How to Make a Fire with Batteries and Steel Wool
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Many of us take fire for granted and think we can kindle a blaze easily whenever we want. The reality is that even experienced survivors, those who know how to build a fire, sometimes have difficulty in making a fire, especially under adverse conditions when it is wet, cold, or windy.
Lighters run out of fuel, matches become wet or used up, circumstances place us in unprepared situations. Lacking matches or other firemaking gear, the expert survivor can usually come up with a variety of alternative ways to make a fire.
In order to start a fire you need some kind of ignition source. Often there happens to be a device handy that uses batteries for power. If so, you can start a fire with a battery and steel wool if you know how.
Potential sources of batteries include:
Radios
GPS units
Flashlights
Vehicle batteries
Toys
Computers and laptops
Power tools
In many households steel wool is a common item put to a wide variety of uses. Steel wool is made up of fine fibers of woven steel and is used as an abrasive for cleaning, smoothing and polishing.
What is not commonly known is that fine steel wool will burn at a very hot temperature, even when wet. This makes steel wool an excellent fire starting material. For this same reason many expert survivors carry a piece of steel wool in their survival kit.
One method to cause steel wool to catch fire is via an electric current – and the voltage from your battery or batteries will do just fine assuming the batteries are large enough and are charged.
Making a Fire with Small Batteries
Recently I was practicing my survival skills and decided to try to make a fire using batteries and steel wool. I remembered that I had small 1.5 volt AA batteries in both my Garmin GPS unit as well as my headlamp. But would these small batteries produce enough electric current to ignite the steel wool?
I removed the two 1.5 volt AA batteries from my GPS unit and connected them to one another. This doubles the strength of a single battery and makes up somewhat for their small size.
You can make a vise from a tree branch in order to hold the batteries together. Simply cut a green branch that is about 1-inch thick and split one end down the middle a few inches. Place one end of each battery in the open cut and the stick will hold the batteries fast. When you do this, make sure the negative terminal of one battery is touching the positive terminal of the other.
I then pulled a piece of 0000 steel wool (00 steel wool will catch fire also but the finer the steel the better) into a strip just a little longer than the batteries. I touched one end of the steel wool on the exposed positive battery terminal and the other end of the steel wool on the exposed negative terminal. In a flash portions the steel wool ignited and glowed white hot – plenty of heat to start a fire.
How Hot is the Burning Steel Wool?
Steel burns at about 1370 C or 2498 F. This is exceedingly hot and more than enough to catch just about anything you want on fire.
Precautions When Using Batteries and Steel Wool to Make A Fire
When making fire using a battery and steel wool it is important that you are careful not to burn yourself. The steel wool heats up almost instantly and small pieces of white hot metal break off from the main section.
It is also important that you do not complete the electrical circuit for more than a few moments as the batteries may heat up and explode.
Why Does A Battery Ignite Steel Wool?
A little insight as to why something happens can help when you attempt to do it yourself.
You can think of a battery as an electron pump. When you connect the steel wool to the negative and positive terminals of a battery, electrons flow from one end to other. If the battery is forcing enough electrons through the thin fibers of the steel wool, friction will heat the steel to red or white hot temperatures. Since steel burns at a very hot temperature, burning steel wool can easily be used to start a campfire.
Remember that making a fire using batteries in this way can drain them of energy very quickly. You may still need to use your GPS unit or flashlight, so make sure you break the connection between the batteries and steel wool as quickly as possible after the wool catches flame.
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You can rub the negative ends of batteries together to get the last bit of juice out of them. This can help if you need to start a fire.
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I made a experiment and felt heat with using steel wool a d-cell battery and 2-wires.
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