Hacks for lighting fires in adverse conditions
1–10 of 18
Page: 12
This thread branched from "What's your favorite...?" on . Explore the branch.
Original post
One time I tried to get a campfire going in a stiff wind. The wind kept putting out my cigarette lighter so I couldn't light the candle stub or strip of bike inner tube. Luckily I remembered I had an alcohol wipe sachet so was able to light that and then light the inner tube from it.
In wind only thing that works is windproof matches which have about 20 times the chemical on them. If they dont work reassess where you are lighting the fire
I have two tricks...
One is to bring some Little Lucifer or similar fire starters along. They work very well and save a lot of time.
If desperate, light your gas cooker, and use that to light the tinder / food. If using liquid fuel, can splash some of that on the tinder before lighting it.
Glycerine and KMn04 potassium permanganate. Works in the rain as a few drops of water helps the chemical reaction. Plus a fire starter is always in the kit somewhere.
I haven't tried it myself, but cotton balls soaked in vaseline is one I keep hearing about.
or vegetable oil but if you cant get ignition your fire still wont achieve lift off. At home I did manage to light a lucifer style fire lighter with a steel and flint but it took 5 attempts in controlled conditions Chances of success in a gale would be marginal
@geeves did you use the lucifer style fire lighter in it block form or did you shave some off to provide smaller particles wrapped in whatever tinder you were using.
Shavings I have found seem to catch faster, I am assuming it is producing more flammable vapour when shaved.
Of course alcohol hand sanitiser is also handy as a starter.
Syncop8er, I use cotton makeup pads (flat disk shape) with vaseline - not soaked, as such, but just a small amount on the finger then wiped on the pad.
Lights easily and burns moderately, no smell, no acrid smoke. I carry a few in an old plastic 35mm film canister - negligible weight.
block form but it the only difference it would of made was a bigger target The flint throws off a big spark but if it doesnt hit something flammable nothing happens. First spark to hit the block lit it
I watched an adolescent using her spray deodorant one time on a Duke of Edinburgh weekend in the rain to give the soggy fire a good boost (where do they learn this stuff). But is there a chance that the fire would travel up the spray like it does up a trail of meths being poured? Or would the pressure of the spray stop fire travelling up the spray.
1–10 of 18
Page: 12
Search the forums
| Forum | Gear talk |
|---|---|
| Started by | Honora |
| On | 10 September 2017 |
| Replies | 17 |
| Permanent link | |
Participation in the forums signifies acceptance of forum rules.
In order to manage spam, new members are limited to 1 post every 10 minutes.
Formatting your posts
The forums support MarkDown syntax. Following is a quick reference.
| Type this... | To get this... | |
|---|---|---|
| Italic | *Italic text* | *Italic text* |
| Bold | **Bold text** | **Bold text** |
| Quoted text | > Quoted text | > Quoted text |
| Emojis | :smile: :+1: :astonished: :heart: | :smile: :+1: :astonished: :heart: |
| Lists |
- item 1 - item 2 - item 3 |
- item 1 - item 2 - item 3 |
| Links | https://tramper.nz | https://tramper.nz |
| Images |  URL/of/image |
 |
| Mentions | @username | @username |