When the caveman discovered fire, it changed the way he did everything—the way he ate and hunted, and even the way he heated his drafty two-bedroom bungalow cave. A few things have changed in the million or so years since that discovery; however, fire is still an important tool we use regularly. Regardless of your actual level of dependency on the mighty flame, knowing a few ways to start a fire without a match is helpful. Here are a few ways to quickly start a fire when matches are nowhere to be found.
- Touch the terminal tip of a 9V battery with steel wool to produce fire, causing the steel wool to burn. Finer-grade steel wool works best. Be sure to store the steel wool and battery separately until you are ready for fire.
- Striking metal, such as the blade of a knife, against a magnesium stick over some dry tinder will produce a spark for a flame.
- On a bright sunny day, you can use a magnifying glass, eyeglass lens or mirror to reflect a tightly focused beam of light into a pile of tinder to produce a flame.
- Using friction between two pieces of wood also works but is a difficult way to start a fire. Start with a base of extremely dry wood, preferably one with a small hole or divot to hold the tip of the spindle. Surround the small hole with fine tinder, and begin rolling a long spindle piece of wood quickly back and forth between the palms of your hands. This will take some time but can produce fire.
Do you have an alternative way to start a fire without matches? Tell us in the comment section.
[lisa]
It’s the ferrocerium part of the magnesium striker bar that makes the sparks, not the magnesium. You normally would use more of a scraping motion than a striking one against the FC to make sparks, and it doesn’t have to be metal… you can scrape with anything that is hard and sharp, such as a broken rock or bit of ceramic.
Only reading glasses and glasses for near-sightedness will work to start fires by sunlight–glasses for far-sightedness just won’t work! Nor will normal flat mirrors. You need a magnifying (concave) makeup/shaving mirror. Or break up your flat mirror into at least 49 pieces and arrange them in a dished shape to create a crude concave mirror.
While there are several “fire by friction” methods that let you create fire by rubbing sticks. While these work and you can get a fire that way in well under a minute when you know how, have a good friction set, and the conditions are good, you’re highly unlikely to make it work in an emergency if you’ve never practiced it before!
If you really want to know how to make fire without matches (both practical and just fascinating methods), get MNSI’s “Fire Volume 2 – More than 40 Ways to Make Fire Without Matches” from http://www.survivalschool.com where you’ll learn several ways to rub sticks, great ways to make from from disabled motor vehicles, multiple electrical, solar, and chemical tricks. You’ll learn how to make fire from water, ice, and even jello ™!!!
I have enough Butane lighters to be a fire hazard – just don’t waste your flint when they get wet. Another non-renewable fire source is the ‘forever match’, basically a wick mounted with a steel striker with lighter fluid sealed (no evaporation of fuel) in a zippo size container with a ferro rod mounted on one side. Takes half the fuel of a zippo to fill, screw on seal and just lighted it after a month of it sitting around.
I do want (& have) alternative methods that do not require a store.
How about just carry a baby lighter like the BIC sold in 4 pack for few dollars suckers are 2 inches long and can give up to 500 lights?
If you have some cord you construct a type of bow. Instead of twisting the stick between your hands, take a turn around the stick with the bow string and pull the bow back and forth holding the stick with a smaller piece of wood on the top of the stick. This will produce a higher speed and save your hands in the process. Dryer lint works well as mentioned.
Author simply unfamiliar with magnesium bars having a ferrocium rod attached to one side of the bar. One uses a knife to shave thin flakes of the magnesium into a pile, and then rasp strokes the ferrocium rod with the edge of the blade, sending showers of sparks onto the pile. The advantage being this fire starting tool is not ruined by water or age, and it will last a long time. Please put your kids into the Scouting Programs.
I agree: the magnesium is the FUEL, not the spark; you need to supply a spark (from that “other” kind of stick/rod) to the magnesium shavings, which burn VERY hot…igniting the tinder, then the rest…. Love the drier lint idea, by the way!
Being a general contractor, I have similar methods, with the same results. 1) A propane bottle with a torch nozzle and sparker. Available at any hardware store. 2) But the best is, a self-igniting propane torch. Just squeeze the trigger, and you are off and running. Go to a MAPP gas cylinder and increase the temperature by a 1000 degrees. The ONLY downside to this method, is the weight , and the space it takes up… About the size and weight of a full pickle jar. Oh, but the fun you can have, using it for other “projects”.
the cheapest cost, except for a little planning. DRYER LINT. Have a collection bag near your dryer; a plastic shopping bag will do.
I keep a small reclosable sandwich bag filled with the stuff in any backpack I use. Starting a fire, I put some wood kindling on it and light the lint. (sometimes I carry another bag with a bunch of toothpicks to use as small kindling). I’ve yet to have that fail. I also carry a magnesium flash starter as well. Never had it NOT work. The lint does not require any extra money.
Potassium permanganate (oxididizing agent/ $35 for 5lb. at Lowes) & glycerin (skin protectant/ $5.50 at CVS) are great chemical fire starters.
Another is combining iodine, aluminum, & H2O
Keep Prepping!
Never seen wood that dry in central Florida.
This Is not True …”Striking metal, such as the blade of a knife, against a magnesium stick over some dry tinder will produce a spark for a flame.”
Anyone who has visited the PCC in Hawaii has seen this method. It is really as easy as it looks. I surprised my friends (and myself) on a shooting / camping trip recently when they challenged me to “be a boy scout” and start a fire without a fire making device in exchange for free ammo. I accepted the challenge and shot for free the whole weekend! Note how he makes a “nest” with the tinder, that part is key.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vrG6x5efCg
A flamerthrower is always a crowd pleaser! (unless you are on the receiving end)
Just saw what a “fire piston” is and how easily you can make one.
A full bottle of water, remove the label. use paper that has black print, fold in half, have other paper of the same size and fold, use the neck of the bottle to create a spot on the paper like you would a magnifying glass, when it smolders place another piece of folded paper over the smoldering piece the continue to use the bottle in the same spot, repeating the addition of paper until it blazes. For best result use a black piece pf paper to start.
A variant of the magnifying glass is the Fresnel Lens. Was familiar with the magnifying glass and after I bought a plastic Fresnel found it to be just as easy to light tinder. I used a page size Fresnel and need to obtain Credit Card size to see how well they might work.
I’ve used the accelerant in cartridges to start campfires (I usually have some because I reload). It will not explode if it is not contained (like, in a cartridge). I burns progressively and is not an explosive. Black powder, used in muzzle-loaders and other antique or replica arms, will explode (burns very quickly) depending on mixture (I’ve made my own and results vary).
USE A BULLET PULLER FOR LAGER BULLETS TO REMOVE POWER, THAN IT’S NOT PROBLEM GETTING POWDER.
Being a Muzzle loading hunter, my flint and steel are readily at hand. That, and the pan full of priming will make most tender leap to flaming life.
Potassiumpermanganate and glycerine works but I read the reaction only works at about 70 degrees and higher temperature. I haven’t tried it but if your going to bet your life on it, I would research it.
I like the mountain man way. Flint and Steel. I have and carry a small tin with flint, striker, char cloth and hemp fibers with me and can get a fire in less than a minute. It works great with dry grass and or western cedar bark. It won’t blow up and you can keep all the ingredients together in one possible bag or like mine a small tin, like a tobacco can.
Warm nights. DC
I was in the woods a few years back and found myself without matches or a butane lighter… cut open a shotgun shell I had rolling around the floor board of my truck and used a small amount with a handful of dry grass. The electric cigar lighter from truck ignited the mixture quickly and reasonably safe.
The steel wool should be fine, preferably 0000. Coarse stuff is hard to ignite.
The mirror has to be a concave shaving/makeup mirror; a regular flat mirror won’t work (unless you break it into at least 49 pieces and form the pieces into a crude convex mirror). It’s possible to polish the dished bottom of an aluminum drink can into a workable mirror, and the chromed bottom of many aerosol spray cans will work too. Has to be shiny and smooth enough to see your reflection.
Eyeglass lenses will only work if they are for far-sightedness or are reading glasses. Near-sighted/myopia lenses just won’t work. You can create a lens with water, such as filling a corner of a ziplock baggy and twisting it tight to make it bulge without major wrinkles. Or a bit of water in a clear soda bottle, tilted to pool the water in the rounded top area.
There are many variations of fire by friction (rubbing sticks together), and they really do work, but don’t expect to ever figure out how to make one work under stressful condition… you will have to learn and practice (a lot!) BEFORE you need it.
For lots more details and 40 ways to make fire without matches, check “Fire Volume 2” DVD from http://www.survivalschool.com
In the Boy Scouts we were tasked with boiling water starting without matches or a lighter to produce quick flame. We used hot spark, a flint like tool and a small amount of drier lint. The stuff goes up like gasoline! Typically if you’re prepared enough to have a sparking device you have other methods set aside as well, but if you’re in a pinch or just headed camping this is a fun/useful way to start a fire.
Also remember that you likely have a powerful accelerant with you, gun powder, inside every firearm cartridge. Works well with the spark method to quickly ignite tender. However if you choose to use gun powder as an accelerant use extreme caution harvesting it from the cartridge and use the powder very sparing and dispersed way so not to cause an explosion.
There is another way to start a fire by using chemicals… they are sold in a kit with both chemicals and they are; Potassium permanganate & Glycerine… Apply a small amount of Potassium permanganate and a smaller amount of Glycerine together and about 30 to 60 seconds later it will ignite…. These chemicals can be purchased at a chemical outlet store….
Please do not allow these chemicals to come together during storage as you will not like the results…..
One thing I learned in hunters education when I was just a small boy that stuck with me was the mixing of 4895 gunpowder and fingernail polish remover. Making a doughy paste out of these two easily to come by materials makes an excellent fire starter. Just mix it and keep it in an air tight container until needed.