Have you ever had an empty peiso BBQ lighter? Some are refillable and some aren’t but when you don’t have a butane fuel cannister you might want an alternative way to get a flame in an emergency.

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.