I watched a video about a month ago made by a man who was basically an outdoor enthusiast. I don't remember his name, unfortunately, because he had a great video on a survival pack. One of the things that stuck with me was that he carried a plastic bag of dryer lint with him for tinder in an emergency. Most of us have access to tons of dryer lint in our own homes. So why not save some?
I did laundry today and in the midst of the chore I collected a large amount of lint for my bug out bag. The plastic bag I filled up takes up very little space and weighs next to nothing. After filling a plastic Ziploc bag I forced as much air out as possible and zipped up the bag. It's now in my bug out bag next to my other fire starting materials.
Starting a fire is something that can be fun when practiced safely. So I just had to take a small amount of lint outside to try out this method of fire starting with my magnesium fire starter. I laid a ball of lint in a safe place with no chance of spreading fire and shaved off some magnesium onto the lint and scraped the starter with my knife. After a few strikes the lint went up in flames. I was surprised by how fast the entire lint ball ignited. It's easy to see why lint makes great tinder.
On the other hand, it burned so fast that you'd have to be quick about using it. The second time I tried it with a ball of lint I'd compacted a bit, which caused it to burn much slower. And a small Ziploc bag is only going to carry enough for a few fires. So this is obviously not the method of fire starting to put all your money on. I'll continue to fill my bag with dryer lint, but I'll be keeping my other fire starting tools in my BOB.
