Steel Wool Fire Starting

M

mp510

Joined
Mar 20, 2006
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I have read about an emergancy fire starting method whereby steel wool is ignited with steel wool and a 9 volt better.

Will this work with "stainless steel" steel wool. Honestly I've never heard of stainless steel steel wool before, but it's a $1 for 12 units, made in China so only God knows what they intended toput on the packaging. Is it worth giving a shot? I figure this stuff wouldn't be good for any other purpose, but it's cheap enough.
 
I have no experience with "stainless" steel wool, but can tell you the key is to buy the finest (smallest) grade you can. SOS pads won't cut it because the steel fibers are too big. Go to a hardware store or auto parts store and ask for steel wool in 0000, which is the finest grade.

This makes great tinder for use with a 9v battery and also catches a spark from a flint quite nicely. I keep some in a space capsule along with a small ferro rod.

-- FLIX
 
Its not the steel that actually burns, there is a coating on the steel wool that is very flammable. When you touch the battery to the wool, the small steel fibers have to much electrical resistance in them to allow the current to flow. The resistance heats the firbers to the point of spontainous combustion. Im not sure about the stainless steel, Id think that all the extra zinc in stainless would oxidize giving you a faster rate of combustion therefor increasing the heat produced?
 
I don't think that is right, Ghost. Combustion occurs because the guage of the wire, such as it is, is too small to carry the load that the battery supplies. That is why heavier guage steel wool doesn't work. If it was just the coating, the underlying thickness of the sttel wouldn't matter.

-- FLIX
 
Really, why would you bother? There are so many better things to start a fire with. Homemade napalm comes to mind (gasoline and soap flakes). And many people here have posted about all kinds of tinder, from pocket lint to dryer lint to cotton and vaseline, char cloth, etc., the only thing missing is belly button lint.
 
Coldwood said:
Really, why would you bother? There are so many better things to start a fire with. Homemade napalm comes to mind (gasoline and soap flakes). And many people here have posted about all kinds of tinder, from pocket lint to dryer lint to cotton and vaseline, char cloth, etc., the only thing missing is belly button lint.
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Or dry wood that Coldwood has personally batonned from a nearby napalm tree. man, when the sap runs out of them, don't light a cigarette! :D
 
I don't have experience with stainless steel wool but I have always found that the battery and (regular) steel wool trick works best if you spread the wool out as thin as possible and have a "tinder ball" ready to accept the hot steel. From there you just blow like you would with friction firelighting and add kindling as needed.
 
ghostguy6 said:
When you touch the battery to the wool, the small steel fibers have to much electrical resistance in them to allow the current to flow. The resistance heats the firbers to the point of spontainous combustion.
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Actually the opposite is true - wires have tiny resistance and battery can deliver relatively large current (the higher the resistance, the lower the current passing through the conductor, at same voltage drop). The resulting large current heats the wire and makes it melt/burn.

This current, multiplied by volatge drop (9V in case of 9V battery), tell you what the power dissipated in wrie is (P = U * I). This power results mostly in heat and a small portion of it in visible and invisible light.

Thinner wire can dissipate less heat than thicker wire because its surface area is smaller so it heats up faster, provided that same amount of power is wasted on it (note that limiting factor here is your battery which is unable to deliver any more current though a thick wire than it does through a strand of fine steel wool). If the wire heats up faster than the sorrounding medium (air) can cool it down, its temperature will continue to rise and eventually it will melt/burn.

There is absolutely no reason for stainless steel wool of same thickness (and likely with similar resistance to non-stainless counterpart) not to react the same, i.e. heat up and eventually melt/burn, so the answer to the original question is yes, of course it will heat up and start fire.
 
I look at starting a fire with steel wool the same as battoning, I think it is a worthwhile skill to learn and I am glad that I have done it, but I don't think it is a skill at the top of the list or one I think I will ever use.

I have ignited 0000 steel wool with a AA battery and it burns like the dickens, add a little oil to keep the steel wool from rusting and it will go up all the quicker, with that said, I like cotton balls and vasoline better more multi purpose and burns longer. Chris
 
faramir said:
Actually the opposite is true - wires have tiny resistance and battery can deliver relatively large current (the higher the resistance, the lower the current passing through the conductor, at same voltage drop). The resulting large current heats the wire and makes it melt/burn.

This current, multiplied by volatge drop (9V in case of 9V battery), tell you what the power dissipated in wrie is (P = U * I). This power results mostly in heat and a small portion of it in visible and invisible light.

Thinner wire can dissipate less heat than thicker wire because its surface area is smaller so it heats up faster, provided that same amount of power is wasted on it (note that limiting factor here is your battery which is unable to deliver any more current though a thick wire than it does through a strand of fine steel wool). If the wire heats up faster than the sorrounding medium (air) can cool it down, its temperature will continue to rise and eventually it will melt/burn.

There is absolutely no reason for stainless steel wool of same thickness (and likely with similar resistance to non-stainless counterpart) not to react the same, i.e. heat up and eventually melt/burn, so the answer to the original question is yes, of course it will heat up and start fire.
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Ill take your word for it, im to sick to try to comprehend exactly how it works.
 
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