On 2009-07-20, Ben Crowell <crowell09 at (no spam) lightSPAMandISmatterEVIL.com> wrote:
I don't make campfires or bring a stove when I go backpacking, but I
still occasionally want to burn something (or may need to start a fire
in an emergency). Strike-anywhere matches aren't bad, but I'd also like
to have a cigarette lighter as a backup. The problem I've had with the
cheap Bic lighters they sell in the checkout lane at the supermarket
is that they don't seem to want to light at high altitude when the
temperature is low.

My brother in law says there's something called a cigar lighter, which
makes a bigger, stronger flame. Anyone have any experience with these?
I'm visualizing something the size of an abridged dictionary, with
roughly the density of plutonium.


There's a whole set of specialized "super-bics" for the
outdoors. I've used an old Colibri pipe lighter, but
here's a whole page of choices:

http://www.elighters.com/colibri-lighters-high-altitude-outdoors-series.html

Usual disclaimer: I don't own, work for, buy from, or know
anything at all about elighters.com. I just thought the
examples on that page might be of interest.

My most dependable has been butane lighter, and something
like the old PJCB. Military trioxane works very nicely,
also.

What's PJCB?

On Jul 21, 11:33 am, You <y... at (no spam) shadow.orgs> wrote:

Anyone with ANY Brains at all would simply put the butane lighter
in their armpit, for an hour, BEFORE, they stopped to camp, and that
would warm the butane to 98F, and will light easily for about ten
minutes even if it was -20F Air Temp.....  Duh......

Tell that to the exhausted person, perhaps in the early stages of
hypothermia and struggling to find safety from a storm and who finally
finds enough wood to build a fire.

My most dependable has been butane lighter, and something
like the old PJCB. Military trioxane works very nicely,
also.

I've lit VCB (or PJCB) with flint and steel. Blast Match or
Strike force does well. You have to fluff up the area you're
striking, can't leave it in a gooey glob.

"jimbok" <jimkelREMOVE at (no spam) frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:hkkf65l890612n51fvvskncl2mt8n2rarg at (no spam) 4ax.com...
On 22 Jul 2009 14:59:00 -0800, eugene at (no spam) cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya) wrote:

Well there are better things than vaseline cotton balls.
Just get a candle.

I've never seen anyone light a candle with a firesteel, have
you? Of
course if you have matches to light the candle, then you
probably don't need the cotton balls, or even the candle.

I was going to say something about an axe when it occured to me that
if he was burning tires he could have dried out any decent wood.
Darwin at work.

In article
e65fb772-3c5b-4932-90b6-667ee10204a6 at (no spam) l35g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com wrote:
On Jul 21, 11:33 am, You <y... at (no spam) shadow.orgs> wrote:
Anyone with ANY Brains at all would simply put the butane lighter
in their armpit,

Tell that to the exhausted person, perhaps in the early stages of
hypothermia and struggling to find safety from a storm and who finally
finds enough wood to build a fire.
....
"To Stupid to Live"..... AND the SAR folks go get them ALL the time....
some make it, some don't.... Natural Selection at work...... It is to
bad they put others at risk, while they are deciding to live or die.....

Anyone with ANY Brains at all would simply put the butane lighter
in their armpit,

hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com> wrote:
Tell that to the exhausted person, perhaps in the early stages of
hypothermia and struggling to find safety from a storm and who finally
finds enough wood to build a fire.

If the person is an underequiped newbie who has no experience igniting wood
....
it's not clear to me that even having a lighter will make much difference.

Consider the fellow who died S of you near Grants Pass. He burned the 4
tires on his car w/o attempting to even sheperd his fire. The moment
he decide to burn tire #2 he started down worse roads of no return
(ignoring a slew of problems even before burning tire #1). Remember he
died in a forest (albeit winter) surrounded by trees.

It's an EIA factor.

I was going to say something about an axe when it occured to me that
if he was burning tires he could have dried out any decent wood.
Darwin at work.

On Jul 22, 4:09=A0pm, eug... at (no spam) cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya) wrote:
If the person is an underequiped newbie who has no experience igniting wood

it's not clear
to me that even having a lighter will make much difference.

Consider the fellow who died S of you near Grants Pass.

It is a simple matter to see the obvious, to do the expected.

The tendency of the individual life is to be static rather than dynamic,
and this tendency is made into a propulsion by civilization, where the
obvious only is seen, and the unexpected rarely happens. When the
unexpected does happen, however, and when it is of sufficiently grave
import, the unfit perish. They do not see what is not obvious, are
unable to do the unexpected, are incapable of adjusting their well-
grooved lives to other and strange grooves. In short, when they come
to the end of their own groove, they die.
(Jack London in =93The Unexpected=94)

In article <9a4f7ee3-c040-4a63-b416-975f3d34669d at (no spam) d9g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com> wrote:
On Jul 20, 4:56=A0pm, jimbok <jimkelREM... at (no spam) frontiernet.net> wrote:
tinder might be a problem in your hiking area, bring some vaseline
covered cotton balls, which work well. =A0You can easily put a dozen of
them into a small plastic prescription bottle, or an old 35mm film
canister.
The biggest disadvantage of the move to digital photography is the
fact that those 35mm film containers are no longer readily available.
They had about a zillion uses.

Well there are better things than vaseline cotton balls. Just get a
candle.

We are a society of excess packaging. Numerous containers from various
sources like jim's bottle, and more which can replace 35 mm cans.


BTW: we're doing a group dinner in Nov.
Flying over Portland in a few hours to Seattle. After 72 hrs home.

If you know someone who's a diabetic, some glucometer strips come in a

Eugene Miya wrote:
In article
9a4f7ee3-c040-4a63-b416-975f3d34669d at (no spam) d9g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
hlillywh at (no spam) juno.com> wrote:
On Jul 20, 4:56=A0pm, jimbok <jimkelREM... at (no spam) frontiernet.net> wrote:
tinder might be a problem in your hiking area, bring some vaseline
covered cotton balls, which work well. =A0You can easily put a dozen of
them into a small plastic prescription bottle, or an old 35mm film
canister.
The biggest disadvantage of the move to digital photography is the
fact that those 35mm film containers are no longer readily available.
They had about a zillion uses.

Well there are better things than vaseline cotton balls. Just get a
candle.

We are a society of excess packaging. Numerous containers from various
sources like jim's bottle, and more which can replace 35 mm cans.


BTW: we're doing a group dinner in Nov.
Flying over Portland in a few hours to Seattle. After 72 hrs home.

If you know someone who's a diabetic, some glucometer strips come in a
tight-sealing plastic container almost exactly the same size as 35mm film
cans.

As for fire-starters, nothing I've used beats a package of paper matches
soaked in melted paraffin wax. Use a lighter or waterproof match to light
the first match head and there you are. Of course, you need to know how
to mount a fire under the prevailing conditions....

Clurrie
-

As for fire-starters, nothing I've used beats a package of paper matches
soaked in melted paraffin wax. Use a lighter or waterproof match to
light the first match head and there you are. Of course, you need to
know how to mount a fire under the prevailing conditions....

Clurrie wrote:
As for fire-starters, nothing I've used beats a package of paper matches
soaked in melted paraffin wax. Use a lighter or waterproof match to
light the first match head and there you are. Of course, you need to
know how to mount a fire under the prevailing conditions....

Where do you buy paraffin these days? Is soaking matches in melted
paraffin as incredibly tedious as I'm imagining it to be?
-