Wasted 4 hours trying to start a damp campfire before I realized my firestarter was worthless

Brought a brand new bag of those wax coated wood shavings from REI to Sutter Creek and after 45 minutes of puffing and coaxing I got nothing but smoke, finally gave up and used a balled up receipt and some dry pine needles from under a log which lit in 30 seconds flat, anybody else find that most of those fancy fire starters are just overpriced junk?

2 comments

2 Comments

rileygarcia8d ago

Bought one of those magnesium fire starters from a surplus store and spent an hour scraping off half the bar before I got a tiny spark that died instantly. Ended up using a plastic lighter I found in my glovebox that worked fine. Honestly feel like half the camping gear industry is just selling us stuff we dont need for problems that dont exist.

lewis.mila8d ago

Nah @rileygarcia, practice matters but those things are legit for emergencies.