Even if you're an expert hunter and have months of shelf-stable food reserves stockpiled for emergencies, it's important to supplement your diet with freshly-grown fruits and vegetables. Home gardening is a great way to produce spinach, peas, tomatoes, herbs, or berries right in your own backyard. These items can add an immense amount of flavor and nutrients to your meals, whether you're surviving the apocalypse or simply trying to make less trips to the grocery store.
Some people assume home gardening requires a large plot of land, complex irrigation system, and expensive equipment for tilling the fields, but it's nowhere near that difficult. In fact, one of the most effective methods for growing at home doesn't even require any soil. Hydroponics uses a water reservoir, suspended grow tray, and low-energy circulation pump to grow fruits and vegetables in a controlled environment. When paired with grow lights, it can even be done indoors or in a dark garage or shed.
Any time you're having a discussion about difficult choices, the desert island scenario is likely to come up. You know the one — If you were a castaway on a tiny island with a single movie to watch and no other forms of entertainment, which one would you pick? We're not really sure what remote island would have a big-screen TV, electricity, and a Blu-Ray player, but that's beside the point. The point is to think long and hard about your choice, because you'd have to live with it for a long time, maybe even forever.
“I only get to pick ONE movie?!” Photo: 20th Century Fox
This got us thinking: what if you really were trapped on a desert island, but instead of choosing a movie or music album, you had to choose your only survival tool? At first thought, that might sound like an easy choice — but hear us out and read the scenario below before jumping to conclusions. After reading the background info and additional resources, you'll be able to select either a knife with fire-starter or water desalinator in the poll at the end of this article.
Photo: Alessandro Caproni / Flickr
In case you’ve missed our previous installments of Survival Scenarios, here’s how it works. We ask you how you’d handle a difficult choice in a hypothetical survival situation. Previously, we asked if you'd rather be snowed-in or snowed-on in a fierce blizzard, or whether you'd bug out or stay put in a panicked stampede on New Year's Eve. As always, today’s post ends with a poll where you can make your choice, and see how others felt about the scenario.
Background Info
Before you decide what survival tool you'd prefer, we'll provide some essential background info. The setting is a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean, part of a remote coral atoll. The island is mostly barren, aside from scattered palm trees and salt-water-tolerant low-lying vegetation.
No fresh water source is present, and the entire land mass is less than half a square mile. The only animal life present on the island appears to be a handful of seabirds, a healthy population of rats, and whatever marine life you can find in the clear waters or on the beach. The good news is that the climate is above 80°F year-round unless a tropical storm rolls in (not an uncommon occurrence).
You ended up on this island while on a week-long sailing trip with your good friend Philippe, a wealthy retiree and experienced sailor. Three days into the trip, you spotted the island and decided to go ashore and enjoy some solid ground. Philippe said he'd stay behind and anchor the sailboat, so you hopped into the inflatable dinghy and paddled to the beach. After about 30 minutes of walking around, you pushed your way back through the vegetation to find the dinghy — but the sailboat wasn't where it had been. It had shrunk to almost a speck in the distance.
At this point, you have no idea what happened, or why your trusted friend would leave you behind. You can't believe it could be intentional, but you also can't think of any other explanation, aside from some sort of catastrophic medical issue that caused him to lose control of the boat. Knowing you couldn't possibly paddle far or fast enough to catch the boat, you stand on the beach and watch as it slowly disappears on the horizon.
You're not sure if anyone is coming to look for you — at least not any time soon. Your friends back home know you headed out with Philippe, but no one knows the exact route you took, and no one expects you back for at least a week. You could be stuck on this sandy beach for days, or much longer.
Gear and Resources
This situation completely blindsided you, so you've got virtually zero useful gear. On your person, you have nothing but the clothes on your back — cargo shorts, a T-shirt, a baseball cap, and canvas boat shoes. Your pockets are empty; all your emergency gear was on the sailboat. You recall some miscellaneous garbage washed up on the shore of the island, but nothing overly useful (no anthropomorphic volleyballs, either).
The dinghy appears empty aside from the paddles you used to get ashore and a tattered duffel bag with some dock rope. However, upon closer inspection, you see that the duffel bag contains one of the following two survival tools:
A small hand-pump reverse osmosis water desalinator
Either one of these tools would give you a major head start on surviving the unknown amount of time you'll be stuck on this island. Read on for some of the potential advantages and disadvantages of each choice.
Survival Knife & Ferro Rod
Technically this could be considered two tools, but it's fairly common to see survival knives packaged with a sheath and ferrocerium rod fire starter. You're lucky enough to have both.
As you probably already know, a sturdy fixed-blade knife is one of the most valuable survival tools money can buy. On the island, it'll permit you to chop wood for a campfire, carve simple traps to catch rats or birds, and even spear-fish in the surrounding waters.
If you choose, you can also use your knife to slice up the inflatable dinghy and scavenge its synthetic rubber skin to build a shelter or other tools (we'll get back to this). The ability to build a waterproof shelter will be especially important if a tropical storm hits the island, since you'd end up drenched and miserable without it.
The ferro rod will enable fire-starting with relative ease. Just strike the rod with your knife and shower a bundle of palm tree bark and other dry tinder with sparks to get a fire going. Considering the warm tropical weather, you probably won't need the fire for heat, but you can still use it to create a smoke signal for rescue or to cook any food you catch on land or in the sea.
The knife and fire-starter provide the ability to make almost everything you need easily — with the glaring exception of drinkable water. Since we know that drinking seawater is always a bad idea, and that boiling seawater will only increase its salinity, the only hope to get a drink is to catch rainwater or desalinate (remove the salt from) seawater. In order to desalinate seawater, you have a few options:
Scavenge the beach for a vessel to boil seawater in (via fire or hot rocks), and a second vessel to catch and condense the steam, forming a rudimentary distiller
Make a solar still using scavenged plastic or sheets of rubber cut from the dinghy
With the knife and ferro rod, finding drinkable water will be your biggest struggle, but not an insurmountable task if you're clever and patient.
Water Desalinator
On the other hand, you could choose the portable desalinator, and have no trouble finding water to stay hydrated.
An emergency device like the Katadyn Survivor 06 requires no batteries or fuel, and is operated with a manual pump to produce more than 6 gallons of drinkable water per day. These desalination devices pass seawater through a reverse-osmosis membrane, eliminating about 98% of the dissolved salts and rendering the water safe to drink.
With the desalinator, you wouldn't need to search for materials or build a still — you'd have a indefinite source of clean water as long as the pump remained operational. Katadyn doesn't list an exact lifespan for its Survivor 06 desalinator, but says it should have “many years of trouble-free operation” when used according to the instructions. Since clean water is one of the top priorities for survival, this is a huge advantage.
Unfortunately, by choosing the desalinator, you'll have no cutting tool and no quick source of fire. Chopping down trees to build a shelter will be tricky, although you could invert the dinghy and sleep underneath that. Any other cutting will need to be done with a sharpened rock or shell. Spear fishing and carving traps will become much harder.
As for fire-starting, you'll be back to primitive methods. You could try starting a friction fire or making a bow drill, but palm trees and tropical shrubs don't normally produce the hard and straight twigs that are conducive to these tasks. If you're unable to get a fire going, you run the risk of becoming ill from eating raw meat, and will be unable to send a clear smoke signal to passing vessels.
The Decision
Considering these advantages and disadvantages, which tool would you rather have for desert island survival: a knife with ferro rod fire-starter, or a hand-pump water desalinator? Enter your decision into the poll below, and feel free to justify that choice in the comments section.
Survival Scenarios is a recurring feature on OFFGRIDweb.com, and will ask you to make a difficult choice between two or more hypothetical situations.
We don’t just want you to read our posts silently—we want to hear what you have to say. Share your thoughts or suggestions in the comments below, or head over to our Facebook page.
The amazingly cheesy 1988 cult classic film They Liveproduced what is arguably one of the most memorable one-liners in all of movie history: “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass… and I'm all out of gum.” According to lead actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, the line wasn't even in the script — he ad-libbed it on set.
Piper's character had no problem kicking ass without any bubblegum, but there's scientific evidence to indicate that he might've had an even easier time with it. Believe it or not, several recent peer-reviewed studies have shown that chewing gum has a proven association with “higher productivity and fewer cognitive problems”. Even if you're not hunting down evil aliens, there's strong evidence to suggest that chewing gum can help you focus, relax, and accomplish more.
Whether you're bored at work or trying to cope with a chaotic survival situation, popping in a piece of chewing gum can give you a measurable advantage. Here are a few of the cognitive benefits of chewing gum, as mentioned in this study from the U.S. National Library of Medicine:
Enhanced alertness
Improved memory and reduced cognitive errors
Sustained attention span
Quickened reaction time
Reduced feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression
In addition to these psychological benefits, the American Dental Association states that chewing sugar-free gum can protect the teeth and reduce the risk of cavities. Scientific evidence also suggests that chewing gum significantly suppresses hunger, so if you're not able to stop for a snack, it's a good way to stay on task. The foil wrappers can also be combined with a AA battery and used as an improvised fire-starter.
Your empty gum wrappers can be re-purposed into a simple fire-starting tool.
Considering all these reasons, you might want to think about adding a pack of gum to your survival kit if you haven't already. If you find yourself in the backwoods without gum, check out our previous article about how to make natural spruce pitch chewing gum. Now go chew gum and kick ass.
Have you ever seen a semi truck carrying a large container, and wondered what was inside? Unless the box was plastered with bright colors, catchy slogans, or the logo of your favorite beer company, most of us simply tune them out and keep driving. The plain white 18-wheeler that you just passed could be packed floor-to-ceiling with industrial scrap or nuclear warheads, and you'd never know the difference without looking inside.
The inconspicuous nature of unmarked semi truck cargo boxes provides an interesting opportunity: what if that cargo container concealed your survival shelter and bug-out gear? Better yet, what if the container was your survival shelter? In the early stages of an emergency bug-out situation, driving around a high-end RV or motorhome will probably draw some unwanted attention, but an old semi truck hauling an ordinary-looking box might appear less conspicuous.
UK-based company Ten Fold Engineering has developed a quick-deploy mobile building design that travels on a standard semi truck. These Ten Fold structures self-deploy from the parked truck, expanding into spacious and versatile buildings without a need for builders, tools, or even a foundation.
The expansion process is fast, uses minimal power, and reveals storage spaces where furniture and gear can be carried in transit. The 689-square-foot (64-square-meter) prototype seen in the video above is said to open and close in 10 minutes using only a hand-held battery-powered drill. The Ten Fold Engineering site says, “Everything you see in the unit at the end of the film was already inside it at the start, with room to spare.”
These relocatable buildings are adaptable to a number of purposes, from emergency response centers to mobile homes. They can be equipped with solar panels, additional rooms, or can even be stacked and joined to create larger structures.
As you might expect, the Ten Fold Engineering structures come at a substantial price. The only pricing information on the company's site is the phrase “from £100,000” — that means the basic models start at around $130,000 for those of us across the pond. Still, it's an interesting concept, and one we could see becoming more widespread in the future as the cost of this technology diminishes.
As much as we swear by duct tape, zip ties, superglue, and epoxy for field-expedient repairs, there are some things these materials can't fix — at least not in a way we'd consider permanent. Cracks and splits in small gadgets (or your skin) can be patched with cyanoacrylate superglue, and larger breaks can be repaired with a two-part epoxy like JB Weld. We've even heard of broken engine blocks being fixed temporarily with epoxy. But if you're aiming to bond two metal parts properly, JB isn't gonna cut it. You need a real weld.
A quick application of stick welding can fix this broken trailer.
Welding is often associated with expensive machines, specialized fuels, and years or decades of training. However, you don't need to be a pro welder with high-dollar gear to apply a quick bead and join two metal parts. Stick welding (a.k.a. SMAW or shielded metal arc welding) is one of the easiest methods to learn, and it's relatively forgiving even if you're working with metal that's not exactly squeaky-clean, so it's ideal for emergency gear repairs.
Note: Welding can be extremely dangerous, especially if attempted without adequate protective gear. If you've never welded before, we recommend seeking out professional instruction at a local community college or trade school. Always take every safety precaution and only attempt these techniques at your own risk.
The other advantage to stick welding is that all you really need is electricity, a welding rod, and the appropriate protective gear. This means that it's possible to improvise a DIY battery-powered stick welder. The YouTube video below from Dennis Evers shows a way to make a welding setup with four discarded 5000 mAh industrial batteries, some 10-gauge copper stereo wire, standard wire connectors, and a dollar store metal spring clamp. The batteries are wired up in series (i.e. positive to negative) to deliver approximately 50 volts.
As Dennis says in the video, the DIY stick welder system isn't for building a ship or a precision aircraft, and it's probably not going to produce the prettiest welds (especially if you're a beginner). But it's a good resource if you ever need to make some quick repairs to motorcycle, reinforce the hinges on an old metal gate, or tack a bracket onto your truck's bumper. The same principles can be applied with two or more car or truck batteries and some jumper cables, if you don't have the luxury of smaller industrial batteries.
There's something revitalizing about a strong, steaming-hot cup of coffee. It warms you up, provides an instant energy boost, helps you stay alert, and improves morale… unless you're one of those heathens who prefers tea (just kidding, we like tea too). However, a good cup of coffee isn't easy to conjure out of thin air — if it were, you wouldn't see Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts on just about every corner. Brewing a great cup of coffee is practically an art form, especially when you're in the backcountry with limited gear.
While you may not be able to make a fancy cappuccino in the woods, a good cup of black coffee is doable.
If you're at home, making coffee is usually as easy as pouring some grounds and water into a drip machine and pressing a button. But that's not happening if you're carrying all your gear in a backpack. So, what's the best way to make coffee in the great outdoors? There are many techniques to consider, so we'll discuss a few and go over the pros and cons of each.
Instant Coffee
If you're heading out on a short trip but don't want to bother with additional gear or grounds, instant coffee is a viable option. These freeze-dried coffee crystals often come in single-serving pouches, have a long shelf life, and can be simply stirred into hot water. However, if you're a purist, you'll immediately know it's not the real deal.
Pros:
The easiest way to make a cup of coffee
Works just as well with cold water
No additional tools required
Cons:
Can be expensive if bought in travel-ready packaging
Doesn't taste like real coffee
Cowboy Coffee
This is about as simple as real coffee gets, but can be a little off-putting if you're not a die-hard mountain man.
All you do is heat some water, toss in some grounds, and wait a few minutes for the flavor to disperse. If you're really hardcore, you can drink straight from the pot and strain out the grounds with your teeth. Otherwise, we'd recommend pouring off the top layer into a mug, and disposing of the wet grounds at the bottom of your pot.
Pros:
Quick and easy
No additional tools required
You can think of the grounds floating in your cup as “flavor bits”
Cons:
Difficult to achieve consistent results
Loose coffee grounds stick in your teeth and can be unappealing
Steepable Coffee Bags
Photo: Cole Saladino / Thrillist
This method is one you can try at home. Just take a small scoop of coffee grounds, and pour it into a filter like you normally would. Then take some string or a strand from gutted 550 cord and tie off the opening of the filter, forming a coffee bag that you can steep in hot water like a tea bag. The amount of coffee and steeping time can be adjusted for water quantity and brew strength. Check out this tutorial from Thrillist for a step-by-step guide.
You may also be able to find single-use coffee bags at the grocery store. For example, Folgers Coffee Singles and Maxwell House Single-Serve bags.
Pros:
Convenient — just pull it out of your pack and drop it into a cup
Pre-measuring grounds can produce consistent strength
Lightweight
Cons:
You'll need one bag each time you brew coffee. This requires prep work before your trip.
Steeping time will require fine-tuning
Unless sealed in a plastic bag, the grounds can go stale over time
Drop-In Filters
Another lightweight option is a drop-in filter. This setup submerges a filter and grounds in your cup, and lets you steep the mixture before removing the filter.
Some drop-in filters are rigid plastic, such as the MSR MugMate, and can be used for either coffee or loose tea. You can also go with a simple washable cloth filter, which costs only a few dollars and weighs next to nothing. Either way, once cleaned, these filters can be re-used.
The MSR MugMate is an example of a reusable backpacking coffee filter.
Pros:
Inexpensive minimalist tool
Reusable — no need to carry multiple replacement filters
Lightweight
Cons:
Best for single-serving cups, rather than making a large pot
Must be cleaned between uses
Cloth filters can be difficult to clean thoroughly, and may pose a risk for mold growth if put away damp
Pour-Over
Now we're starting to get into the more complex systems, but this added complexity can bring added flavor. You also get to feel like a coffee hipster, since this technique has gained popularity in the home market thanks to systems like the Chemex.
Pour-over coffee involves a device which sits above your cup or pot, holds a filter, and channels water down through a small drip opening. By controlling the flow rate of the water into your cup, you'll get a much smoother and more consistent brew. For best results, pour-over requires a kettle or pot with a spout, so a steady stream of water can be poured onto the grounds — sloshing hot water onto your grounds isn't ideal.
The collapsible Snow Peak coffee drip folds up for easy storage.
Pros:
Water flows through the grounds in a controlled manner, producing great flavor and consistent strength
With proper technique, should taste identical to home-brewed coffee
Still relatively lightweight and inexpensive
Cons:
Requires separate filters (disposable paper or reusable cloth)
Requires more set-up time and patience than previous methods
For best results, water should be boiled in a kettle with a pour spout
Presses
A small Bodum brand French press. Photo: Starbucks
The most traditional press is a French press, which is a pitcher-style device with a central plunger. Brewing with a French press starts out like cowboy coffee, with grounds and hot water blended inside the pitcher, but the plunger forces the grounds to the bottom and strains your coffee for a much cleaner finish. Check out the infographic below from RoastyCoffee.com to understand the steps.
There's also the AeroPress, which which uses manual pressure to extract more flavor from your coffee grounds, and can be used to produce espresso-style coffee or ordinary coffee. Here's a video that demonstrates the AeroPress for those who haven't seen one in action:
While the debate between French press and AeroPress rages on among die-hard coffee enthusiasts, both share many of the same strengths and weaknesses.
Pros:
Excellent flavor and strength consistency
All-in-one device, most require no consumable filters (AeroPress requires small paper filters but can be fitted with a reusable metal filter)
Available in compact travel-size varieties
Cons:
Tougher to clean thoroughly than pour-over devices or simple filters
Heavier, bulkier, and more prone to breakage than previous methods
Percolators
Miniature percolators from Bialetti (left) and GSI Outdoors (right).
A percolator is a specialized pitcher which continually directs water up a central tube and spreads it across a layer of grounds, allowing it to drip back down to the bottom. Up until the development of the electronic drip coffee maker, most homes used these devices to make coffee.
Small and relatively-lightweight percolators are available, such as the Bialetti Moka Express, a design which has remained virtually unchanged for 80 years. Backpacking gear companies have also produced outdoor-oriented percolators, such as the GSI Outdoors Glacier Perc.
Anyone who has sat out on a porch or at a campsite during peak mosquito season knows how much of an annoyance the little blood-suckers can be. Constant fidgeting, swatting, and hand-waving to keep the mosquitoes from pestering you can turn a relaxing evening outdoors into a frustrating experience. It makes your skin crawl, leaves you itching for days, and can even lead to serious illnesses.
Mosquito repellents are an essential tool for keeping the bugs at bay, but each type has its drawbacks. Sprays are effective but also messy, smelly, and leave your skin greasy — they're great for day hikes but if you're sitting outside for an hour, they're not the best option. Citronella candles produce dubious results, and even a slight breeze will render them useless.
Butane-based repellents are effective, but also have a few downsides to consider.
Butane-based area repellents, such as the Thermacell lanterns we previously wrote about, also have their drawbacks. Butane eventually runs out, so you'll have to buy both butane cartridges and repellent refills, meaning you'll spend more money in the long-term. It's also affected by altitude, and can't be carried on airplanes.
The new Thermacell Radius runs on a rechargeable battery, and no longer requires butane cartridges.
Thermacell has announced the development of a new mosquito repellent system called the Thermacell Radius. The company calls this product “its most significant innovation since the launch of its very first butane powered repellent in 1999” because it has eliminated the need for butane — the Radius runs on a USB-rechargeable lithium ion battery. This battery activates and disperses metofluthrin repellent stored in a single liquid refill cartridge (good for up to 36 hours), and runs for up to 6 hours on a single charge.
The system is said to produce a continuous zone of protection that's ideal for a deck, patio, or campsite. There's also a built-in shut-off timer so it won't run all night if you forget to turn it off. Since there's no butane, it's great for air travel and use at higher altitudes, and you'll only need to replace one item when it runs out of repellent.
The Thermacell Radius has just been announced and will not be available until Spring 2018, at which time its MSRP will be $50. We'll be keeping an eye out for this new system, but in the mean time you can check out the complete product announcement PDF below or go to Thermacell.com for more info.
If you're interested in learning more about mosquito repellents, keep an eye out for our upcoming web feature from contributor Andy Schrader. He headed out into the bug-infested swamps of Florida to see how well these repellents work in the real world.
Whenever we've got some down time in the evenings, we enjoy watching YouTube videos from survivalists and bushcrafters. It's a great way to relax while also learning some valuable skills — the more time you spend observing and learning, the more likely you'll be to remember useful tips and techniques on your next outdoor adventure. It sure beats watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians or whatever vapid TV show happens to be on.
One YouTuber we follow is Joe Robinet, an outdoorsman from southern Ontario, Canada. Those of you who watched Alone season one on History may remember him from his brief appearance there. He tapped out after four days on the island, as a result of losing the only fire-starting tool he was allowed to bring (listen to his explanation of what happened). But don't discount Joe's survival skills because of this one mistake — he has many hours of informative content that shows he's the real deal.
A recent video series on Joe Robinet's channel documents an overnight camping trip from this spring. In the first video, he shows his basic overnight kit, and it's not what we'd consider a typical loadout. For example, he doesn't carry a fixed-blade survival knife, instead opting for an ax and a small Swiss Army Knife. He challenges himself by carrying only an ordinary book of matches for fire-starting, and his food supplies are minimal, so he'll rely on catching wild trout or crayfish and gathering wild mushrooms and edible fiddlehead ferns.
In the next two 44- and 51-minute videos, Joe tests out his gear and skills, and records the process. It's relaxing and informative — if you've got some time to spare, check them out below.
If you're into high-end knives and EDC gear, you've undoubtedly heard of Rick Hinderer. This Ohio-based knifemaker has been crafting blades since the mid-1980s, and his company makes several extremely popular folding knives, including the iconic Hinderer XM-18 (you can read our review here). These blades are made of top-shelf materials and come at a premium price — most sell for north of $400, and have strong residual value on the used market.
The latest addition to the company's production lineup is the Hinderer Maximus. Rick has designed several folding daggers over the years, and says this is the most refined version yet. We handled one of the first 20 production models at Blade Show 2017, and snapped some of the photos seen here.
The 3.5-inch dual-edged blade has a symmetrical design with finger guards on each side. This appearance may leave you scratching your head at first, since one (and only one) of the guards serves as a flipper lever to deploy the CPM 20CV stainless steel blade.
You'll also want to be extremely careful when closing the blade, since muscle memory may lead you to reach for the spine like you would on a single-edged folder. Hinderer's site puts it like so: “You can’t be an idiot with it or you can cut yourself. Just realize the other side is sharp and one-hand close it using the tab rather than the spine of the blade.”
The Maximus' handle is composed of lightweight titanium, with a frame lock mechanism and textured G10 scales. A reversible titanium pocket clip allows for tip-up left- or right-handed carry. Overall weight is 4 ounces, and MSRP is $425. For more info on the Hinderer Maximus dagger, go to RickHindererKnives.com.
Tinder is a subject that often comes up in the survival and bushcraft community — and no, we're not referring to the internet matchmaking app. That's not helping anyone survive, unless you're really desperate for a hookup. We're referring to the original analog tinder: combustible material. There's a wide range of tinder types to choose from, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Some tinder materials take a spark easily but fizzle quickly, while others burn longer but are harder to ignite. Cost, size, weight, water resistance, temperature sensitivity, and availability are also worthwhile considerations. Even then, an excellent tinder for arid desert environments may fail spectacularly in the wet rainforest or icy tundra. It's important to consider all these variables when you're assembling a fire-starting kit for your bug-out bag or survival pack.
Even oily Fritos corn chips can be used as an effective tinder material.
Off-the-shelf tinder materials, such as the resin-soaked fatwood sticks found at your local camping store, often boast long burn times. But how do they fare in the real world? The following video from YouTube channel TinMan Bushcraft compares four commonly-available tinder materials: untreated cotton from a tampon, a petroleum-jelly-coated cotton ball, a strip of natural birch bark, and fatwood.
For those who can't watch the whole video at the moment, here's a recap of the burn times:
Untreated cotton tampon – 1:03
Petroleum-jelly-coated cotton ball – 2:10
Shredded birch bark – 1:38
Fatwood shavings – 1:40
It also appears as though the Vaseline-soaked cotton burned most energetically, followed somewhat surprisingly by the birch bark, then the fatwood, and finally the cotton. While the petroleum-jelly-coated cotton looks great on paper, it's also not a naturally-occurring item you can find in the forest, and it requires a bag, bottle, or tin to prevent the Vaseline from getting all over your gear. The reviewer says he prefers the birch bark for these reasons.
We'd like to see this format applied to an even bigger comparison test, including off-the-shelf tinder blocks, ranger bands, cattails, char cloth, and other common tinder sources, but for now this provides a good baseline. What's your favorite tinder material? Let us know in the comments.
