Ever since the first people made fire by striking rocks or rubbing two sticks together, fire has been a constant in the lives of humans. It's usually the most important thing a person needs in a survival scenario — if they hope to make it out alive. And there's a bevy of fire-starting products on the market that will help you strike-up a flame, even under cold or wet conditions. However, many of these products are quite expensive, and many are bulkier than we would like for a simple survival kit where we like to keep things light and simple. Well, it turns out, there are options for starting a fire that you probably never thought about that are also cheap and lightweight.
In today's video WayPoint Survival shows just how easy it is to stoke a fire when using hemp string or a guitar pick. Yes, a guitar pick. Not many people realize this musician's tool is highly-flammable and burns hot and fast. The video shows how to start a fire using a lighter and a standard store-bought fire starter.
The reason guitar picks are such a great fire starter, is because they are made from celluloid. This material is technically a type of plastic developed for dressing wounds and as an emulsion in early photographic plates. The material contains a highly-flammable compound called nitrocellulose. As a result, it makes for an incredible fire-starting material. What's even better is that guitar picks are insanely cheap. You can get a dozen or more for less than $10.
The picks are also light and small enough to be packed-away in a preexisting first-aid kit or survival kit. You could also do as WayPoint Survival did, taping them directly to a lighter so they are always available if you need one. This is such a simple camping hack, but it could be one that could save your life one day. We're likely going to add a few guitar picks to all our outdoor gear bags here soon. You just never know when you might need it.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram For original videos, check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
