Magnesium Fire Starter - Any Tips?

[Bypah]

I recently got some US military fuel gel,diethylene glycol and is excellent.... better than the old trionxane bars/cubes.

I tried it in my crusader cooking unit I got and worked perfect.... I used one full canteen cup of water.In 2 minutes the water was hot enough....10 minutes was in a rolling boil!! With one packet of gel fuel I was able to make 2 canteen cups of hot water in 25 minutes and it kept going.... It lasted a total of 30 minutes.
No odor, no smoke,no mess just a little of white residue that was easy cleaned from the cooking unit and the cup with a wash rag.....
Overall is excellent!!!!
I guess in an emergency it will be a good fire starter....

I have done the fire bow method (sticks) and is funn just need to have is plenty of patience....
Peace!

It comes in individual packest of 1-2 oz of guel gel.

GEL-1.jpg (57.31 KiB) Viewed 9041 times

[dirtbag]

I did the primitive fire starting stuff in the Scouts, nothing beats waterproof matches and 'Scout Water' ( lighter fluid )
Works every time !

[Cracker]

A friend of my always lit his campfires with a few splashes of petrol .. also worked great..

But not very .. ehh.. enviromental

The stick and bow trick doesn't take patience.. I had a fire going in about 30 seconds..

[spinhouse247]

Two essentials to any kit. I'm sure some of you recognize the P51 can opener. I collect lint from the dryer and keep it in a zip-lock bag in my BOB, the sparks ignite it like black powder. As I stated earlier, County Comm has a ton of useful stuff on the cheap.

[Stef]

I collect lint from the dryer and keep it in a zip-lock bag in my BOB, the sparks ignite it like black powder.

good idea, navel lint should work ok too if you don't have a shower too often (once a year ...)

[Stef]

Hi
I've received my fire starter yesterday, the big one 7 x .8cm (approx. 2.7 x .3").
First I've found it was easier to manipulate if I replaced the short, thick piece of rope attaching the scraper with a longer piece of nylon string. After a few strikes, I've added a small notch to the scraper (saw blade style) using a Dremel tool and a .4" sand paper cylinder. Now the sparks are much stronger than before.
I couldn't start any fire yet. I've tried some paper, threads from a cotton rag, some lint, a VERY small amount of black powder (ant size), the same cotton with WD40 on it: nothing worked yet. The only thing that started to burn was a steel wool pad in my workshop!
I must be really BAAAD ...or maybe I just have to practise a little bit...

[ak70g2]

Try some cotton wool. If you can't ignite this, you're beyond any hope :p

[Stef]

Try some cotton wool. If you can't ignite this, you're beyond any hope :p

vă mulţumesc fratele meu!
Not for your (almost true) considerations on my ability but for the trick: it works great!
I've tried with one of my wife's cleansing pads: it burns like flash powder, very fast with a "POF!" sound.
Maybay a tampax will burn for a longer time...

[Cracker]

steelwhool is a good firestarter but a bit dangerous (tends to spark) and it burns very hot..
But when using steelwhool, I prefer to use a simple 9 volt battery.. it starts to burn instantly..



PS: magnesium tends to "jump" or "roll" of when you spark at something.. make sure you make somesort of a cup with some easily to burn fuel.. like cottonwhool (parafined cottonwhool works great), steelwhool, dust from your clothing "centrefuge"

[saladp]

Hi
I've received my fire starter yesterday, the big one 7 x .8cm (approx. 2.7 x .3").
First I've found it was easier to manipulate if I replaced the short, thick piece of rope attaching the scraper with a longer piece of nylon string. After a few strikes, I've added a small notch to the scraper (saw blade style) using a Dremel tool and a .4" sand paper cylinder. Now the sparks are much stronger than before.
I couldn't start any fire yet. I've tried some paper, threads from a cotton rag, some lint, a VERY small amount of black powder (ant size), the same cotton with WD40 on it: nothing worked yet. The only thing that started to burn was a steel wool pad in my workshop!
I must be really BAAAD ...or maybe I just have to practise a little bit...

I bought a few months ago one of the selling in China for 3.77 € with shipping included. is the same as I buy and a specialty shop for three times its value.

at first it is hard to produce good sparks for the paint that has the bar and steel sheet. steel sheet that I changed it saw an old piece. disappears after the thin layer of paint on the bar sparks escape easily and abundant. one or two sparks and a small piece of cotton, and the fire that resulted in at moments

I have had for many years a lighter magnesium with a small bar and lots of dust from scraping never got magnesium fire

conclusion: fantastic product and a very attractive price.




greetings to all