Still repeating the story about needing a carbon steel blade to strike a ferro rod. You don't. It just needs to have a sharp spine. Some of the best strikers are the spine on folding saws, and the awl on a victorinox, both very definitely stainless. In fact many of the excellent strikers that come with ferro rods never rust, so are very unlikely to be carbon steel.

With the 90 degree spine of a knife you can make finer shavings of fatwood , than with the blade , which in turn will easily be ignited with your fero rod .

I just saw a guy make fire with a broken lighter by shaving the plastic in to a pile and the spark caught fire.

Dryer lint in cardboard egg cartons, melt wax. Break off individual eggs. Burn in the snow for over 45 mins. Stay prepped my friends…

I'm sure others have said it already, but you don't need carbon steel to strike a ferro rod. I've used broken ceramic, broken glass or pretty much anything hard enough and with a sharp edge will work.

I bag up dryer lint. Works like a charm.

I’m 66 and still a backpacker. And do it as an historic reinactor. So the sport of historic treking. Since the 1970s carried a steel and flint or iron pyrites. In near fifty years in rain and snow I’ve never had a tireless camp I’ve gotten flame in seven seconds , always less then two minutes Had some times when I’ve had to light a candle stub. Works great

Vicks Vapo Rub as an alternative to Vaseline on cotton balls gives an added first aid benefit to help with nasal decongestion, and it is mostly comprised of petroleum jelly just like Vaseline so equally as flammable.

I use the cotton makeup disks, melt Vaseline and dip the disks. I let them cool then dip them in melted wax. Makes them less messy and more water proof.

Good video. Pringles also burn like hell !

An old flashlight reflector works like a magnifying glass if you put tinder where the bulb goes

Not one mention of a magnifying glass or concave mirror?

In all my time in the Military. The best fire starter is without a doubt a mixture of potassium permanganate and brake fluid. You make a small pile of the PP and add a few drops of brake fluid. Over time you will learn the ideal mix. It starts off like molten lava before bursting into flame. It burns with intense heat and is unaffected by wind or rain. It burns for a long time which helps if some of your hinder is damp, the heat and length of burn will dry out damp tinder before igniting it. This is a fire starter that needs no protection against wind, rain or snow covered ground. It will start a fire anywhere and in any conditions. Give it a try. Even my old survival Instructor was totally impressed and added it to his lessons on fire starting.

We used bug repellent in the army. Worked a treat!

Back in the day we used 35 mm film containers with strike anywhere matches inside them. Use your zipper to light them or if your good you can use your finger nail or tooth to light em up.

I melt my petroleum jelly in a paper bowl in the microwave and pour it into the bag of cotton. No mess and disposable bowl. PRO TIP Freezer bags for the cotton then store them in an oven bag. you can use the oven bag to boil water.

Pitch from Conifer trees work as good firestarters and it is waterproof. Deer moss is an excellent fire starter.

Great content as always. Don't forget about the basic magnifying glass (a feature on many compasses) and/or a clear plastic bag with a little water in it. Both of course only work when the sun is shining. The cotton ball mess is at the bottom of my list with all the superior methods you showed.

My favourite from those (other than the bought wax impregnated tinders) is a block of fatwood with the smiths grater. It's not difficult to create fine shavings of fatwood using a ferro rod striker or spine of a folding saw, but as shown in this video the convenience of the container underneath the smiths grater is superb. Grate some fatwood then light it with the smallest spark.

Paper plates work well too, the ones that have the wax coating on them to keep them from getting soggy.

Magic birthday candles are very good also and always over looked.

Water bottle clear plastic as a magnifying glass - a concave drink can base polished for a sun dish - hitting steel wire until red hot

Great suggestions and thank you for the demonstration.

In the closing speech, when holding up the lighter, who else thought "Freeebird"!? Also shredded wheat will burn.

When Making shavings like the fa wood do it over an open bandana, hat, T-shirt, plastic bag...ETC

13:52....add zippo fluid in the cylinder and you have a match. That is the intended way to use it. There should be wick material around the blade of the "striker". The first permanent match i saw belonged to my grandmother, it was made around the 1920s.😊

Thank u for sharing these I'm a woman who hunts fishes etc.now alone.but have been preparing for emergencies. With food other survival stuff from ur channel ...your demo excellent.thank u

Appreciate you, man! Keep these educational survival vids coming. Really enjoy them.

I think it is more about having skills than having 4-5 methods of making fire on you at all times. If you have a fero rod or a lighter and some skill then your good. If you also have the skill to do a friction fire then even better. I have altoid tin size fire kits in my camping gear, but I normally have a small fero rod on me as EDC.

Thanks from Ireland I was impressed with the wire wool and battery 👍🍀

Thankyou for the video!

Excellent video! Thank you!

Sootch, something prepress should know. Water bottles, laundry detergent and many liquids are sold in plastic bottles. In time the plastic will break down and they will leak. It’s best to store liquids in food grade containers or plastic that does not break down.

A dead lighter hollowed out and filled with dryer lint or other good starter work awesome! LINT n FLINT patent pending

YEAH SOOTCH! Glad to see a new video!

Always enjoyable reviewing everyone's tricks... "yup"... "I knew that"... still good stuff! 😎

Great video very comprehensive.

If you’re in the woods collect dry pinecones , one match and one pinecone and you’re in business.

Some of those little pencil sharpeners are made of magnesium, so you can scrape some off to upgrade your tinder pile!

Great tips! Thanks!

I love these videos! Its like Boy Scouts, 404, Master Class!

Great info more people need to know!

Excellent!!

In my research, regular Fritos work and catch much better than others. And with the smaller size bag and smaller size chips, you can save space. They're even reusable! One small corn chip will burn for around five minutes. Save the Doritos for a snack.

When it comes to making fire I have 3 things that I really like 1 fire starter gel 2 Fire plug (Wax impregnated cotton) 3 wax wood (Artificial fatwood) Sure everything I posted is man made or artificial, but they are easily made. A trip to home depot to buy cotton rope and wood kindling sticks. Process the two into fatrope and waxwood and the issue is you have a surplus of firestarters. Or you can omit the kindling sticks and buy fatwood. I like the waxwood because the wax should not dry out like fatwood can.

Strike anywhere matches are still available. ACE Hardware stores carry them, as well as other places. Admittedly, they are not as good as the old Blue Tip brand that could easily light on any rough surface, including your Blue Jeans, if you stretched the material tight. I like to dip the match heads and about 1/4" of the wood below the head in clear fingernail polish to make them waterproof. I package about a dozen matches and a small piece of match striker paper (sold in sheets on Amazon) in a small vacuum sealed packet. I make the packets, about 3" x 2" from cut down vacuum sealer bags, and after packaging the matches and striker paper in the packets, I vacuum seal them using a common kitchen food vacuum sealer. Although the match heads are waterproofed by the fingernail polish, which will prevent the match heads from deteriorating in damp, high humidity conditions, the length of wood in the match is not waterproof. And, although the strike anywhere matches can be lighted by striking on a rough surface, having a dry strike surface with the matches insures a successful light. The small, thin packets can be easily carried in a pocket, such as the small watch pocket in a pair of jeans or included in a survival kit, such as the popular homemade survival kits in an Altoids tin.

Thanks for the info always great 👍

Just a couple of notes. The Zippo lighter isn't a butane lighter. That little Zippo fire starter thing is supposed to fill with lighter fluid and sparking it lights that little bit of rope on the end. Off brand is called a permanent match. But lots of good info and some things I have never heard to use as a fire starter.

Thank you for the demonstrations. I notice that you left out a pocket magnifier, or burning lens. A magnifier can start a fire any time the sun is out.

Marshmallows burn really well also

Nice, basic layout and demonstration for fire starting tools and techniques. Didn’t know about Smith's Pack Pal Tinder Maker w/ Fire Starter. Looks like a neat little gadget to try out at the next family campfire. Thank you for sharing. Happy Trails! 🇺🇸 🏕 🌲

Nice video I know you have done some like this in the past but I love teaching videos ! Most prepper channels have gone to talking about situations and what’s happening in the world which is good but I think the teaching videos are always a good and I see some new people are coming in. I try to teach my grandson some of these fire starting methods we have been collecting fat wood the last week.

Sootch - have you heard of Clipper lighters? They're more well known in Europe & the UK but they do have a presence in the US. They look like standard disposable lighters but are refillable and have replaceable 'flints' and strikers so they have a much longer potential lifespan that a Bic and can be kept full. I haven't bought one yet, but they're interesting. The thing that gives me pause is that I haven't seen anything like the Exotac Fire Sleeve that fits the clippers.

Cut short lengths of Jute Twine and dip in melted wax. When dry, you have waterproof tinder that burns like a small candle with a much better flame than just the untreated twine.

Thanks for all your videos. I like them. Nobody mention the jetflame lighter. Since many years i use one with two very hot flames (blue). I can start fire directly on the wood, even if its wet. The jetflame lighter works also if it is wet. It is flamed electronically. I take also a small spare refill bottle with me, which i never had to use up to now.

Lockdowns on Bics generally caused by flint being jammed in wheel because it either chipped off a piece or was used up and is resting on the metal attached to the spring. The jammed piece can be cleared by releasing pressure under the spring and removing broken piece

Nice to see you there. Haven't seen you for quite a while. Hope you're feeling good and doing good. And then busy too, so take care. I'll watch you.

God bless you 😅this is a good video that i find educating for my journey as bushcraft and survival period i wanted thank uou😢

Correct me if I'm wrong... Petroleum Jelly is an extender not a accelerate just like the chapstick or beeswax... none of those burn very well if at all by themselves and need to be combined with something like the cotton to be viable. The alcohol based hand sanitizer however is an accelerate and will burn even by itself. That zippo permanent match is supposed to have fuel inside as well as some wick on the striker/match. The act of using the ferro rod on the side ignited the tip of the "match" and could be used over and over.

Great collection of different fire starting devices. Spark-Lite makes a nice one handed fire starter that comes with tinder in a weather resistant container. I have it and the Blastmatch but I prefer the Spark-Lite. You don’t need a hard surface to press against with it. Regardless of which method you use, try it out before you actually need it to save your life!

Great tips. Doritos huh? Hadn't heard that one. 😊

So many different great ways, pine cones are great dipped in wax, the coating on the lighter can be shaved down to use as tinder, anything concave and reflective works in sun if polished a little. So many ways, then of course the more primitive friction fire or knocking rocks together, (the right kind of rocks). Just to many to list them all. But great video, thumbs up

If you’re new to learning to start fire please don’t watch this. It’s a process not to mention everything he said about the lighter was wrong, how to scrap fat wood was wrong, how he uses a ferro rod is wrong, you needing a carbon steel knife is wrong. This was just a video for exotac not viewers.

Times are changing thanks for the info

I have bought several packages of pencil sharpeners at Dollar Tree. There are like 12 to a pack for $1.25. You didn't show a magnifying glass (I know the Sun has to be out to use the magnifying glass). I have a good stock of Strike Anywhere Matches. I keep them in waterproof containers. Air has moisture in it that will ruin matches eventually if not kept in watertight containers. Keep Prepping my friends.

You could put cotton balls in a large medicine container that have a water tight seal and pour the vaseline on top.

Powdered coffee creamer like Coffeemate works like black powder as well.

Soft ferro rods are preferred over all others by those of us that use them in adverse conditions oddly enough the best ive ever used are the coghlans when you are out in the cold and wet they throw a fatter hotter longer burning spark than the exotac rods ... the light my fire rods are the worst they are way too hard and don't throw long lasting sparks... the best striker will always be a carbide tool sharpener you should never never use your knife unless you have no choice and you can use any steel thats harder than the rod so a medium carbon or higher works fine you don't need a high carbon blade you can absolutely use stainless hell a sharp rock will do the job

Thanks

Not to get off the subject but are there any plans on an updated video on your main bugout bag?

I wonder if anyone sells fatwood cut down to the size & shape of a carpenter's pencil. Then you could use a carpenter's pencil sharpener to make fatwood shavings easily.

Sootch should live-stream a snack chip fire starter shootout rating each for both flavor and fire starting ability.

Potassium Permanganate and Sugar ground together = fire. Also good in first aid kit. Then there is Potassium Permanganate and Glycerin = instant fire.

BIC lighters may be fuel activated but even when empty there is a very useful spark available. I always have an old bic lighter knocking about. You can tape spare flints to the body with gaffer tape which of course has many other uses to stop your shavings blowing away.

There is also a concave mirror or even a water bottle with some water in it to direct the sun if that's all you've got.

I use those little tealight candles a lot. Some how I’ve ended up with a couple hundred guess my ex bought them. I keep them in my edc bag and in my car. Use them almost every time I start a fire when we go camping. I just light one and start stacking tender on it . Obviously you can reuse them over and over but I usually just leave it in the fire and use once.

When I saw you using the Doritos to start fire, it made me remember another program that said that Fritos corn chips also make a great starter because of the high amounts of oils in them….

Hand Sanitizer: During The Covidious of 2021, several local distillaries in Georgia, started making hand sanitizer. And it smelled like pure grain alcohol. I am sure that stuff was flammable! ♨️ (I bet you could strain it through a sock, and make prison hooch! 🍸😂 🤮)

Yoyu left out the different types of char: char cloth, charred punkwood, Fresnel lens, etc. tinder treaded with wood ash keeps an ember longer, so you don't have to rush.

With the ferro rods and/or anything black I'd suggest adding some bright orange tape or a bright colored lanyard to it. You drop that in a forest it's gone.

Great video, did you still have your eyebrows left when you lit that black powder.😂😂🇮🇲🇮🇲🇮🇲. Have a good week. Craig.

One of my favorite food/Firestarters is peanuts !! High calorie survival food / burns well !! Seal it in vacuum sealed pouches to carry them safely in your pack without attracting bears / racoons .

Great video Sootch. You should check out the Tacamo H2 rechargeable plasma arc lighter. I keep that along with a couple of the fire starting methods you mentioned here. Best thing about the Tacamo is it’s rechargeable via usb so that combined with a pocket sized solar charger makes it last indefinitely. (Oh that reminds me a magnifying glass is a good fire starter in sunny conditions.)

I have absolutely no use for this, but it's interesting. Thanks.

Hi,I love your videos . Never missed one yet. Did you ever use a clear sandwich bag with clear water in it to use as a magnifying glass to start a fire? It works - when the sun is out - of course.

Some natural fire starting materials would be good to see too. Although I understand it would depend on what's available in your local area.

I cut a recess in all my knife handles with a countering or semi circular bit on a router.put was in it,so it makes a perfect handle for a bow drill.

Just an observation on my part. The last 4 times I went over to the EXOTAC page they were out of damn near everything. The zippo one looks more like a permanent match to me. Oh I'm more of a traditionalist starting in the very late 70's I have been doing the flint&steel bit. With what I have in a brass smoking "tin" and a fixed knife I could start around a dozen fires.

A peanut lighter is smaller than a dime in size around and about 2 inches tall, Have one on my key-chain that I've carried over a yr, still lights, haven't refilled it yet. Also, peanuts, almost all nuts will burn, about half the stuff in most trail mixes will burn. Oil lamp wick will light with a fero rod, char an end and it will also light with a fresnel lens. Fresnel lens the size of a credit card carried in your kit and/or wallet.

I keep a Firefly ferro rod and tinder from Tortoise in my Victorinox Huntsman.

I noticed you did not use a fire piston. I have been using a fire piston since I was in high school and it is my favorite way to make fire. I have been able to make fire with the fire piston on the first try ever time and it takes less energy than a ferro rod. Also, a good fire tender I like to use is dryer lint.

I always carry a couple feminine napkins or tampons make for good fire starter or can be used for cuts and wounds

This is an EXCELLENT VIDEO about EMERGENCY FIRE STARTING! Pls SHARE with Your friends or GROUP??

One only needs a sharp 90° spine to scrape a ferro rod to create sparks. Carbon steel blade is for creating sparks with flint or chert.

You are absolutely right - fire is essential to survival, and everybody should know about several different ways to create it. But then, so much rubbish. Regular BIC lighters guarantee for a minimum of 1,000 fires and in my experience you get nearly twice as much from one lighter. If you're worried about loosing your fuel in a BIC, just protect it and put a cover on it, starting with grinding down the overhang of the release button. For striking a ferrorod you don't need carbon steel, just something hard enough to shave the rod, even a broken piece of solid rock or a shard of glass will do. The big half-inch rods claim to be good for 16,000 sparks, but I've seen many videos, where experienced bushcrafters needed 10-20 (and more) sparks to ignite their tinder bundle, so that massive rod gives them just 1,000 fires or less before it's worn out (@4:10 you needed 8 strikes). A BIC lighter is a ferrorod, a striker and fuel in one tool, and keeping it close to your body in a waterproof sealed or roll-top bag will give you no issues from cold, wet or corrosive weather. The same with matches - put them in a waterproof plastic bag and keep it in a sturdy container to prevent the bag from beeing punctured, and you're ready to go. In very humid conditions you can throw in the small bags of silicagel, that work as a dehumidifier and come with most electronic devices - never throw them away. The expensive tinders, that you are promoting can be made easily at home, just melt some wax from tealights or candle-leftovers and throw in whatever wooden sticks, cotton, jute or hemp materials you like, wether strips from a t-shirt, cordage or rope at a fraction of costs. No need to fund expensive homes and cars of the EXOTAC management - really not.

Tiny strips of duct tape or rolled up in tiny "cigars" will lite with a ferro rod. Fritos also work if you don't like Doritos. One other technique for a small stove is an Altoids can filled with perlite. Add some 70-91% alcohol and it will burn for 5-7 mins. The perlite can be used and carried in the can over and over. That Zippo you showed used to have lighter fluid in it as the end is a wick you lite on the that striker. I've never seen that "grater" - cool little kit. Thanks. GOD Bless

Not sure if it was mentioned but, a welding striker.

I'd love to see the Smith's kit used on Fanwood!

I'm making sell my own fire starter, just waxed jute twine. But works great and mostly water proof

fine steel wool can also be started sparks from a dead bic lighter or any sufficient spark