Lazy Hiker's Handmade Easy Fire Starter

Description

Overview:
You will receive 6 hand made fire starters, consisting of a special blend of cotton and parafin wax, encircled in approximately 1/2 inch cardboard. This is a three day supply, assuming you make a fire morning and night. (Patent Pending).
Features:
When lit, creates a flame up to 6 inches high
Burns 10 to 20 minutes (average about 16 minutes)
Works even wet
Low weight makes it easy to carry
Small size doesn't take up much pack room
Economical
Safe as a candle
How To Use:
Select a suitable and safe place for a campfire, preferably in a fire pit or ring of stones, away from trees, bushes, tents, etcetera.
Gather pile of small twigs, preferably dry, but even wet twigs will light.
Gather pile of larger sticks and branches.
Gather pile of branches, limbs or fire wood.
Light cardboard edge of firestarter, then place flattest side down in center of safe fire pit.
Carefully add twigs in a pyramid shape over burning fire starter.
Add larger sticks and branches over twigs, continuing the pyramid shape.
Add next size of branches, limbs or firewood.
If the wood and tinder is wet, the firestarter will dry it out, allowing it to burn, which in turn will allow the larger pieces to burn.
ALWAYS be careful with your campfire, and make sure it is completely out before you leave!
Shipping:
I live on the edge of National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains, some distance from the nearest postal service, so I am only able to get to the Post Office in Clayton every few days. Please allow at least three business days, but no more than five, for your order to ship. If you need it quicker, please say so in the "Notes to Seller" section of your order and I will
try
to get it there sooner.
I do not ship to International addresses at this time.
The Story Behind the Lazy Hiker's Firestarters:
On a recent hiking trip, it rained for days, almost non-stop. Although I did bring a little blended fuel stove – (total burning time two hours), I knew I could not rely on it for more than emergencies and my morning coffee. I carried enough food (MRE’s etcetera) for four or maybe five days, but planned on staying seven. My plan was to supplement my carried food with fish, enough for my puppy and I to make it seven days. Not wanting to eat raw fish, a fire, as usual, felt critical to me.
Of course, there are things like magnesium fire starters, etcetera, but all these types of things require a ready supply of dry, easily burnable tinder, which under certain conditions is very hard to find. I don't want to spend two hours building a fire; I just want one when I want it.
I like a campfire. Aside from the comfort they provide (think hot coffee, hot cocoa, warm food, heat and light) I also believe they keep critters away; no self respecting
truly
wild animal is going to go anywhere near a smoky campfire, so I sleep just a bit more soundly at night when there’s enough campfire left to at least generate a bit of smoke.
Over the previous year, I had tested a variety of fire starters, and not finding anything that actually worked that were cheap enough or light enough to carry, I had experimented with making my own. I tried several different types and combination of materials before I finally happened upon the combination I use now. This trip I had brought 2 for each day, a total of 14, weighing in total less than three quarters of one pound.
After months of way-above average rain, and days where the rain only stopped for a few hours each day, every possible fuel source in the forest was at best dripping wet, and at worst rotten as well. Usually one can look up to where branches and twigs caught in the tree limbs and find relatively dry tinder to help get a fire started, but even this was water logged.
Rainy days and sodden wood are just a fact of life here in the Appalachians. On this day, the rain had slowed down after hours of pouring heavily; everything was soaked. Sugar Bump and I had taken refuge in the tent, and were quite bored with it all, eager to get out and do something besides listen to the pitter-patter of raindrops dripping off the trees. Either way, I wasn’t going to forsake the chance to get a fire going, knowing that even if it started raining heavily again, I could keep an existing fire burning far easier than starting one from scratch, so I got to it first thing.
The overall theory behind getting wet fire wood to burn is that it has to dry first. Your fire starter has to dry the twigs enough to allow them to burn, they in turn dry the sticks, the sticks dry the branches, branches ignite the logs, etc. The key is to gather enough twigs -- this time I gathered a stack about a foot high and and a foot and half wide. These I piled into a pyramid shape, allowing room beneath to slide my fire starter under. Then I carefully piled more and more sticks and branches over the twigs. All of it was wet.
I lit my fire starter and slide it into place. For several minutes nothing happened, though I could see the flames from the firestarter licking at the twigs. After five minutes, smoke started rising. Around seven minutes the flames in the center, down in the twigs. began to grow. At just past ten minutes, the the sticks and branches began to burn, and before 15 minutes had passed, I had a roaring fire, having never once had to get down on my hands and knees to blow on the coals to get the fire going. An hour later, and Sugar and I were enjoying a hot meal of roasted trout and mashed potatoes, with hot Mocha to wash it down!
On other trips, with kinder weather, where everything was mostly dry, I just light off a fire starter, throw twigs and sticks on top of it, and then branches and limbs, and almost immediately have a roaring fire.
When I first started hiking, I used to carry newspaper to get a fire going, but it often fails to work, it is difficult to carry enough with limited space, and it is actually heavier then these firestarters.
Anyhow, I don't leave on a hiking trip without some of these and a couple of extra "emergency" lighters. As long as I can get a fire going, I'll be okay.