What is your preferred method of fire lighting.

bic and petroleum jelly cotton balls or ferro rod backup

 

Char cloth and Zippo as primary. Fire stick and petro-cotton as back-up

 

little shake of some magniesium dust out of the little jar an a quick shot of sparks from the fero rod.

 

bic type lighters for main....magnesium and steel....cotton, wax & egg cartons for starter stuff

 

Propane torch works great in the wood stove.. maybe a shot or two of wd40 if things are resisting..

 

A alkaseltzer piece of C4 in a tin can will boil a canteen cup of water real fast.

Always had to check the claymores to make sure people had not been taking the C4 out to cook with.

Just a FYI

ETA: I prefer to build fires using a magniesium / firesteel. But I do have a bic, or matches, or flint steel and charcloth.

The best tender I like is PJ cotton balls in a 35 mm film canister. Hit those with a spark and it is instant fire.

 

Flint-n-steel w/charcloth when I'm camping with my city freinds (they already think I'm a savage may as well keep up the image.) When I'm 'for real' woods runnin' I love a fire rod ('ferro' is the common usage here.) and bundle.

 

I carry a small mason jar filled with about 20-25 cotton balls soaked in tiki torch fuel and it lasts a while so you can get a fire going after you light it.

I also bought a match container that came with 25 matches and striker pad in it for only a dollar, i'm going to pick some more up soon.

Another one is my Zippo lighter.

I also know how to start a "2 stick" fire lol

 

"preferred" is zippo but I carry several ferro rods and assorted tender. They seem to be the most dependable way for me. Never got the hang of friction fire starting. Not enough patience maybe.

 

My preferred method is a ferro rod, but I also enjoy using flint & steel w/ charcloth, the bow drill, and always learning new ways to do the same things. The more options in firecraft, the better your chances to make fire...

 

I smoke but even when I quit for a few months still carried a Bic and a Zippo along with a card of spare flints in my wallet and 3-4 ot the Tobasco bottles from MREs filled with Zippo fluid in my pocket. One bottle is about right to refill a zippo, 2 if its new or totaly dried out and in wet conditions when cant find any dry tender half a bottle to a bottle will dry and light matchstick sized twigs. So my prefered meathod whould be a lighter with good natural tender with lighter fluid if its stuborn when I need a fire NOW. I also use fero rods with cotton balls a lot to light the wood stove and can use them with found natural material. Have tried bow drills with no real luck but toss out the bow and just use a hand drill and can make fire in good conditions with what I can find but its far from my first choice. Have also used lenses when the sun is out.

I have a half dozen or so zippos and several cards of flints around as well as a gallon or so of naptha (chemical sold as zippo fluid, coleman fuel, white gas and in with the paint thinners) so figure would be good for a few years at least. I figure while its important to know and practice from time to time other meathods, a lighter takes about the same space as a fero rod or any other primitive meathod and gets fire more reliably.....dosent meen I dont have 2 magnesium block fero rods in my kit too though.

 

Monkeyman, I'd watch out for the Naptha. I've had small plastic bottles (baby vitamin bottles with droppers- with the lables removed and marked NAPTHA) filled up in my kits specifically for zippo refills. In about a year, all the naptha was gone. The gear is fine, it didn't leak out- it evaporated. I've had a couple metal containers that are still sealed from the factory, and they are still full, even after two years. Maybe naptha can't make it through metal?

One last thing- I once overfilled a zippo and then put it in my pocket, figuring that it would just evaporate away. Well, it did evaporate away, but it also left a burning red welt on my leg where the lighter was. It took the rest of the night for it to go away.

 

Flint and steel are the tried and true method. I try to keep a 'modern' firestarter, but flint and steel is always my backup. I do love the magnesium firestarters, I have to admit.

 

My boyscout firecrafter training urges me to say fire by friction, however a lighter(clippers) works well for me. I keep 6 lighters in my purse(men should carry purses, they come in very handy. you never know when TSHTF). My purse is water proof but the lighters are not. I am looking in to fire pistons, they sound like a great idea.
I carry a bit of rope in my purse for a birdsnest if I need it. I live in a particularly rich area of the world where it is fashionable to plant river birches, so tinder is never to far away.

I have bought my first fire piston and it is being shipped to me. Any tips on what to put in it?

 

dryer lint is a fine idea. Will it produce an ember? What can I use that is naturally occurring?

 

I like phosphorous grenades and thermite.