A fire can make a huge difference if you’re stuck outdoors after dark, especially as temperatures begin to fall. It provides warmth, light, a way to heat water and food, and a bit of comfort when you’re dealing with an unexpected night outside.
Knowing several ways to start a fire is useful for camping, hiking, and emergency situations. You don’t have to carry a huge collection of gear, either. Plenty of common household items can help you get a flame going when your usual fire starter isn’t available.
Here are 15 fire-starting tricks worth knowing before you need one.
Chips or Snack Foods
Greasy snacks can make surprisingly useful emergency tinder. Potato chips and similar snacks contain oils and fats that allow them to catch and keep a flame for a short time.
A few chips can give you enough burning material to get dry grass, small twigs, or other tinder going. They won’t replace proper firewood, but they can help when you’re caught without a conventional fire starter.
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Cotton Balls and Petroleum Jelly
Cotton balls coated with petroleum jelly are a longtime favorite among campers because they’re inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to pack.
The cotton catches fire quickly, while the petroleum jelly gives it additional fuel so it keeps burning longer than plain cotton. Store a few in a small waterproof container or plastic bag and keep them with your camping supplies.
Dryer Lint and Toilet Paper Roll
Before tossing your dryer lint in the trash, save some for your next camping trip. Its fine fibers catch a flame easily, making it useful for starting a fire.
Stuff the lint inside an empty toilet paper roll, then place it beneath your small kindling. Lint made mostly from natural fibers such as cotton tends to work better than lint containing lots of synthetic material.
Duct Tape
Duct tape has plenty of uses around a campsite, and starting a fire is another one.
A small piece can be twisted or loosely rolled into a bundle and used as tinder. Once lit, it can burn long enough to help ignite other materials. Keep in mind that burning plastic-based materials can produce unpleasant and potentially harmful fumes, so this should be reserved for situations where safer tinder isn’t available and used outdoors with good ventilation.
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Pine Resin (Fatwood)
Fatwood comes from resin-rich pine and has been used as natural fire-starting material for generations. The concentrated resin helps it ignite readily and burn hot.
You can sometimes find resin-heavy wood around old pine stumps or near places where branches meet the trunk. Commercially prepared fatwood is another easy option for a camping kit, especially for trips where damp conditions are possible.
Candle Wax on Cotton Pads
Cotton pads dipped in melted candle wax can make compact fire starters that resist moisture better than plain cotton.
Once the wax has hardened, the pads can be stored in a small bag or container until needed. When you light one, the cotton provides the initial flame while the wax gives it more burn time, helping dry out nearby tinder.
Crayon Candle
A standard crayon contains wax, so it can burn like a small candle when lit.
It’s best viewed as a backup rather than your main fire starter. A crayon can provide a steady flame for a while, giving you time to ignite other materials. If you’re packing supplies for a family camping trip, a few crayons take up almost no room.
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Tampons or Cotton Swabs
Cotton-based personal-care products can make useful tinder in an emergency. Pulling apart a cotton tampon or swab creates loose fibers that catch a spark more readily than a tightly packed piece of cotton.
Keep these items sealed in a dry bag or container until you need them. Tampons also have other emergency uses, which makes them a practical item to carry in a basic outdoor kit.
Egg Cartons and Sawdust
If you have sawdust and leftover candle wax at home, you can turn them into homemade fire starters.
Mix dry sawdust with melted wax and place the mixture into sections of a cardboard egg carton. Once the wax has cooled and hardened, separate the sections and store them somewhere dry. Each piece can serve as a compact source of tinder and fuel.
Pocket-Sized Hand Sanitizer
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer can catch fire because of its alcohol content. A small amount can help ignite dry tinder in an emergency.
Check the label before using it and keep the flame well away from your hands, clothing, tents, and other flammable materials. Hand sanitizer should be treated as a fire accelerant, rather than something to pour directly onto an established fire.
Magnifying Glass
A magnifying glass can start a fire without matches or a lighter, provided you have strong sunlight and very dry tinder.
Hold the lens so it concentrates sunlight into the smallest bright spot you can create on the tinder. Once the material begins to smoke, gently feed it with air and add progressively larger pieces of dry material.
This method takes patience, so it’s worth practicing before you actually need it outdoors.
Steel Wool and a 9V Battery
Fine steel wool and a 9V battery can produce enough heat to ignite the steel wool. Grade 0000 steel wool is often recommended because its fine strands respond readily when electricity passes through them.
Keep the battery away from loose metal objects when it isn’t being used for this purpose, and perform the technique outdoors in a controlled area. Once the steel wool begins glowing, place it against prepared tinder rather than holding it close to your skin.
Pencil-Sharpened Wood Shavings
A pocket pencil sharpener can turn a dry twig into a pile of fine wood shavings in seconds.
Look for a dead, dry branch and shave the wood into curls. If the outside of a small branch is damp, split it first and work with the drier wood inside. A sharpener weighs very little and can be useful for more than just making tinder.
Char Cloth
Char cloth is cotton fabric that has been heated in a container with very little oxygen. The resulting material catches a spark much more readily than ordinary cotton.
Once you have a piece glowing, place it inside a bundle of dry, fluffy tinder and gently blow air into it. The ember can gradually spread through the tinder until a flame appears.
Making char cloth ahead of time means you can keep a supply ready for camping or emergency kits.
Magnesium Fire Starter
A magnesium fire starter is one of the more reliable pieces of equipment to keep in an outdoor kit. It combines a magnesium block with a striker, giving you a source of hot shavings and sparks without relying on matches.
Scrape a small pile of magnesium shavings onto dry tinder, then strike the fire starter to produce sparks. Magnesium burns at an extremely high temperature, so even a small pile can ignite suitable tinder quickly.
These starters are compact and useful in wet weather, provided you can find dry tinder and protect the growing flame from wind and moisture.
A little practice makes these techniques much easier to use. Before heading into the outdoors, try a few of them in a safe, legal fire area so you know what works with the materials and weather conditions you’re likely to encounter. Always follow local fire restrictions and keep water or another means of extinguishing the fire close by.
