[Ohiobackwoodsboy]

I bought a few fire steels from firesteel.com i love them and would like to know what to use for tinder

[vthompson]

My favorite is dryer lint which I carry in an empty prescription bottle. You can also use jute cord which is very good. A lot of guy's like to use cotton balls with petroleum jelly smeared on it.
There is just a variety of things that you can use. Try these tip's and then experiment on your own a little. You will be surprised at what you can use. Hope this helps you some and good luck.

[stew22]

vthompson covered a lot of options there is also char cloth.

I use cotton balls with petroleum jelly worked into the cotton ball.

You can also use the petroleum jelly for your lips if you need to.

Also I do not like to use my blade for a fire steel (back side or not) so I have and love the fire steel scraper for $0.59 you cant go wrong.

My $.02

Andrew

[Slade N. Illinois]

Steel wool, cotton balls, cattail fluff, dryer lint, etc...

[ozarks dave]

i use a few different things. my main tinder however is fatwood. i get a 4 lb bag of fatwood sticks from Ace Hardware for 6 bucks. not all the sticks are thoroughly saturated but about half are. which is plenty for me. i use the other half for bbq grill lighting and what not... i also use weber lighter cubes. its the same stuff as wetfire, but you get about 10 times as much with the weber for a fraction of the price of wetfire cubes, case of 24 cubes for 4.25 at Ace hardware. you get 8 small cubes of wetfire for 10 bucks online. plus shipping!
my 3rd tinder method is tj's pj cottonballs. heat up petro jelly in a pan(metal preferably), and soak the cottonballs til they are about 3/4's saturated with pj. these will burn anywhere from 8 minutes to 15 minutes. my last option for tinder is waxed cardboard. i take a 2'' by 3'' peice of cardboard, soak it in melted paraffin wax, and when i need tinder from it i take my knife and ''rough'' up a edge to make little fluffy fibers. the fibers take a spark real well from a firesteel.
there are a variety of different tinders out there and most can be bought or made for less than 10 bucks and a lot of it for that price as well. i get a lb of wax from my work(used in paraffin wax baths) for 1.50 and all the cardboard i want from boxes they throw in the dumpster. lb of wax goes a LOOOONG way.
however my favorite that i have come to use the most is fatwood. smells good, waterproof, can attach it to the firesteel lanyard, and will go a lot farther than the other tinders because you only need a few scrapings and you can get quite a bit of scrapings from one stick, compared to how much pj cotton balls or cardboard or cubes you have to carry on a long trek.

hope this helps you, and also, if you dont have a super scraper yet, i suggest to get one. they are SO much better than the .59 scraper.
i actually tossed all my regular scrapers and replaced them with super scrapers.

[kevin]

extremely well covered by everyone. you may also want to check recent treads on firestarter tests by elpidi which can be lit w/ firesteels.

[cowgirlup]

My fave so far is the PJ cotton balls. I make mine with a dash of lamp oil added in with the petroleum jelly. :)
You can stuff a good amount of them in a 35mm film canister. Just fluff them up before you try to light them. :)

[crashdive123]

I carry 5 or 6 different types of tinder in my fire kits. My favorite is the PJ cotten balls (no lamp oil though). Also handy for chapped lips in colder weather.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by cowgirlup

My fave so far is the PJ cotton balls. :)

I hope you are using TJ balls.

[cowgirlup]

Originally Posted by kevin

I hope you are using TJ balls.

Well since I strayed from the original recipie by adding lamp oil I don't think it counts. And, adding some red lamp oil made them kind of girly looking.

LOL