Fire starter idea

[F15CrewChief]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed.

I see that it's pretty common for indivuals to use a cotton ball covered in petroleum jelly as a fire starter and I know it works quite well, but here is something I stumbled on to while trying to find a new wick material: pipe cleaners.

You can use just a little bit of vaseline and smear it on a pipe cleaner and then position it in any fashion required to start your fire.

It's long enough that you can hold it at one end and not burn your fingers.

I'll be switching to this instead of cotton balls as it is much easier to wrap the pipe cleaner around a stick or whatever it is I'm trying to start burning.

Thoughts?

[Nate]

Never thought of that one.  However, every pipe cleaner I have seen have been made from a synthetic material.  Wouldn't those just melt and not burn very well?  I am thinking of when you burn a cocktail stirring rod with a candle.  Done this many times at weddings!   

However, if it is the petroleum jelly burning then I understand it.  If you just carried the jelly, you could smear it on your kindling and not worry about the pipe cleaners.  You could get a big glob on the end of a stick and you would have a super match!  You would also have the jar of jelly for other uses like lip balm ect.

My fire skills are to the level that I seldom need a firestarter.   I can usually find plenty of dry natural tinders to get my fire going.  When I cant find enough due to weather, I use my back up piece of bike inner tube.  When ignited with a lighter these babies burn long and hot. 

[fritz_monroe]

Never thought of that one.  However, every pipe cleaner I have seen have been made from a synthetic material.  Wouldn't those just melt and not burn very well?  I am thinking of when you burn a cocktail stirring rod with a candle.  Done this many times at weddings!   

Yep, this is my thinking as well.  But if there are natural fiber pipe cleaners, that's a whole different story.

[nelson96]

Items I don't hear discussed much during these conversations; they burn well, for a long time in any weather and they pack easy . . .

Piece of coal
A briquet
Piece of sulfur (we used to pick these up on the side of the road in Nevada)
5 minute flare (but rotate them because the striker fails after a while)

[Nate]

Items I don't hear discussed much during these conversations; they burn well, for a long time in any weather and they pack easy . . .

Piece of coal
A briquet
Piece of sulfur (we used to pick these up on the side of the road in Nevada)
5 minute flare (but rotate them because the striker fails after a while)

Never thought of the flare.  When I was on staff at Scout camp we used flares for our more theatrical camp fire starts.  Sulfur is a good idea too.  It also doubles as a snake deterrent if you camp in snake country.  In Malaysia they sell bags of sulfur at the supermarket, hardware store and camping stores to keep snakes away.  Sprinkle some around your tent and you are good to go.