Do you carry a backup fire starter? What and Why or Why Not?

[Bob Moulder]

Mini-Bic for main, firesteel and homemade fire starter for backup, which becomes main when using the Emberlit Mini (wood stove).

For fire starter/tinder, I use some cotton balls dipped halfway in melted Vaseline, then wrapped in waxed paper, a-la-hard candy. Unwrap, puff up the dry cotton half and this thing ignites super fast with the firesteel and burns like crazy for 4 minutes or so.

Somebody posted this idea some time back and I adopted it immediately.

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[David Thomas]

>"Your backup fire starter needs to be in your pocket."

+1

Although I should be better about this on BPing trip, I am rigorous about it while boating (canoe, kayaking power boats under 40 feet). I've stitched extra pockets on my PFD so I'm always wearing a knife, bic+wax paper (vac-pac'ed), VHF, PLB, emergency blanket, and some cordage. I've only really needed that stuff once in the 15 years I've been doing it, but once is enough – when the boat sinks in cold salt water 7 miles past the last native village, a radio is a marvelous thing to have.

[Andy F]

"Your backup fire starter needs to be in your pocket. One major reason for the need to make a fire is when separated from your gear by accident or theft. Stream crossings top my list. Having a bear drag your away pack is possible."

+1

IMHO, this is one of the most important safety principles.

[Mitchell Ebbott]

I keep my small, easily misplaced "essentials" on a small wire keyring. This includes:

– Mini Bic (duct taped to a piece of cord to let me put it on the ring)
– firesteel and striker
– spy capsule with small bit of tinder
– Leatherman Style knife
– whistle
– Fenix 1xAAA flashlight

This stays in my pocket at all times, preferably one with a zipper or Velcro closure. I keep a few waterproof matches and a striker with my first aid/repair kit in the pack. At a few grams, that way I have something in my pocket and something else in my pack.

Dale, I think I bought most of those items from you in an "essentials kit" a while back when I first started down the ultralight path.

[Dale Wambaugh]

That is near identical to my current keyring kit. I use an Olight i2 flashlight to get AA coverage for my flashlight and headlamp, but the other items are the same.

If you don't have a secure pocket, a bit of line as a lanyard to your belt is good.

[Ian]

"- Mini Bic (duct taped to a piece of cord to let me put it on the ring)
– firesteel and striker
– spy capsule with small bit of tinder
– Leatherman Style knife
– whistle
– Fenix 1xAAA flashlight"

I do the same thing. I keep them with all of my keys in the front country and they're in my zippered front pocket with my truck key when backpacking. The only thing I add for backpacking is I girth hitch my firesteel/striker to it.

On my person in zippered pocket:

firesteel/striker
spy capsule with drier lint
SAK clasic
Whistle
LED light (similar to photon)
truck key

On my trekking poles:

100mph tape (can be used to build fire)

In my pack:

mini bic
esbit
cotton pads in FAK that double as fire starter

[Justin Baker]

Esbit makes a mean fire starter. In an emergency, 3 or 4 of them can be used to blaze through frozen wood. And then you have unlimited fuel to cook with.

[Owen McMurrey]

I was wondering if anyone would mention their stove/fuel.
I carry a mini Bic and a firesteel.
There's a couple of trioxane tabs in my first aid/emergency kit, and either an alcohol or canister stove in my cook kit.
On weekend trips in winter, I've started carrying one of those small firestarter block…things(Zip?) when planning on having a fire. You supposedly just light the wrapper, but that never works. A lighter gets it going in a couple seconds, though, and you can skip scrounging for tinder and twigs.

[Frank T]

Lately I've been hiking with 2 partners (doing PCT Sections) and we have lots of redundancy. We also rarely have fires, considering all the restrictions, so the need for flame is primarily to light stoves. I carry:

– mini-BIC, in cook kit
– storm-proof matches & striker, in a waterproof case that has whistle & compass
– Individually-wrapped alcohol swabs, a few in the match case and more in my FAK

The others carry similar. If I were going solo I'd bring an extra mini-BIC.

Re-evaluating this based on the discussion above: add a couple of Esbits (great idea), and also swap out some alcohol swabs for vaseline'd cotton balls (or q-tips). And whatever I end up with for backup in the future is going in a pocket on worn clothing.

[Mobile Calculator]

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[David Adair]

I like the mini BICs, but in winter I carry at least one full, large size Bic. The small ones don't have much thermal mass and can cool off faster than I can light something. Frustrating when you really, really would like a fire.

[Marc Kokosky]

+1 this is exactly what I do. My backup is lint with 6 stormproof matches in a tiny ziploc bag. Total weight about .3oz

[David Thomas]

> I was wondering if anyone would mention their stove/fuel.

I have in other threads.

My wife had a 5-foot ocean wave dump on her just as she beached her kayak on a remote, salt-water beach in Alaska.

I dragged her and her boat above high tide.

Then I lit the canister stove, dug a hole for it in the beach and laid driftwood on top of it.

In two minutes it was a medium fire, I pulled the stove out, and kept adding wood.

Minutes later, it was a large campfire and she was warming up.

[Roger Caffin]

> Minutes later, it was a large campfire and she was warming up.

Meanwhile, you were sweating with all that running about …

Cheers

[Dale Wambaugh]

Then I lit the canister stove, dug a hole for it in the beach and laid driftwood on top of it."

A stove explosion always makes a bad situation better. I'm glad it worked, but that was risky business.

Get some flares, seal them in plastic and duct tape them inside your kayaks.

[ROBERT TANGEN]

Yes, everything Bear still sells. (Actually, his "flint" striker is gigantic and weighs a ton. A better use of the weight, I would guess, is a block of magnesium with a mini Ferro cerium rod glued on, and with a mini, toothed steel striker.)

[McDowell Crook]

This may be old hat to many of you, but I use a fire piston as my backup. The one I use weighs 1.75 ounces and has a ferro rod inside the handle. You can get them here: http://www.survivalschool.com/products/fire_starting/Fire_Pistons.htm

[Elliott Wolin]

Call me paranoid…

I carry a firesteel for regular use. In my first aid/emergency kit is a little box of wooden matches, probably with a few storm-proof matches thrown in. And I recall a BPL emergency firestarter kit (orange, contains some tinder and a small wheel-striker thingy) is in there as well, haven't looked in a while (I just take the small sack wherever I go).

And I give each other person on the trip (wife, adult kids) a small box of wooden matches as well.

[Derek M.]

1. Mini-Bic

2. Small box of regular matches in mini-ziploc bag, kept separate from the lighter

3. Small box of waterproof storm matches in a mini-ziploc bag, kept separate from the lighter and the other matches

4. Dry kindling collected from surrounding forest each day when I come upon it, kept in a separate ziploc bag

I come from a background where I didn't used to use a stove, instead I cooked all my meals on a campfire, rain or shine. I still cook as much as I can with wood, so I don't mess around with being ready to start a fire and having multiple backups. Though these backups cost me only 1-2 ounces. That's peace of mind that I enjoy, making the extra weight worth it.

And yes, I have had to use these backups many times before. I don't trust lighters, though when they work they are my preferred fire starting method.

One day I'll learn how to start a fire with a bow drill, but mainly just for fun. The fact of the matter is that a simple box of dry matches is about 1000x better than a bowdrill, and I can have these matches for fractions of an ounce, so it's not too hard of a decision to go with matches as a backup and call it good… At least for me.

[Ian]

I always have two separate sources of fire. A mini bic on my person and either another bic or matches in my backpack. There was a recent SAR mission where the guy had both matches and a bic lighter when he got himself lost. Both failed him due to moisture I presume.

I've had one mini bic fail to light due to temperature and moisture but never both.

Anyways, the guy was fine and spent a long/cold night in an emergency blanket in freezing temperatures. His ordeal was enough to convince me to always carry a fire steel (sometimes do and other times don't) as one of my fire sources although I'm a bit rusty and will need to practice some.

[Bob Shaver]

I have had bic type lighters fail numerous times, and its usually when you need them the most. Like when its real cold, or when its wet. Sometimes they fail because they are out of fuel.

I take multiple lighters, because they are light and handy. I also carry a BSA fire striker, and a knife to strike a spark. That striker will always light a canister stove. I take a couple of cotton balls smeared with vaseline, and the striker will get those going pretty easily.

Good idea about having something on your body. I was hiking cross country through dense woods in Washington, and my partner noticed my sleeping bag had fallen off my pack. Crap! We dropped our packs and tried to retrace our steps to find the sleeping bag. We found the sleeping bag,then couldn't find our packs! We hiked through the dense trees for an hour before we found our packs. Having a lighter on your person would not be a bad idea.

I have rarely been the one needing to borrow a lighter, but I've had people constantly borrowing my measuring cup (a drinking cup with markings) and my lighter. It does get old, but I've been the borrower a few times also.

[Mobile Calculator]

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[Anonymous]

If a bic runs outa gas, I've heard people still have good success just using the BIC flint/striker to catch some dryer lint/foraged tinder.

Boy scouts told us to carry matches as an alternative method, but I've really drank the coolaid from magazine articles that have advocated that matches "suck". You hear tons of stories of people going through 3-10 matches to light one fire. They're delicate, and hygroscopic enough that you probably need to replace them once a year.

I think the average novice hiker overestimates their capability/ease of making a fire with flint/firesteel. I've heard plenty of entertaining stories of cold/frustrated folks accidently snapping their tiny flint/firesteel in half trying to spark a fire on poor/wet tinder. I'm sure the pros on this forum are capable, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't spent a quick hour practicing them on different types of tinder.

[Ken Thompson]

It's wet here and I can be ungraceful. I carry a steel as a backup that will work after a dunking.

[Billy Ray]

I never carry a backup… I never have a fire… never.

billy

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