How to Make Petroleum Jelly Fire Starters
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Why Fire Starters are Important
Fire starters are a very important part of your wilderness survival gear because fire is so crucial to your ability to survive. Just because you are carrying matches or other means to light a fire does not mean your attempts at fire starting will be successful.
If making a fire was always as easy as striking a match and holding it to a piece of wood we wouldn’t have to think much more about it. The problem is, especially in wilderness survival settings, often the only tinder you can find to burn is of inferior quality, damp, unseasoned and green, or completely wet.
Windy, very cold, or wet conditions can further complicate attempts to make a fire, as can exhaustion, injury, or inexperience. And what if an emergency requires you to kindle a fire in a hurry but the wood just will not readily catch fire?
Petroleum Jelly Fire starters You can make fire starters using petroleum jelly and fluffy materials such as cotton balls, dryer lint, or even the fuffy seed material taken from cattail stocks A 35mm film canister makes an excellent storage container for homemade fire starters |
Even experienced survival experts who know how to build a fire can recount the occasions when starting a fire and keeping it going was a difficult task indeed.
If I had a nickel for every time I was unsuccessful in starting a fire on the first try I could buy that good survival knife I’ve had my eye on lately.
For these reasons wilderness survivalists like to carry something that will give them an edge in making a fire when fire making conditions are not ideal. This often means some kind of tinder that catches fire easily and will burn long enough to in turn kindle the larger pieces of wood you are trying to use.
Firesteel and Fire Starters
My favorite means of making a spark to start a fire is not a match. firesteels are the choice for me. Why? Because a firesteel will always work. Even if the firesteel has been completely dunked in water and soaking for days, a scrape or two with a sharp object will produce enough sparks to get a fire going; if you know how and if you have the proper materials.
In comparison to firesteels matches just do not measure up; if you rely solely upon matches (see the Survival Topic on How to Make Waterproof Matches) be prepared to spend some cold nights in the wilderness. Not only that, some firesteel is good for 20,000 lights. Try carrying 20,000 matches with you!
Firesteels work best when you can catch the sparks they produce in some kind of dry, fuzzy material. Taken as a whole, fuzz has a very high surface to volume ratio and there is plenty of air space within it. If you understand the fire tetrahedron then you know these characteristics make for prime fire starting material.
Often a fuzzy fire starter can be created on the spot; dust made from dry bark scrapings, wood, or even cloth works well. Char cloth is also excellent for collecting a spark but requires a certain amount of skill and experience to make properly.
For all the effort required in making a fire starter in the wilderness when you need one, most experienced survivalists choose to carry pre-made firestarters in their survival kits.
Making Fire Starters with Petroleum Jelly
Although you can buy fire starters in the form of wood and wax composites and pastes, the do-it-yourselfer can easily put together a collection of efficient fire starters from common household materials. Doing this can save you money and provide you improvised survival gear experience that can serve you well should difficult situations arise (read SHTF).
In the Survival Topic on How to Make Fire Sticks we discussed using wax and cardboard to make fire starters. These will work well for matches and lighters that give an active flame.
As stated above, if you are using a firesteel the commercially available fire starting aids may not work since they will not take a spark. Rather, these require a flame such as that from a match or lighter in order to catch fire. However if your fire starter is made of a fuffly materials the firesteel (as well as matches or lighters) will work just fine.
In the picture are some of the fluffy materials that can be used to make good fire starters:
- Cotton Balls
- Dryer lint – great way to recycle this material
- Cattail Fluff – found naturally throughout the world
Although these fluffy materials will catch fire very easily by match, lighter, or firesteel, they tend not to burn well enough to be used alone as tinder. However, when a dab of petroleum jelly is added the combined material becomes an excellent firestarter.
Here I have used part of a fluffy cattail head mixed with petroleum jelly as a fire starter. One strike from the firesteel set the fine fuzz ablaze, which in turn caught the petroleum. This sample burned for several minutes, which is usually plenty of time for small kindling to catch fire.
Cotton balls and dryer lint also make excellent fire starters. Mix the fibers with the petroleum jelly and store in a small container like a 35mm film canister as shown. Keep several homemade fire starters in your survival kit as insurance that you can make a fire in the wilderness whenever you want too. Your very survival may depend on it.
Connecticut
I have found that using cotton balls and or dryer lint with petroleum jelly make excellent fire starters. A great way to store them is in a 2 inch by 3 inch manilla envelope. The paper envelope absorbs the extra petroleum jelly so that it looks like old wax paper. Just light the oil soaked paper, it fires right up in any weather. It also makes for flatter storage than a film canister, and there is nothing left to carry around. You can also use bacitracin, which is mostly white jelly, so that it doubles as both firestarter and first aid ointment. Rub the soaked cotton on a cut or use it as a fire starter.
Survival Topics - this is excellent, Dave. Thank you for sharing your ideas with Survival Topics readers!
N.C.
You can wrap a small bit of tin foil around a cotton ball firestarter and make a makeshift candle. Pull a small bit of cotton out one end as a wick and light it. Used this way I have managed to keep 1 cotton ball firestarter burning for close to six or seven minutes.
Also, I keep plain dryer lint (minus the petrolium jelly), stored in a ziplock, in my "bug out bag". Less mess, excellent fire catcher.
Hawaii
Good info to have when travel on long trips into the Bush. Some places are to wet just to count on matches and you need something that will burn long enough light your wood.
MD
An excellent source of Petroleum Jelly, in an Emergency situation, is any Antibiotic Ointment (3-A, Polysporin, Neosporin, Bacitracin, etc), from most First Aid Kits
ALL of these ointments are simply Petroleum Jelly, but with a Very Small (by percentage) amount of the Antibiotics added. You can get Antibiotic Ointment in small foil packets, designed for individual use and are easy-to-carry.
One Warning - OINTMENT, NOT CREAM! All Ointments are Petroleum Jelly Based, but NOT all Creams.
Also, SOME (not all) Insect Repellents, Bug Sprays, some Sun-Blocks, Glues & Adhesives, etc, can also be used, but as with Everything Else 'Survival-Related', Try it at Home, FIRST!
Nothing is more important than Knowledge and Experience, through PRACTICING before you NEED It!
PA
My cousin and i were reading his survival book (which was not so practically the size of a dictionary) and it said to use dryer lint and wax in an old egg carton, so you litterally had a 12 pack of firestarters, and you just tore them off when needed. They worked really well.
colorado
Anyone ever have problems with petroleum jelly cotton balls freezing in alpine environments and having a hard time lighting them?
CA
In the theme of all equipment doing more them one thing. Antibacterial hand gel is 60% Ethyl Alcohol, burns well on anything. A couple of drops on a stick can light a fire bundle.
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N.C.
I learned to use cotton balls and pocket lint in survival school while marching for Uncle Sam some years back! Still use it at times and I keep a supply of it. Good info, as is the case with all your articles.