Pitman; when I saw your first picture of the fatwood I had a sarcastic "oh, of course that's fatwood" thought. Once you showed the inside of the wood I recognized it as fatwood. That stuff is an amazing fire starter! I grew up in scouting, but they never taught us about all these ways to start fires. Even in "wilderness survival," I think I started a fire with a battery and steel wool, a ferro rod and steel wool, and maybe a magnifying glass? These methods seem much better to me!

I don't like PJ, it's too messy. I just use dry cotton and fatwood. Don't over saturate the cotton if you use PJ, or it's hard to light as you found out.

When I was in scouts we took the cups from those paper egg cartons and stuffed them full of dreyer lint or cotton balls. Then a coat of parrifin wax over it kept the lint dry. When you wanted a fire you broke the wax at the top and fluffed the lint up to catch sparks and the parifin and paper would follow suit and burn for a good little while to catch whatever wood you had. I dont know if its the best method but it worked pretty well for us.

The PJ balls work great for me. I've stored them in film containers mostly, but I also found a few empty cheap cigar tubes and have used those. What I do is take a length of jute and tie it into a big knot ball at the end and then drop it down the tube, leaving a decent piece of jute hanging out the top. I then take the PJ balls and stuff them in the tube. All I have to do is pull a little on the jute and a PJ Cottonball rises to the top. I think there are a good 5 or 6 cotton balls stuffed in to this. The jute obviously can be used as well to start a fire.

digs - that is a simple but GREAT idea!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I keep dry cotton balls in a waterproof jumbo pill fob. This holds 7 jumbo cotton balls. I attach a finger size piece of fatwood to the strike force with a rubber band. The rubber band could also be used when starting a fire.

On the school camp out I went on last week we had to build a fire with flint and steel, I was the only one who could do it. we had sawdust it does not start well at all. I haven't tried petroleum jelly cotton balls but they seem like they would well. I like to use drier lint to build fires just kinds collect it instead of throwing it away.

Pitman, what’s paraffin oil?

I know that in England the word “paraffin” means what Americans call “kerosene”. I suppose the same is true in Canada. Is “paraffin oil” the same as paraffin/kerosene?

Kerosene is sort of oily. When I was an apprentice I had to spread Malarkey to seal the joints between sections of flat roof as they were bolted together. My boss told me to use kerosene to get the black gunk off my hands at day’s end because, “Gasoline will dry your skin out. But kerosene lubricates it.”

Parrafin is the name for a large class of hydrocarbons, ranging everywhere from mineral oil to solid parrafin wax. Parrafin wax is used, amongst other things, in candles.



I was just experimenting with different fire starters, partly inspired by this conversation, and I've decided I'm going to make up a bunch of candle wax soaked cotton balls. They are less messy than the ones coated in petroleum jelly.


I've also decided to give up on my dryer lint as long as I've got three dogs and two cats in the house, filling our lint trap with animal hair.

MM- just dry a large load of bath towels to get good lint...I would hope that they are filled with animal hair...? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

EVERYTHING in my house is filled with animal hair. It floats around like tumbleweeds. My dogs shed enough hair to make several new dogs every day. I'm actually fairly certain my dogs violate the law of conservation of matter.


We sometimes vacuum twice a week and it doesn't even put a dent in it.



If you ever consider getting a couple of corgis... invest in hardwood floors. TRUST ME on this one.

So is parrafin oil the same thing as mineral oil?

Apparently not. I asked the O.E.D.

Paraffin, n

In full paraffin oil. An oily, flammable liquid mixture of hydrocarbons similarly obtained by distillation and used as fuel; esp. = KEROSENE n. Also: (a) paraffin (sense 1) in liquid form; (b) liquid paraffin.
liquid paraffin: see LIQUID adj. and n. Compounds 1.

Sense 1 is:

A whitish, translucent, waxy, flammable solid consisting of a mixture of hydrocarbons, obtained as a residue from the distillation of petroleum and shale and used esp. in candles, cosmetics, and polishes, and for coating and sealing.