Posted: 4/27/2012 7:42:55 PM EDT
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I have kept Bic lighters in my go bags for years, but am starting to wonder if they will hold up and be reliable after years of non-use.
Is there a better fire source, in terms of lighters? Zippos? Your thoughts are, as always, are appreciated. |
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If you want the ultimate in long term get yourself a small watertight container, flint, and a healthy quantity of charcloth. Maybe not as fast as you want in a go-bag, but flint and charcloth don't really go bad.
Intuitively I'd say stay away from a zippo since it has an open liquid reservoir. BICs are sealed butane lighters, no fuel evaporation there. Although as far as lighters my favorite are the 'jet lighters'. I found one once in a parking lot about the size of a BIC. I remember the day it finally bit the dust... 
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If you want the ultimate in long term get yourself a small watertight container, flint, and a healthy quantity of charcloth. Maybe not as fast as you want in a go-bag, but flint and charcloth don't really go bad. Intuitively I'd say stay away from a zippo since it has an open liquid reservoir. BICs are sealed butane lighters, no fuel evaporation there. Although as far as lighters my favorite are the 'jet lighters'. I found one once in a parking lot about the size of a BIC. I remember the day it finally bit the dust... You mean the "crack pipe" lighters you get at the local stop 'n rob? Bics are good, but they can leak over time. Zippos are fine, but you have to store fuel separately. Re-fillable butane lighter work, but again, store extra cans of fuel. -My experiences with the cheapee butanes is they tend to break before running out of fuel. Matches - good for long term, keep 'em dry. Lots of other choices as listed above. |
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I had a long term storage Zippo failure proble. Over probably 15 years not being stuck, the flint (probaly 30 years old) absolutely desolved and was gone. New flint, sparks first strike.
Some thread in GD recently made me figure out the lighter my family found in a used car bought circa 1968 was manufactured in 1959. FWIW, we do have a very useful thread in gear right now on fire starters with a link to a great Blog post by Rodent, and a good vaseline/cotton ball thread in Discussion. |
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My everyday bag has bics, but I'm a smoker so I always have had bics. In my experience, they will be hit or miss. They do empty themselves out overtime. I've seen it myself, some faster than others. It must have something to do with the way theyre stored, handled etc. but I don't know.
I replaced the bics in my "long term " gear with a zippo, spare flints, and fuel when I found a brand new one dead after just 6 months. It also has magnesium, a striker, and dry tinder. ETA: A loose Bic in a bag will probably get its button depressed rather easily. I'll bet that's what happened to mine. Bics are also terrible in any type of wet or extremely cold environment. |
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I have matches that are over 30 years old that still work. You just have to keep them in a dry place is all.
I collected them as a hobby from my travels, free matches from resturants, bars, events, etc. A good number of them, I put into large picture frames and hung them on my office wall. Its very decorative, like looking into your past, and really attracts a lot of attention. People will stare at them and say stuff like, I've been there. Ultimately though, all those matches are still useful. Just an idea. 
Tj |
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Only bad thing about matches is that if they get wet,they're useless. That don't get your matches wet thing isn't that hard you know? While Jermiah Johnson is trying to get fire on a cold wet night with his magnifying glass or searching the forest for dry nest material for his flint and steel, the guy with a box of matches in his baggy will be sitting by a fire getting warm. There's nice to know just in case, then there's let's throw practicality out the window. The question is what do you store, not what can I use. Matches are cheap and cheap as free, they store well, they light right then right now, you can double them up to work in high wind, and you can throw them. The winner isn't he who barely survives some crisis, its he who barely notices it. A cold wet day, my fingers numb, and my life on the line, I'll take a match and a can of fuel everyday over two sticks or a piece of steel and flint. You have a bottle of kerosene and a match, you can light a fire any conditions, every time. The rest of that stuff is "what if" i don't have the good stuff.
Tj |
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Only bad thing about matches is that if they get wet,they're useless. That don't get your matches wet thing isn't that hard you know? While Jermiah Johnson is trying to get fire on a cold wet night with his magnifying glass or searching the forest for dry nest material for his flint and steel, the guy with a box of matches in his baggy will be sitting by a fire getting warm. There's nice to know just in case, then there's let's throw practicality out the window. The question is what do you store, not what can I use. Matches are cheap and cheap as free, they store well, they light right then right now, you can double them up to work in high wind, and you can throw them. The winner isn't he who barely survives some crisis, its he who barely notices it. A cold wet day, my fingers numb, and my life on the line, I'll take a match and a can of fuel everyday over two sticks or a piece of steel and flint. You have a bottle of kerosene and a match, you can light a fire any conditions, every time. The rest of that stuff is "what if" i don't have the good stuff.
Tj I don't disagree! Like I said, matches are great. They light up easily, you get a flame instead of an ember you have to nurse, they weigh next to nothing. The only thing I disagree with is your "any conditions" bit. Anyone that has used matches a lot in the woods knows how easily they blow out in windy conditions, and if it is raining it's just as much a gamble. It's easy in theory to keep them dry, but stuff happens, and if matches get the slightest bit wet they are ruined. If you want to rely on matches as a primary they're a good choice... but IMHO, something waterpoof as a backup would be intelligent. That can of fuel you reference lights just as easily with a spark from a firesteel, and the firesteel is completely waterproof. I consider fire as being pretty much an essential, so generally try to stress knowing multiple ways to get it. |
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If you want the ultimate in long term get yourself a small watertight container, flint, and a healthy quantity of charcloth. Maybe not as fast as you want in a go-bag, but flint and charcloth don't really go bad. Intuitively I'd say stay away from a zippo since it has an open liquid reservoir. BICs are sealed butane lighters, no fuel evaporation there. Although as far as lighters my favorite are the 'jet lighters'. I found one once in a parking lot about the size of a BIC. I remember the day it finally bit the dust... for your fire piston: Charcloth is very easy to make... "kiwi" shoe polish can, throroughly CLEAN, drill or punch an 1/8" hole in the center of the top, place two or three layers of layers of 100% cotton inside, (old t-shirt or handkerchief), then put the top on snugly ! place it on the hot coals of a BBQ grill. Can will blacken, emit copious clouds of smoke as the contents "cook" .....when it stops smoking, remove it, let it cool, and open to find charred layers of your FREE charcloth ! if using the charcloth with a firesteel, add a little petroleum jelly to the fabric, shave up a bit of magnesium, and store it in the shoe polish can. You're welcome !
afterthought: a fired brass 12ga. hull, if you can find one, makes a great matchbox, and a slightly trimmed (lengthwise) 20 Ga hull, fits inside to make it all but waterproof. Superglue a strip of wet-or-dry sandpaper to the outside for a striking surface. I've had one of these since my BSA days, in the early 1960s. 
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| during a tropical storm event, I'll throw a Bic in my pocket, but my EDC fire source is a small 1/8" firesteel, and a petroleum jelly treated cotton ball stuck in a 5" plastic straw... fits in a generic multitool pouch... along with Leatherman Juice S2, Streamlite TacPro 1L, section of hacksaw blade with a couple of safety pins, sewing needle and tweezers taped to it |
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In the past a disposable lighter or match has always worked well for me. These days I have some fire steel type products that I use but you cannot get a flame from them directly like a match or a lighter.
I think sometimes the simple stuff gets way overthought. |
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In the past a disposable lighter or match has always worked well for me. These days I have some fire steel type products that I use but you cannot get a flame from them directly like a match or a lighter. I think sometimes the simple stuff gets way overthought. Very true but to put my hat on backwards, the other methods have place as well. For example, the basic skills of a flint and steel fire start can be applied to found material thus an unlimited renewable source of fire making. Naturally, a EOTWAWKI event that would make that "renewable" aspect would be rare as diamonds in your backyard but the being stranded aspect is slightly more probable. It does worry me sometimes whether someone can take the lessons learned from a "Blastmatch" and apply it to some found flint and steel. Heck, at events I can't begin to tell you how many people I've had to explain you need high carbon steel, what the difference is, and stainless doesn't work for shit. 
Even so, a popular topic here is the favorite "bic' and using its spark so the lessons learned from flint and steel has some merit. Where it falls short is as the ideal choice. I reckon I have one of about every concept of fire making, except an old "Tinder Box", flint/steel/linen which is on my list of things to do someday, but I store none of them in any quantity. I may have a magnesium bar in my backpack incase my Zippo, Bic, and Matches die or runout, but a box of them in my house, nope. There's just better methods of lighting fires. Camping trip or backyard adventure aside, if I can advise anyone from my years of experience on one thing. It is when you need a fire the most, that's when its going to be the hardest to light a fire. Its one of natures greatest ironies and has killed more people than we will ever know. Best time to practice fire making is in a rainstorm. Tj BTW, On the "Tinder Box", it is something I would like to try. If you read histories, the tinderbox was so reliable men used them to light cigars and even cannon fuses in battle. They lingered long after the match was introduced. The history of fire making is actually just as interesting as the history of guns. For example, despite matches, the old fire bucket was used not only throughout the middle-ages but was also very common during the western expansion of the US, wagon trains. I love that stuff, but like I said, my fingers are numb, give me a match and a can of kerosene.
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One thing that you need to think about is what you will be BURNING long term.
The question you asked was really about fire starting equipment, and the various options all have one thing in common. You need some sort of fuel to burn. More importantly, if you are counting on using wood as fuel, you will need some sort of tender and "transition fuel" to "get it going". Last camping trip I took the guy that brought our "firewood" showed up with a wet oak stump.... have you ever tried to get wet oak burning? Lets just say it took ALL of the fatwood that I brought to get the fire going. Of course, we were camping so it wasn't an emergency, but it made me think. In other words, you can't ONLY worry about fire starting equipment, you need to think about fuel and "transition fuel" as well. Honestly, I have never understood why people thought you needed to have one "go to" fire starter. Given the minuscule weight and low cost of a bic lighter I don't really understand not having some. They may not work in all conditions, but they will work a lot of the time, and it will save you from using your "emergency" fire starting fuel when you don't need to. I.E. in dry warm conditions you can light small twigs directly with a lighter, thereby saving your vaseline soaked cotton balls etc. for a time when you REALLY need them. Just my thoughts... |
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Everybody knows that fire started pioneer style is always hotter than fire started from ordinary matches. huh? I am pretty sure that was sarcasm.... Actually it was a quote from that great pioneer - Barney Fife. These threads always make me think of that 'Back to Nature" episode. No offense intended. Knowing how to make a fire using primitive methods is good knowledge, however, I prep so I don't have to rub two sticks together or use a flint and steel. Same as I have things stored so I don't have to eat bugs or drink pine needle tea. ETA: I think Don Knotts was a comedic genius, and I am sorry he is no longer around. |
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My everyday bag has bics, but I'm a smoker so I always have had bics. In my experience, they will be hit or miss. They do empty themselves out overtime. I've seen it myself, some faster than others. It must have something to do with the way theyre stored, handled etc. but I don't know. I replaced the bics in my "long term " gear with a zippo, spare flints, and fuel when I found a brand new one dead after just 6 months. It also has magnesium, a striker, and dry tinder. ETA: A loose Bic in a bag will probably get its button depressed rather easily. I'll bet that's what happened to mine. Bics are also terrible in any type of wet or extremely cold environment. No more bics with their buttons depressed while in your pack–––– 
As for cold weather use- I warm them up in my hand, and if my hands were so cold I couldn't get a bic to outgas a flame I'd stick it in my mouth. If that were too cold then I'm already dead and it isn't a problem any more.LOL I do keep other means in my pack though (Blastmatch ROCKS!!!) |