Cool and Interesting

The trade fair was enormous and I made some wonderful new acquaintances, some of them quite unexpected.

There were also some interesting follow-up consequences.

One stand I particularly liked was https://ispomunich2025.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/light-my-fire/ where the founder herself, Calill, demonstrated how to light a fire with a magnesium fire steel and fatwood stick shavings.

A couple of days later I found myself in the Transa store in St. Gallen, where they had various fire-lighting options available, as well as a metal board on which to try them out.

I got into a discussion with the manager, Fabian, about whether carrying a piece of South American fatwood up the mountain and shaving it with another knife was the most efficient option. I hadn’t found it to be that combustable and didn’t see myself using this method when tired on a cold windy evening.

Fabian suggested using cotton wool dipped in vaseline as a good way to get enough of a flame to light Esbit cubes. So I just bought the Light My Fire firesteel and when I was home again, I did a set of experiments.

Three samples: cotton wool with wax, cotton wool with vaseline, plain cotton wool

Plain cotton wool lit right away and was burnt up in less than a second so that would probably not be enough to light the Esbit cube.

Cotton wool drenched in vaseline didn’t light easily, but it did with a bit of plain cotton wool on top. It burned well and for more than a minute so that would work, but you do get your fingers all greasy.

Plain cotton wool burned but didn’t ignite the waxy cotton wool underneath.

Surprisingly, cotton wool on top of a candle stubb lit up really well with a single spark of magnesium!

Since we want to reduce the number of individual items we’re carrying, reduce the preparation time and avoid greasy hands, I would try to pack a very small drop of vaseline inside the cotton wool or create very small candle stubbs with a bit of cotton wool on top.

Another option would be to scrape some shavings off the Esbit cube and put some cotton wool on top. Could that be done with the steel scrapy part of the Firesteel so an additional knife would not be needed?

The whole point is to have an Esbit cube lighting method that doesn’t depend on lighters (which burn fingers and run out of gas or break at the wrong moment) or depend on individual matches that you have to replenish every time and make me worry about running out. A big ball of cotton wool would last for a long time, weighs nothing, and paired with the firesteel would be a reliable solution.

Stay tuned!