Taiwan Camping 台灣露營

In the market, there are various types of fire starting tools available, from windproof lighters, waterproof matches, magnesium flint, fire steel etc. I like to share my views on which is the best fire kit to have in a survival kit.

在市場上有各種起火的工具，從防風打火機、防水火柴、打火石、鎂火石...等等。在此分享於急難求生時我認為最好的起火工具。

Wind Proof Lighters

These are the easiest and fastest way to start a fire, the set back is that it needs fuel to top up. In survival situation, this will prove to be useless in no time but definitely great for starting a fire during camping.

防風打火機是最簡單和最快速的起火方式，但需要填充瓦斯。在露營烤肉時是一個很方便的工具，但在急難求生時則非一個好的選擇，因為需要填充瓦斯。

Waterproof Matches

Matches was invented thousand years ago by the Chinese but early 16 century the first friction match came to everyone's home. This was my fire starting option when I built my first survival kit in early 80's. Today, I am taking this out from my survival kit.
一千年前中國人發明火柴，而在16世紀後漸漸的普遍使用。30年前當我準備第一個求生包時，火柴是我起火必備的工具，但如今有多種起火工具，我將火柴從我的求生包中剔除。

DIY waterproof matches 防水火柴

Magnesium Bar

Magnesium is a highly flammable metal. When shave into thin strip or powder, it burns brilliantly when in contact with spark but as a solid metal, it is very difficult to ignite. I have been using this Magnesium bar and it is not always successful unless you have a tinder furthermore it takes up space in the kit. This will be out of my survival kit. Few disadvantages using the Mag bar are the size and it cannot come in contact with salt water.
鎂是一種高度易燃金屬。當削成細條或粉末時是非常易燃的，但若為一個固體金屬則非常難以點燃。我一直在使用這鎂棒，但並不是每次起火都成功，除非有火種，此外它也佔用空間，重點是它不能與有鹽份的水接觸，會產生氫氣，具危險性，這也將從我的求生包中剔除。

Fire Steel

A Ferrocerium material which is used by Swedish FireSteel. In today's market the newer Chinese fire steel are made with higher Magnesium content. It produces fantastic sparks better than Swedish Fire Steel but many do not know that Magnesium will react with salt water when come in contact. For more info, here is the Wiki link.
瑞典打火棒是由Ferrocerium材料製成，鎂含量不高。由大陸出產的打火棒具有較高的鎂含量所以能產生較大的火花。有很多人不知道當鎂與鹽水接觸時會產生化學變化，欲了解更多信息，可連結維基。

Tinder

All these fire starting tool, you will still require some kind of tinder to light up a fire. There are many tinder options from natural tinder to chemical based tinder. Natural tinder is not easy to obtain unless you know where to look for and is not always easy to light up. Chemical based tinder can be petroleum, magnesium etc.
以上所說之起火工具，不論是哪一種都需要火種來起火。火種也有許多選擇，從天然火種到化學火種。天然火種較不容易取得，除非你知道在哪裡找，並且也不易點燃。化學火種可以用汽油、鎂...等

After many years of experience, I found the most suitable method for myself, the lightest, simplest and the best tinder is just an ordinary cotton bud. All you need is a short strokes on the Fire Steel and you get fire. Cotton with petroleum jelly coated burns longer, you can have them coated and store in a small Ziploc bag.
經過多年的實驗與經驗，我找到了最輕的、最簡單的、最好的火種--棉花棒上的棉球。棉球抹上一點凡士林再將打火棒靠近棉球即可點燃。經過塗抹凡士林的棉球會使燃燒的時間較長，且攜帶方便，只要將事先做好的凡士林小棉球放在密封袋即可。

To sum up, the best survival fire starting tool is a FireSteel and lots of cotton bud tinders which do not even take up space. I have decided to substitute waterproof matches for more cotton buds. As for now, I would have one EDC FireSteel and a Survival FireSteel in the Survival Kit. Those of you might asked why not use charred cloth, I would only say why waste the time making charred cloth when cotton is so easily prepared.