Fatwood, Some Steel Wool, And A Cell Phone Battery

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

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I saw a version this method for fire starting on you tube a while back. It was done by the editor of a magazine. In his video he used the terminals of a cell phone battery to heat a piece of a brillo pad hot enough to ignite a cube of "wetfire" tinder.

Since I have found fatwood as easy to ignite with the sparks from a firesteel as the wetfire I wanted to see if fatwood could be ignited this way.

For this method pretty much any knife will do, as long as it will cut thin fatwood slivers. I used some "fine" steel wool for this experiment.

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I sliced some very thin slivers of fatwood, tore off a piece of the steel wool and rolled into shape about two inches long, and got my cell phone battery out.

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On this particular battery the positive and negative terminals are the two on the outer ends of the row.

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Folding the wool into a "U" shape and touching the ends to these two terminals creates a short cause the steel wool to spark and smolder. Blowing on it once it sparks good causes the steel wool to burn in ember fashion and flair very hot (wasn't blowing while I took the picture).

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I then placed one of the long thin slivers of the fatwood on the glowing steel wool and blew causing the steel wool to flair and ignite the fatwood.

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Then using that sliver like a match I ignited the pile of fatwood shavings.

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Add some small twigs for fuel and you have fire.

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Note: This took a few tries to figure out which steel wools would work. I learned that medium and coarse steel wool would not work...at least not in my tests anyway. I did learn that I could consistently get the fine wool to spark and flair. however in the course of the experiment I drained the battery and even melted part of the plastic of the housing around the terminals. The phone I used was an old one, and i suggest that if you wish to practice this you do the same. The battery is in the phone now, and is charging and the phone did power back up and function however I do not know if it will hold a charge now.

Disclaimer: While I had no problems in doing this and noticed no change in the temperature of the battery in the course of my experiments, this may somehow be dangerous. I am not a battery expert and there may be factors such as temperature and weather conditions that could make this hazardous. Should you choose to experiment with this you do so of your own accord and at your own risk.



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Good one, Mist. When I first learned of this technique, about 30 to 40 years ago (the technique has been around a long time), I went hog wild and tried all kinds of batteries and steel wool. 0000 (4 ought) steel wool seemed to work the best. I was surprised to find that virtually any battery would work: AAA, AA, C, D, and a 9 volt all sparked my fire, so to speak. What I didn't have was fatwood (honestly, I never even heard of fatwood till I joined this forum). I used dried grass back then, and it worked pretty well. I think fatwood would be even better.

Thanks for sharing, Bro.
 
dawsonbob said:
Good one, Mist. When I first learned of this technique, about 30 to 40 years ago (the technique has been around a long time), I went hog wild and tried all kinds of batteries and steel wool. 0000 (4 ought) steel wool seemed to work the best. I was surprised to find that virtually any battery would work: AAA, AA, C, D, and a 9 volt all sparked my fire, so to speak. What I didn't have was fatwood (honestly, I never even heard of fatwood till I joined this forum). I used dried grass back then, and it worked pretty well. I think fatwood would be even better.

Thanks for sharing, Bro.
Click to expand...


Glad you liked it Bob. I've never tried the cylindrical batteries before, that sounds interesting to do. Seems that devices that use 9V...other than the flashlights that use the large ones...are getting rare.

Besides, the bow drill has been around a lot longer than 40 years and a lot of people...including myself though I am studying and trying ...still don't know how to do it :D
 
mistwalker said:
Glad you liked it Bob. I've never tried the cylindrical batteries before, that sounds interesting to do. Seems that devices that use 9V...other than the flashlights that use the large ones...are getting rare.

Besides, the bow drill has been around a lot longer than 40 years and a lot of people...including myself though I am studying and trying ...still don't know how to do it :D
Click to expand...

While I've never tried the little button batteries (like watch batteries), everything else I've tried has worked. 9v batteries used to be common when I was young but, you're right, you don't see them as often anymore (hey, I'm old, so I remember a lot of things that aren't common anymore).

Yeah, bow drills are cool, too. I made a new one out of palm frond a couple of weeks ago, just to test the wood. Not the best, but it works. Even after all these years I keep going back to things (like fire drills) that I first learned many years ago. Maybe I'm regressing into a second childhood but, hey, it's fun!
 
I'll have to try with some other batteries now. My GPS takes AA batteries.

The reason I wanted to try this with fatwood is to see if...in theory at least...it could be used to start a fire in damp conditions using a non chemical accelerant. However I suppose it isn't all that practical with steel wool not being common in most backpacks. I may just put a small piece in my cell phone case though as a "just in case measure. After a while I'll get a chance to see if and how the inevitable rust effects the method.
 
dawsonbob said:
While I've never tried the little button batteries (like watch batteries), everything else I've tried has worked. 9v batteries used to be common when I was young but, you're right, you don't see them as often anymore (hey, I'm old, so I remember a lot of things that aren't common anymore).
Click to expand...

What kind of idiot doesn't carry a smoke alarm in their pack????? I'm just saying, we all know smoke alarms have 9volts :D :D :D

Seriously - I wish to heck there were a few decent flashlights that used 9v - love them square batteries and boy do they work well for this. Rick showed me the cell phone trick earlier this summer. Also showed how it could be done by stacking AA's like in a flashlight and holding the wool to each terminal end. That was trickier but he got it to work.

Best think on this one is having char cloth around to take that glowing steel wool and hold the ember. As Mistwalker says, the characteristics of the wool are critical. I get the fine wool to spark up well but I find it doesn't hold that glow overly long. Like I said, the char cloth or tinder fungus works nicely for holding that ember and giving you some time to get you tinder into motion.

Great Post Mistwalker. Good to reaffirm these things. Also another good trick with fine steel wool is to crunch it up into fines and add it to your flash tinder. This stuff takes a spark like nobodies business and helps transfer that heat to flammable tinder. A mixture of crushed up steel wool, phragmites heads or milk weed seeds and some scraped inner bark will turn transfor even the poorest spark into a flame.
 
That is neat. I will see about this with one of the extra cell phone batteries I have. It would be cool if I got it to work on the first try :)
 
kgd said:
What kind of idiot doesn't carry a smoke alarm in their pack????? I'm just saying, we all know smoke alarms have 9volts :D :D :D

Seriously - I wish to heck there were a few decent flashlights that used 9v - love them square batteries and boy do they work well for this. Rick showed me the cell phone trick earlier this summer. Also showed how it could be done by stacking AA's like in a flashlight and holding the wool to each terminal end. That was trickier but he got it to work.

Best think on this one is having char cloth around to take that glowing steel wool and hold the ember. As Mistwalker says, the characteristics of the wool are critical. I get the fine wool to spark up well but I find it doesn't hold that glow overly long. Like I said, the char cloth or tinder fungus works nicely for holding that ember and giving you some time to get you tinder into motion.

Great Post Mistwalker. Good to reaffirm these things. Also another good trick with fine steel wool is to crunch it up into fines and add it to your flash tinder. This stuff takes a spark like nobodies business and helps transfer that heat to flammable tinder. A mixture of crushed up steel wool, phragmites heads or milk weed seeds and some scraped inner bark will turn transfor even the poorest spark into a flame.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ken, I'll have to try the steel wool mix. Unfortunately tinder fungus doesn't grow down here that I can find...though I've only been looking for a couple of years now. I can't talk Rick into sending me any...he keeps saying something about the Forestry Service, the U.S.D.A., a couple of Canadian agencies...blah blah blah....laws shmaws...I just want some tinder fungus :mad:
 
TheGame said:
That is neat. I will see about this with one of the extra cell phone batteries I have. It would be cool if I got it to work on the first try :)
Click to expand...

Well...it work on the first try with the fine steel wool :D
 
kgd said:
What kind of idiot doesn't carry a smoke alarm in their pack????? I'm just saying, we all know smoke alarms have 9volts :D :D :D

Seriously - I wish to heck there were a few decent flashlights that used 9v - love them square batteries and boy do they work well for this. Rick showed me the cell phone trick earlier this summer. Also showed how it could be done by stacking AA's like in a flashlight and holding the wool to each terminal end. That was trickier but he got it to work.

Best think on this one is having char cloth around to take that glowing steel wool and hold the ember. As Mistwalker says, the characteristics of the wool are critical. I get the fine wool to spark up well but I find it doesn't hold that glow overly long. Like I said, the char cloth or tinder fungus works nicely for holding that ember and giving you some time to get you tinder into motion.

Great Post Mistwalker. Good to reaffirm these things. Also another good trick with fine steel wool is to crunch it up into fines and add it to your flash tinder. This stuff takes a spark like nobodies business and helps transfer that heat to flammable tinder. A mixture of crushed up steel wool, phragmites heads or milk weed seeds and some scraped inner bark will turn transfor even the poorest spark into a flame.
Click to expand...

Hey, Ken, I had to take the smoke alarm out of my pack; my cooking kept setting it off, and it was scaring the squirrels and raccoons. They were complaining about not being able to get a good night's sleep when I was around.

There is a nifty little 9v flashlight around. Someone here on the forum posted it awhile back and I bookmarked it (I think), and if I can find it, I'll post it for you.

You and Mist are right on with the fatwood and char cloth, etc. When I first tried the steel wool & battery thing, I almost blew my lungs out getting dry grass to ignite.
 
just to add an element of safety into this, be aware that ceel phone batteries are Lithium-Ion and pack a huge amount of energy into a small package. Shorting , submerging or recharging a li-ion ion battery that is completely dead can result in violent discharge - including chemicals that are hazardous to breath and can kill you.

That being said in a SHTF if that was all i had, hell ya i would light it up!

Candlepower forums in the Battery section has a MULTI page listing of what can go wrong with li-ion batts....
 
Bushman5 said:
just to add an element of safety into this, be aware that ceel phone batteries are Lithium-Ion and pack a huge amount of energy into a small package. Shorting , submerging or recharging a li-ion ion battery that is completely dead can result in violent discharge - including chemicals that are hazardous to breath and can kill you.

That being said in a SHTF if that was all i had, hell ya i would light it up!

Candlepower forums in the Battery section has a MULTI page listing of what can go wrong with li-ion batts....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I'll have to check it out.

Something told me that disclaimer might be a good idea. This isn't something I plan to practice like I do with other methods. It's just that after seeing it done and having it recommended as an alternative skill by a major outdoor magazine editor I thought I'd see for myself if it would work.
 
In a pinch one might try using a sliver taken from a razor blade with the scissors from a SAK in lieu of the wire wool.
 
A very cool trick, mistwalker.
And very informative as well for example about the type of steel wool.
Thanks for sharing!
 
fujita yuji said:
A very cool trick, mistwalker.
And very informative as well for example about the type of steel wool.
Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

Thanks Fujita, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I know not everyone has steel wool with them all the time...if ever... but being a custom woodworker I almost always have some in my tool box in my truck. I was thinking about trying a few types of wire that might be more commonly found in an urban environment but after an earlier post I decided it may be best to read up a little more before trying that out...unless of course tshtf first in which case I'll find out "in the field" :D
 
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