They work day or night and can be found everywhere, usually for around $1.00 or less apiece. They combine the simplicity of a flint-and-steel with their own little reservoir of lighter fuel. Not as hot as a torch lighter, they are impervious to wet weather. The humble disposable cigarette lighter has to be the greatest emergency fire starting tool ever invented by man. Ultimate Survival Technologies Trekker Stormproof Lighter It’s probably best to pair them with a more low-tech method that doesn’t rely on fuel resupply. Used sparingly to conserve fuel, torch lighters would be a fantastic fire-starting tool. And if you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere, chances are low that you’ll have a handy resupply of fuel. They are reliable and operate literally at the push of a button. Torch lighters are fairly high tech for fire starters. Of course, such a wind just might blow away your tinder, kindling, and smaller chunks of fuel. The flame is so hot and intense that not even 80 mph gales can snuff it out. Those sold as survival lighters – like the UST Trekker Stormproof – are touted for their “ windproof” feature. Torch lighters run on butane or similar lighter fluid and produce very hot, intense flames that can light just about anything that’s flammable. Flint and steel fire starters work wet or dry, and you typically get hundreds, if not thousands, of spark cycles out of them. Zippo, famous for their cigarette lighters, has come out with an Emergency Fire Starter that packages a thumbwheel flint and steel striker with some tinder in a blaze-orange, waterproof box. You can go advanced, like the UST Blastmatch , or simple, like the Micro Spark Wheel . Either way, the result is a spark that can ignite tinder. All of them involve scraping a flint or similar material across a length of steel, or vice versa. There are all kinds of variations on this simple system. Stansport Waterproof And Windproof Matchesįlint and steel is an ancient fire starter tools. Like all other fire starting tools, it’s best to pair matches with other methods to increase your chances. If you’ve got only four or five matches, you had best make them count. They consume themselves with each lighting attempt.
You can really up the ante with specialized “survival matches” like the Stansport Waterproof/Windproof Matches that will light and burn even when wet.īesides sensitivity to moisture, matches have one other downside.
Matches must be kept dry, with something like the waterproof Stansport Match Box . Matches are commonly available, and you can still find the old “ strike anywhere” matches if you look for them. The classic match is hard to beat as a fire starter tool. It does have its limitations, and it’s best to pair this with at least one other method. Most magnifying glasses are fairly compact and easily fit into emergency bags like the Credit Card Fresnel Lens Pocket Magnifier Ruler Emergency Solar Fire Starter . You can even make it work on mostly-cloudy days. All you have to do is focus the sun’s rays on some tinder, and you’ve got a fire in short order. So long as there’s sunlight, a magnifying glass is a handy way to make a fire. So here are my Top 5 Survival Fire Starter Tools. To be fully prepared, it’s a good idea to always carry at least two ways to make a fire in your emergency gear, backpack, and your pockets.
Some of these things can be purchased from the Brownells website, or from other quality vendors. The following fire starter tools list focuses on ways to produce a flame or a spark, and not really on the tinder. I often carry around some old dryer lint in a sandwich bag, and have used it to start campfires, controlled burns, and even light my wood stove in my previous house out in the woods. You can buy tinder, like the SOL Tinder Quik Fire Starters, or make your own out of petroleum-jelly-soaked cotton balls, or cotton string soaked in paraffin. If you don’t have enough tinder, kindling, and then large chunks of fuel to keep the blaze going, then it won’t matter how effective your fire-starting kit is. All fire starters find some way to combine those three to produce a flame.Īlso, remember there’s much more to a fire than just starting one. All fires require a heat source, fuel, and oxygen. No matter what fire-making method you choose, always remember the old “fire triangle” you learned back in middle school or maybe saw at a Smokey The Bear presentation. Modern fire making is fast and easy, both important qualities in a true emergency situation, when failure to start a fire can mean death by hypothermia or the loss of your toes to frostbite. Sure, you can spend hours rubbing two sticks together, or trying to construct a bow drill out of vines and branches, but why?
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