So there I was, out in the bush minding my own business when I see a dryer hanging out all alone. I froze when it made eye contact with me. It didn’t move, it continued it’s cycle. The dryer didn’t appear to want to bother me and when it turned it’s back I managed to wrestle it down until I was able to harvest some lint.
The series, Will it Spark? was born.
From that point onward I’ve been experimenting with different things to ignite with my Ferro Rod.
In this next video I had a napkin I used to get rid of some excess linseed oil I had on my hands after finishing up a few spoons.
Something most people in the woodworking world know is that linseed oil can spontaneously combust when left unattended on a rag or napkin.
Scary.
Cool.
The napkin went up in flames no problem.
Okay, you think, that was easy, anyone can light a napkin on fire, right?
What happens with things that aren’t so easy to light? What about wood?
For those who have been following along, they all know fatwood is a great way to start a fire and if you are unfamiliar with where fatwood comes from or need a refresher I have a previous post explaining what fatwood is and how to start a basic fire with it. Moving forward, here is a video where I light a feather stick at night.
Feather stick, pretty cool way to use only one piece of wood for tinder and kindling. I’ll have to do another video and article on how exactly to make a feather stick in the future. Someone send me a reminder, I’ll probably forget.
Moving on.
For anyone who uses sharp knives, axes and other edge tools daily, if you are as clumsy as I am sometimes, you may be familiar with cutting yourself one way or another.
My fingers always seem to get in the way or one thing leads to another, and I get cut. I had a ton of band-aid wrappers lying around and I began to wonder if those could be used to light kindling?
At this point it’s obvious anything can be used to light kindling and be used as tinder. Right?
Well, not so much.
Sometimes you get something that you think will go up in flames and yet, it doesn’t.
The ink soaked paper that was made into the box material for the band-aids didn’t go up in flames so well. It seems to be more useful as kindling as opposed to tinder.
After some experimenting I had to use some of the wrappers as tinder to get this going. I probably could have stacked it better and it may have worked. Take a look.
They all can’t be winners.
Next on the list is birch bark. Something people in the eastern U.S. as well as overseas know all too well. Birch grows here in Southern California but hardly at the same rate as our neighbors back east.
Birch is a fast-growing and sustainable tree to harvest. They aren’t at much risk and tend to grow first in lots of areas but after their life span is up (about 70 years) they die off and leave the ground more fertile for the larger trees, usually oaks.
The birch tree also can be tapped for sap, much like the more common Maple tree. Another cool thing about the birch trees is their bark was once used as paper by many people long ago.
The paper-like bark is great tinder and catches sparks pretty quickly, take a look.
Here’s another video of the birch bark at night. I didn’t use anything else, the bark alone catches fire really well.
The birch bark works really well.
Here’s a new scenario.
What if you are in an office when things seem to go south. You are snowed in.
The doors to the building are shut until morning.
The power goes out and you are starting to get cold.
There aren’t any trees around for miles.
You don’t have access to any of your things, except your trusty ferro rod.
If you are in a pinch and happen to come across a bag of shredded paper, it will actually prove pretty useful as kindling and if you have enough of it, it can keep you warm long.
Ideally you would think shredded paper would just burst into flames but remember how the more heavily ink-soaked band-aid box didn’t catch flame so easily? The same thing happened here.
The paper will indeed burn but you may need some tinder to help get the party started.In this particular video, I used some dryer lint as tinder since it was a bit windy out.
Not so great but it will still work if needed.
I reached a point where I thought, what would happen if I mixed another type of tinder with…you guessed it, Dryer lint. This time I combined fatwood chips and dryer lint.
I really like dryer lint.
On a serious note, if you have a dryer at home, please clean it regularly, the lint, as you can see, is REALLY good tinder.
I like recording at night, the different materials have their own unique signatures.
The band-aid wrappers had a blue tint to them from the ink.
The fatwood burns bright yellow.
Dryer lint burns blue.
This brings me to another thing that burns blue.
Alcohol.
In most first-aid kits you can find some isopropyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol.
You may also find some cotton swabs, or Q-tips.
Both of these can start a fire no problem, but what happens when you combine the two?
The swab and alcohol is a great combo. The alcohol burns quickly and catches fire immediately but the cotton when soaked turns an ordinary q-tip into a mini torch. This thing was on fire for over two minutes. The longest thing I’ve seen burn out of everything I’ve lit on fire so far. The chemicals in the plastic aren’t great but in a survival situation this will help save you.
Always practice before going out and trying anything in the field, serious situation or not.
That’s all the videos I have for now. If anyone has any suggestions for upcoming videos I would highly appreciate them.
If you already have a ferro rod or know of another way to start a fire, I’d sure love to see it. I use the tag #willitspark on Instagram. Feel free to tag me there or just say hi here! Cheers.
El Rey Falcon 
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