Fire Starter

Last week my friend and fellow blogger Leon  Pantenburg came to my wilderness survival class and held a presentation on fire starters.  Fire starters are a combination of equipment and process to start fire in an emergency situation.

The highlight was when Leon used flint, steel and char cloth.  Flint, steel and char cloth were the tools to create a spark.  The char cloth captured the tiny spark and began to ignite a very small section of the char cloth.

Char cloth is made from all cotton material (e.g., blue jeans) that is placed in a small container and is essentially cooked for 5-10 minutes.

Take a look at Leon's video or visit his blog at www.survialcommonsense.com. 

Leon calls char cloth a miracle material for making a fire.

When I head out into Oregon's backcountry I have a small pack that contains the basics of the 10 essentials.

Among the many components in my pack is a small (sandwich size) zip lock plastic bag containing my fire starter.

For fire starting I carry a water tight container filled with Storm Proof matches, a "metal match", cotton balls saturated with petrolatum jelly, Bic lighter and flint, steel and char cloth (about six or seven pieces.)

From Left to Right - Steel striker, two pieces of char cloth, and a quarter
 give perspective to char cloth size.  Outdoor Quest/Blake Miller image.