posted on Apr, 18 2013 @ 10:15 PM
I figure I'll share this with y'all, since it's the subject of starting fires:
(I wish I could find some of the the old metal film canisters). What my dad showed me when I was a kid is you stuff one with natural cotton for
starting tinder. Take a couple and fill them with sawdust saturated with diesel fuel as a really awesome starting fuel.
You take a small bit of cotton and put some of your wood-fuel on it (it comes out clumpy, and you can kind of pack it together with your fingers).
The cotton obviously ignites extremely easily, and burns just long enough and hot enough to effectively get the fuel going. The sawdust burns hot
enough and long enough to get larger twigs going with extreme ease, even when it's damp out.
I know that some people think the diesel fuel is a dangerous idea, but in fact it's fairly safe. It's so oily, and not exactly volatile like
gasoline. It doesn't fume out like gasoline, although it does stink. Also, it helps repel water from the sawdust. The wood/diesel combo is one of the
most reliable fire starters I've ever used, and can be made in an apocalyptic situation and stored, as long as the container isn't affected by the
fuel. Even old diesel fuel that's been sitting in a tank for ever works, as long as it can flow enough to soak into the sawdust.