I don't have experience with primitive ignition techniques such as hand drills or bow drills, but I have tried quite a few other ignition devices under a variety of conditions. Aside from various types of matches, lighters, magnesium sticks, and ferro-rods, I've used batteries & steel wool, jumper cables & car batteries, magnifying glass, & even a broken glass bottle to ignite tinder. In ideal conditions, pretty much all of these methods should work very well. However, they may be long shots at best under dire conditions such as you (or the ignition device) being soaked, or if you are shivering so severely that you have or virtually no manual dexterity, or very cold temperature making the device useless.
There are 3 types of ignition devices, that I always bring with me, which include wood strike-anywhere matches, a butane lighter/torch, and a few ferro-rods. All 3 have their benefits, but a good ferro-rod is the only one of them that I have found absolutely reliable, whether wet or dry & regardless of the outside temperature. It is also the easiest to use if your dexterity is compromised.
A) Lighters;
Lighters tend to be the most convenient to use, but the least reliable of the 3. I keep a butane lighter in my pants pocket at all times. I'll have at least another Bic lighter in my coat pocket and/or in my daypack. The one in my pocket will usually be a refillable isobutane piezoelectric torch lighter like this one;
I like the torch because it is somewhat wind resistant, and is also useful for things such as gear repairs. The torch lighters do tend to be more flaky than a Bic lighter however. In cold temperatures butane lighters must be kept in an interior pocket, close to your body for them to work.
Matches;
I keep several wood strike-anywhere matches contained in a metal waterproof container within my daypack survival kit.
DRY matches are more reliable than butane lighters, but are less convenient than lighters and require relatively good manual dexterity to use. Wood matches that are already waterproof, or water & windproof need the special stiker surfaces that come with their box. For this reason I, don't bother with these types of matches - trying to keep a piece of that fragile striker surface with the matches is not (IMO) paractical. I do not recommend trying to waterproof strike-anywhere matches by dipping them in paraffin wax or nail polish, because they may not longer strike as easily, if at all.
C) Ferro-Rod
This is one of those things that nobody should ever enter the woods without (right up there with a good knife, compass, map & survival kits). I keep one both in my personal survival kit and in my daypack survival kit. As was mentioned in an earlier post, not all ferro steels are created equal. My favorite is the one made by Primus.
It is not too bulky, but big enough to keep squeezed between the thumb and index finger of an nearly numb hand. If one hand were non-functional due to injury, I could step on it's handle or even hold it in my teeth. When firmly scraped wiwith a good steel edge, the ferro-rod will send a shower of sparks that will easily ignite good suitable tinder such as thin birch bark, tissue paper, lint, and vaseline soaked cotton balls (my favorite).
While there is no shortage of natural tinder (birch bark in particular) where I hunt, I prefer to keep tinder with me in both my personal survival kit and my daypack survival kit, as well as coat pockets, lifejacket pockets etc.. What I do is take a cotton ball, rub vaseline into it, squeeze out the excess, then stuff it into the bottom of a plastic bottle cap. I then melt beeswax into the cotton ball until the wax is level with the rim of the bottle cap. Prior to stuffing the cotton ball into the bottle cap, I run a loop of fishing line throught the cotton ball, so that I can pull the cotton ball out of the bottle cap, even while wearing bulky mittens.
Once the cotton ball is pulled out of the bottle cap, pull the cotton into a fine mesh and hit it with a spark. It will burn a very hot, with a fairly wind resistant flame for an amazingly long time for such a tiny item. Even at -30, it will burn for at least 10 minutes. Because of the the wax plug over the bottle cap, you can immerse this in water, remove, shake it off, pull the cotton ball out and it is ready to go. Use just enough vaselingne that you can saturate the cotton ball, but be sure to squeeze out the excess vaseline, because you want to be able to fit as much beeswax into that bottlecap as possible. The long burn time is because of the wax. The cotton ignites from the spark, the vaseline readily burns from there and burns long enought to get the wax melting and wicking up the cotton.
Topic: Who carries "survival" type fire starters? (Read 3302 times)
