Six Weird Ways to Light a Survival Bonfire Without a Lighter or Matches
The times when you need fire and times when you have things that are easy to ignite are not necessarily the same. In cases where your survival depends on keeping warm, you need to be creative with what you can find. These six methods use unusual tools to transform dry tinder into a toasted fire.
With a flashlight
You may not have lighters or matches, but you may have a flashlight. As this video from Ultimate Survivalist shows, that’s enough! Start by disassembling the flashlight and removing the silver cone / cup used to bounce light off the light bulb. Now pinch off a small amount of dry tinder, roll it up and stick it into the small bottom hole of the silver cone / cup. Then, aim the wider part at the sun so that the light reflects and focuses on the tinder.
Once the tinder begins to smoke, remove it from the cone / cup and add to the rest of the tinder. Blow gently on it until you have a beautiful ember, then add it to the fire. This method requires sunlight, but you must still light the fire before sunset.
With aluminum can
First, find a soda can. Maybe it’s yours that you took with you on your excursion, or maybe you found trash in the bushes. After receiving the jar, you can polish its bottom. You can use chocolate for this, as in the Howcast YouTube video above, butyou can also use toothpaste or clay . The latter can be found easily in the wild.
When the bottom is nice and shiny (you may need to polish it several times), keep it in the sun. Try to select multiple angles and see if you can focus the reflected light at a specific location. Now place the tinder in this spot and let the sun do its thing. When the tinder is lit, hold it and blow gently until the embers twist, then add it to the kindling.
With rubber wrap and battery
Is there gum in your bag? Do you have a flashlight or other device with an AA or AAA battery? You have everything you need to start a fire. In the video above, youtuber The King of Random shows you how.
Start with a piece of chewing gum and save the metal wrap. Cut the wrapper into three strips, each with a thin slit in the middle and two thick ends. Now take one of the strips and touch the metal side of the ends of the strip at both ends of the battery. The center of the strip should light up so you can quickly light the tinder.
With steel wool and battery
This method of arson is more useful in urban survival as it requires steel wool and a 9V battery. But given the constant threat of a nuclear apocalypse, it can still be useful to know. Plus, steel wool can ignite in almost all weather conditions, so this method is almost guaranteed to work.
The video above from The Outsider explains how to do this step by step. Start with thin steel wool and any brand of 9V batteries. Whisk some steel wool, then insert the fibers into the tinder bundle, then touch the two connectors on the 9V battery to the steel wool and watch it light up. While the steel wool is burning, blow on the tinder bundle to ignite, then add it to the kindling. Just make sure you don’t inhale the smoke from the burning metal wool.
With ice
Yeah, ice. In the YouTube video above, Tim Jones shows you how to take a chunk of ice from a stream and use it to light a small fire. To do this yourself, all you need is a knife, a little tinder, and a little patience.
Start by looking for clear ice in a stream, river, pond, or lake nearby. Now carefully cut or break off a large piece with a knife. Once you’ve got a nice big chunk, start carving it out with your knife until you have a large chunk of clean ice. Here’s what’s not so fun: rub the ice with your hands and melt it, turning it into a clean piece that looks like a lens. Then, place the ice lens so that it points towards the tinder and wait for the sunlight to light it up. Jones uses some black powder in a bunch of tinder to speed up the process, but if the tinder is dry enough, it should catch fire.
With water and plastic bag
Ah, water. A deadly enemy of fire – unless you use it the way the King of Chance does in the video above. Again, you are making a lens that you can use to focus the sunlight and illuminate a small amount of tinder.
Collect loose, dry tinder and fill a plastic bag with water from a nearby source (do not waste drinking water). Now gently twist the bag so that it turns into a sphere of water. Once you’ve got the ball, hold the ball of water over the tinder like a magnifying glass and try to focus the sunlight on it. With a little patience, the tinder will ignite and you can use it to light the kindling and ignite a much larger fire. Thank you water!