Petroleum Jelly, because of its hydrocarbon content, is highly flammable when it reaches its melting point (which is about the temperature of the human body.)
By mixing the jelly with cotton balls, the dry cotton fibers serve as a flammable accelerator to melt the jelly, produce the flammable fumes and ultimately light you tinder pile – that is also why it is critical that you not saturate the cotton balls – if there is no dry fiber, it will ignite very slowly, if at all.
This simple but amazing technique for coating cotton balls for use to start a fire is easy to do and does not leave a mess.
Remember, though, to not saturate the cotton balls with Petroleum Jelly – no dry fibers means no melting of the jelly, which means no flammable fumes.
Do you have ideas on how to create simple fire starters?
If so, leave a comment below.
I have some of these made up and in my fire kit
Survival fire starter, small compact fits almost anywhere good for starting about 300 fires give or take
What are you going to light when all of your wood is wet
Wet wood doesn’t burn you have to dig deeper and use dry, after my 9 months on the AT I discovered this to be the best fire starter
Good old bic, my personal favorite.
Stephanie Holmes Watkins Charles Neil Prestwood
Cotton balls and petroleum jelly best by far!
Even better use the cotton makeup rounds. They are denser and flat. Melt some petroleum jelly in a bowl in the microwave drop some rounds in for a few seconds to absorb some take out and place on 3×3 in squares of aluminum foil. Fold up and u have a self contained fire starter pack. Pull the cotton apart to fluff and there you go
Unless the Bic gets wet or dirt inside
I been using this for over 15 years