by Cody Lundin
The mish-metal cylinder is composed of various rare-earth elements and produces a shower of hot sparks when scraped with a sharp edge. Given a choice, do not use the cutting edge of your knife for creating sparks or to shave magnesium from the bar. Doing so, like the goof shown on the package of some brands, will severely screw up the blade, especially if it’s made from softer carbon steel. To combat this phenomenon, some folks grind a small area on the back of their knife to act as a scraping edge. I attach the end of a cheap hacksaw blade to the metal lanyard included with each block. Cheesy dollar-day sales are good places to score cheap blades, which can be used to scrape both mish metal and magnesium. Yellow ones offer greater visibility, or paint or tape them to accomplish the same effect. The cheaper the hacksaw blade, the better the carbon steel it’s made from, thus the hacksaw itself can be used as the steel in making flint and steel fires, another multiuse gem.
To produce sparks, scrape the mish-metal insert with the broken edge of the hacksaw blade. It’s fairly sharp and grips more mish metal per scrape, thereby producing greater quantities of heat. Use a long, forceful, quick scraping motion, attacking as much surface area of the mish metal as possible while slightly flexing the blade, like a bow drawn back to hurl an arrow. Flex the blade too much, and your scraper will suddenly become much shorter. Get into the habit of pulling back on the magnesium block as you scrape, not pushing forward with the hacksaw blade, thereby keeping the hacksaw static. Doing so will prevent your hacksaw blade hand from rushing forward at the tail end of a scrape and hitting the tinder, causing the finer particles and magnesium shavings, if used, to filter down into the larger tinder. The truly hard core might wish to grind off the hacksaw blade’s teeth. The metal just under the teeth is tempered differently from the rest of the blade and will produce even more sparks than the end method described. Directed into adequate tinder, the sparks alone will often achieve combustible temperatures. If not, there’s always magnesium, so read on.
Using a Magnesium Block to Start a Fire
Making magnesium shavings on portable surface.
Adding shavings to center of tinder bundle.
“Sparking” mish-metal insert to ignite shavings by pulling up on magnesium bar.
Blowing ember into flame.
Magnesium shavings can be added to natural or human-made tinder, producing combustion temperatures very rapidly. To use the magnesium, scrape from the bar as much shavings as needed. One manufacturer recommends creating a pile the size of a quarter. Better overkill than being killed, but accomplishing such a feat will take you the better part of your life. The quality and dryness of your tinder will dictate the size of the pile needed. Wind is a drag, as it blows the tiny metallic flakes hither and yon, so if necessary, seek or improvise a windbreak by forming a slight depression in the ground, stacking a few rocks, or hugging a tree. Scraping magnesium shavings onto a bandana or other portable surface allows you to dump them into your tinder all at the same time. This creates a consistent pile of shavings with all the particles in contact with one another, which is critical to igniting the entire mass at once.
Head to your pre-built configuration of kindling and fuel and carefully place the shavings upon the finest particles of your tinder. Firmly scrape the mish-metal insert with the hacksaw blade, remembering to pull back on the magnesium block, directing the shower of sparks onto the metal shavings. Once lit, they combust rapidly and burn in only a few microseconds. Because of this, as in any fire-building situation, it’s important to use the best possible tinder available and build your fire first, before adding the heat or ignition source.
Magnesium tools are cheap and compact. They’re available at most camping and discount stores except Wal-Mart (you’ll never get past the “greeters” with bare feet). Although mish metal eventually deteriorates when exposed to water for long periods of time, the whole apparatus is waterproof. If you drop the bar into water, simply dry it off and it’s ready to use. Creating heat by scraping the mish-metal insert is a gross-motor skill, requiring very little coordination and physical dexterity, which is a definite plus if you have cold hands or are in a panic scenario. As a bonus, the striking insert doubles as a windproof, nighttime signaling device for situations where rescuers possess night-vision technology.
For greater visibility, wrap brightly colored tape around the middle of the block so as not to interfere with the scraping surfaces. As with all survival skills, practice makes a huge difference in performance, so buy two, one to train with and the other to pack away in your kit.
Six to eight cotton balls saturated with petroleum
jelly in a brightly colored film vial:
Fantastic family fun for creating a cheap, compact,
effective, and efficient flaming friend.
Fire lighting can be a real challenge, especially when everything’s cold and wet, including you. Since fire is so essential to the survivor, carrying something that makes it easier to light makes good sense. An entire manuscript could be written about the physics involved in achieving ignition temperatures. While I won’t go into the finer points in this book, here’s the scoop in a nutshell. The more heat you have under your kindling and fuel relationship, the greater success you’ll have creating fire, even with damp materials. This “more heat” concept is what quality tinder is all about.
Technically, tinder is any substance that will trap and hold a spark, allowing you, along with the proper combustibles, to nurture it into flame. There are dozens of commercial tinder types on the market, but many have more drawbacks than advantages. Quality tinder should possess several virtues. In an ideal world, your fantasy fire starter should be lightweight, portable, multiuse, cheap, easy to light using gross-motor movements, remain fairly waterproof, and have a long burn time. You should also be able to make it yourself and do so simply. Although this might seem like a lot to ask from tinder, it’s a very significant piece of your backcountry gear.
One advantage to commercial tinder is you won’t have to spend five minutes making them as you do my homemade stuff. For those with extra time, here’s the lowdown on learning to burn.
First, buy cotton balls made from 100 percent cotton. Look for the little cotton symbol on the bag before purchasing. You might already have just what the doctor ordered in your medicine cabinet, so check around the house before you buy. The cotton balls purchased should say “triple size” on the package. Single-sized balls are a joke, having hardly enough surface area to powder a bat’s butt. Buyer beware, as there are plenty of synthetic “cotton balls” on the market. Attempting to utilize these impostors for fire-making purposes will alienate you from all your loved ones, as they will melt instead of burn.
Once you’ve rounded up the balls, grab some petroleum jelly. Yeeeha! Survival’s never been so much fun. Petroleum jelly has the nasty habit of burning like crazy. “Vaseline” is simply a trade name so latch onto the generic version and save some dough. Liberally saturate the outside of the cotton ball with the jelly. Add a healthy amount, about the size of a large grape, and massage it in. Don’t rip the cotton ball to shreds attempting to saturate every fiber. Lathering them up to the gills makes the whole contraption harder to light while adding very little burn time.
The finished product should feel like baby snot on the outside but once broken open it will have a central core of dry fiber. These fibers act like the wick of a candle, and the petroleum, the wax. Leaving the central fibers dry allows you to light the ball using gross-motor movement fire-starting tools such as metal matches, magnesium bars, and other spark-producing doodads. As an added bonus, sparks are not blown out by the wind, unlike radiant flames. Dry fibers allow for more efficient lights with matches, too, thus conserving the precious little guys.
To light, simply tear open the ball, expose the dry center, and add an ample amount of heat. Whenever possible, place the ball under whatever configuration of fuel you’re trying to burn before lighting. A plain cotton ball will burn for around 30 seconds. Add petroleum
jelly and the burn time jumps to five or six minutes! Amazing! During some courses, I have students light fires using half of a paper match, which on an average contains less than six seconds worth of heat. With this homemade tinder, you now have more than five minutes of heat at your disposal! Remember, the more heat you have, the poorer the fuel and the fewer techniques you can get away with and still start your fire.
I’ve carried treated cotton balls for years. Old ones light just as well as those freshly made. Another advantage of this multiuse wonder, especially in my arid state, is its use as a topical lubricant, soothing chapped lips, feet, or other body parts. Petroleum jelly also performs well as a marginal grease, reducing friction between surfaces, thereby prolonging gear life while eliminating obnoxious squeaks.
Store your finished product in a film vial, as these containers are free, easy to find, waterproof, and tough. Cram in as many as you can, usually six to eight. While petroleum jelly does waterproof the cotton (you can drop treated cotton balls into water, pick them up, shake off the excess liquid, tear them open, and light them), it makes sense to put this valuable fire-starting aid into a waterproof case. In addition, the film vial floats if you drop it into the lake or other wet stuff. Cover the vial with obnoxiously colored tape available at your local hardware store, making it easier to spot if misplaced.
Having a tinder source that’s ready to light at a moment’s notice can make the difference between life and death. Preparedness is a good thing, so stack the deck in your favor whenever possible.
Credit-card-sized magnifying
lens in brightly colored sheath:
A sound alternative to torturing ants.
Because fire is sacred, carry several means to light it, including the simple magnifying glass or Fresnel lens. Fresnel lenses come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials. I recommend you pack the plastic one that’s the size of a credit card. Available from many office-supply stores, swap meets, or book retailers, this amazing piece of plastic takes up no space, adds virtually no weight to your kit, and costs less than two bucks. And, of course, it’s a multiple-use item. Outside of condensing short-wave radiation from the sun, thereby producing heat to create fire, Fresnel lenses can discern details on topographical maps, unearth hundreds of glochids and cactus spines permeating your epidermis from a desert adventure, or assist in locating foreign matter in the eye.
Using a Fresnel lens to create fire is a bit more complex than torturing ants. Suffice it to say, the more direct and stronger the sunlight, the better results you’ll have. In North America in the wintertime, the earth receives less insolation, or incoming solar radiation. Thus, in the winter, it’s a bit tougher for this device to create enough heat to reach combustion temperatures.
Start by holding the lens at a slight angle in direct sunlight several inches from whatever you’re trying to burn. The angling will cause the pattern of magnified light to appear as a half-circle upon your tinder. Slightly rotate the lens until the pattern becomes a full circle. Now, carefully move the lens up and down in relation to your tinder target area until the circle is as small as possible. If done correctly, this pinpoint of intensified sunshine should produce smoke within two or three seconds. Fresnel lenses magnify the sun’s rays at only one point in space so it’s important to continually micro-move the lens itself, trying to keep the circle of light as small as possible for maximal heat. You’re trying to produce enough temperature within a small area of tinder to form an orange “cherry,” an ember that sustains itself. Every once in awhile, shade the tinder (it makes it easier to see if there’s an ember) and gently blow to see if a cherry has formed. If it has, continue to blow and nurture the small ember into a flame.
I’ve carried credit-card lenses for years, usually in some compromising place in my fanny pack. Over time, (many years) the edges of the lens start to crack, eventually causing it to break in half. Even so, as long as you have 50 percent or more of the lens intact, it will still focus enough sunlight to create fire in the hands of a knowledgeable person. Most credit-card lenses come with a protective sheath. Unless it’s blaze-orange or yellow, cover it with colored tape to increase visibility. Do not leave your Fresnel lens lying around outside of its sheath in direct sunlight. I know folks who have stored large glass containers of drinking water in their car on sunny days and have the circular burn marks on their carpet to prove it. Don’t underestimate the power of condensed sunlight!
Flashlight and lanyard with two
AA batteries (brightly colored):
Improvised light for the night for minimal fright.
Being able to see in the dark is a gift. Flashlights have saved me more than once from having to spend an unplanned night out in the bush. Once I was snow-tracking a mule deer high in the Arizona mountains. The buck I was following knew it was being tailed and led me on a one-way journey only deer know about. It became dark, I was lost, and a light snow began to fall—not a good situation. I had survival-kit items with me but preferred not to have to spend the night. Using my flashlight, I backtracked and managed to find my way out. A few years ago, I lived in the woods and much of the time I didn’t use a flashlight. I became accustomed to the pitch black and familiar enough with my surroundings that I could navigate by starlight, with a hand or cap brim always in front of my eyes, guarding against the stray, cornea-gouging twig. Walking through the woods off-trail in pitch-black darkness is a rush. It forces you to pay attention to what’s happening around you as your senses are attuned to the slightest activity. Grooviness aside, if you decide to try it, have a flashlight with you.
There is little substitute for a high-quality flashlight when the going gets rough. Flashlights pave the way for options that may not be possible otherwise. Checking out that “bump” in the darkness, navigating at night to escape oppressive desert heat, locating misplaced items, gathering fuel wood, and a zillion other uses exist with the simple flashlight. Many Search and Rescue teams employ night-vision devices on their searches. Through the magical eyes of night vision, a simple headlamp in the woods looks like a truck with its high beams on. By sweeping your AA light back and forth upon the ground, that search helicopter hovering a quarter mile away might have you sleeping in your bed that night. AA-battery flashlights are typically cheap and compact, most having enough candle-power to get the job done for the average wilderness traveler.
Choose the most dependable, brightly colored flashlight possible or make it that way. In addition, mine sports multiuse military, 100-mph duct tape wrapped around the end as a bite piece. I often hold my flashlight in my mouth, thereby freeing my hands for various tasks. (Teeth and aluminum don’t mix, especially when it’s 5 A.M. and you’re riding a mountain bike down a rocky dirt road.) Retailers sell an array of gadgets meant to anchor small flashlights, including a plastic thingamabob that goes in your mouth, a headband, and a cute little object that looks much like a 1970s Cootie toy. They all serve only one function, and thereby break the cardinal rule of multiuse gear. Over the olive-drab military tape, I’ve applied the same bright yellow tape I spread on everything else. We are a visually oriented culture, so making your gear strikingly obnoxious is a bonus. At the end of my light is a lanyard that allows me to secure it to my wrist. The lanyard comes in handy in deep snow, heavy brush, and thickets of catclaw, a southwestern shrub renowned for tearing small chunks of flesh from people’s bodies. The flashlight I carry is widely available, cheap, has easy-to-obtain spare bulbs, stores a spare bulb in its end cap, and has an adjustable beam. There are some very cool LED lights on the market that spit out a surprising amount of light for their size and have a tremendous battery life. Some are poorly designed for rigorous outdoor use, so use caution and explore what works for you.
Two spare AA batteries
with date of purchase:
Extra juice means a lot more use.
Spare batteries carried in my survival kit for one year give approximately four hours of light, with the first three being the brightest. The last
hour is marginal—it’s the kind of light you’d use to read a bad romance novel in your tent on a moonlit night. When replacing the batteries, which is something you should do every year, bind them together using—you guessed it—brightly colored tape. Use permanent marker on the tape to write the month and year they were purchased, as this takes the guesswork out of when you should rotate them. Make sure to change the batteries in your flashlight as well, not just the spares.
It’s amazing how quickly the ends of batteries corrode, even in the arid Southwest, so get in the habit of inspecting your spares before heading into the backcountry. If you live in a wet climate, plan on rotating them more frequently. Although the corrosion can be scraped off the ends in a pinch, it’s a safer bet to replace them entirely. As a bonus, AA batteries can be placed end-to-end and used in conjunction with super-fine steel wool to quickly achieve ignition temperatures. For whatever reason, Duracell-brand batteries seem to last longer in cold weather than the Energizer brand. Sorry, bunny.
