Why Good Tinder is Essential
While most young people might think it is a dating app, tinder is actually the dry, highly-flammable material which is used to start a fire. Generally, wood the thickness of a pencil lead is used as tinder and lit with matches or a lighter.
When making a fire in ideal conditions – such as with dry wood and a light – you can get away with sub-par tinder. The large flame from a lighter will eventually ignite the sticks and (assuming that you set up your fire correctly), you will get a the fire going.
But what about making a fire in difficult situations, like when it’s wet out or when making a fire with a Ferro rod?
The choice of tinder will make a big difference to whether you succeed in making a fire or not. If you find yourself in a wilderness survival situation, a fire could mean the difference between freezing your butt off, or not being able to purify water by boiling it.
This guide goes over everything you need to know about tinder for fire-starting, plus DIY tinder (firestarters) and tinder you can find in nature.
The general rule is to make a circle with both your hands. You should gather enough tinder to fill this circle.
If it is wet out or you are using sparks to ignite your fire, then get a heck of a lot more tinder than this. There is nothing more frustrating (especially when you are cold and hungry) than watching your flame die out because you didn’t have enough tinder to light the kindling.
Kindling should be able to fill a circle made with both arms. As for fuel wood, remember the adage:
“There are those who warm themselves around a small fire and those who warm themselves gathering wood for a large fire.”
I always carry a waterproof lighter with me as part of my EDC – you can see our favorite survival lighters here. This makes it very easy to ignite tinder, even if it’s a bit damp.
I also keep a Ferro rod with me as a backup. These do take a bit of practice to use. Unlike with matches or a lighter, Ferro rods will only produce SPARKS. There will be no flame.
Making a fire out of sparks is very tricky. Unless the sparks land on something VERY DRY and VERY FLUFFY, the sparks will die out before the tinder ignites.
The tinder which works for matches simply won’t work for a Ferro rod. Nor will it work for a bow drill, magnifying glass, or any of the other methods of starting a fire without matches.
If you’ve thought ahead, you can bring along tinder (also called firestarters). Some of my favorite ones include:
*Remember to store your tinder in a waterproof container. Altoids tins or ziplock bags are usually adequate. Some medication containers are also waterproof.
If you are serious about keeping your gear dry, then get a waterproof backpack aka dry sack.
These are options for tinder that you can find in nature. Just be warned that it’s often difficult to get them lit in winter or damp situations.
All of these things seem like they’d be good tinder. However, often they just smolder instead of actually igniting into a flame. This is incredibly frustrating.
Plus, these are probably a lot wetter than you think. Even if they seem dry, they still retain a lot of moisture — which means it will just smolder instead of bursting into flame.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use these as tinder. To get the best results:
A char cloth is 100% cotton which has been turned into charcoal. Charcoal ignites to produce a hot ember very easily.
You can make your own char cloth easily out of a piece of old t-shirt. The Catch 22 here is that you need fire to make a char cloth. In a wilderness survival situation, you’ll have to get the first fire going with whatever tinder you find. Use this fire to make your char cloth and you’ll be able to easily make future fires with the char cloth.
How to Make Char Cloth
*If you don’t have a suitable can for making char cloth, you can wrap your cloth in a packet of tinfoil which has one hole poked into it.
What’s your favorite tinder? Let us know in the comments!
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I use the round cotton pads that women use to remove makeup. 80 pc. at the dollar
store. drop them in hot candle wax. any old candles you have laying around. fluff them with a knife or tear them in half or quarter them. can be ignited with a fire steel. will burn for 3 min. can even start small wet twigs on fire. they are water proof and never have an expiration date.
Make them out side and use an old pan that your wife don’t want any more.
Sounds ideal – lots of great ideas coming in here.
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Why Good Tinder is Essential
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