“A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark” (Dante Alighieri)
A lighter is a godsend in the jungle but they can run out of fuel. Luckily it isn’t too difficult to turn an empty lighter into a ‘spark stick’ and, if you have the right tinder to hand, a fire is easy enough to start.
The fire kit I show in the video is one that can be put together at virtually no cost, is small and simple to make and can be added to a PSK as a back up in case your main lighter gets lost or runs out of fuel. The advantage this type of fire kit has over a spare/back up lighter is that it isn’t reliant on having gas in it to work…all you need is a spark.
An alternative to this would be to take in a ferro rod instead (or convert your empty lighter into a spark stick in the field) and there is nothing wrong with doing this as long as you’re practised at it. Either a converted empty lighter or a ferro rod are easily capable of getting a fire going, the trick is to know what sort of tinder you are able to light with these tools and either bring it along with you or know how to identify sources in the wild.
Here in Malaysia the fish tail palm is a key plant to know for tinder and is used locally in fire pistons as well for blow pipes (a small piece is placed behind the dart to give better compression). The weak spark from an empty lighter isn’t capable of lighting much more than charred materials, cotton wool soaked in wax and fish tail palm so don’t expect too much of it and it certainly doesn’t produce sparks as hot as those from a ferro rod. However, if you have those tinders, or can either make them (i.e. char stuff) or find it (e.g. fish tail palm) an empty lighter can keep starting fires for you until you run out of flints.
How to change the flint on an empty lighter is another reason I wanted to do this video as the method of putting the flint in from the top is a bit tricky and there is a danger of the spring flying out into the jungle where you have almost no chance of ever finding it again. Putting the flint and spring in from the bottom of the lighter is a better way to do this and removes a lot of the risk of the spring flying out of your grasp.
First off it’s been awhile since I posted. I tried for the longest time and my posts wouldn’t go through for some reason. Great topic and kit Paul. Do you ever char the Fishtail palm material like char cloth?
Barbarossa
Hi Barbarossa,
Many thanks for the post and sorry to hear you’ve had problems before with the site posting (the server has problems from time to time). Anyway, glad you liked the video and the question you ask is an interesting one as often charred materials (usually from leaves) are added to the fish tail palm to help it catch a weak spark although this isn’t necessary with an empty lighter spark. I haven’t tried charring the fish tail palm itself but suspect it would become too fragile on its own.
Thanks again,
Cheers!
Paul
Hi Paul,
Great video, really useful stuff (how do you get topic ideas? I’m always amazed by the usefulness of your articles…)
This way of putting the flint and spring back in it is just life changing (changing the life of my lighters, not mine 😀 )!
I won’t use the screw on the back, I’ll just use a piece of duct-tape from one side to the other, with it really pressing on the spring.
You seem to always break down and rebuild your gear, this way it is much more personalised, and you should understand it better, thus using it better.
You’re a Jungle Hacker 😀
I’m trying to optimise my gear as much as I can, including DIY, or modifications.
I should show you some of my stuff, you could be interested!
Thanks for the description of the fish tail palm!
Thank you Paul!
Hi Wawa,
Many thanks, as always, for the comment and appreciate the support. I do tend to take things apart and put them together again when it comes to pieces of kit and it helps in understanding them better. I think the key thing with kit in general is to become very familiar with it and use it regularly (rather than stuffing it at the bottom of a bag and hoping you will know how to use in should an emergency happen) – this is certainly my approach to PSKs which I prefer to think of as every day use items that can also help you out in an emergency.
I enjoy doing the videos as it forces me to double check gear/techniques and make sure they work the way I remembered!
Anyway, I am always interested in other people’s approach to gear/junglecraft skills so would be very interested in seeing how you’re set up and appreciate all the tips you’ve sent in so far as well.
Thanks again,
Cheers!
Paul
I saw the holder you made for your Stanly water bottle in the video. I never thought of doing that. That will be my next DIY. I checked out the filter on Google. If you just get the filter it’s dirt cheap! Thank you for your videos. You do really well at explaining things.
Thank you,
Dave
Hi Dave,
Many thanks for the comment and a great tip of buying the filter on its own – I never though of doing that but it make much more sense and I wish I’d though of it before buying the whole kit!
The holder for the Stanley bottle is something I sewed together using and old seat belt. In the top loop there’s a piece wire (from a a chain link fence) that is sewn in and keeps the mouth of the holder open. Easy to make and another good reason to invest in a sewing machine!
Cheers!
Paul