If you're in a survival situation and it's windy outside, matches can be extremely unreliable,
and they certainly won't light a fire when they're wet. So in this project let's try
using a bit of backyard science, to take the trouble out of lighting your tinder. Because
with this special mix, the tinder, lights itself.
Let's begin this project with the soda cap container we made in a previous project. They're
lightweight, cheap to make, and amazingly useful, so look for how to build them in another
video. Now our matchless fire starter is about as simple as mixing two chemicals together.
Potassium permanganate, and a bit of glycerin. These items are sometimes found in survival
kits already because of their healing properties and water treatment abilities. But mix them
together, and it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. This purple product is sold
commercially as a rejuvenator for certain types of water filters, and I found mine in
the water treatment section of a pool supply store. Now it might look like a harmless black
sand, but it's actually a powerful oxidizer. This stuff can be poisonous and burn your
skin, so just make sure you're well aware of the risks before you try handling it.
Some people have used it for disinfecting water, making antiseptic
solutions, providing anti-fungal treatment for hands and feet, and making emergency signals
on snow. Now I loaded up one half of my container using a spoon and a funnel, and that seemed
to work pretty to prevent spills. Now let's screw the cap back on nice and tight, so the
powder is locked in securely where it should be kept safe and dry. Alright, now we can
add the glycerin to the other side. I found this bottle at a local super center, but they
can be found just as easily at drug, craft, and baking stores as well. Glycerin is typically
used as a moisturizer in creams and lotions, but it has some really cool uses for first
aid and survival situations as well. Some people have used it to relieve insect bites,
sunburns, chemical burns, and some even say it works as a mild mosquito and ant repellant.
You may have noticed I color coded the ends of my container with different caps, and that's
to help identify which chemicals are in which end. Since the container is made out of bottle
caps, it's completely water resistant, so everything stays dry, even if the container
gets completely submerged in water. Not only is it waterproof, and incredibly small, but
even when it's fully loaded, the whole thing weighs a mere 1 oz, or about 29 g. Chances
are, that's small and light enough to be added to any type of day pack, without making any
noticeable difference. Now let's go on a little trip to the mountains to see how this reacts
when we mix the 2 chemicals together. First we'll need to open the black side, because
that's the end with the potassium permanganate. Now since I was down by the river anyway,
I thought this might be a good time to experiment with disinfecting water. All it takes is a
very small pinch of potassium permanganate crystals in a liter of water to begin the
disinfecting process. You can see when the crystals hit the water, they turn a deep purple.
But if we put the lid on and mix it all around, the water should turn to a nice light pink.
The saying is, "as long as it's pink, it's probably ok to drink". Just make sure it's
not purple, and you should be alright. Ok, let's carefully pour the grains on a flat
surface, like a rock or piece of wood, and I'm using about half the container for this
demonstration. Now, it's a good idea to push a little indentation into the center of the
pile, so that when we pour the glycerin on top, it'll be held neatly in place, right
in the center. These next few seconds feel like nothing is happening, but make sure you've
got some dry leaves, twigs, and other lightweight kindling gathered up, because when this reaction
happens, it's going to happen fast. It can take anywhere up to a minute to notice anything
changing, but if you look closely now, you should start to see the glycerin soaking down
into the powder, and starting to smoke. Make sure you've got your dry leaves ready, because
the heat and smoke will continue to build rapidly, until the the pile spontaneously
bursts into flames. Let's go ahead and gently set our leaves and sticks overtop, and you
should be able to see how quickly the flames begin to build. Now if you've left a little
gap at the bottom for air to get in, your matchless survival fire should continue to
build quickly on it's own, without having to put in any extra effort. Congratulations,
you've just started a fire without matches, and now that you've got a healthy flame, why
don't you try making yourself a batch of char-cloth? This stuff is another must-have for emergency
fire starting, and is so sensitive to heat, you can easily start future fires with your
water bottle. So look for the video on how to make char-cloth, as well. Now whatever
you do, don't ever mix glycerin directly into the same compartment as the potassium permanganate.
I tried screwing the lid back on to seal out any oxygen, but the potassium permanganate
is still a strong enough oxidizer to start the reaction. And like any air-tight container
holding a rapidly expanding gas, it's eventually going to blow. So if you want to error on
the side of caution and avoid any unnecessary messes, feel free to store your ingredients
in completely separate containers. Well now you know how to take two very different, but
very useful emergency kit items, and mix them together to get an awesome synergistic benefit.
The matchless survival fire. If you liked this project perhaps you'll like some of my
others. Check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com