So your covers blown and your ass is on the run. Do you know what it takes to start a simple fire?

Did you know steel wool burns (very fine stuff) which can easily burn wood.

Can you make a burn stick?

I'll try to run around this weekend and work on some survival skills and post some of the info. Maybe this can be crossed to the outdoors forum as well.

I know that having lint from the dryer is always good. We keep it in our "emergency kit" that's in the car at all times. Excellent burn time on that stuff.

Spaghnum Moss (Old Man's Beard) also burns really well, repels water, and makes a lot of smoke (good or bad depending on if you wanted the smoke).

I used to keep a vitamin bottle full of steel wool soaked in diesel in my survival kit. It went through airport baggage three times before they noticed and pulled it out. They also took the safe, sealed solid fuel tablets for my pocket stove, my lighter, and my safety matches stored inside a fireproof, airtight container. If the plane had gone down and we needed to start a fire, I guess we'd be screwed (Or we'd have to eat any TSA employees raw).

This has happened a couple times to people in Alaska. They go from the airline to their connecting bush flight, get dropped off in the wilderness for a week of camping, and find a nice little note in their pack saying "Hi, due to the possibility of you somehow burninating the airplane, we've removed all flamable items from your baggage. Have a nice day".

you can use a gasoline soaked rag, attach it to the ends of a battery. its similar to the whole steel wool thing. also by burn stick do you mean feather stick (theres also a good and lazy mans version of this). shelter building is also an important skill, i would highly recomend the RCAF handbook "down but not out".

You just soak a rag and attach one end to the + and one to the - ? On like a car battery?

It just ignites?

And as for shelter, lean-to's are very easy to make and work well.

If that's the case my shop should have burned down a hundred times a year.

yes steel wool surely kicks ass, i dont light fires though even to cover my ass as there is severe fire dangers where i live and just one ciggarette last year burnt down over 30 thousand homes. plus the fines for arsen now are very large. what do you mean to cover your ass? as in being chased? if im being chased i use my good ole homemade smoke bombs, ones the size of golf balls that produce enough smoke to fill a school gym thickly and smell like toffee... YUM! if you mean to get rid of evidence if you were acting appropriatly to the situation there shouldnt be any incriminating evidence to begin with.

Those smoke bombs can start fires too, I almost burned down a paintball site with a commercial one, and the homemade ones are even worse

Posted by Frost You just soak a rag and attach one end to the + and one to the - ? On like a car battery? It just ignites? And as for shelter, lean-to's are very easy to make and work well.

thats about it ya

Hmm, shit I have to try this.

Hmm, sounds dangerous to me It's unlikely to cause a hard short, but if you do short out a car battery they can explode (hydrogen builds up inside the case). Getting acid and plastic fragments in your face isn't much fun.



E: spell check thinks "platic" is a word

Not sure about all this fancy shit, but I can have a fire going pretty fast with a couple sticks and a shoelace.........

i have the sas wilderness survival guide, BUY IT

do you know how to light a damp match?
use a camera lense to start a fire
flint
fire bow
hand drill
fire plough


best tinder:
birch bark
dried grasses
fine wood shavings
bird down
waxed paper
dryer lint
dried and crushed fungus
cruched pine cones

best kindling:
small dry sticks
soft wood (burns fast but produces alot of sparks)
wood with resin

Best fuel:
dry wood form standing trees to get a fire started
once going you can use green wood
heavier wood = more heat
mixing dead and green wood prolongs a fires life
damp wood = SMOKE

dry out damp wood by placing it near the fire

and also, dont take you kindling from the ground, where it will be damp most of the time, take it from dead trees

if you're on the run the question is... do you know how to hide from search dogs?

look and marks E&E thread

Posted by Kirby look and marks E&E thread

oh, I know that, but there is a way to put their noses out of commission for a minimum of 24h, so they can not smell your scent, and follow you, but I want to see who knows how to do it... Mark should know, he should have been trained in it, the US training is more advanced than ours, and we covered it (mark should know what I'm talking about, even though I'm being verry vague)

Do tell. This trick could have saved my ass atleast once.


BTW, oily plants also smoke alot (such as the pine cones you mentioned). Only a good hot fire of dry wood will be smoke free (or atleast less visible).

I have to say, some of the old backwoods survival tips and things can be really helpful, or atleast interesting. I've read a few short books, but I love hearing this stuff. Keep the advice coming!

the crushed pine cones may smoke, but how long will the tinder burn? 30 seconds myabe untill the kindling has cought.

Oh, I'm not saying not to use it. I guess that's some thing you'd have to judge situation by situation.

I only tend to use this knowledge in a practical way. IE: to keep acrid smoke out of my eyes when hiking.