DIY fire starters

Joined
Feb 21, 2017
Messages
1,794
Location
Colorado
I have used a lot of fire starters and always come back to Vaseline soaked cotton balls. They compress really small, weigh nothing, and take a spark from a Ferro rod great if you pull them apart. They are impervious to water.

the biggest downside to me was making them. My hands always came out like a teenager with his first dirty magazine.

today I bought “cotton rounds” from the makeup area at Walmart, and tried them. I laid them out on tinfoil, dropped a dollop of petroleum jelly on them with a butter knife, and put them in the oven at 175 for 10 minutes.

worked great, no mess, no cleanup, and they burn great. This is about a quarter of one, sparked with one spark from a bic lighter.

I put them in a zip lock bag and 15 of them are about 1.5” high and 2” wide.
 

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Te Hopo

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
152
Location
New Zealand
For firestarters I use vaseline soaked tampons.
They're super compact and when you need one, just tease one end apart and light the fluff.
If dry wood is handy I'll cut one in half but if I'm trying to start a fire with damp wood, the full one burns for a good 5 mins
 

Silver

FNG
Joined
Feb 1, 2018
Messages
51
Location
Northern BC
For firestarters I use vaseline soaked tampons.
They're super compact and when you need one, just tease one end apart and light the fluff.
If dry wood is handy I'll cut one in half but if I'm trying to start a fire with damp wood, the full one burns for a good 5 mins
A fiend of mine uses tampons while sledding - he'll dip one in the fuel tank/Jerry can for about 30 seconds, and it will burn for at least a few minutes. I was surprised how long it went actually. I can see these working even better.
 

2ski

WKR
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
Messages
1,722
Location
Bozeman
If you want to make then more compact I pull all the air out with my vac sealer. Cotton balls compress very nice and small.
 

boliver29

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
118
My friends wife gave a whole she soaks the round make up wipes and when she done with a scent see candle she soaked about 3/4 in the wax and the work great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2020
Messages
37
Location
Triangle, NC
I usually go with beeswax coated hemp. But I have cotton and vaseline too. I'm mostly talking about for backpacking, so I like to go compact. So I do this with the cotton:

You can also seal up salt and pepper, olive oil, etc in the straws for cooking as well.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2020
Messages
11
I definitely like the Colton balls with Vaseline. Ferro rod lights them really well. Also hand sanitizers works in a pinch if you’ll use small tender to light.
 
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