Burn, Baby Burn: Introducing the “MOCK Inferno” a Homemade Fire Starter

From emergency scenarios to simple camping and hiking treks in the woods, fire-making is understandably the most important skill you can have in the wild to prolong your survival. Now not all cases will require a fire for warming purposes. However, cooking and water purification in the simplest ways require fire to perform these tasks. Now as we talked about in the other blogs about fire kits and the different ways I have to make fire, we can move on to exploring how to improve our fires.

My goal every day is to either learn something completely new or improve on an existing skill I already have. This is why I unpacked my bag for you, and why I continue to test and update my equipment. The first improvement I am really keen on making to my bag is emergency fire starters.

Now there are many different types of these on the market. From a “Fire disc” made of sawdust to tinder bricks made from chemical mixtures that hold a flame for extended periods. To me even char-cloth can be considered one of these items, but we as a community have certain features or criteria we base these on.

Extended burn

Water proof

Spark ignition

Compact/small

Re-usability

High quantity for small space.

Now first off “High quantity for small space” and “Small/ compact” are just about the same, but could mean different things so I broke them up. The reason we look for this quality in fire starters, is to capitalize on the space in our packs. Too often you will find that providing an item for a small price and small size, no matter its functions people will buy it. The idea being, “It can’t hurt.” The small amount of space however can add up or over shadow the lack of replacement or improved set ups. Keep this in mind when judging the “little guy” and make sure to bring your grains of salt.

Next I believe the quickest seller is water proofing. Think about it, if it’s water proof and can make fire, it solves so many difficulties when making fire. Having the peace of mind that the little disc or brick you have can be used at any time is a great selling point when you are preparing for the worst. This is often accomplished by using some sort of flammable lipid, commonly wax, to coat the burnable material, wood or cotton. A lipid is known for expelling water. Think oil and water, they never mix. One reason oil cloth is used for rain protection. Waterproof items can be a very important quality for boat or kayak fire kits.

Extended burn is often the main feature of these items. They are selling the idea that either extending the burn time gives the fire extra heat to dry out the tinder and small sticks to build a giant roaring fire. This is one of the advantages of matches over lighters, the extended exposure of the open flame.

One of the most important, at least in my book is spark-able ignition. This means that either Ferro rod, empty light or flint and steel can light this starter. This gives you more methods of starting your fire. Instead of having to rely only on the lighter or a match, some source of open flame, you can have a sound mind knowing that your starter will work no matter what you have on you.

Lastly, re-usability. Now, often you won’t find this feature, but there is one item on the market that does do this. Here is why you want it. The one downside to a fire starter is often they are one and done. So make sure you only have one for emergency. This feature, however can give you more resources to help aid in your survivability.

  

After reading this I’m sure you are trying to figure how much money it will take to obtain a kind of fire starter that does all this, plus maybe Wi-Fi. Of the criteria that I used above, the mini inferno exclusively sold on the wildernessesoutfitters’ website does it all. It is a pathfinder product that Dave Canterbury loves and has used in a bunch of videos. It is a small disc that you can use pieces of if not the whole thing. When ripped opened it exposes tiny fibers. Places either on an open flame or a spark, probably sunlight though I have not seen that done, and it makes a flame. After the first fire is completed you can dig out the disc to find it has become charred cloth.

This was not a popular idea of its creator on survivalist forums. Many people feel that the idea is too simple to make it yourself and should not be sold. He felt that as many features as his product had, a small compensation wasn’t unheard of. I see points from both side, however he is right, HIS product does do a lot and is mostly worth its money, however if you want a cheaper copycat use this method of making your own. I have not directly seen a name for these so, for what it is and how it works, I call them the MOCK inferno.

The method I got came from “grierwolfe – theperfect fire starter” watch their video and follow them if you don’t like my recipe, but this is how I did it.

So first the materials I bought were a discount candle. If you have some laying around the house no one else will miss, get that. Next I used cotton circles. This is a beauty product and can be found at Walmart in that isle. About 3 dollars or maybe 2. Cheaper is better. Lastly I used old cooking oil. I use this to deep fry in, and though it looks like sludge, I swear it pours golden. I also had to buy a small cheap pot for wax only purposes. DON’T USE A GOOD POT. Wax melting kills cooking pots. Now that is it for the list of ingredients. Collect these however you like, remember the idea is to keep it cheap and the less money you spend on these the more you keep for other stuff.

So let’s get started. First get the wax out of the glass jar. I use a pocket knife and just take small bits, until I can remove a bigger chunk. Do this however you like, just make sure you practice proper knife safety. Afterwards melt your wax on a high setting until some liquid begins to form. Then drop it to the lowest setting on your stove, or a melting temp if you have that. Be careful, wax has a flash point, or the temperature at which a particular organic compound gives off sufficient vapor to ignite in air, wax’s is between 380F to 470F. If you are worried keep this on melt the entire time, it will take longer however you will not have to worry about the flash point.

Next while the wax is melting, pour a small amount of the oil into a container so you can soak the cotton circles in the oil. I use the pot I tend to deep fry in, DON’T ADD HEAT TO THE OIL. It only needs to be in a container so the circles can fully absorb all the oil it can. I did about 6 at a time. You can use other oils. The guy from the video recommend tiki or bug repelling oils to give it a two in one effect. The fact is that stuff cost about 10 to 12 dollars a bottle and we are trying to go cheap. The downside he said is that the used cooking oil may cause more smoke. I like to use smoke to repel bugs so to me it is a win win.

While I work with the oil and circles I prefer to use just regular latex or “hospital gloves”. Just to keep clean up a little simpler. Using 6 circles at a time, I place them into the oil. You really want these saturated with oil. I tend to sink them with my gloved hand then allow them to sit in the oil for about one minute. You’ll know you are good when they go from pearl white to deep yellow or gold. At this point you now want to squeeze the oil out of them. I know it sounds silly for getting them so saturated and then trying to squeeze it all out. The idea is that the saturating process gets oil in to every little fiber of the circle. Afterwards once you squeeze out most of it, the remaining will work like a wick in an oil lamp. It causes the burn to last without consuming the material so fast. These are made to burn for a while so you can start your fire. Even with damp or wet fire materials, this should be enough to light the tinder, dry out your kindling and even start to catch fire. But we will talk more about that later.

 Now while the squeezed circles are resting begin melting your wax. I would do it on low or if you have a melt or simmer setting that will work. After all the wax has melted take a pair of old tongs or even chop sticks if you can use them and you want to dip each circle in the wax and then let it drip then dry. This may take a couple of coats but I would freeze them between each dip. I did this by placing them on a sheet of aluminum foil and leaving it in the freezer for about 2 -5 minutes. This will harden each layer of the wax. Not only does this make them water proof, but also it extends the circles’ burn time. Again, just like a wick in a candle.

Now if you have ever seen a “mini inferno” in action then you know that it must be ripped open to expose the internal fibers, which is what catches fire and starts the burning process. Now to really put my creation through the test I tried different methods of creating fire to attempt to light it. I first started with my magnifying glass. Truly the only renewable resource when creating a fire. I could not get the fibers to catch so I moved on to trying a ferro-rod. This didn’t work. I. decided that sparks from my high carbon steel knife more than likely wouldn’t work either so I went straight to using my lighter. Now this is a downside to the homemade vs the mini inferno, however I still will be testing this to try and fix my mistake. I am quite sure it could work with both sun and spark.

The pictures above show all the items I tried, on the left, and the ones that actually work, on the right. I tried the magnifying lens and ferro first, then added the candle with the ferro rod; still nothing. Finally just a quick flick of the Bic and done. I used my last char cloth to help it start the ember. My hat came in handy to add extra oxygen to my fire.

Now I hope this blog has helped you decide to make some fire starters yourself. Like grierwolfe in “theperfect fire starter” said at 8:36 in his video.

“…try these things out, figure out which one work best for you, experiment with them, come up with your own. Don’t keep these things a secret. Don’t try and sell them. Just pass the knowledge on. This might save somebody this might help somebody. There is no reason that they need to be kept a secret…”

Remember whether you use your own you make or some off a store, or even buying some from a friend, try them, practice with them, and keep on learning.

Next week will we be going over my result with the Dakota fire-hole, first time ever. This was used to light the Dakota fire-hole but, that’s another blog. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.