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Author Topic: Torch Striker?  (Read 1273 times)

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Offline pab1

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Torch Striker?
« on: March 21, 2009, 07:30:55 PM »
Anyone else see the article in this months Backwoodsman magazine about using a torch striker as a fire starter? I can't begin to guess how many times I've used one lighting torches and propane bottles, but it never occured to me to add one to my survival gear. I use everything else from a flint and steel to a fancy Swedish firesteel. I feel like I should give myself a good V8 juice smack on the forehead. It just goes to show how easy it is to overlook the obvious!
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Offline Lurker

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Re: Torch Striker?
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2009, 08:33:29 PM »
Do they produce an adequate spark to light a campfire, under abnormal conditions, as in windy and wet?

Bill
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Offline Badnews Bob

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Re: Torch Striker?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2009, 02:53:23 AM »
I tried it once, and they will do it but I thought it was diffacult to control where the spaks went, and I also think they are to bulky and hard to pack, most others are much more compact.

IMO thier are much better choices but one would certainly work. 8)
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Offline mannyrock

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Re: Torch Striker?
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2009, 05:49:59 AM »
Dear Guys,

  I'm sorry, but I don't understand.  Why focus on things like torch strikers and flint/steel, when a regular Bic lighter lasts more than five years of regular use and will easily start a fire in any weather with proper dry tinder?  Torch strikers contain small round flints, that wear out fairly quickly and have to be replaced.  And, how many dozen (or hundred) times are you going to have to flash that striker together to start a single fire?

     My survival gear contains Bic lighters, trioxane tablets (for starting a fire in pouring rain), and film cannisters with ultra dry tinder.   One thing about trioxane tabs, you don't have to use a full one to start a fire.  About 1/5th of a tab will easily do. I have even started fires with just the residual dust contained in the foil wrapping.   I also have Bic lighers in my box that are 20 years old and stilll work fine.  (Only about 10 percent of the butane has leaked or evaporated from the lighters.)

   Just my thoughts.

Regards,

Mannyrock
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Offline Almtnman

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Re: Torch Striker?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2009, 07:26:37 AM »
A very good item to keep in your survival gear for starting fires is a small bottle of alcohol based liquid hand cleaner that you can pick up at Wally-World for less than a buck. A few drops of it in a small depression and light it and it will burn for a while. If you don't like eating your food cold, it can also be used to heat it up with a small amount in that depression and just hold the can over it. I also keep a couple of Bic lighters in my pack all the time. As for dry tinder, it's hard to beat the bark off of a River Birch tree as it will burn when dry or wet.
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Offline pab1

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Re: Torch Striker?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2009, 07:15:08 PM »
Quote from: mannyrock on March 22, 2009, 05:49:59 AM
Dear Guys,

  I'm sorry, but I don't understand.  Why focus on things like torch strikers and flint/steel, when a regular Bic lighter lasts more than five years of regular use and will easily start a fire in any weather with proper dry tinder?  Torch strikers contain small round flints, that wear out fairly quickly and have to be replaced. 

The more options you know of and skills you excercise, the better off you will be. I want to be confident in my ability to start a fire with any method available to me before I'm thrown into an emergency situation. The torch striker may not be my first choice, but it will light a plain cottonball, or my favorite, cottonballs saturated in petroleum jelly, with just a couple of strikes. I carry lighters, matches and a Swedish Firesteel when I go out, along with a few film canisters packed with petroleum jelly covered cottonballs. I don't believe in putting all your eggs in one basket. Lighters can break, flints can wear out and you can be separated from your gear altogether. I always like to have a plan B and if possible a plan C, D, E, F, G...
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Offline Rex in OTZ

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Bic's and cold weather.
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2009, 04:10:32 PM »
Ive found out the hard way keeping a bic warm enough to light my favorite Thompson Cigar Company cheapy cigars lit they useally failed to light in cold weather(off gass sufficently) round here (North West Alaska) so if I took this one step further, if I had to rely on some fair weather lighter that at best worked where it was warm on a nice day its a shur bet if your life depended on that stinkin Bic wont light when you need it to, only lighter to carry is a Zippo. no fancy pressure butane jobs, Ive seen Bic's plain not light when it was -09f out thats a friggen heat wave in these parts and thats if the wind's not blowing which we have a annual average of 13 Mph.
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