Coconut oil as a firestarter

[Les M]

I was thinking about some outside-the-box dual use items and it occurred to me that I often take vaseline-soaked cotton balls as fire starters with me. While the utility of Vaseline as a multipurpose item can be debated elsewhere, I wondered what other substance could be used as a good fuel for this type of firestarter. While I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of it, I realised coconut oil would make an ideal fuel! Not only does it burn long (7-10 minutes for a large cottonball's worth) but it is also very calorie dense food source! It's also good for moisturising skin and as a lip balm. You could use it as an all purpose grease, too. I'm sure there are plenty of other uses.

[Franco Darioli]

Olive oil can be used the same way.

[Ken Thompson]

Vaseline is cheap though. But why not. Many things will work. Good first post. Welcome.

[Terran Terran]

Consumables are single use. If you have enough cc oil to start a fire, you have too much cc oil.

[Ken Thompson]

nm

[Franco Darioli]

Consumables are single use. If you have enough cc oil to start a fire, you have too much cc oil.

Let's see.
You are out on your third day of a seven day walk.
For some reason you need to start a fire and don't have much dry stuff around or not much time to collect it and start a fire. (say it's raining hard and you are already cold)
A teaspoon of coconut oil, or olive oil, with some wick, inside the bottom of a can or a piece of foil will burn for 10 minutes or more.
Easier than striking the magnesium bar over and over again (well if you had one anyway) or burning several matches hoping one will eventually work.
What's better in that situation, keeping the extra tea spoon of oil for the single use food or a warm, fire ?
(BTW, that is a rhetorical question….)

[Terran Terran]

I guess it would all.depend if it was extra virgin coconut oil or not. That stuff is good.
It's just word play. I guess you could burn it after you've consumed it. To the OP…A good suggestion. Good use of what you have in an emergency situation. Thinking outside the box will save your life someday.

[Nick Smolinske]

I think there's a pretty simple (although hard to actually calculate) equation for this – if you're in a survival situation where a fire is a good idea, you are potentially losing calories due to being cold. So do you avoid burning more calories through having the warmth of a fire than you would gain from eating the oil? I think most likely the answer is yes in any situation where you would actually need to do this.

Great idea, by the way. I almost always have some sort of fat available when backpacking.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Coconut oil is awesome but I haven't figured out a good way to carry it. When melted it seems to know how to get out of any container, and it's too solid sometimes to put in a squeeze tube or bottle. Otherwise it's very nice on skin, tastes good in your food and heck, if you can mop up the mess it makes with a cotton ball and start a fire with it, then yeah.

[Terran Terran]

So, I oil my pan with a saturated cottonball, then use the cottonball to start the fire.

[Bob Moulder]

Anything with high oil/fat content will work. Like Fritos.

Still, cotton balls with about 1/3 coverage in Vaseline, wrapped in waxed paper covers, are my favorite. Good, long burn, and by fluffing up the dry cotton part it can be started very easily with a couple of sparks from a firesteel, which is also often the back-up igniter. These two were made for each other!

[Bob Moulder]

So, I oil my pan with a saturated cottonball, then use the cottonball to start the fire.

That only makes sense if you're using a wood fire. The cottonball is merely kindling, which still must be ignited by something else (Bic, etc), and if you're using alcohol/Esbit/isobutane the cottonball/oil isn't needed.

So most folks would end up rarely — if ever — needing it. I employed it only a few times when using an Emberlit Mini (twig stove) or building campfires (very rarely). Even in those situations, most often dry leaves and carefully chosen and properly stacked twigs can get the fire going without any special kindling.

More important are the primary and backup starters, such as Bic and matches, or firesteel, etc

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Tampons are even better than cotton balls. Multi-use, sort of. I mean, one use on any given trip depending on the more urgent need.

[Michael Gunderloy]

And guys can claim they're carrying in case of nosebleed.

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