove iron from water sources and can be found at chemical supply houses. It would be a good item to carry in portable first aid kits.

Should you decide to pursue this fire method, take care to stay upwind from the fumes. When using liquids for a reaction, it may take a little time to react, so don’t walk away from your experiment or abandon the set-up until you see a reaction and be sure to disassemble it altogether when finished. Potassium permanganate will stain deep magenta when moistened, so be thorough when cleaning up.