small trivia item fire-starting.

[BFMIN]

If you have magnesium wire/ribbon as part of your fire-starting kit & one of those electric plasma arc lighters, they don't play well together!
The arc lighters are great & solar rechargeable via USB so ever lasting (more or less).
But the plasma arc shorts when magnesium is introduced as it will be to light it.

 

[Troublesbrewin]

The arc may not be hot enough to ignite the magnesium, I believe it requires a white hot spark, like the flint which comes with the Harbor Freight firestarters.

Youtube says - I am wr……wro…….incorrect.

 

[Boats]

If you have magnesium wire/ribbon as part of your fire-starting kit & one of those electric plasma arc lighters, they don't play well together!
The arc lighters are great & solar rechargeable via USB so ever lasting (more or less).
But the plasma arc shorts when magnesium is introduced as it will be to light it.

So, what you're saying, is that when you introduce a conductive metal into the arc of and electrical circuit, it shorts out?

Shocking.

 

[BFMIN]

I actually got it to light with a pinch of cotton wool & a drop of alcohol. That lit from the arc & the mag ribbon I just laid my short test piece on top of it.
I do scrape oxide off if its formed heavily, that is a big help.

Not quite, the arc jumps to the conductive metal which then passes it to the other electrode, but the actual arc isn't heating the metal.

 

[smokey]

I don't understand why you'd need the magnesium if you have the lighter. You should just be good to go starting a fire with the lighter. I have one of the arc lighter things. They're pretty awesome at catching things. Although, some suck at reaching in to a nest, so you have to basically light a twig and then use that twig as a match to reach in to tighter spots.

Ditch the magnesium and just use the lighter... to light things.

 

[smokey]

I actually got it to light with a pinch of cotton wool & a drop of alcohol. That lit from the arc & the mag ribbon I just laid my short test piece on top of it.
I do scrape oxide off if its formed heavily, that is a big help.

Not quite, the arc jumps to the conductive metal which then passes it to the other electrode, but the actual arc isn't heating the metal.

Ohms law is a thing. The current also doesn't ignite the copper wires it travels along before jumping in an arc.

 

[BFMIN]

Wet wood. Mag wire will make anything burn.
I was just dong some experimenting with various lighting kindling & so on.
In reality I would do just that.

 

[smokey]

Coalcracker has some great videos for this kindve stuff. Maybe gorilla tape might do the trick.

 

[BFMIN]

The simple truth is that with a scoche of imagination you ca get just about anything to burn.