By Creek Stewart
The ability to create fire is quite possibly the most important survival skill on earth. Fire has been the core of survival since the beginning of time. It allows a survivalist to accomplish a huge variety of life-sustaining tasks. In certain situations, fire may be your only way to stave off severe cold and control your body’s core temperature. The heat from a fire not only provides warmth, but it can be used to dry clothes, shoes, and gear.
A fire kit is an essential piece of survival equipment that you should carry with you at all times. That may sound extreme, but if you have a basic lighter and some pocket lint, you have a very basic fire kit.
In your Bug-Out Bag, fire items should be stored in their own waterproof kit to protect them from water and moisture. You can use a vast number of containers for your fire kit. Several practical examples are:
Regardless of the container style and size you choose, practice identifying this kit inside of your BOB in complete darkness or while blindfolded. You could very well need to find and use this kit in low-light circumstances. Again, disasters don’t present ideal environments. Prepare for the worst and anything better is a bonus.
Because fire is such an important survival resource, I encourage redundancy when it comes to packing fire-making tools and supplies in your BOB. Your BOB fire kit should contain two main fire-making components:
Pelican Case and Resealable Bags
Pack a minimum of three ignition sources. I can justify this redundancy because the cost and weight of each one is very minimal.
Lighters are cheap, lightweight, reliable, easy-to-use, long-lasting and extremely effective. I carry one lighter in my waterproof fire kit and two more in separate spots on my BOB. Lighters do have certain limitations. They don’t function well in extreme cold or when wet.
Regular matches are just too vulnerable to moisture. Be sure to pack a dozen or so waterproof strike anywhere matches stored in a sealed match case. You can purchase both in the camping section of any outdoor store or even a big-box discount retail store.
Strike Anywhere Matches and Waterproof Container
Make strike anywhere matches waterproof by dipping them in fingernail polish. Dip twice for a waterproof seal. Dip a third time for peace of mind.
The technical name for this product is a ferrocerium rod. Many people also use the name ferro rod or metal match. A fire steel can generate sparks at over 2,000 degrees F when scraped with a metal striker or the back of your survival knife. There are many different styles of fire steel sparkers. Generally, they all work using the same principle.
A fire steel can generate sparks even in damp and wet conditions. An average fire steel can be used thousands of times and is an excellent survival ignition source. Striking these sparks into prepared fire tinder is a very effective fire-starting technique and one that I use almost exclusively while in the bush. The fire steel I carry is one made by Kodiak Firestarters. They manufacture a fire steel that is mounted to a small bar of magnesium. Of course, you can use the fire steel alone to ignite dry tinder in reasonable conditions just as you would any ferro rod. However, if your conditions or fire-starting tinder aren’t ideal, you can scrape off shavings from the built-in magnesium bar into a small pile with your knife or the included striker tool and use these shavings as tinder. Magnesium shavings ignite with just a spark and burn at over 5,000 degrees F. It’s hard not to get a fire going with a small burning pile of metal! These integrated fire steels are a little pricier but the added bonus of built-in magnesium fire-starting material is worth the extra few dollars and ounces. This is an ignition source and fire-starting tinder in one compact package.
Several Ferrocerium Rods including Kodiak Firestarter
By John D. McCann
I would like to attempt to clarify the confusion often surrounding the terms “ferrocerium” and “mischmetal” when it comes to various fire starters.
My wife, who speaks fluent German, voiced confusion to the term mischmetal as it relates to ferrocerium. She explained that the term mischmetal is from the German word Mishmetall, meaning mixed metal, and that since a ferrocerium rod is made of a mixture of metal, by definition it is a mischmetal rod.
So I did a little digging and she is right. But the terms have taken on their own vernacular by the survival/fire-starting community. The terms are used to distinguish the difference between two types of fire-starting rods or tools.
A mischmetal, also known as cerium mischmetal, is an alloy of rare earth elements, namely those from the lanthanum series. The resultant mischmetal by itself is too soft to use as a flint, such as used in a lighter.
Therefore, it is blended with iron oxide and magnesium oxide. The resulting man-made material is called ferrocerium — probably because of the addition of the iron (ferro) and the mischmetal (cerium), hence ferrocerium—and will produce sparks to ignite tinder when scraped by a sharp edge, usually a piece of steel.
The scraper is called a striker. For years, this was the only type of spark-producing fire-starting device that came in a rod form, and was termed a ferrocerium rod or a mischmetal fire starter.
Enter the twenty-first century and a desire for a hotter fire starter rod. A new fire starter rod is introduced and it is called a mischmetal rod. I know, I know, but what can I say.
This rod allows the user to obtain both a sufficient ignition spark and an ample shower of hot burning flakes of magnesium used to ignite tinder.
Without getting too technical, this is done by lowering the iron content and increasing the magnesium content. The increased amount of magnesium, relative to the decreased iron content, results in a softer rod.
The pieces that are scraped off are larger and, after being ignited by the sparks, continue to burn after leaving the rod.
For the purpose of this article, a ferrocerium rod (also known as a ferro rod) is harder and gives lots of sparks, but the sparks don’t continue to burn.
A mischmetal rod gives large burning chunks of magnesium that continue to burn after leaving the rod.
I, being old school, still prefer the ferrocerium rod. It is hard and, in my opinion, lasts much longer than a mischmetal rod. A ferro rod only gives you sparks, but hot sparks, and they have always been adequate for me to ignite tinder. The sparks are fairly easy to aim into a tinder pile.
I have found that the large burning pieces of magnesium scraped off the mischmetal rod are more difficult to aim and the rods wear down in a much shorter time than a ferro rod.
However, when the hot burning pieces of magnesium do find their way into the tinder, they burn longer, and will even ignite a piece of paper (a ferro rod won’t do that). To make an intelligent decision, experiment with both and determine which is best for you.
The ignition source is only half of the fire-starting equation. In a Bug-Out scenario, I want guaranteed fire. This means I need a guaranteed ignition source and some fire-starting tinder that is guaranteed to light when I hit it with one of my ignition devices. The only guaranteed fire tinder is the tinder that you pack with you. Although natural fire-starting materials exist, certain weather conditions can make finding dry, flammable fire tinder very difficult. Below are several great BOB fire tinder options. I recommend you pack at least two of these.
WetFire is a brand name, store-bought fire tinder available at most outdoor retailers. It is undeniably the best fire starter available. It will light with just a spark in almost any weather condition. It will even light and burn while floating in water.
It’s a remarkable product and makes a very reliable BOB fire-starting pack item. WetFire tablets will burn approximately two to three minutes and come individually wrapped in a waterproof package. With this burn time, you can even burn a WetFire tablet as the fuel source in an Esbit stove mentioned in chapter four, making these tablets a good multi-use item.
A tablet of WetFire also fits into the handle of the StrikeForce Fire Starter. This is an excellent tool that includes a ferro rod and striker built into a durable plastic housing with a compartment that fits one cube of WetFire. This makes for a very compact all-inclusive, fire-starting package.
WetFire Burning in Water
StrikeForce Fire Starter From ForgeSurvivalSupply.com
Common steel wool is one of the best fire-starting materials available. The smallest spark will ignite the thin metal fibers into a smoldering ember that burns at a very high temperature. The smoldering steel wool can then be used to ignite combustible tinder, such as dried grass, leaves, paper, etc. Steel wool is readily available at any hardware and grocery store. It is also very cheap.
Like WetFire tinder, steel wool burns even when damp. Even if it’s soaking wet, you can shake it out and ignite it within a few seconds. You can pack a good amount of steel wool in a very small container and it doesn’t have an expiration date. Steel wool will ignite and smolder even in freezing conditions.
One of best fire starters I’ve ever used can be made at home in just a few minutes and costs virtually nothing. This homemade tinder only requires two ingredients: petroleum jelly and either cotton balls or dryer lint. (PET is short for petroleum—hence the name PET Balls.)
These are very easy to make. Simply saturate a cotton ball or comparable-sized chunk of dryer lint with a quarter-sized scoop of petroleum jelly.
Then, mix it in thoroughly so that all of the fibers are coated.
Lastly, roll each chunk into little balls and store them in a watertight container or resealable bag.
The petroleum jelly acts as a fire extender. It becomes a fuel source and turns the cotton/lint into a makeshift wick that will light with just a spark and then burn for several minutes. Without the petroleum jelly, the burn time would be just a few seconds—drastically reducing your window of opportunity to get a healthy fire going. In addition, the petroleum jelly helps to waterproof the cotton/lint as well. Petroleum jelly can also be mixed with natural tinder such as dried grass, cattail down, or milkweed down with similar success.
For this reason, I always travel with a tube of Carmex lip balm, a petroleum-jelly-based product that can easily be used as a fire extender in an emergency.
To use a PET Ball, pull it apart to separate and expose the fine fibers. This increases surface area and facilitates airflow. Then, simply strike it with a spark from a fire steel or light it with a match or lighter and get ready to place small kindling on the flame.
Find more fire building instructions in Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag by Creek Stewart, available at store.livingreadyonline.com.