Thread by @RobbersonJon

If you’ve ever spent a night in the woods, especially in a waning moon, you know: without a fire it’s scary. Every bush is a bear. Every scraggly tree is the Big Bad Wolf from your Three Little Pigs Golden Book.

Here are 3 fire kits that fit in the watch pocket of your trousers

Kit 1 “It’s Never Failed” Kit

Craft bag:
•mini Bic (never needed a zip tie “safety”)
•book of damp resistant MRE matches
•tiny craft bag w/ enough Vaseline impregnated cotton to pinch off a peanut size, light it & build minimum 3-4 fires.

Kit 2 “The Sloppy Guy Who Knows What He’s Doing” Kit:

•old R/x bottle (13 year old label)
•2 feet of 1” gaff tape (fire extender)
•3 types of matches: green tip (regular conditions) red tip dipped in wax (fell in a river) UCO Storm (Katrina camping)
•Vaseline cotton tinder

Kit 3 “One Stop Shop on the Walmart Camping Aisle” Kit:
•Blaze orange H20 match safe
•2 types of matches: Coughlan’s waterproof & UCO Storm
•fat wood fire extender
•Vaseline impregnated tinder rolled in 2x layer of cling wrap
NOTE: a pea size of tinder is plenty for a fire

The lesson in this impromptu thread is the un-fancy kit in your pocket is 1000x more valuable than a “comprehensive fire kit” that contains $200 of gear & is so fail-safe a snowman could get a fire going with it. Fire piston? Flint & steel? Char cloth? All cool but unnecessary

There is no truer maxim than “2 is 1, 1 is none”

(Like breaking the can opener & feeding a family of 5 w/ the P-38 you’ve had since Operation Desert Shield 😬)

2 of my fire kits fit in a watch pocket

Or build a 2.5lb Maxpedition brick,make a youtube video & leave it in the car

Love you guys. Thanks for sharing these little how-to’s

It takes a few minutes to set up the pics etc, so sharing is greatly appreciated as it’s pretty much the only thing keeping my account alive here at 11:59 hour of twitter

Have a great day

END THREAD.