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.

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.

 
You’ll probably notice a lot of dandelions that have sprung up around your yard or neighborhood recently. Outside of being edible, they can be great for tinder too. Check out my video for more details.

Well, I finally produced my first video illustrating how to make fire with an empty flintwheel lighter. I have added a video page to the site to host future video productions. I have chosen Metacafe to post my videos, and they say “The higher your video’s VideoRank, the more exposure it will get on Metacafe. So forward the link to friends, make sure they watch the video to completion, tell them to forward it to friends, have them rate it 5 stars… spread the word!”… so, please watch it through at Metacafe and rate it FIVE STARS to increase it’s viewership. – Thanks!