Firestarting with a magnifying glass?

DaleW

DaleW

Joined
Dec 22, 2006
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I fiddled around with a magnifying glass today trying to start a fire. It was 3:00 PM sun at 47N, so not too strong. I tried to get an old surplus fuel tablet going with no luck and then I tried a petroleum jellied cotton ball and couldn't even get it to smoke. A picked a green leaf off a maple tree and burned a hole through it in a heartbeat. I wonder if the white color of the materials I was trying to ignite had something to do with it.

I was able to light the cotton ball with one good stroke from a firesteel. The gooey cotton balls look like a wad of juink, but they sure make a good fire starter.

Anyway, does anyone have good techniques for using a magnifying glass for fire starting? I wouldn't put it on the top of my list as most of my hiking is in the cloudy Pacific NW, but it's fun to carry a glass for nature observation and they are a small and permanent tool. I imagine it needs some good dry tinder and some blowing to get a fire going with one.
 
I cant seem to get the Frezen lenses to work, but with a regular magnifying glass i find it pretty easy to get a fire going if the sun is strong, the other day I came across a magnifying glass in the living room, and noticed the sun streaming through the windows, long story short, and old copy of sportsmansguide ended up in flames in the fire place.

I just find that its a matter of getting the right distsnce from the object and takes, a little practice.
 
I find char cloth makes it much easier, a small piece on a pj cotton ball makes for a quick fire. I do think the dark color helps a lot.
 
Charred cotton cloth works best. And you have spotted one of the reasons why - the dark color absorbs most of the radiation whereas a white surface reflects radiation.
 
Thomas Linton said:
Charred cotton cloth works best. And you have spotted one of the reasons why - the dark color absorbs most of the radiation whereas a white surface reflects radiation.
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Thanks-- never had any problem frying ants as a kid :eek:
 
I've never really bought into the magnifying glass as firestarter too much, since it seems like a fire is really important when it's cold, dark, raining, snowing, etc and not as important when it's clear and sunny.

Gordon
 
gaj999 said:
I've never really bought into the magnifying glass as firestarter too much, since it seems like a fire is really important when it's cold, dark, raining, snowing, etc and not as important when it's clear and sunny.

Gordon
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haha, except when it gets cold dark, and or raining and snowing at night :D

But seriously, It can be a viable way to start a fire, and for sure shouldn't be over looked.
 
I take the point about fire-starting when it's cold -- especially here in the Great Lakes area.

A fire, as we know, has other uses than providing warmth when you are cold (signaling, purifying water, cooking, hardening the tips of digging sticks). A magnifying glass was a great way to start a fire in the daytime in my other life in California.:thumbup:
 
I've made fire with a magnifying glass but I wouldn't put it on the top of my "kit list" when it comes to making fire. The "best" way (if you could call it that) would be to use scraping from you jeans or socks. Lint from a pocket also works good as a starter. You need fuffy cotton of some kind.

On the same page, when I was a boy scout, I saw on troop leader make fire with a soda bottle (Back when they were made out of glass). And once I did the same with a sandwitch bag and water. So I know a magnifying glass works.

One thing to try, go to a drug store and look for one of those page magnfiers. It's a flat, magnifying glass, that old people use to read. Use one of those and it will make your tinder burst into flame. No joke.
 
If you must use a magnifying glass to start a fire using anything white (paper, fuel tab, etc.), darken a spot with a pencil, pen, a bit of dirt, whatever. the size of the focused spot. then focus the sun on it.

The dark material will absorb the heat and ignite whatever is beneath it.

Works every time.

Jim FBtE
 
i normally use lint from my dryer....works very well but make sure u are quick with the rest...........
 
It IS possible to start fires with a magnifying glass. I've done so with a plastic, credit-card sized magnifying lens. I used pitchwood/fatwood scrapings as my tinder. It was a somewhat cold day, about 25*F in the sun.

The process I used was to scrape up a handful-sized pile of pitchwood and then focus the lens for a couple of minutes on the scrapings, letting a mouldering dark spot to build up. Then, I set it in a safe place and scraped a bunch more pitchwood shavings. When the dark spot on the pitch had grown to the size of a quarter, I started blowing hard on it. I kept on blowing on it. I huffed. I puffed. After a bit, I had to add pitchwood shavings, while still blowing on the small coal. Eventually, I heard that "roaring" noise of the tinder wanting to catch. Upon hearing that, I re-doubled my blowing and shaving stacking. After what felt like an houring of near-hyperventilation puffing, the tinder fully ignited into a ball of flame! I stuffed it under the fire teepee I'd built and had a good fire going.

To make a fire w/ a magnifying lens and natural material, I've learned it takes sun :cool: LOTS of dry tinder, lots of blowing, patience, and practice, practice, practice.

I think that it's wise to have this specific fire-starting ability, but due to the necessity of sunlight for it to work, it's best treated as a back-up fire starting skill :thumbup:
 
I never thought of the color factor, I have had several Tries of the frezen lense on white paper to no avail, I may have to try a darker material.
 
Using a magnifying glass was the first way I learned to make fire (without matches or lighters) as a kid. The bigger the lens, the better, and as everyone has said, have a dark target to absorb the energy. Has to be a convex or converging of course. Just get the light spot as small as possible or, better yet, just on the orange/red side of focus.

Potassium permanganate, mixed with a fuel, *loves* to light this way. Sugar is the best fuel to mix it with as it melts quickly under the lens. It lights much quicker than paper/wood/lint tinder. In the absence of sugar, mix it with any dry, fine fuel like sawdust, or even magnesium shavings. Watch your eyebrows with that mixture though, seriously!

Chasing ants was great fun, especially when I got a 4" lens!

Rick.
 
I use a big maginfy glass , the bigger they are the easier it is to light a fire with them , mine is about as big as the palm of my hand , it rides in my pack so size isnt a big issue

it lights newspaper almost instant

the only drawbacks I found is that depending on it isnt great , the sun may be behind cloud ( big lenses will still work with some cloud cover ) and it means that fires have to be lit in daylight hours .. so camping after sundown is a cold affair unless there are other firelighters to use

my kids have their own smaller lanses and dark glasses , they do a kind of art carving and burning patterns on their carvings
 
Trout Tamer said:
To make a fire w/ a magnifying lens and natural material, I've learned it takes sun :cool: LOTS of dry tinder, lots of blowing, patience, and practice, practice, practice.
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I agree it takes practice. We also have to remember the fire triangle. The lens being only one third of the triangle - heat. We tend to focus on ignition and forget about the other two thirds - fuel and oxygen. When using natural materials many times I just get a coal and that is where having a good tinder bundle ready to blow in to flame makes the difference.

Practice making tinder bundles should get as much devotion as ignition.
 
When using natural materials many times I just get a coal and that is where having a good tinder bundle ready to blow in to flame makes the difference. Practice making tinder bundles should get as much devotion as ignition.
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Yes, absolutely! :thumbup:
 
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