What do you use to start your fire/stove?

Piezo all the way and a backup, which you should be carrying anyway no matter what choice #1 is.

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I still like and use book matches for all my lighting chores. They're light and cheap and hey, they were good enough for Colin Fletcher, right? They're biodegradable too (see below).

For backup I carry a Sparklite, tinder tabs, and you guessed it, another book of matches in a small ziplock bag inside my sundries bag.

I guess I've just never cared for disposable butane lighters. Maybe that's because I've had to pick up and pack out too many of them that were empty or broken and were simply discarded in camps or along the trail by other hikers. At least their bright colors and shiny metal bits made them easy to see.

Michael

@ Dennis – LOL! Thanks for the morning laugh!

“I've noticed many people refer to "vaseline-soaked cotton balls" as a firestarter. I see why that would work, but how exactly do you "soak" them in vaseline?”

Here’s one method:
Put 10 cotton balls (cut in half) and about a tablespoon of Vaseline in a Ziploc snack bag, close it up and kneed the bag and contents until the Vaseline is distributed into the cotton balls. Adjust the ratio to suit. No mess and you can carry them in the same bag.
-Lance

One small addition that I found that does wonders to increase the burn time of the vaseline coated cotton ball:

Take a small square of foil and wrap the cotton ball with it to make a small fire bowl.

This slows the burning of the cotton ball.

I managed to get one full cottonball to burn 6 minutes with a 2 inch flame vs. about 2.5 minutes without the foil.

6 minutes is a long burn time, but could be very helpful in snow or very wet/rainy conditions if your wood/tinder was wet or damp.

-Tony

I used to carry what seemed like a reasonable number of back-up firestarters. A lighter in my pocket, one with my stove, one in the survival kit, maybe a mini-flint/striker, and a couple of match safes with strike-anywheres… until I weighed them all together and it came to about 8 ounces. After submerging a wide variety of match safes in the sink at home I found that they basically all leaked. Now I carry 2 mini-Bics. I might add a mini striker or Sparklite back in.

I used to carry Esbit as an emergency fire starter, but unless you "prime" the tablet with alcohol, etc. a simple spark won't ignite it. I use the vaseline-soaked cotton balls (actually, right now have a batch made with dryer lint) for fire starting and they're great. They light with minimal spark and keep burning even in wet and breezy conditions.

Personally I never cared for the idea of using a fire steel to light a stove–too many parts in motion, seems to easy to knock over the stove. I know, I know… with proper practice and… but it's the times you're half-conscious, shivering, and just want a hot cup of coffee that concern me. So for stoves I stick with the lighter or a lit twig.

I always melt the Vaseline in a pot, then turn the heat off and dump the cotton balls in there. They soak up much more vaseline and it tends to be much less messy than trying to rub the Vaseline into them with my hands. They also burn much longer.

Mini Bic and a box of waterproof matches for a pocket rocket. No problems so far with this set up.

George,

Thank you for that tip! I've just learned a new skill thanks to your post. I've never been able to light my alcohol stoves with a firesteel. Last night I tried your suggestion of pulling back on the stick rather than the scraper. That still didn't work, but gave me a similar idea:

While holding the scraper in my left hand, I placed the scraper ON TOP OF the stove opening, so it created a bridge across the stove. I then stuck the firesteel INTO the opening of the stove, placed it next to the scraper 'bridge', and pulled straight up. Pressing down on the scraper 'bridge' held the stove very stable, and pulling the stick straight up eliminated the chance of hitting the side. This sent a shower of sparks directly down into the fuel, and it lit up immediately.

I haven't learned a truly new technique like that in a while; thanks for the idea!

BTW I've had somewhat unreliable performance with my propane lighters, though admittedly they weren't always the BIC brand. One simply failed to operate at altitude, and the other managed to run out of fuel before the end of my hike. The lighter would also occasionally burn my thumb trying to reach down into the stove, and it gets my fingers awfully close to the flame once it ignites; a possible hazard during the day when the flame is invisible. This new firesteel technique keeps my fingers further from the flame both before and at the point of ignition. I can now replace tis with the more reliable Firesteel as my universal fire-starting tool of choice and put my mind at ease a bit more.

A word of warning about Piezo lighters — they often don't work at altitude. I bought a fancy "blowtorch" type lighter with piezo ignition ($$'s!) thinking I'd have a really bombproof firestarting system. Didn't work at 8k+ feet on Mt. Waterman in the snow and wind. I felt a little stupid, but I reached into my pocket and pulled out a little cheapie bic and lit the fire. I drove down the hill late that day, and the lighter "magically" began working again. It was all about the elevation.

The piezos on a Jetboil seem a lot more robust; I've used them at 10K without an altitude related problem. Piezo ignitors on Jetboils do have a general reputation for being unreliable, but that's unrelated to altitude. I've gone through two piezo ignitions now and have given up. I carry a mini bic, some matches, and a Spark-Lite.

"Piezo ignitors on Jetboils do have a general reputation for being unreliable, but that's unrelated to altitude"
Yes you are right there. Mine does not work equally as well at sea level as it doesn't at 6000' . I haven't tried above that but suspect that it will continue not to work above just as well.
Yes, I have tried to "fix it" another few hours of my life that I will never get back. Not that I had a good idea on how to fix it…
Franco

"While holding the scraper in my left hand, I placed the scraper ON TOP OF the stove opening, so it created a bridge across the stove. I then stuck the firesteel INTO the opening of the stove, placed it next to the scraper 'bridge', and pulled straight up. Pressing down on the scraper 'bridge' held the stove very stable, and pulling the stick straight up eliminated the chance of hitting the side. This sent a shower of sparks directly down into the fuel, and it lit up immediately."

John, cool idea. I never thought to "pin" the stove down with the striker. If you're not learnin', you're not payin' attention I always say ;-).

Great idea, John; I'll try that next time.

All this talk makes me want a Bushbuddy all the more.

Valseline Cotton balls work fine in the bushbuddy. Put the vaseline in the middle of the ball. If you have some small dry fibers sticking out of the sides they can easily be ignited by a spark. The best starter for the wood burner, however, is just tigs. Use the very fine ends of evergreens.
Another good emergency fire starter is the Coleman "Strike a Fire Fire Starter". It is a match head ontop of fire starter material. In other words a match stike made of fire starter.

http://www.summitcampinggear.com/coleman-strike-a-fire-fire-starters.html

Check your emergency matches if you have not used them in awhile. Matches seem to have a shelf life. I found a bunch of strike-anywhere matches useless after I had them for awhile. I also found matches I had waterproofed myself by dipping them in wax unreliable. Knowing the striker surface can often get soggy and useless, I took a piece of sandpaper. I found, however, that the roughest grade is the worst. A small edge of a hack saw blade works, more reliable and safer than a fly zipper. Be aware, too, that the small flint of a bic lighter can wear down.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/556839194qbaYfz

I shot a short video to demonstrate how I use the firesteel to light an alky stove and a campfire.

You can see it on my website or at: