Wax and Lint Tinder

There are a lot of different ways to make tinder for my flint and steel igniter. One of the most popular is char cloth. It's pretty easy to make and does a great job of lighting easily. The biggest problem with it though is it can be fragile. I wanted to find something a little more ridged for my survival kit.

A search through the net also brought up lint! I recently used this in another ible' as tinder which can be found here. In the comments raptor_demon made the suggestion about adding wax to the lint and I thought that this was a brilliant idea.

The following is a simple but very reliable tinder that you can make in about 3 minutes. It burns hot and lasts for over 3 minutes.

If you have any other suggestions or ideas on how you make tinder, please add your ideas to the comments section.

Steps:

1. Locate the dryer - it is usually in a place called the laundry :).

2. Open the lint draw and remove any lint available.

3. Lay the lint out flat on a piece of paper.

Steps:

1. Light a candle and tip sideways to build-up some wax

2. Drip the wax over the lint

3. Turn the lint over and drip some more wax on the other side

4. Let the wax dry a little and squeeze the lint into flat balls.

That's it really. Find a small, dry container to keep your tinder in and it should last for months, probably years!

Now you've made some, you're going to want to test it. I did, and the results can be seen in the video below. The tinder lit pretty much as soon as I got a spark and burnt for over 3 minutes! I was seriously impressed with how well this worked and how easy it is to make.

If the video doesn't work try this link to YouTube

NOTE: Lint is made up of cotton and man made fabrics. Synthetic fabrics can be dangerous when on fire as they can release some funky chemicals. It won't be a problem as you don't have to blow on the tinder to get it started. Just make sure your face isn't directly above the smoke and use outside.

Lonesoulsurfer