Check your Bic lighters!!

[Sylvain]

I keep mine stored in a water tight box with everything else used for starting a fire. With the lid closed everything stays in place and both lighters still seem to be retaining their fluid.

Nice little fire kit you have there.
I would cover that 9v battery just to be sure that it doesnt touch the steel wool to be safe, even though you said it doesnt move.
What is that thing on top of the battery, matches and steel wool?

 

[Bunnykid68]

Nice little fire kit you have there.
I would cover that 9v battery just to be sure that it doesnt touch the steel wool to be safe, even though you said it doesnt move.
What is that thing on top of the battery, matches and steel wool?

Its a fire stick for lighting fires. Kinda like a giant strike anywhere match

 

[rocketscience]

empty chewing tobacco can filled with crumbled fire log a little dryer lint and strike anywhere matches. "fire puck"

 

[lucky4034]

I have zippo's but I'm not that big of a fan of them. I'm a rehabilitated smoker and have used both lighters extensively. The bics always lasted longer and finding fuel for the zippos was always a pain in the rear.

+1 Nothing beats a classic standard bic lighter (or pen for that matter)

 

[LawDog76]

Nice little fire kit you have there.
I would cover that 9v battery just to be sure that it doesnt touch the steel wool to be safe, even though you said it doesnt move.
What is that thing on top of the battery, matches and steel wool?

I normally keep the battery wrapped in paper. I removed it for the pic.

The item above the battery is a Diamond brand Strike-A-Fire fire starting sticks. They burn for about 10 minutes. Menards had them on sale a while back for $1.00 a box. Figured they would be useful in wet environments to help get other tinder and kindling going.

 

[teddy12b]

As an ex-smoker I can tell you with confidence that the button did not get pushed. When lighters get really cold the gasket? Or something shrinks and all the fuel leaks out. Can't keep a bic lighter in the heat or cold for too long. Butane or matches are the way to go for extreme temps.

I'm also an ex-smoker and I never had a problem with seals going bad. I think you have a good point though, and it seems valid, but I had another bic (full sized) in the same bag but it was in there loose and it worked when I checked it.

 

[Zoub]

Wrap quality electrical tape around the seam of the zippo lighter to slow evaporation of the fuel. They are the best lighter made, their weakness is the fuel.

Duct tape burns like a Mo-fo. Duct tape with magnesium shavings in the adhesive is the Bad Mo-Fo of mo-fo's. I am not a big fan of magnesium shavings because a squirrel fart 50 yards away can send them flying but if you preshave them, you can have a ton ready to go.

Put them in a 35mm film can, yes film can, I still have spares from a ton I stashed in the 70's. Today's equivalent are the glucose test strip containers used by diabetics. Or use a small nalgene container. Spread some out on a piece of duct tape mayabe 3 to 4" long. Then in turn wrap that tape around a solid handfull of dry sticks and twigs no bigger than a pencil diameter. Build your fire lay over that and then light the tape.

It is not a triox bar but is almost idiot proof.

 

[westfork]

the more i think about the bic lighter the more i think about how many other ways there are to start a fire. it's been said a dozen times or so in this thread and elsewhere: know how to start fires using other methods.

don't get me wrong, the bics are handy and are the first thing i try for speed and convenience.

i got some UCO Storm Matches a while back and i recommend you all put them in your kits if you are into matches. you get a two boxes of 25 matches per pack, they are waterproof, they burn differently than regular kitchen matches, and they come with extra strikers which is a very thoughtful and welcome change from most brands of waterproof matches. look em up, they are my new favorite matches.

and yeah, that zip tie thing i posted earlier seems like it would do the trick while also being a potentially huge dissapointment if you can't get the zip tie off. personally i won't do that.

 

[chrisjross85]

stick to the trusted bic I always keep a few of them in my ready bags.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Man, I have butane lighters all over the place. So what if one goes bad, when there's five of them in various states of being used, one of them is bound to work, and even if it doesn't the flint striker of at least one of them will.

I just buy the multi-packs of them, both big and small, and stash them everywhere. Each vehicle probably has half a dozen in it, there's one in my pocket, jacket or coat will have at least one, packs have 3-4 of them each. Every now and then I open one of my emergency kits from the house that I make up, and use it on a hiking trip (I have like a dozen stashed) and when I have used a few I make a new batch of them. I've opened several of them that were 3-4 years old and only occasionally found one bad lighter.

I haven't bothered with the mag blocks or cerium sticks or matches or battery and steel wool or whatever else for years. I can start fires from numerous techniques, but other than for practice I prefer to be lazy and just use a lighter since it's the fastest way.

 

[Zoub]

I assume somewhere out there, next to the Twinkie warehouse is another one filled with Bic's, at the end of the SHTF rainbow?

 

[SockMonkey]

When I lived in the "Wellness Dorm" in college, I was presented with an engraved Zippo for being on the dorm council. Talk about ironic. Anyway, I stopped carrying it (I'm not a smoker anyway) because it did nothing but leak. I still have it for sentimental value (yeah, I'm a sap), but will never attempt to make it useful again.

 

[mercop]

F the Bics, get the cheap scriptos and this

 

[Zoub]

F the Bics, get the cheap scriptos and this

O

M

G


(they also make a stainless steel dutch oven!)

 

[shibumiseeker]

F the Bics, get the cheap scriptos and this

Extra weight and expense. I have one for soldering but wouldn't put it in any of my packs.

 

[teddy12b]

Very clever, what all do you have in your little kit?

I finally had the time to dig them out and get some pictures. I'm pretty happy with them, but I'm probably going to take some of the organic rope that I've got in there for tinder and replace it with additional matches of a different style or something else that starts fire.