But if you do catch it on fire you can have some fun sparying some water on it.

That is freaking hot!

I used a drill, a hacksaw, and a file to make mine. I didn't shave off as much metal for mine, but it still opens bottles just fine.


I marked it out with a pencil, and made a drilled a small hole (1/16"). I drilled through it a few more times, with larger drill bits each time. I used a hacksaw to cut the corner off, and then made two additional cuts towards the hole with the same saw. The final shaping was done with a hand file. Avoid using large power tools like drill presses, band saws, and belt sanders. If you load one of those up with magnesium dust, and then the same tool is used to grind iron or steel, you will suddenly have a light source visible from space....

I have used shoe polish to start fires but as an alternative fuel source no... but an excellent fire started mixed with a lil saw dust

Here is a sure fire way to get a tinder that will start just about any where - cheap, can make in BULK, stores easily and easy to make.

Take hemp or jute rope and cut a section about 2 feet long ( any length will do). Thick or hard twisted rope will be a little more difficult with which to work, but un-ravel the bundle of strands so that it looks like loose hair. It will, in fact, come completely apart and frey to a blob. Try to keep it in a strand.

Take canning wax from Walmart or similar store, melt it and mix with magneseium from sparklers (this is a simple process). Keep the temp low, but the wax thin. Dip the freyed rope in the wax and magnesium. Remove it and allow it to dry. Find a happy medium between thick and extra thin wax. Will catch fire with a typical fire scraper, match, etc.

Experiment with the amount of hemp, wax and magnesium. You will get an ideal mix after a couple or three tries.

This stuff will light and burn like crazy.

By the way, this is far from an orignal idea - BUT A DAMN GOOD ONE!

Proceed to be chased by wild dogs!

Actually, magnetic declination varies by location. In some areas it is less than 10 degrees.

It also varies in direction from True North and can be expressed as positive/negative; or East /West, respectively.

This site has a ton of very small but helpful tips.

100 MPH (Duct Tape) uses

Cheap DIY stuff

Tips & Tricks

For magnesium shavings try engine shops and hot rod shops.

In high school my buddys brother had a crank shaft grinding/resurfacing shop. He always had magnesium shavings. We would get a small 3 or 4 inch box full of shavings and take it when we had bonfire parties in the riverbed. Toss in the fire and it took off big time.

The best bonfire starters were old haybales with plenty of camp gas.

I am new to this and I don't know if this is the right forum to ask this question concerning the Hellcat pack system.

I have a large Alice pack and I am trying to attach the Molle shoulder straps and the attachment straps. While referencing the photos that Enforcer posted, it shows the attachment strap being fed through a D clip on the pack. I've examined my particular pack and cannot find the D ring. The pack has an military item number of 8465-01-9-9103.

What, if any, is the solution to this situation.

Thanks for any help that can be provided.

I did. Here it is before I finished it by tying on one of those plastic knifey things. Pokey kind of poker thing. Whatever.

Over the last several years as I started storing and rotating gas for the cars, generator, camp stove or lantern. I treat this stored gas with Stabil brand snake-oil and carb cleaner. Then rotate it every year. Maybe over-kill, may not. It’s cheap (psychological) insurance to make sure our strategic gas supply is ready when we need it. So, we have managed to keep several empty 8 oz and 32 oz Stabil bottles. When I went to using carb cleaner, I found that it was easier to measure the quantity needed by pouring it into the empty Stabil bottles. Then, two months ago I was a little rushed to get out of the house and wished there was a quicker way to measure the carb cleaner and Stabil. Well, I had three empty 8oz Stabil bottles and four 6 oz empty Gum-Out bottles. Anyway, I used the smaller empty bottles to pre-mix the treatment in easy to use one-shot treatments. The carb cleaner concentrate is 1.5 oz to five gals and the Stabil is 2 oz to 5 gals. So, those bottles get marked with a Sharpie marker with the amounts and the contents. Here are some pix so I won’t have to write 3,796 more words.