The name of my blog may seem counter-intuitive, but it's just a little catch phrase of mine. I only wish to learn more about the world around me and what it has to offer - from the simplest things that make me laugh and smile to the bigger things that stir up tears and emotions. Life is "bueno," you've just gotta find a reason to smile and not forget to create it for others you encounter.
Went ahead and made some fire starters today. The traditional wax + cotton ball fire starter has taken a spin and we're making wafers instead. :) I find these easier to store and use.
What you need:
wax paper - to keep a clean area and used as a place to dry the final product
cotton rounds
wax - I used an old candle and a crayon 'cause I wanted to color it
double boiler - I used my mess kit pot and the bottom portion of a soda can
tongs/tweezers - something to pull fish your fire starter out of the hot wax
popsicle stick (optional) - used to stir the wax during the melting process
knife (optional) - used to cut/shave the wax
I set everything up so that it's easy to access and maneuver. Here the wax is shaved and a piece of crayon is tossed in.
The melting process. :)
Dip your cotton rounds in. Let any excess wax drip back in.
Let dry. :)
The final product! To use, just break 'em open and fluff out the cotton. The fluff makes it easier for the sparks to catch. These are easily lit with matches, a lighter, or even a flint/fire steel.
**CAUTION**
Please take great safety measures when doing this project. Keep a fire extinguisher nearby (mine was to the left, outside the picture frame!). DO NOT douse water in a fire that is fueled with hot wax - an explosion can occur. DO NOT melt wax directly over a flame - please use the double boiler method. At a high enough temperature, wax can combust.
Couldn't sleep. So by all means, my mind is all over the place!
Ah. The beloved floppy disk. I was a 90's kid. I grew up with those HUGE, extremely floppy, floppy disks that went into the Apple computers at school where we played Word Munchers and Oregon Trail. Fast forward a couple of years, and we got zip disks, affordable CD burners, and then after that, the beloved flash drives/thumb drives that everyone has now - except that back then, the simple little 64mb ones cost $20.00 and change, at least! (I wonder if they ever had anything below a 64mb... I don't recall, but I do know that I still have a 128mb laying around. Actually, not laying around - I still use it for school; essays in MLA format do not take up that much space.)
This has been on my mind for quite some time now. Though I've never really questioned my contemporaries... Anyway. Technology has changed greatly over the years. But has anyone ever noticed that even though these methods of saving our computer files have changed, that little icon in the corner has not?
Go check. Your little "Save" or "Save As..." all around you still hold the same icon; the floppy disk. I've grown up with it and am just used to it. But the majority of the younger generation who grew up with flash drives and "clouds" have never heard of or even seen a floppy disk (trust me, I've asked). I'm not sure if they even pay attention to it, let alone inquire as to what that little icon is. They just seem to accept it for what it is; the picture that means "to save" and nothing more - it has no name to it. Just the "save icon" at best, I presume.
Will this little icon ever change? I couldn't think of any other icon to use in place of it should it go in that direction. A picture of a flash drive doesn't really make sense; we usually associate that with the USB icon. The new thing now is the "cloud." Would that ever catch on as an icon? Maybe add a smilie face to it; I like the ones from Super Mario. :)
That's it for that topic. On to the next!
So I've been playing with my firesteel a lot since it came. I've been looking into different tinders that I could keep in my SAR pack. The most popular homemade one seems to be the old cottonball + Vaseline trick. Seems great, but I'm not sure if I want petroleum jelly all over the place; even if kept in an airtight container. I fear that if I had a smidgen of that stuff on my hands, the sparks from my firesteel might burn me.
Then I read about the whole wax + cottonball trick. It seemed like a great idea. But I found a few things "wrong" with it. For one, if you engulf the thing in wax, then it'll be hard crack open, let alone fluff up, which means the sparks won't catch to create an ember. For another, we're using this as a firestarter, so having that much fuel on hand just seems to be a waste of wax.
I was watching this video on YouTube in which the guy (Craig) compared commercially available tinders (Tinder Quik, Wet Fire) to the cottonball + Vaseline.
My main focus was on the Tinder Quik and cottonball + Vaseline; the WetFire was of no interest to me. Basically, what I noticed was that he said that the Tinder Quik worked very similarly to the cottonball + Vaseline and that the Tinder Quik had a bit of a waxy feel to it. Upon watching the video further into the comparisons of the tinders under wet conditions, I saw that the cottonball + Vaseline fails under extreme wet environments whereas the Tinder Quik did alright under the same conditions so long as most of the water was wrung out. It seems that the waxy coating allowed it to withstand some water absorption and keep the innards dry enough that you could fluff it up.
With that said, I figured, why not combine the two ideas?
incorporate the Vaseline into the cottonball as normal and shape it a bit
dip it into melted wax to create a waterproof barrier
By doing so, in theory, we should be able to create a waterproof version of the cottonball + Vaseline that will still fluff up. Crack open the thin, waterproof wax shell and expose the fluffy Vaselined goodness inside. Plus, both the Vaseline and wax will serve as fuel; neither will go to waste.
In my mind, you can still condense the cottonball + Vaseline a bit before dipping into the wax, creating a smaller pellet. I hope to find a wax that will harden enough that I won't have to worry about it melting in the car or something (I keep my go-bag in the car). That would kinda suck if it melted and melded all of my pellets together while in the container. Not the biggest of issues, but something to think about.
I'll be trying this out in the morning after getting some cottonballs and will report back in a later post. :)
