19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know!
I’m going to show you some outdoor survival skills, namely – ‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know.’ Fire is one of the greatest inventions of all time. If you’re out in the wilderness and your messing up big time, but if you could just start a life-saving fire, you’re doing real good. I’m going to show you ’19 emergency fire-starting tricks you gotta know.’ But first we need to understand some basic fire-starting so once your fire is born it stays lit, grows and progresses into a life-saving fire.
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Fire itself directly satisfies or indirectly satisfies the 8 Elements of Survival which are:
• Fire
• Water
• Shelter
• First-Aid
• Signal
• Food
• Weapons
• Navigation
Pound for pound, in most survival situations, FIRE may be the most important. When venturing outdoors, ALWAYS put items in your backpack that satisfy the 8 Elements of Survival. When you make your own home-made Survival Kits, they must have items in them that satisfy the 8 Elements of Survival. More on Survival Kits later. Let’s learn how to start some emergency fires when matches and lighters are not available.
A fire can keep you warm, keep you dry, cook your food, purify your water, aid as a signal device for a searching rescue party, protect you from wild animals, provide a homing beacon for you, and give you a good sense of security. AND MOST IMPORTANT, it will also aid you in AVOIDING FEAR AND PANIC! The following are field-expedient fire-starting methods.
WARNING: EXTREME CAUTION, SAFETY AND COMMON SENSE MUST BE USED IF PRACTICING OR USING THE FOLLOWING TECHNIQUES!
In this section we’ll discuss:
a) Safety
b) Requirements for Fire-building
c) Firepits (5)
d) Field-Expedient Fire-building Techniques (19)
Let’s start with a very important subject of fire-building Safety!
a) Safety.
WARNING: While practicing and using field-expedient fire-building techniques, gloves, eye protection, and protective clothing must be worn.
A fire extinguisher should be within reach at all times and professional medical help on-call. Professional and qualified instruction should be present.
b) Requirements for Fire Building. Some requirements necessary for fire building besides the essentials of oxygen, fuel and heat are tinder, kindling, and sustaining fuel. These are available near your survival site.
Tinder is the smallest of bits of shaved wood, dry grass, paper, tobacco, cotton, lint, hair… and any other material that will burn from a spark, burning ember, heat, small short flame. See Char Cloth below!
Kindling are larger pieces of fuel like twigs, small sticks, pine sap that can not be lit by sparks, heat, or flame. Burning tinder will quickly ignite kindling.
Sustaining fuel are larger pieces of wood, petroleum products, etc.. that ignite under intense heat and will fuel the fire for much longer periods of time than kindling. Kindling will eventually ignite sustaining fuel as long as there’s plenty of heat. Let’s talk about different types of fire pits for different situations.
c) Six Types of Firepits.
I’m gonna show you six types of firepits. You can be an expert in firestarting but without a good PRE-MADE firepit with all the fixin’s (tinder, kindling and sustaining fuel) and arranged for good oxygen access for a good burn, you’re still all WET!
We’re going to discuss 06 firepits: Cross Ditch, Lean-To, Log Cabin, Tee-Pee, Star and Clandestine Firepit methods.
WARNING: ALL firepits should be CLEARED OF ALL vegetation, debris… Clear at least 20-feet all-around the firepit. Your firepit should be downwind and at least 30-feet from your shelter. The only exception to this is a very small & controlled fire between your firewall and your shelter.
01) Cross Ditch Method. In this blog post – ‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know,’ – the Cross Ditch Method is probably the least used because it requires digging. The Cross Ditch Method allows a draft of air from 04 different directions to continuously feed the tinder, kindling and sustaining fuel with needed oxygen from underneath to quickly and effectively burn all fuels.
First locate your firepit in a safe location and clear it out. Carve-out four trenches (05-inches wide and 03-feet long) that form a cross and intersect in the middle. Pile all the dirt off to the side in case you need it to extinguish the fire.
Next gather your tinder, kindling and sustaining fuel (I talk about these on the next few pages). Place the tinder in the center of the fire pit but DO NOT stuff the hole where the cross ditch intersects.
Next, carefully stack-on pieces of small kindling till it piles up about several inches high. Insure you leave a small opening in which to light the tinder or insert already lit tinder.
Next place your small sustaining fuel close to and around your kindling.
Cross Ditch Method
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02) Lean-To Firepit. The lean-to firepit looks similar to a lean-to shelter. The lean-to firepit affords maximum use of the wind to breathe life into the fire.
To build the lean-to firepit, get a sturdy green stick about an inch wide and 05-feet long. Sharpen one end of the stick. This will be your anchor stick.
Take the sharpened-end of the stick and point it downwind and facing down at a 45-degree angle. Secure it in the ground. You’ll build your lean-to firepit on it. Take your kindling and start placing kindling evenly on both sides of your 30-degree anchor stick. You may have 02 may be 03 layers of kindling on the anchor stick. You’ll notice an open area in which to place plenty of tinder. So gather a few birds nest of tinder and place them inside your lean-to firepit.
Your lean-to firepit should be facing into the wind for a quick burning fire. To ignite the lean-to firepit, just light the tinder inside or insert already burning tinder to the tinder already in it.
Lean-To Firepit
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03) Log Cabin Firepit. The log cabin firepit is designed to shield itself from high winds. The tinder and kindling will burn within the walls of the log cabin firepit and the sustaining fuel that forms the log cabin burns from the inside. The Log Cabin Firepit is probably the hottest burning firepit of all the firepits because fire is burning all all sides of the fire and it contains the heat from all sides.
You’ll need to gather about 24 sections of sustaining fuel are about 03-feet in length.
Begin building the log cabin firepit by placing two sections of sustaining fuel parallel with each other. They should be about 01 1/2-feet apart or less than the length of the next shortest of two pieces being stacked-on.
Next place your next two sections and place them on top of the first two sections so they’re facing perpendicular so to form a square. Keep stacking on your sustaining fuel till you have five or more levels of sustaining fuel.
Next place your tinder and sustaining fuel in the log cabin. I advise the Tee-pee – keep reading.
Log Cabin Firepit
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04) Tee-Pee Firepit. The tee-pee firepit is the easiest to build and should be incorporated with the Log Cabin or Star Firepit.
The tee-pee fire pit should be used when there is no wind or a mild breeze at most. The air and wind can easily be accessed from all sides and at ground level.
To build the tee-pee fire pit gather some tinder, thin kindling 01-foot in length and sustaining fuel about 01 1/2 foot in length or longer in-length than your kindling.
Start forming your tee-pee by bringing 02 pieces of kindling to form an “A”. Stick the pieces in the ground. Continue this till you have a complete tee-pee formed. INSURE you leave an opening to light the tinder in the tee-pee or insert already burning tinder.
Next, start forming your sustaining fuel tee-pee like you did with the kindling. Sustaining fuel should support itself. INSURE you leave an opening to light the tinder or insert already burning tinder.
Tee-Pee Firepit
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05) Star Firepit. The Star Firepit is incorporated with the tee-pee firepit. The star firepit is made-up of long sections sustaining fuel which is laid on the edge of the already burning tee-pee firepit so that one end of each section is close enough to the firepit to eventually burn.
Other firepits may be incorporated with the Star Firepit.
Star Firepit
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06) Clandestine Fire Pit. The Clandestine Firepit enables you to not only hide the flame of your fire but also dissipate most signs of any smoke. Why would you want to hide your fire? Good question. Some folks may not be in a survival situation but may want their privacy undisturbed or undetected by other outdoor folks. Instead of broadcasting your location with a bonfire, you may want a simple nice warming-cooking fire.
A few important considerations you’ll need for a clandestine fire are, location, prevailing winds and fuel.
a) The location of your clandestine fire should never be on top of a hill or ridge and never out in the open. It must be located in fairly dense vegetation or an area where it is obscured-hidden by the surrounding terrain. It must have access to air currents and preferably located very close to a tall tree(s) to hide and dissipate the smoke. Also consider locating your fire in a depression.
b) Prevailing winds will feed your fire vital oxygen. Depending on your specific area and terrain, find a location where the air current is following the terrain.
c) Fuel for your fire should be from dry hard woods like oak, walnut, maple… to insure a clean almost smokeless fire. Avoid using coniferous (evergreen, pine, spruce and fir) trees. They’re great fuel but smoke is unavoidable. Avoid using petroleum products. If you want a very clandestine fire, a small stove is your best bet.
Clandestine Fire Pit
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d) Field-Expedient Fire Building Techniques. Before I give you several field-expedient techniques in which to build fires, I want to highly advise you that you use what is called a “bird nest” of tinder to insure your fire gets a good initial life in order to ignite the kindling, followed by your sustaining fuel. OK, here are the ’19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know.’
I also want to introduce you to “char cloth.” Another name is “gunk.” Below is a list of 19 firestarting techniques! Other amazing firestarting techniques are in your Anytime Anywhere Survival Newsletter!
01) Natural Tinder (Birds Nest & Christmas Sticks).
02) Char Cloth – Gunk.
03) Steel Wool and a Battery.
04) Gunpowder.
05) Gun Powder and a Coat Hanger.
06) Flashlight Reflector and Char Cloth.
07) Flashlight Reflector and a Cigarette.
08) Magnifying Glass and Tinder.
09) Cotton and Sparks.
10) Lint and Sparks.
11) Headlight Reflector and Char Cloth.
12) Headlight Reflector and a Cigarette.
13) Petroleum Products.
14) Sugar and Ashes.
15) Pine Resin – Pine Sap\Pine Bark.
16) Potassium Chloride and Sugar.
17) Sodium Chloride and Sugar.
18) Potassium Permanganate and Sugar
19) Flashlight and Steel Wool.
Let’s start with Tinder.
01) Tinder. Tinder IS ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT in fire-building! Why? Let me put it to you this way, if you or anyone can ignite kindling or sustaining fuel with a spark or a match – send me a video! Successful fire-building starts with tinder.
Let’s talk about two natural tinders, Bird’s Nest of Tinder and Christmas Sticks. Later we’ll talk about three more three more natural fire-starting techniques – Pine Resin – Pine Sap – Pine Bark. Now let’s talk about Bird’s Nest of Tinder.
a) Bird’s Nest of Tinder. A bird nest of tinder is designed to give the initial life to a fire by utilizing the driest tinder available. A clump of the driest grass, weeds, leaves, vegetation, or any combination of these.
The dry vegetation is formed into a bird nest so to protect the tinder from being blown-out by the wind while attempting to ignite the tinder and give it a good chance to ignite the bird nest once the tinder’s heat rises to a burning temperature.
Insure that the bird nest has a cup to it so that when placing in the tinder to be ignited (char cloth, lint, gun powder, cotton…) the ignited tinder can readily ignite the bird nest and is protected from too much wind.
The following is a technique to get the bird nest to burn (example – char cloth). I’ll tell you how to make char cloth that will ignite extremely easy with just one little spark or source of heat.
Once the char cloth is ignited with a single spark within the bird’s net, cup the bird nest with both hands and carefully bring it a safe distance from your mouth and forcefully blow into the cupped portion of the bird’s nest where the char cloth is located.
Immediately move the bird’s nest away from your face in order to take a deep breath and to keep from inhaling any smoke.
Bring the birds nest within a safe distance of your face and forcefully blow on the char cloth and again move it away from your face to take a deep breath for the next repetition.
Continue this till the bird nest begins to burn and immediately place it in the fire pit of more tinder and kindling.
Be careful, the bird nest will smoke profusely just prior to igniting. Again, be careful not to bring the birds nest too close to your face when forcefully blowing air in it. It may ignite. INSURE you wear eye protection, gloves and all exposed skin is covered!
Note: If you want to really get the Bird Nest of Tinder to fire-up even easier, get portions of dry grass and prepare it like Native American did to “tinderize” it. The grass is smashed over and over again to a fragile state so it’s more readily able to fire-up. Another technique is to repeatedly and vigorously rub dry grass between both hands. Apply this tenderized dry grass to your bird’s nest of tinder.
Bird Nest Of Tinder
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b) Christmas Tree Sticks. Christmas Sticks are nothing more than taking small pieces of kindling (sticks) and whittling them so that there are shavings extending on opposite sides of the stick forming a Christmas Tree shape! Once formed, these sticks now qualify as tinder! Christmas Tree Sticks really enhance the probability of a quick starting fire. So make a couple dozen of em’ and be careful when shaving the sticks, cut AWAY from you!
Christmas Tree Sticks
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02) Char Cloth. Here’s one of the ’19 emergency fire-starting tricks you gotta know.’ I’ve made and used char cloth plenty of times. Char cloth like the bird nest is a tinder because it is ignited by an ember or a spark. A spark or ember on any part of the char cloth, with forced air can produce enough heat to ignite dry grass or any other dry tinder.
You can make hundreds of pieces of char cloth the size of your hand and it WEIGHS NEXT TO NOTHING! You may even find char cloth in burned-down buildings…
In order to make char cloth, you’ll need a small airtight can (kiwi shoe polish cans are excellent); cotton cloth; a heat source; and some pliers.
Char cloth can be made by cutting portions of the cotton cloth the same size as the kiwi can container.
Place a precut portion of cotton cloth in the top and bottom of each lid of the kiwi can. This way you’ll make to good size pieces of char cloth per burning.
Close the can so that it is airtight. Secure the kiwi can with the pliers and place it over the open fire for sixteen seconds only. Completely remove the can from the fire till it stops smoking. DO NOT continue till the can stops smoking.
Once the can stops smoking, flip it over to the other side and place it on the heat source for sixteen seconds. After sixteen seconds, remove it from the heat source.
Once the can stops smoking continue the step as described above except the time will decrease (by 02 seconds) with each full repetition to fourteen seconds, followed by twelve, ten, eight, six, four, and finally two seconds for each side.
After the final rotation of two seconds on each side, completely remove the can from the fire to cool off to a safe temperature!
Insure the can is cool to the touch and carefully open the can. You’ll find two round pieces of char cloth that are very delicate. The char cloth can very easily tear. Carefully remove these pieces of char cloth and place them in a waterproof container.
The char cloth can easily begin burning with a single spark or ember which will ignite the bird nest. A spark or ember source can be:
a) from a spark from steel wool and almost any size battery.
b) flashlight reflector and the sun.
c) flint and steel.
d) headlight reflector and the sun.
e) magnifying glass.
f) wood embers.
g) spark from expended flint lighter and many more…
Char cloth can also be acquired from burnt buildings – just look for charred clothing! True Char cloth is flat black in color and not fully burnt so as to readily accept any spark or ember to burn! It’s recommended that you make char cloth and add it to your survival kit.
You could make 200 pieces of char cloth and it weighs next to nothing and it could save your life. Having a small pile of very dry grass for your bird’s nest is also recommended! Put these items in your airtight survival kit.
Char Cloth (Gunk)
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Field-Expedient Fire Building Techniques
The following are field-expedient fire-building techniques which may be used in the absence of matches, lighters….
NOTE: Make sure that you’ve already constructed your fire pit and you’ve gathered all the tinder, kindling and sustaining fuel necessary to build your fire. Insure all flammables are clear at least 20-feet around your fire pit.
WARNING: INSURE eye protection and gloves are worn and additional adult supervision is present!
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03) Steel Wool and a Battery. Steel wool (a fine grade is best) can produce sparks or even begin a flame by placing a wad of steel wool on the negative and positive terminals of a 9-volt battery. The best steel wool to use is a Super Fine #0000. By simply applying a small portion of steel wool to the terminals of a 9-volt battery will immediately ignite the steel wool!
Fine steel wool (#0000) will easily burn because it can’t handle the load of electric current passing through it. If you have trouble igniting the steel wool, simply fluff it up!
A car battery because of its high amps and current compared to a small battery, will easily ignite just about any type of steel wool! INSURE your bird’s nest of tinder is nearby as well as your firepit.
Steel Wool And A Battery
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04) Gunpowder. Gunpowder can be used to initiate the burning of the bird’s nest via a magnifying glass, sparks, heat… The gunpowder should be placed on top a green leaf (not dry), char cloth, paper… and in the bird’s nest.
Caution should be taken because the gunpowder burns suddenly and very quickly and could burn the survivor if mishandled or in close proximity. Gunpowder from a single bullet as small as .22 calibre is sufficient to ignite any birds nest.
Once the gunpowder is ignited, the bird nest should readily burn by itself because of the close proximity of dry materials of the bird nest.
Gunpowder
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05) Gun Powder and a Coat Hanger. Got a bullet! You’ll need a coat hanger (non-coated) or a 03-foot piece of wire (same gauge as a coat hanger), 02 pieces of wood for handles, gunpowder and a small log.
It’s a good idea to already have placed your birds nest in your fire pit next to other tinder and kindling. A leaf with gunpowder on it should be placed in the center of the bird’s nest. Next, take both pieces of wood and tie them on each end of your straightened coat hanger to act as handles. Take a small log and lean it on something so that there is at least an 08-inch clearance from the ground. What you’re going to do is see-saw the coat-hanger underneath the log so to build-up heat on the coat hanger so to ignite the gunpowder.
Place the hangar or similar gauge wire under the branch\log and grasp both ends (handles can be attached to each end of the wire to better grasp the wire and seesaw the wire). Place yourself over the log\branch and place one foot on top of it to hold it down.
Slowly start a seesaw motion against the log\branch to cut a groove in the small log. Once you feel that you have a groove cut into the wood, increase the tempo of the seesaw motion. You’ll find that wood will begin smoking because of the friction of wire against the wood. At the initial sign of smoke, increase the tempo till the log\branch smokes at its peak. Stop the seesaw motion and gently touch the pointed-curved portion of the hangar against the gunpowder. The gunpowder will readily ignite and begin burning the bird nest!
Of the ’19 emergency fire-starting tricks you gotta know’ this one is A LOT EASIER X 1,000 than rubbing 02 sticks together.
Gun Powder And A Coat Hanger
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06) Flashlight Reflector and Char Cloth. A flashlight reflector can be utilized to initiate the burning of a piece of char cloth. In order to do this, a bright sunny day is required and of course, char cloth and a reflector from any flashlight.
Place a folded piece of char cloth through the rear opening of the reflector. Aim the reflector directly at the sun and move the char cloth in and out of the opening of reflector till you find the smallest and sharpest concentrated point of reflected sun on the char cloth.
If the reflector is correctly aimed, and the reflected sunlight is correctly concentrated on the char cloth, the char cloth should begin to burn within 02 seconds! Once you see smoke from the char cloth, or an ember, immediately remove it from the reflector and place it in the bird nest. Follow the instructions annotated earlier to ignite the char cloth and birds nest of tinder. Of the ’19 emergency fire-starting tricks you gotta know,’ using char cloth and a reflector from your flashlight is super quick. No B.S.ing around on this one.
WARNING: Do not look directly into the sun!!
Flashlight Reflector and Char Cloth
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07) Flashlight Reflector and a Cigarette. A flashlight reflector can be utilized to initiate the burning of a cigarette. In order to do this, a bright sunny day is required and of course a cigarette and a reflector from a flashlight.
Place a cigarette (tobacco end) through the rear opening of the reflector. Aim the reflector directly at the sun and move the cigarette in and out of the opening of reflector till you find the smallest and sharpest concentrated point of reflected sun on the cigarette.
If the reflector is correctly aimed, and the reflected sunlight is correctly concentrated on the cigarette, the cigarette should begin to smoke within a few seconds! Once you see smoke from the cigarette, or an ember, immediately remove it from the reflector and place it against the bird nest. You may have huff and puff on the cigarette in order to ignite your birds nest!
Once your bird nest starts to smoke (extinguish & save the rest of the cigarette for future use – waterproof it), follow the instructions as annotated earlier to ignite the char cloth and birds nest of tinder.
WARNING: Do not look directly into the sun!
Flashlight Reflector and a Cigarette
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08) Magnifying Glass and Tinder. A magnifying glass can be used to initiate the burning of char cloth, a cotton swab, paper, dry soft tinder… by aligning the magnifying glass at the sun and angle the magnifying glass so that it concentrates the beam of concentrated sunlight on the tinder.
Once the tinder begins to smoke, forcefully blow on it to ignite the char cloth and birds nest of tinder. Other tinders being used should be placed in the bird’s nest of tinder which should be in close proximity to the fire pit with kindling and sustaining fuel. Once the magnifying glass ignites – burns the tinder, accelerate the burning with forceful breaths as required.
Magnifying Glass and Tinder
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09) Cotton and Sparks. Cotton (not cotton fabric or that fake stuff in medicine bottles) can easily be lit as your tinder to ignite your birds nest of tinder or any other tinder you have readily available to burn in your firepit. Place your cotton swab \ Q-Tip (fluff it up) in the bird’s nest. The problem with igniting cotton is that it takes a short burst of concentrated sparks to ignite the cotton.
Once you do get a concentrated burst of sparks to the cotton, it should ignite almost immediately (within 02 seconds) and readily burn your birds nest of tinder!
To easily ignite cotton – fluff it up!!!
I highly recommend you acquire one of the following items and add them to your survival kit.
01) Strike Force and 02) BlastMatch.
But wait! Want to save money? You heard it here first! Use an expended flint lighter! Just take-off the u-housing. It works great!
Cotton and Sparks
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10) Lint and Sparks. Don’t have any cotton uh! Well you have plenty of lint on you and you don’t even know it! Lint like cotton is a very fine fabric and can be ignited by a concentrated burst of sparks as I stated on the previous page. Insure you fluff-up the lit to easily ignite it. Look for and gather lint from the following locations:
01) Pockets (pants, shirt, coat, linings in clothes, folds in clothes).
02) Lining of shirts where it is folded and sewed.
03) Cuffs of pants
04) Underwear (double-lined).
05) Inside shoes
06) Belly button.
07) Vacuum bags.
Lint can be easily lit as your tinder to ignite your birds nest of tinder or any other tinder you have readily available to burn in your fire pit.
The problem with igniting lint is that it take a short burst of a lot of concentrated sparks to ignite it. Once you do get a concentrated burst of sparks to the lint, it should easily ignite the lint and readily ignite your birds nest of tinder!
I highly recommend you acquire on of the following items and add them to your survival kit.
01) Strike Force.
02) BlastMatch.
03) Magnesium Firestarter.
Again, why spend the money? Use an expended flint lighter! Just take-off the u-housing. It works great!
Lint And Sparks
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11) Headlight Reflector and Char Cloth. One of the most powerful ways in which to concentrate the powerful energy of the sun is with a headlight reflector from any car, truck, motorcycle…
The headlight doesn’t have to be in perfect condition either. I’ve lit tinder almost instantaneously using pieces of a headlight! All you need is a headlight, char cloth and a sunny day!
We’ll need to take-off the headlight lens. First, put on some safety glasses and gloves and go find a used headlight. Wrap a cloth around the headlight (prevent flying glass) and gently crack the lens with a solid object (hammer, wrench…). Hit the outer perimeter of the lens or you can try hitting the center and chipping your way to the remaining portion of the lens. What you’re trying to do is separate the lens from the reflector portion of the headlight. If you could take it to a professional and have him cut away the lens, that’s even better!
Now with your shiny headlight reflector in front of you, you’ll notice some prongs protruding from the center of the headlight. Where those prongs meet is the best position for your char cloth – whether it’s held there by hand or you stick it on the prong(s).
Take your shiny headlight reflector and aim it directly at the sun. The sun’s rays will hit the entire reflecting portion of your shiny headlight and instantaneously reflect that powerful energy to the center of your reflector where the prongs meet. If your reflector is aimed half-way decent at the sun, your char cloth will ignite in less than a second!
Once your char cloth is lit, remove it from your headlight reflector, put aside your reflector and place your burning char cloth in your birds nest of tinder.
WARNING: Do not look directly into the sun!! Wear safety glasses and gloves when removing the lens from headlight reflector as well as starting all survival fires.
Headlight Reflector And Char Cloth
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12) Headlight Reflector and a Cigarette. One of the most powerful ways in which to concentrate the powerful energy from the sun is with a headlight reflector from any car, truck, motorcycle…
The headlight doesn’t have to be in perfect condition either. I’ve lit tinder almost instantaneously using pieces of a headlight! All you need is a headlight, a cigarette and a sunny day!
First, put on some safety glasses and gloves and go find a used headlight. Wrap a cloth around the headlight (prevent flying glass) and gently crack the lens with a solid object (hammer, wrench…).
Hit the outer perimeter of the lens or you can try hitting the center and chipping your way to the remaining portion of the lens. What you’re trying to do is separate the lens from the reflector portion of the headlight. If you could take it to a professional and have him cut away the lens, that’s even better!
Now with your shiny headlight reflector in front of you, you’ll notice some prongs protruding from the center of the headlight. Where those prongs meet is the best position for your cigarette – whether it’s held there by hand or you stick it on the prong(s).
Take your shiny headlight reflector and aim it directly at the sun. The sun’s rays will hit the entire reflecting portion of your shiny headlight and instantaneously reflect that powerful energy to the center of your reflector where the prongs meet. If your reflector is aimed half-way decent at the sun, your cigarette will burn almost immediately!
Once your cigarette is lit, remove it from your headlight reflector, put aside your reflector and place your cigarette in your bird’s nest of tinder. Wrap your birds nest around the cigarette. You may have to do some huffing and puffing to get the birds nest to begin burning but it will smoke and lite!!
WARNING: Do not look directly into the sun!! Wear safety glasses and gloves when removing the lens from headlight reflector as well as starting all survival fires!
Headlight Reflector and a Cigarette
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13) Petroleum Products. Petroleum Products burn real easy! Really easy! When I say petroleum products, I’m talking about all types of plastic products, rubber products, lubricants… The extremely flammable petroleum products are gas, kerosene,… Have you ever heard about Fire Departments called to tire fires and the trouble they had controlling and extinguishing tire fires! Very hard to extinguish.
Fine tire-shavings are a good source of kindling! Just take an old tire and cut-out shavings and put them in a little film canister. You can get these film canisters for free! Just go to any quick photo development shop and ask them for film canisters. They’ll dig then out of the trash for you! I’ve got hundreds of them when I teach my Survival Kit Classes!
WARNING: INSURE you take extra precautions when using any field-expedient fire technique in this Anytime Anywhere Survival Program!
Petroleum Products
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14) Sugar and Ashes. Can you use sugar as tinder to start a fire? Yes, as a tinder, meaning adding more sugar will not mean a bigger fire like using kindling.
Yes, you can use sugar as tinder to start a fire! Can’t find any tinder like dry grass, small twigs… Try sugar!
Here’s all you do, you’ll need some white sugar (I’ve found that sugar cubes work best), some ashes, and a match. Remember, this is a good technique if you can’t find fine tinder to get the kindling going!
Take your sugar cube and rub some ashes (cigarette ashes – check the ash trays), on all sides. The ashes help maintain a high heat temperature for the sugar to burn. Without the ashes, the sugar will not burn because it cools too fast.
Once you’ve rubbed some ashes on the sugar cube, take a match and ignite a corner of the cube. The cube should ignite.
Immediately, place it (if it already isn’t located in your fire pit) in your fire pit and immediately and carefully add your smallest & finest kindling. The sugar cube tinder is very fragile to wind, so protect it – shield it against any wind.
Sugar And Ashes
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15) Pine Resin – Pine Sap – Pine Bark. There are many types of pine trees. They’re known for their uses as ornaments, pine sap, pine resin and pine tar. Pine tree by-products are guaranteed for its fire-starting – pine sap, pine resin and pine bark! These three easily available items will easily ignite and help sustain a fire even during a heavy rain! A good idea is to put some small pieces of pine bark\wood double wrapped in paper or heavy-duty plastic bag and secured in your Survival Kit!
Army Special Forces A-Team members have been known to carry small pieces of pine bark\wood as part of their packing lists in case they needed to start fires if the situation permitted. However, small gas stoves are part of their equipment depending on the mission.
Pieces of pine resin can also great fire-starters! Pine resin is easily identifiable by its yellowish or lighter color chunks stuck to pine trees, branches, trunks… (live or fallen).
One single match or flame will light pine bark, pine wood, and very easily ignite pine resin and pine sap! I’ve even lit it during a downpour!
Pine Resin – Pine Sap – Pine Bark
WARNING: If using the following chemical fire-starting techniques, you are solely responsible for your actions. The following fire-starting techniques should ONLY be used under formal classroom instruction by an authorized and certified instructor or in a survival situation. Eye protection, gloves, & proper clothing must be worn at all times. An adequate fire extinguisher must be available. NEVER PREMIX ANY FORMULA till it’s time to use it. Now we’re going to learn some advanced ‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know.’
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‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know.’
Now we’re going to get into the Advanced portion of ‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know.’ Let’s start with Potassium Chloride and Sugar.
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16) Potassium Chloride and Sugar. Potassium Chloride is a is a colorless crystal-like solid or powder used in fertilizers. So you can probably acquire potassium chloride at your local Lawn & Garden Store. But hold-up, I’ll give you a great POC in Section 23 to get a quality high-grade product. Anyway, two parts potassium chloride and one part white sugar can easily ignite a deliberate and lawful fire.
Potassium Chloride and white sugar can easily ignite fires three different ways: sparks, friction and sulfuric acid.
a) Sparks. For your safety, the formula has been cut in half. Use a dry section of flat wood. Carve-out a section of the wood (bowl-shape) in which to place the mixture. You may center your birds nest on the section of wood.
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of potassium chloride to 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar in the bowl-shape portion of your wood piece.
A few inches away, use a Strike Force, BlastMatch, Magnesium Firestarter, or flint and steel to ignite the mixture.
CAUTION: This mixture will burn very quickly. Insure you wear safety glasses, gloves and all exposed skin is covered.
b) Friction. For your safety, the formula has been cut in half. Use a dry section of flat wood. Carve-out a section of the wood (bowl) in which to place the mixture. You’ll also need a 1 foot by 1/2 inch green and sturdy stick. One end must be rounded-out. This end will be used to apply friction.
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of potassium chloride to 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar and place it in the bowl-shape portion of your wood piece.
Rub the stick (rounded-out end) against the mixture in a grinding fashion so to cause friction between the potassium chloride and sugar. Just a few turns will do it!
CAUTION: This mixture will burn very quickly. Insure you wear safety glasses, gloves and all exposed skin is covered.
c) Sulfuric Acid. Wet batteries are used in automobiles. The lead plates (positive & negative plates separated by plastic plates) inside the battery are immersed in sulfuric acid. This combination produces electricity! Sulfuric acid added to potassium & sugar mixture will cause a fire! Use only for legal fires and in a survival situation. For your safety, the formula has been cut in half. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of potassium chloride to 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar in the bowl-shape portion of your wood piece. You may center your birds nest on the section of the wood.
Retrieving battery acid (sulfuric acid) from a battery is difficult without the proper equipment. So we’ll use the stick you used for friction!
Take the cap off the automobile battery. CAREFULLY dip the stick in the battery and soak the stick. Take the stick and lay the soaked-end in the mixture.
CAUTION: This mixture will burn very quickly. Insure you wear safety glasses, gloves and all exposed skin is covered.
Potassium Chloride and Sugar
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17) Sodium Chloride and Sugar. Sodium Chloride is a white powder compound and is used as a weed killer so you can probably acquire sodium chloride at your local Lawn & Garden Store. Two parts sodium chloride and one part white sugar can easily ignite a deliberate and lawful fire in a survival situation. Sodium Chloride and white sugar can easily ignite fires with sparks.
a) Sparks. For your safety, the formula has been cut in half. Use a dry section of flat wood. Carve-out a section of the wood (bowl-shape) in which to place the mixture.
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of sodium chloride to 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar in the bowl-shape portion of your wood piece. You may center your birds nest on the section of wood.
A few inches away, use a Strike Force, BlastMatch, Magnesium Firestarter, or flint and steel to ignite the mixture.
CAUTION: This mixture will burn very quickly. Insure you wear safety glasses, gloves and all exposed skin is covered.
Sodium Chloride And Sugar
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18) Potassium Permanganate and Sugar. Potassium Permanganate is a dark purple crystal-like compound that is used for disinfecting, deodorizing and dyeing.
Potassium Permanganate and white sugar can easily ignite fires two different ways: sparks and friction.
a) Sparks. For your safety, the formula has been cut in half. Use a dry section of flat wood. Carve-out a section of the wood (bowl-shape) in which to place the mixture.
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of potassium permanganate to 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar in the bowl-shape portion of your wood piece.
A few inches away, use a Strike Force, BlastMatch, Magnesium Firestarter, or flint & steel to ignite the mixture. You may center your birds nest on the section of wood.
CAUTION: This mixture will burn very quickly. Insure you wear safety glasses, gloves and all exposed skin is covered.
b) Friction. For your safety, the formula has been cut in half. Use a dry section of flat wood. Carve-out a section of the wood (bowl) in which to place the mixture. You’ll also need a 01 foot by 1/2 inch green and sturdy stick. One end must be rounded-out. This end will be used to apply friction.
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of potassium permanganate to 1/4 teaspoon of white sugar and place it in the bowl-shape portion of your wood piece. You may center your birds nest on the section of wood.
Rub the stick (rounded-out end) against the mixture in a grinding fashion so to cause friction between the potassium chloride and sugar. Just a few turns will do!
CAUTION: This mixture will burn very quickly. Insure you wear safety glasses, gloves and all exposed skin is covered.
Potassium Permanganate And Sugar
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19) Flashlight and Steel Wool. One real handy and multiple purpose flashlight is the Military style Elbow Flashlight. The Elbow Flashlight comes with multiple colored lenses, a spare bulb, is very durable, watertight and you can use it several ways to ignite field-expedient fires! It cost less than $6! A great buy! I encourage you to get one today. Put one in your vehicle, boat, plane…
You already know how to use a flashlight reflector. What if it’s overcast? Try using Super Fine #0000 Steel Wool and your Elbow Flashlight (positive & negative terminals are in the perfect location to use electricity)! Just a small piece of steel wool will do it! Hey, you got a fire within a single second!!! As a matter of fact, you can store steel wool in the “Bulb Compartment” of your Elbow Flashlight for future use when you’re in a jam!
You’ll find two small empty compartment wells on either side of the spare bulb compartment. Stuff two good pieces of Super Fine #0000 Steel Wool in both compartments and you’ll be ready Anytime Anywhere!
OK, here’s how you use your Elbow Flashlight and steel wool to start a fire. Insure you have 02 good D size batteries already in the flashlight.
a) Insure you’re wearing eye protection & gloves and you’re close to your fire pit with your birds nest close by. Unscrew the reflector portion of your flashlight and put it aside.
b) Turn-on the flashlight by flipping the button upward towards the reflector portion of the flashlight.
c) You’ll notice to prongs (one on the side and one in the center. These are your positive and negative terminals. When you take a piece of steel wool and simultaneously touch both terminals you complete a circuit. Since the gauge (thickness) of the steel wool is so fine, it can’t handle the electrical current. It’s overloaded with electricity and burns!
d) Position your Elbow Flashlight so it’s slightly above you (kneel when you’re doing this method), and it’s pointing downward so the burning steel wool won’t be dropped in the well of the flashlight.
e) Holding your Elbow Flashlight with one hand, take a piece of steel wool with your free hand and apply your fluffed-up piece of it steel wool (a compacted wad won’t readily ignite because it can handle the electricity load) to both terminals. The wad of steel wool should ignite in about a 1/2 second!!! Is that quick enough for you!
f) Once it’s ignited, place the burning steel wool to your birds nest that’s already in your firepit. You may have to forcefully blow on the steel wool so it ignites your bird’s nest!
Of the ‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know,’ in this blog post, this is one of my favorites.
Flashlight And Steel Wool
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Now that we covered ‘19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know,’ I highly advise you to re-read How To Plan Your Outdoor Adventure.
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Paperback Book—————Kindle E-Book
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“Save My Life – Basic, Advanced, And Ultra-Advanced Emergency Fire-Starting TOTAL Package!
You just read 19 Emergency Fire-Starting Tricks You Gotta Know. But this barely scratches the surface. CLICK the link above for a lot more HOT information that could SAVE YOUR LIFE when you need an emergency fire RIGHT NOW, not 02-hours from now – RIGHT NOW! No rubbing 02 sticks together here – don’t have time for that prehistoric fire-starting.–
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I encourage you to read through the following blog sites:
- “52 Survival Books”
- “104 Anytime Anywhere Survival Newsletter Descriptions”
- “Save My Life – Survival Program”
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