@@DEATH-THE-GOAT my wife has one of those wax melting scent things in the bathroom. Once the smell has worn out I dip cotton balls in it on one side and then vaseline on the other side. All three components are conveniently located right there in the bathroom already! The upside is they smell nice when you light them!
@@rjstewart that was some great advice. I was only thinking of lighting a fire, you made me think of the beauty in simplicity to make us feel more human again. We don't just need shelter, warmth and water, we need beaut, poetry, pleasent smells of roses, pine resin, rosemary and good food and drink. was talked to my brother about prepping and how to survive. He is aa artist, painter, and an architect. He don't like to hear about "the end of the world" and "Armageddon". So I quoted President John Adams *_"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."_* He answered "I don't wanna learn about survivalism and war" _"That's why I do it so you can study archetectur, painting and poetry"_ But he's a foolheaded person so I don't think he got the message. Which is "I bear the burden of human evil so you can be free and enjoy life". Even if Jesus died for our sins, he could never bear the burden of the evil of human free will, if you want to put it in a religious context.
Filling tip me wife spouted off as I was viewing: dump paste into sandwich bag, clip lower corner so has a smaller than bottle opening, and squeeze paste through hole into bottle. This is one of her cake decorating hacks! She’s awesome, and as great of a wood crafter and carver as she is baker!! God be thanked for great women!
@WayPointSurvival I have use old toothpaste tube's over again. Cut the bottom clean any residue. And fill with desired contents. Everyone don't have an impulse sealer. Or crimper. Use imagination. Think off hand like a spam can key. Wherein one can impinge the opening and twist.
Great idea we used to take sawdust mixed with kerosene and paraffin wax in the old cardboard egg carton , fill each spot coat in wax let dry boom tear one off at a time light and burn .
Bamn - that’s what I do & give an egg carton full to friends for a perfect “I care about your survival” gift. I also fill toilet paper roll tubes the same way. Some full, some cut in half. Outstanding fire starter. I am a machinist as well & will add filings & scraps to the mix & my god do they burn.
Great tip James! For the really cheap and really lazy, a tube of Vaseline may work just as well. That's what I use to ensure quick drafting in my wood stove. You can find it hanging with the lip balm at any store.
That's what I use. I get a prescription bottle, look inside make sure the cap has a rubber gasket, some don't have that it and it wont be air tight. Anyways, put some small cotton balls inside along with some vaseline and put it in your car on a warm day and the vaseline will get absorbed by the cotton balls. I never timed it but it burns for quite a while and I never needed more than one ball to start a fire.
@@HoopyAmero Same. I got the idea from Sootch's channel. Super easy to carry and light. It is part of my "Be prepared" plan for fires when the trusty Zippo or Bic alone just isn't enough in certain conditions.
Just as cheap, equally effective and less stinky: mix equal amounts of fine sawdust and Crisco (shortening). I find a small glop of that smeared into a pine cone (or directly on a bunch of twigs) is a great go-to. Or, just keeping the Crisco straight works great as well using the pine cone trick. The advantage there is you have prime material for fire starting, making a survival candle AND having a great cooking grease.
Best thing about this is the redundancy of your body being able produce heat by eating the crisco. In a true emergency you need to carry calories to survive. I have corn chips in my car. You can eat them or burn them. I might change to Frito flavor twist - good shape for fire starting.
@@johnmoore5293 Fritos do burn and burn well! Certainly a notch or two more nutritious and better tasting than eating pure vegetable shortening! I had to look that one up, and veggie shortening does pack about 110 cal per tablespoon. The downside is the absolute lack of any other nutritional value. Although if I'm lacking in calories, that Crisco might be a thing to keep you going an extra day.
Still stinks. Vaseline infused cotton balls in a baggie or rigid tube container. Always works even soaking wet, chap stick substitute, quickie water repellent for small things, burns hot, never takes much to get going. Use what you like of course, but the Vaseline/cotton ball is so elegantly simple and cheap without all the stink of kerosene.
Yes, but the Crisco is less flammable in extreme cold. I used some with a wick as candles to heat my beehives, but a hard frost also puts the candle out when the Crisco forms a hard shell.
Man, glad he gave the tip about using your stirring stick to push it in the tube.. life saver And kerosene is hard to find, and $5 a gallon....get the same effect for $1.25 with Vaseline or lip balm from dollar tree.
I like that you use ash and not sawdust. In my case, I very often have ash but quite seldom sawdust. I think it's really very simplistic that's why I love the method that you've shown! Thank you :)
I feel the same about fero rods. In an actual survival situation you may be wet and shaking and heading toward hypothermia. I’m of the mentality that it’s good to know and practice bushcraft fire making but if I NEED a fire I need it NOW. I’ll pull out a lighter and petroleum jelly and make a quick tinder pile and get warm.
I grew up in a house heated by a woodstove. My mother would take the charcoal and ashes, once cooled, and put it in a coffee can, pound it a bit to make the chunks smaller, then, she would add lamp oil till it was a smooth paste, and we used that to quickly start fires in our stove. I used to fill old shoe polish tins, or even short Mason jars, to pack this mix into the backcountry when I was hunting, to make quick fires in even the wettest weather. Great video.
Man this is awesome ! Some of the tubes they have to buy that are pre made are like 10-15$ so this way you can get a few pound for the price of a gallon of kerosene. Always giving ideas for people that don’t have money to throw away at gimmicks although they do work just way over priced. Thanks for sharing James .
Neat idea. Used to know a guy that would take old bicycle inner tube, cut into a long thin strip into his woods gear as a fire starter. Whenever he needed one, he would cut a small piece and light it like you did here. He claimed it worked well under most conditions.
My personal preference is either vasoline- or wax-soaked cotton balls or pads! And of course, tea candles because if you only need a little light than one (plus) will do. Adding a cotton ball or pad on top of the tea candle makes it stove fuel (good with Esbit stoves as well as canteen cup stoves) or a much brighter candle ( though shorter lived)!
We used to mix kerosene with sawdust into a paste. It was very effective at starting a fire with wet wood. Never thought to use ash but I can see that it would work just as well.
Thanks for the tip. Just a fyi once your paste is made you can put it in a zip loc lunch bag and cut a corner off to make it easier to put into the silicone container and its a lot cleaner. Just a thought if one was going to make more then one at a time.
Great video thanks. My favorite backpacking and canoeing stove is my old Optimus 8R. The only problem with it is that in the 70s when I bought them you could buy tubes of starter, you put some of the starter paste in the bottom of the stove to heat the burner which would then draw fuel from the tank without pressure. I've been carrying cans of sterno as starter. It's minus 15 degrees today so this will be a good day to try this. Looking forward to following your site.
I'm a old man,I would have 4-5 different ways to light fires. I just subscribed . people don't realize if things don't change a lot of the old time ways of living and survival is essential. I enjoyed the video. papa from the foothills of the blue ridge mountains in north Carolina and wishing you well
sawdust instead of ash works well. It may absorb more kerosene than ash (I've never used ash) so I'd let it soak in a covered container for a day or to before loading the tube. I've just kept it in a tightly covered container with a little scoop and add more kerosene if it gets crumbly. Some people do the same thing with paraffin and form it into egg cartons, but that's a lot more work than kerosene. Diesel can be used instead of kerosene, but it has more smell.
My soon to be father-in-law from the Philippines showed me this method. Indeed they absoultely do this in the Philippines. Great video. Thank you sir. This is my first time watching a video on your channel. I am joining today so I can be notified when you post another video. Have a great day everyone.
James, great video, I have just about every video you have made saved, and have used most of what you have taught. Survival is a forgotten skill by most of the people you meet on the street every day. If and when the time comes the more people who have that skill, and are able to impart the knowledge to others the better.
Great recipie and video.. Thanks! After mixing get a square of Seran wrap. Put your paste in the middle. Fold square in half . Grab both ends and spin it until both ends are twisted. Cut off one end so it will fit in the container and squeeze it into the container. You don't need a spoon. That is how a cake decorater pipes icing.
@@WayPointSurvival I like the thinking outside the box that @johnmoore5293 does. I'm going to try that icing pipe plastic with peanut butter. Using that as a bait station to hang on the trigger hook inside a rodent trap.
Sounds like an interesting idea. I'm curious if the kerosene could break down the silicone and/or plastic over time. Let us know if that container holds up over time.
Silicone is fairly impervious to oils and things of that nature so I'm fairly sure it will be just fine for a very long time. However, as another viewer stated, a small jar could also work and I suggested a baby food jar would probably be an ideal size.
Hi WaypointSurvival, instead of Kerosene you could use Parafin, melt and mix it with the Sawdust, put into Icecube-Tray and let them set, these blocks can be transported in a Zip-Loc Bag. Greetings from Germany
Wish we could smack that like button more than once. Two ideas in one video. 1. I have never seen those neat little silicone travel bottles. Back when I did vacation-visa runs, I traveled light going out, purchasing what we needed on arrival. We then loaded my empty sea bag with items we purchased for the return flight home. We purchase gelled alcohol chafing dish fuel in bulk containers for our young troops to practice with their Esbit-style folding stoves. The fuel is loaded into small recycled dish detergent plastic bottles and dispensed into assorted sizes of aluminum bottle caps and small tins depending on how much fuel is needed. My first thought is how much of an improvement these silicone bottles would be in your backpack. 2. Now, where have I been? I have lived in Bulacan province, Philippines for eleven years and counting, and never have I seen anyone make this firestarter paste. That includes the Philippine-based camping and outdoor channels I have found so far. We have K1, and we have an assortment of ashes for practicing fire-rolling, David West style. I guess we are good to go. James, thank you for the post man, you taught this old dag two new tricks today.
Great info James and of course those tubes are great for so many things! I would like to request that you use closed captioning for your videos. I'm hard of hearing and have to listen with the volume up so high that it disturbs others. Appreciate it!
Great tip also is a peace of cedar like the size of a soap bar. Fits in any pocket, split it, shave it or both. All but takes a spark instantly. Split down and soaked in wax, instant fire sticks.
Another great tip James, thank you very much! It's awesome that you try your viewers suggestions, especially giving them a shout out! This is one of the best fire starting hacks that I've seen, very simple yet really effective!!
Thanks. I often learn a lot from my viewers and students and although I can't always remember which one it was I do like to give them credit when I can.
Brilliant - I recall another old video where the author made these fire starters with compressed sawdust - but course this is so much better & in an emergency will get a fire going instantly. We have all been caught out where we need an instant fire for safety or warmth.
Just a word to the wise: it’s important to pay attention to how those tops screw back on the silicone containers, because while they are intended to be leakproof, if the silicone rim of the tube is squashed under just that bit too much pressure once the cover goes on, they can leak pretty badly. So maybe give it a quick squeeze once the cover is on to make sure that you don’t end up with combustible paste contaminating the contents of your pack.
That reminds me of my grandfather's fire starter. He owned a dry cleaning business and he would bring home a coffee can full of lint that was saturated with the dry cleaning fluid.
In a lot of South America a piece of car tire rubber is carried and a small chunk is cut off and used as a fire starter. Works surprisingly well, and you don't have the issue of kerosine being carried around (even in a paste form).
That's a cool idea! I wonder if you could use hand sanitizer gel instead of kerosene. I've used alcohol prep pads before but they burn up fairly quick.
But due to the alcohol, the gel starts to burn with a single spark of a firesteel. (That just sparked an idea i have to try out: how easy do those single packaged cleaning wipes for glasses ignite when hit with a spark... As someone wearing glasses i try to always have a few in my backpack, and they are packaged so no evaporation happens)
What an awesome idea. I was kind of wondering if maybe you used sawdust the fine type of sawdust along with the Ashes to help keep it together and maybe it would burn longer I think I may try that but I'm definitely going to do the one with ashes you're so clever James to pay attention to what suggestions you get. Thanks again for a great idea. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay vigilant my friend!
Great video, fast and easy recipe I never would have thought of to make my own fire-paste. I have not used kerosene for anything in years so I'll have to get some but the hardwood ash is not problem since I use my fire ring just about every week. Thanks for sharing this video, good job!
I’ve always just used a shoe polish can with Styrofoam and gasoline mix pull out the melted Styrofoam, but in the shoe shine can pull out with a stick and light works just as well as napalm
I wanted to try this but had no kerosene so used tiki torch oil. Realized it or kerosene won't start with Ferro rod because they are higher heat combustible fuels. Also had no silicone tubes so used small mustard squeeze bottle, just need to bump paste down with top down. But it does work good. Thanks James.
Molten teecandles and lighterfuel work also. Melt the candles ad the lighterfuel and stirr. Perhaps other Fuel and other candles work as well but i have not tried out.
Here is an upgrade for you. Something i been doing for years. Medium or finer sawdust and kerosene. it burns way longer and supplies a fuel not just flame to the fire to get it started. About 25% Kerosene to 75% Medium or finer saw dust. Courser sawdust works decent too. Store in a old metal clean paint can or some other container that is air tight.
Thanks for the vid. Always looking for new ideas for fire starters. Just made a bunch of the cotton make-up pads soaked with paraffin and lighter fluid. They work great also. Will even ignite quickly with my ferro rod.
Great idea🔥 Especially the addition that it can be carried on the plane. If someone does not want or cannot bother with gasoline there are other options, anyone who has spent enough time outside the city can offer advice. For example, I fill shredded paper with wax or paraffin and carry it in different containers (vitamin tin or a small tin can). I also like pine resin, it can be melted and poured into molds from under small candles, and crumbled before use
The tube is of the variety that is used for carrying hand lotions and shampoos in small enough amounts for air travel. You cant carry the firestarter material on a plane. No matter what it is in.
Thanks for watching. Has other commenters have stated, you can't carry this fire starter on a plane. Only the tubes which are made for shampoo or soaps or lotions etc.
I just keep a mix of aquaphor, triple antibiotic ointment, mixed with a dash if mineral oil. I'm prone to chafing while hiking, so keep tube of this general purpose "hiking lube" with me. The antibiotic ointment is nice if you are prone to getting all sorts if little cuts on your hands while backpacking (like me). The addition of mineral oil is just to make it a bit more flammable. I like to cut down on the number of things in my kit, so a medicinal fire starter is a win in my pack.
James, Tried using a lighter fluid bottle, using this method. Seems I had too many ash chunks to go thru the holes. Here's my suggestion, use a cleaned out dry dawn dish soap squirt bottle instead, bigger hole.
For a home location, put a couple of inches of kerosene into a number 10 tin can, stand up corncobs into the can, with one end in the liquid. The cobs absorb kerosene and will start fires readily. Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
I'm impressed. Never thought of that combination. I have a question. How does that container handle the Kerosine? Does it degrade the plastic in any way?
Judging by the comments that I read, I think a follow-up video would be recommended. I am also curious about the idiosyncrasies of alternative fuels or mixtures, avoiding anything that is hazardous or explosive of course.
Kerosene, diesel fuel or liquid paraffin are going to give you about the same results. The other things will burn but probably not as long or as efficiently and tend to evaporate much more quickly.
This strikes me as a very versatile method...I bet there are multiple recipes that would work such as saw dust and lamp oil or lighter fluid, or with ash as used here. Basically any flammable liquid. Not sure I would trust silicone with some of them, might go with metal for those pastes. I could be wrong, but testing would be fun.
Thanks for sharing, I am over 50 and grow up doing bushcrafting with my Grandpa, Dad, AND Uncles. BUT I have never seen this method. I wonder IF You can use diesel fuel instead of kerosene?
If there are any around, strip some bark curls from a birch tree. even if it is pouring rain a match will light that on fire to get a fire going. The oils in the bark burn as well as kerosine does. ( it is also why birch bark was used for making canoes, it's water resistant. )
I wonder what would happen if you put the mixture in a cake piping bag and then piped it into the tube. If you were making up several tubes full may be quicker than stuffing with a stick. Or would the kerosene melt the bag. I'm just curious. Cool idea though thanks for sharing.
Thanks James for the fire paste hack. I'm wondering what other accelerants would work with this. Maybe alcohol? In any case this could be very useful in many situations.
You could use diesel fuel or liquid paraffin sold as lamp oil for this. As was already stated, alcohol would evaporate too quickly and gasoline and white gas or Coleman fuel is way too explosive to be safe.
I've made this using Diatomaceous Earth. Most garden department stores should have this in a 4 or 10lb bag. Enough to make buckets of this if you want. Thanks.
I used to get in trouble all the time for grabbing the speedstick deodorant when I was going to go camping when I was 8 or 9. speedstick deodorant was my favorite fire starting paste . One of my friends back then said he used chapstick as a fire starting paste , but I have never tried it .
Thank you for this video. It gives me an idea. I'm thinking of using an empty sterno can filled with this paist to start charcoal. But I'll be using charcoal lighter fluid. Currently I use a homemade alchohol stove made from a sterno can. But I'm wondering if the paist might last longer then the lighter fluid does in the alchohol stove? Any suggestions? I will not be using the same sterno can. I have a few extra still and the one with the paist will not have any extra holes
Kerosene is quite oily and so does not evaporate like lighter fluid does. I'm not sure how it would work in an old Sterno can but it's definitely worth the try.
For my camping trips my starter is a toilet paper tube cut in half, filled with dryer lint and dipped in melted cheap fresh linen candles. My fire smells like clean clothes at first! 😎
![DIY Fuel Tab [This is Awesome!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LvsLzlfSf8I/mqdefault.jpg)
![DIY Fuel Tab [This is Awesome!]](/img/tr.png)
Thanks for watching! Get the silicone tubes here: amzn.to/3jMQiDz and your purchase helps support the channel.
How about Vaseline and cotton balls as a fire starter?
@@DEATH-THE-GOAT my wife has one of those wax melting scent things in the bathroom. Once the smell has worn out I dip cotton balls in it on one side and then vaseline on the other side. All three components are conveniently located right there in the bathroom already!
The upside is they smell nice when you light them!
@@rjstewart that was some great advice. I was only thinking of lighting a fire, you made me think of the beauty in simplicity to make us feel more human again.
We don't just need shelter, warmth and water, we need beaut, poetry, pleasent smells of roses, pine resin, rosemary and good food and drink.
was talked to my brother about prepping and how to survive. He is aa artist, painter, and an architect. He don't like to hear about "the end of the world" and "Armageddon". So I quoted President John Adams
*_"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."_*
He answered "I don't wanna learn about survivalism and war"
_"That's why I do it so you can study archetectur, painting and poetry"_
But he's a foolheaded person so I don't think he got the message.
Which is "I bear the burden of human evil so you can be free and enjoy life". Even if Jesus died for our sins, he could never bear the burden of the evil of human free will, if you want to put it in a religious context.
@@rjstewart sorry for the rant
Could you also add gel hand sanitizer to the mix. I'm thinking it might improve consistency a bit without negatively affecting flammability. 🤔🤓🍻
Filling tip me wife spouted off as I was viewing: dump paste into sandwich bag, clip lower corner so has a smaller than bottle opening, and squeeze paste through hole into bottle. This is one of her cake decorating hacks! She’s awesome, and as great of a wood crafter and carver as she is baker!! God be thanked for great women!
Sure, that would be a quick and easy way to fill it up.
That's how I make pancakes camping, no mixing bowl spoon etc or cleanup, just mix all ingredients in the bag......no flies in the batter bowl either
Here is a suggestion for filling the bottle. Spoon the mix in to a pastry bag then squeeze into the bottle. Thanks for sharing this. Good idea.
Yes, or you can use just a generic plastic bag of some sort.
@@WayPointSurvival exactly! Fill the bag, clip a corner and you have a DIY pastry bag.
I keep a couple EXTRA LARGE Syringe's on hand. This would work for filling.
@WayPointSurvival I have use old toothpaste tube's over again. Cut the bottom clean any residue. And fill with desired contents. Everyone don't have an impulse sealer. Or crimper. Use imagination. Think off hand like a spam can key. Wherein one can impinge the opening and twist.
Great idea we used to take sawdust mixed with kerosene and paraffin wax in the old cardboard egg carton , fill each spot coat in wax let dry boom tear one off at a time light and burn .
That's an excellent application as well!
I was thinking of sawdust while viewing this video.
Bamn - that’s what I do & give an egg carton full to friends for a perfect “I care about your survival” gift. I also fill toilet paper roll tubes the same way. Some full, some cut in half. Outstanding fire starter. I am a machinist as well & will add filings & scraps to the mix & my god do they burn.
@@paulbalogh4582 When everything else won't start, a metal fire still won't stop.
We do dryer lint and wax in egg cartons. Love the cheap and kid friendly boy scouts recipes of old. Way Point is my favorite for these ideas.
Great tip James! For the really cheap and really lazy, a tube of Vaseline may work just as well. That's what I use to ensure quick drafting in my wood stove. You can find it hanging with the lip balm at any store.
Yes. That works too!
That's what I use. I get a prescription bottle, look inside make sure the cap has a rubber gasket, some don't have that it and it wont be air tight. Anyways, put some small cotton balls inside along with some vaseline and put it in your car on a warm day and the vaseline will get absorbed by the cotton balls. I never timed it but it burns for quite a while and I never needed more than one ball to start a fire.
@@HoopyAmero Wow, a plussed-up version! I'm definitely trying that. Thanks Amero!
@@HoopyAmero
For cotton - "eco/organic/100%cotton" tampons.
Tightly packed, usually waterproof ..
Good for starting fire even without vaseline.
@@HoopyAmero Same. I got the idea from Sootch's channel. Super easy to carry and light. It is part of my "Be prepared" plan for fires when the trusty Zippo or Bic alone just isn't enough in certain conditions.
Just as cheap, equally effective and less stinky: mix equal amounts of fine sawdust and Crisco (shortening). I find a small glop of that smeared into a pine cone (or directly on a bunch of twigs) is a great go-to. Or, just keeping the Crisco straight works great as well using the pine cone trick. The advantage there is you have prime material for fire starting, making a survival candle AND having a great cooking grease.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
Best thing about this is the redundancy of your body being able produce heat by eating the crisco. In a true emergency you need to carry calories to survive. I have corn chips in my car. You can eat them or burn them. I might change to Frito flavor twist - good shape for fire starting.
@@johnmoore5293 Fritos do burn and burn well! Certainly a notch or two more nutritious and better tasting than eating pure vegetable shortening! I had to look that one up, and veggie shortening does pack about 110 cal per tablespoon. The downside is the absolute lack of any other nutritional value. Although if I'm lacking in calories, that Crisco might be a thing to keep you going an extra day.
Still stinks.
Vaseline infused cotton balls in a baggie or rigid tube container.
Always works even soaking wet, chap stick substitute, quickie water repellent for small things, burns hot, never takes much to get going. Use what you like of course, but the Vaseline/cotton ball is so elegantly simple and cheap without all the stink of kerosene.
Yes, but the Crisco is less flammable in extreme cold. I used some with a wick as candles to heat my beehives, but a hard frost also puts the candle out when the Crisco forms a hard shell.
Man, glad he gave the tip about using your stirring stick to push it in the tube.. life saver
And kerosene is hard to find, and $5 a gallon....get the same effect for $1.25 with Vaseline or lip balm from dollar tree.
Not really, there's no comparison between the way that vaseline and lip balm burns and the way kerosene burns. Very different BTU output.
I like that you use ash and not sawdust. In my case, I very often have ash but quite seldom sawdust. I think it's really very simplistic that's why I love the method that you've shown! Thank you :)
You're welcome!
For those of us who have wood pellets around, they are simply compressed sawdust. I thought of that while watching the "DIY Fuel Tab" video.
Great idea 💡 👍
If you add ½ ounce petroleum jelly to the mixture, you find that the fire starter will extrude more like tooth paste.
Great point!
Cool idea. Sometimes the need to get a fire started quickly outweigh the opportunity of striking it in any other bushcrafting method.
True. Thanks for watching!
I feel the same about fero rods. In an actual survival situation you may be wet and shaking and heading toward hypothermia.
I’m of the mentality that it’s good to know and practice bushcraft fire making but if I NEED a fire I need it NOW. I’ll pull out a lighter and petroleum jelly and make a quick tinder pile and get warm.
I grew up in a house heated by a woodstove. My mother would take the charcoal and ashes, once cooled, and put it in a coffee can, pound it a bit to make the chunks smaller, then, she would add lamp oil till it was a smooth paste, and we used that to quickly start fires in our stove. I used to fill old shoe polish tins, or even short Mason jars, to pack this mix into the backcountry when I was hunting, to make quick fires in even the wettest weather. Great video.
Excellent. Lamp oil is just a more highly refined form of kerosene and smokes even less. Thanks for watching!
@@WayPointSurvival yes, my mother used It instead of regular kerosene to help not soot her chimney.
Man this is awesome ! Some of the tubes they have to buy that are pre made are like 10-15$ so this way you can get a few pound for the price of a gallon of kerosene. Always giving ideas for people that don’t have money to throw away at gimmicks although they do work just way over priced. Thanks for sharing James .
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Can't have to many fire starting tips, you never know when and where you may need it. Good video, I'll add it to my bag of tricks.
Glad you liked it!
I will have to try this out! I have been making my own firestarter cubes out of sawdust, dryer lint and paraffin for years.
Excellent, glad you liked it!
Dryer lint and old Vaseline or Vicks
Petroleum jelly is my choice. Who has a can of kerosene sitting around.
@@3345646 Diesel is pretty close to kerosene, but I haven't tried it... yet.
I think this is a better and safer idea. Thanks
Neat idea. Used to know a guy that would take old bicycle inner tube, cut into a long thin strip into his woods gear as a fire starter. Whenever he needed one, he would cut a small piece and light it like you did here. He claimed it worked well under most conditions.
Yes, that is indeed a great emergency fire starter.
Hello my friend, watching from Ginatilan Cebu Philippines 🇸🇽
Excellent!
Wonderful to see viewership from the Philippines increasing. We watch from our retirement location Luzon island, Bulacan province
My personal preference is either vasoline- or wax-soaked cotton balls or pads! And of course, tea candles because if you only need a little light than one (plus) will do. Adding a cotton ball or pad on top of the tea candle makes it stove fuel (good with Esbit stoves as well as canteen cup stoves) or a much brighter candle ( though shorter lived)!
Yes, that's another way to get it done.
I always carry vaseline and cotton balls in my hunting kit. It has worked for me for decades!
We used to mix kerosene with sawdust into a paste. It was very effective at starting a fire with wet wood. Never thought to use ash but I can see that it would work just as well.
Yes, I'm sure there are several different items that would work as a proper base for the kerosene. I've also heard of using flour.
Black ash is often charcoal white fly ash won't burn anymore
@@ericwhite3526 seems to me he used white ash
Thanks for the tip. Just a fyi once your paste is made you can put it in a zip loc lunch bag and cut a corner off to make it easier to put into the silicone container and its a lot cleaner. Just a thought if one was going to make more then one at a time.
Good idea. Just be aware that kerosene is also a solvent and could pretty rapidly make the plastic bag deteriorate.
Good idea! I didn't read yours first.
Great video thanks. My favorite backpacking and canoeing stove is my old Optimus 8R. The only problem with it is that in the 70s when I bought them you could buy tubes of starter, you put some of the starter paste in the bottom of the stove to heat the burner which would then draw fuel from the tank without pressure. I've been carrying cans of sterno as starter. It's minus 15 degrees today so this will be a good day to try this. Looking forward to following your site.
Thanks so much!
I have used the Optimus for over 40 years. The paste would be good but I have always used an eye dropper of fuel from the tank. Noisy stoves!
Methy hydrate in a little squeeze bottle works great for my Optimus 8 and 111
I'm a old man,I would have 4-5 different ways to light fires. I just subscribed . people don't realize if things don't change a lot of the old time ways of living and survival is essential. I enjoyed the video. papa from the foothills of the blue ridge mountains in north Carolina and wishing you well
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed the video and welcome aboard!
sawdust instead of ash works well. It may absorb more kerosene than ash (I've never used ash) so I'd let it soak in a covered container for a day or to before loading the tube. I've just kept it in a tightly covered container with a little scoop and add more kerosene if it gets crumbly. Some people do the same thing with paraffin and form it into egg cartons, but that's a lot more work than kerosene. Diesel can be used instead of kerosene, but it has more smell.
Yes, I've even heard of people using flour as a base.
I once used a "fire paste" that was only the fishing reel grease tube that I had on my fishing tackle. It saved the day!
Excellent!
This seems like a great idea for emergencies when a fire is needed quickly and you can make it at home. You've got yourself a new subscriber.
Thanks so much and welcome aboard!
My soon to be father-in-law from the Philippines showed me this method. Indeed they absoultely do this in the Philippines. Great video. Thank you sir. This is my first time watching a video on your channel. I am joining today so I can be notified when you post another video. Have a great day everyone.
Thanks for watching and welcome aboard!
James, great video, I have just about every video you have made saved, and have used most of what you have taught. Survival is a forgotten skill by most of the people you meet on the street every day. If and when the time comes the more people who have that skill, and are able to impart the knowledge to others the better.
Wow, thanks so much!
Great recipie and video.. Thanks! After mixing get a square of Seran wrap. Put your paste in the middle. Fold square in half . Grab both ends and spin it until both ends are twisted. Cut off one end so it will fit in the container and squeeze it into the container. You don't need a spoon. That is how a cake decorater pipes icing.
Good idea, but the problem is that kerosene is also a solvent so the plastic Saran Wrap will not hold up very long.
@@WayPointSurvival I like the thinking outside the box that @johnmoore5293 does.
I'm going to try that icing pipe plastic with peanut butter. Using that as a bait station to hang on the trigger hook inside a rodent trap.
This is a good one, James. Hitting the ground running for the New Year, I see. Wouldn't have expected anything less from you. Have a great year.
Thanks so much! Hope your new year is great as well!
Number of views is showing the dedication pays off.
Sounds like an interesting idea.
I'm curious if the kerosene could break down the silicone and/or plastic over time.
Let us know if that container holds up over time.
Silicone is fairly impervious to oils and things of that nature so I'm fairly sure it will be just fine for a very long time. However, as another viewer stated, a small jar could also work and I suggested a baby food jar would probably be an ideal size.
@@WayPointSurvival
Right on.
I'm have to give that a try.
Silicone, no worries. Most plastics, some, but if you replace it every couple years rather than decades, you'll be fine.
Hi WaypointSurvival,
instead of Kerosene you could use Parafin, melt and mix it with the Sawdust, put into Icecube-Tray and let them set, these blocks can be transported in a Zip-Loc Bag.
Greetings from Germany
Yes, indeed!
Wish we could smack that like button more than once. Two ideas in one video. 1. I have never seen those neat little silicone travel bottles. Back when I did vacation-visa runs, I traveled light going out, purchasing what we needed on arrival. We then loaded my empty sea bag with items we purchased for the return flight home. We purchase gelled alcohol chafing dish fuel in bulk containers for our young troops to practice with their Esbit-style folding stoves. The fuel is loaded into small recycled dish detergent plastic bottles and dispensed into assorted sizes of aluminum bottle caps and small tins depending on how much fuel is needed. My first thought is how much of an improvement these silicone bottles would be in your backpack. 2. Now, where have I been? I have lived in Bulacan province, Philippines for eleven years and counting, and never have I seen anyone make this firestarter paste. That includes the Philippine-based camping and outdoor channels I have found so far. We have K1, and we have an assortment of ashes for practicing fire-rolling, David West style. I guess we are good to go. James, thank you for the post man, you taught this old dag two new tricks today.
Glad you enjoyed the video and found it useful! Thanks for the great comment.
Great info James and of course those tubes are great for so many things!
I would like to request that you use closed captioning for your videos. I'm hard of hearing and have to listen with the volume up so high that it disturbs others. Appreciate it!
You can turn on the closed captioning yourself at the bottom of the screen period just click the CC tab.
The CC button, when pushed, says 'CC not available for this video'. FYi
@@WayPointSurvival I have my captions on; I belive you have to turn something on as well.
Ok
Great tip also is a peace of cedar like the size of a soap bar. Fits in any pocket, split it, shave it or both. All but takes a spark instantly. Split down and soaked in wax, instant fire sticks.
Indeed.
Another great tip James, thank you very much! It's awesome that you try your viewers suggestions, especially giving them a shout out! This is one of the best fire starting hacks that I've seen, very simple yet really effective!!
Thanks. I often learn a lot from my viewers and students and although I can't always remember which one it was I do like to give them credit when I can.
I did this about 25 years ago, haven't done it in a long time. I kept it in a mink oil can. Even if it dries out, it'll still light. 👍
Thanks for watching!
Hand sanitizer is cheap and easy. Works very well!
It does. The higher of an alcohol content it has, the better it works as a fire starter.
Brilliant - I recall another old video where the author made these fire starters with compressed sawdust - but course this is so much better & in an emergency will get a fire going instantly. We have all been caught out where we need an instant fire for safety or warmth.
Thanks!
Just a word to the wise: it’s important to pay attention to how those tops screw back on the silicone containers, because while they are intended to be leakproof, if the silicone rim of the tube is squashed under just that bit too much pressure once the cover goes on, they can leak pretty badly. So maybe give it a quick squeeze once the cover is on to make sure that you don’t end up with combustible paste contaminating the contents of your pack.
Good point!
That reminds me of my grandfather's fire starter. He owned a dry cleaning business and he would bring home a coffee can full of lint that was saturated with the dry cleaning fluid.
That's a pretty cool idea. I had no idea that it was flammable. I knew that dryer lint is but not the fluid.
Very well made and great easy instructions sir. Never thought of this before!
Thanks, glad you liked it!
In a lot of South America a piece of car tire rubber is carried and a small chunk is cut off and used as a fire starter. Works surprisingly well, and you don't have the issue of kerosine being carried around (even in a paste form).
Yes. Some folks use pieces of rubber inner tube for that as well.
That's a cool idea! I wonder if you could use hand sanitizer gel instead of kerosene. I've used alcohol prep pads before but they burn up fairly quick.
the hand sanitizer would burn faster because it is made from alcohol (usually anyway)
The problem with hand sanitizer is that it's alcohol-based and evaporates pretty rapidly. Kerosene is quite oily and takes a long time to evaporate.
But due to the alcohol, the gel starts to burn with a single spark of a firesteel.
(That just sparked an idea i have to try out: how easy do those single packaged cleaning wipes for glasses ignite when hit with a spark... As someone wearing glasses i try to always have a few in my backpack, and they are packaged so no evaporation happens)
I'm a diabetic so I always have alcohol prep pads. They work if you hit them with a spark.
Hi from the Netherlands 🇳🇱, have a good year everybody, and a lot of joy and nice, warm fires 🔥
Thanks, you too!
I have used fine pine shavings for this. These days, I just carry a can of Sterno.
Yes, that works fine.
I also use Vaseline with or without a cotton ball.
Yes, you can definitely do that.
Never would have thought of using ash as a distributing medium for anything much less a fire starter! Thanks for sharing James.
Thanks, I thought it was pretty cool myself when I learned about it!
Can you use ash from wood stove.
@@Peter-od7opyes as long as it’s dried out and find powdered any wood ash will work.
@@jedidiahhendricks8572 ty for the reply
@steveturner3999: Look up something called a Rudiger roll
Thank you Waypoint Survival and our Philippine friends. 🙏
Thanks for watching!
What an awesome idea. I was kind of wondering if maybe you used sawdust the fine type of sawdust along with the Ashes to help keep it together and maybe it would burn longer I think I may try that but I'm definitely going to do the one with ashes you're so clever James to pay attention to what suggestions you get. Thanks again for a great idea. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay vigilant my friend!
Thanks so much! Happy New Year to you and yours as well!
Great video, fast and easy recipe I never would have thought of to make my own fire-paste. I have not used kerosene for anything in years so I'll have to get some but the hardwood ash is not problem since I use my fire ring just about every week. Thanks for sharing this video, good job!
Great, glad you liked it!
Always good 👍 videos. So much fun to watch and always enjoy learning ☺️
Thanks!
I’ve always just used a shoe polish can with Styrofoam and gasoline mix pull out the melted Styrofoam, but in the shoe shine can pull out with a stick and light works just as well as napalm
Good tip!
Thanks again for another good tip. I like how you pass info on from others and give them credit. Have a great and safe New Year.
Thanks so much, you too!
Tried this with the charcoal dust from bottom of empty kingsford bag mixed in worked very well
Excellent!
Awesome video as always thank you for making it 👍
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Wow, I learned something today. I've never heard of fire paste. Great job.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
That’s a “Hot” idea !!! Love it Buddyman!
Thanks!
🤣
I wanted to try this but had no kerosene so used tiki torch oil. Realized it or kerosene won't start with Ferro rod because they are higher heat combustible fuels. Also had no silicone tubes so used small mustard squeeze bottle, just need to bump paste down with top down. But it does work good. Thanks James.
Excellent!
Vaseline works great stand alone
Sure. A lot of people use that, including myself.
@@WayPointSurvival my stash is cotton balls and Vaseline for emergencies
Love your channel. Great tips and tricks ✌️
I have a small zipp-lock bag with cotton balls covered with some Vaseline....
@@pluisnonplux9728 dryer lint works great too. It’s free ✌️
Molten teecandles and lighterfuel work also. Melt the candles ad the lighterfuel and stirr. Perhaps other Fuel and other candles work as well but i have not tried out.
Good tip!
Here is an upgrade for you. Something i been doing for years. Medium or finer sawdust and kerosene. it burns way longer and supplies a fuel not just flame to the fire to get it started. About 25% Kerosene to 75% Medium or finer saw dust. Courser sawdust works decent too. Store in a old metal clean paint can or some other container that is air tight.
Try lamp oil not so stinky
@@geraldtakala1721 , Real "lamp oil" is Kerosene...LOL
Thanks for the suggestion. That's a good idea also!
My Dad had a coffee can full of that stuff used diesel though worked great as a kid to light up the wood stove when I got home
Yes, diesel fuel and kerosene are pretty close in composition.
Try cotton with vasline. You can light it with a fire stick. It burns a few minutes. Have fun 😊😊😊
Yes, I've been doing that for many years also.
Thanks for sharing this "Fire Paste" recipe, brother.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the vid. Always looking for new ideas for fire starters. Just made a bunch of the cotton make-up pads soaked with paraffin and lighter fluid. They work great also. Will even ignite quickly with my ferro rod.
Sounds great!
Great idea🔥 Especially the addition that it can be carried on the plane.
If someone does not want or cannot bother with gasoline there are other options, anyone who has spent enough time outside the city can offer advice.
For example, I fill shredded paper with wax or paraffin and carry it in different containers (vitamin tin or a small tin can). I also like pine resin, it can be melted and poured into molds from under small candles, and crumbled before use
The tube is of the variety that is used for carrying hand lotions and shampoos in small enough amounts for air travel.
You cant carry the firestarter material on a plane.
No matter what it is in.
@@shawnr771, may be. But I will not be very upset if they take away a piece of paraffin or resin from me.
Thanks for watching. Has other commenters have stated, you can't carry this fire starter on a plane. Only the tubes which are made for shampoo or soaps or lotions etc.
Another "tool" for any woodsman. Thanks for sharing.
Another great vid!
I carry a travel size tube if petroleum jelly in my kit. Good for your lips or cheek in the cold and also for starting a fire.
Yes. That works well too.
I love adding to my fire starter option list!
Thanks for watching!
I just keep a mix of aquaphor, triple antibiotic ointment, mixed with a dash if mineral oil. I'm prone to chafing while hiking, so keep tube of this general purpose "hiking lube" with me. The antibiotic ointment is nice if you are prone to getting all sorts if little cuts on your hands while backpacking (like me). The addition of mineral oil is just to make it a bit more flammable.
I like to cut down on the number of things in my kit, so a medicinal fire starter is a win in my pack.
Yes works good. I used to do that to light the wood chip water heater on my ex's family farm.
Indeed.
James,
Tried using a lighter fluid bottle, using this method. Seems I had too many ash chunks to go thru the holes. Here's my suggestion, use a cleaned out dry dawn dish soap squirt bottle instead, bigger hole.
Yes, that would work well also.
Just gets better and better outstanding work
Thanks so much!
❤ thank you very much for sharing your ideas and knowledge happy holidays❤
Same to you!
I wonder if sawdust instead of ash would work also. Thanks and keep them coming
I imagine you could use sawdust in this if you wished.
For a home location, put a couple of inches of kerosene into a number 10 tin can, stand up corncobs into the can, with one end in the liquid. The cobs absorb kerosene and will start fires readily.
Courtesy of Half Vast Flying
Very cool trick! Thanks!
Absolutely Brilliant Sir 😆!
Thanks!
Looks like a great idea. I settled though on cotton wool balls soaked in melted petroleum jelly. Easiest way I’ve found
Thanks. A lot of people use petroleum jelly and cotton balls also. It's a favorite standard for a lot of folks.
I'm impressed. Never thought of that combination. I have a question. How does that container handle the Kerosine? Does it degrade the plastic in any way?
So far, it's holding up pretty well.
I'm surprised I never thought of that. I will use this method. Much appreciated. By the way my mother's family is from Athens Ohio. beautiful area.
That’s pretty trick. I never would’ve thought of it. Thank you for your time.
You're welcome!
Judging by the comments that I read, I think a follow-up video would be recommended. I am also curious about the idiosyncrasies of alternative fuels or mixtures, avoiding anything that is hazardous or explosive of course.
Kerosene, diesel fuel or liquid paraffin are going to give you about the same results. The other things will burn but probably not as long or as efficiently and tend to evaporate much more quickly.
Corn chips
This strikes me as a very versatile method...I bet there are multiple recipes that would work such as saw dust and lamp oil or lighter fluid, or with ash as used here. Basically any flammable liquid. Not sure I would trust silicone with some of them, might go with metal for those pastes. I could be wrong, but testing would be fun.
Indeed. Thanks for watching!
Hi James Brilliant idea. Thanks for sharing and acknowleding the source. Stay safe. ATB. Nigel
Thanks so much, Nigel!
Thanks for sharing, I am over 50 and grow up doing bushcrafting with my Grandpa, Dad, AND Uncles. BUT I have never seen this method. I wonder IF You can use diesel fuel instead of kerosene?
Yes. It's basically the same thing as kerosene.
If there are any around, strip some bark curls from a birch tree. even if it is pouring rain a match will light that on fire to get a fire going.
The oils in the bark burn as well as kerosine does. ( it is also why birch bark was used for making canoes, it's water resistant. )
Yes, however Birch doesn't grow at my latitude unless it's planted as an ornamental and people don't like you stripping bark off of their trees. Lol.
I always use cotton clothesline dipped in paraffin wax. It’s water proof, doesn’t stink and burns a long time.
Thanks for the suggestion!
I wonder what would happen if you put the mixture in a cake piping bag and then piped it into the tube. If you were making up several tubes full may be quicker than stuffing with a stick. Or would the kerosene melt the bag. I'm just curious. Cool idea though thanks for sharing.
As kerosene is also a solvent if the plastic was too thin it might eat through the bag.
Thanks James for the fire paste hack. I'm wondering what other accelerants would work with this. Maybe alcohol? In any case this could be very useful in many situations.
Alcohol won't work in that past because the alcohol will evaporate to quickly that's the same reason why petrol won't work either
Gasoline most definitely does work. Very well. Too well.
You could use diesel fuel or liquid paraffin sold as lamp oil for this. As was already stated, alcohol would evaporate too quickly and gasoline and white gas or Coleman fuel is way too explosive to be safe.
That’s pretty good, I typically use cotton balls smeared with vaseline.
I’ll have to add this one to the fire kit.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Can you do something similar, by using dry, wood saw dust, or small chips, and diesel fuel or petroleum jelly? Great video. Thanks!
Yes, you can, however, diesel fuel and petroleum jelly do not burn as well as kerosene.
Good idea but does the squeeze container hold up to kerosene? I just melt Vaseline and soak cotton balls in it then put them in a plastic bag.
It should be fine for quite a while.
What a great idea! Thanks for showing it to us!
You're welcome!
James you may want to recommend using a younger depressor or popsicle stick to put the past into the tube
Good idea!
Good Tip. Those are handy containers. To fill it I might craft a piping bag from a rolled piece of paper or plastic bag.
Yes, you could do that. However, remember that kerosene is also a solvent so a plastic bag might not hold up too long.
Wonder if one could use that clear lamp oil to do this with? Anymore, it's getting hard to find kerosene.
Yes, what you're referring to is sometimes known as liquid paraffin.
I've made this using Diatomaceous Earth. Most garden department stores should have this in a 4 or 10lb bag. Enough to make buckets of this if you want. Thanks.
Excellent. That's a great idea also!
I used to get in trouble all the time for grabbing the speedstick deodorant when I was going to go camping when I was 8 or 9. speedstick deodorant was my favorite fire starting paste .
One of my friends back then said he used chapstick as a fire starting paste , but I have never tried it .
Good to know. Amazing how flammable some things are!
Can you ignite it with a spark?? ferro rod for example
Possibly.
Thank you for this video. It gives me an idea. I'm thinking of using an empty sterno can filled with this paist to start charcoal. But I'll be using charcoal lighter fluid. Currently I use a homemade alchohol stove made from a sterno can. But I'm wondering if the paist might last longer then the lighter fluid does in the alchohol stove? Any suggestions? I will not be using the same sterno can. I have a few extra still and the one with the paist will not have any extra holes
Kerosene is quite oily and so does not evaporate like lighter fluid does. I'm not sure how it would work in an old Sterno can but it's definitely worth the try.
@@WayPointSurvival ok thank you. The other thing I might try is ash mixed with wax.
For my camping trips my starter is a toilet paper tube cut in half, filled with dryer lint and dipped in melted cheap fresh linen candles. My fire smells like clean clothes at first! 😎
Yes. Those work great.