Fresnel Lens in addition to flint/steel

joseph97297 · #1 12/09/08, 04:39 AM

Was out experimenting** with the Fresnel lens the other day and wife mentioned that during sunny weather, could easily use it instead of matches/flint/etc to preserve your supply of those items.

Anybody see why this wouldn't work? Keep a few around and careful, should last a long time, thus saving your fire starting supplies for inclement weather or night use....help stretch out your preps....

got a nice flame with about 20 seconds of focusing.....took longer cause I wanted to see if I could focus it with out the goggles on, since it is bright and eyesight is priceless.......

so is it a viable option or just goofy?

**(experimenting-----another term for goofing off during free time)

stranger · #2 12/09/08, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joseph97297

Was out experimenting** with the Fresnel lens the other day and wife mentioned that during sunny weather, could easily use it instead of matches/flint/etc to preserve your supply of those items.

Anybody see why this wouldn't work? Keep a few around and careful, should last a long time, thus saving your fire starting supplies for inclement weather or night use....help stretch out your preps....

got a nice flame with about 20 seconds of focusing.....took longer cause I wanted to see if I could focus it with out the goggles on, since it is bright and eyesight is priceless.......

so is it a viable option or just goofy?

**(experimenting-----another term for goofing off during free time)

you could keep any cheap magnifying glass around to start fires. but be sure to keep them in a case. we had a freak accident yrs ago, my GD used a glass to read fine print and he laid it on a couch arm while dozing off, the sun must have been just right as the glass started the couch arm to start smouldering.

WayneR · #3 12/09/08, 08:05 AM

Fire pistons are another option,that does not require sunlight.

As an aside, if you can rescue a fresnel lens from a big screen projection TV , the large lens is capable of melting metals like lead and zinc. With the use of firebricks and a crucible, it should be possible to melt aluminum.

Smaller versions of these lenses were once used to enlarge TV pictures in past decades as large picture tube sets were quite expensive.

hunter63 · #4 12/09/08, 10:23 AM

This is a tinder box for flint /steel, tender/char cloth, with burning lens:
Lots of good stuff at this site:
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(gg1...um=TOBAC-BOX-B

radiofish · #5 12/09/08, 10:59 AM

Didn't you ever play with a magnifying glass as a kid in the summertime, burning things/ insects????

Prescription eyewear (glasses) will accomplish the same thing on a sunny day... Just focus the light in order to obtain combustion.

joseph97297 · #6 12/09/08, 11:28 AM

oh yeah, burned up my fair share of ants and lit fire crackers....but this thing is huge, got some smaller sheet sized as well, but it is approx 38x44 and oooohhhweeee, it is hot......

ain't no magnifying glass like this, at least none that I had.....

wasn't figuring on using the big one, got it off Craiglsist for free, but the smaller sheet sized ones do just as well....

hunter63 · #7 12/09/08, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WayneR

Fire pistons are another option,that does not require sunlight.

I guess I always wondered how these work. They keep getting brought up every thime there is a "fire starting" discussion.

Do you have one?
Does it work in wet conditions?
How big of a ember do you get?

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(jxb...PISTON-FIRE-CB

gideonprime · #8 12/09/08, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunter63

I guess I always wondered how these work. They keep getting brought up every thime there is a "fire starting" discussion.

Do you have one?
Does it work in wet conditions?
How big of a ember do you get?

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(jxb...PISTON-FIRE-CB

Saw survivor man use one. It apparently works on friction.

He put a piece of punky wood into the end slammed it down and viola ember.

I had never heard of one until then.

I would think as long as you can keep the unit dry and have dry tinder you should be good to go with one of these, though I have never used one myself. Just from what I observed of conditions when it was used.

hunter63 · #9 12/09/08, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gideonprime

Saw survivor man use one. It apparently works on friction.

He put a piece of punky wood into the end slammed it down and viola ember.

I had never heard of one until then.

I would think as long as you can keep the unit dry and have dry tinder you should be good to go with one of these, though I have never used one myself. Just from what I observed of conditions when it was used.

Actually it works on "compression" of the air column.

I guess I asked the question improperly.
It should have been, "How do they work in "practice"?
I haven't used one, just curious.

Haggis · #10 12/09/08, 02:14 PM

There is a bunch of fire piston clips on youtube, this fellow is using "charcloth" but tinder fungus would be a better choice under "live" conditions.

Jim-mi · #11 12/09/08, 11:12 PM

I've got a F lens from a large stage light . . at least 12" in diameter..........
gotta dig it out and play.

bowdonkey · #12 12/10/08, 06:40 AM

Learn to use the bowdrill. Experiment with all the common woods and plant stalks in your area. Some of the material works better when decayed slightly. I have a knife with the socket built into the handle, but you should be able to indentify emergency ones. You'll need cordage of some type. John McPherson has a book on primitive skills that explains this quite well and Mors Kochanski's book deals with this subject in a northern climate better than anybody.

Elizabeth · #13 12/10/08, 04:41 PM

You could use a mirror, too.

I had a gig once looking after a very large mirror ball for a rock band. REALLY large- it took a semi and a half to haul the thing around. I had twelve stagehands to help put it up and take it down. It was a lot of work- took us around 8 hours to put it up, and I needed every hand working constantly, no room for slackers.

Well, I learned early on how to tell the slackers from the workers. Quite simply, if any of the guys stood in one place to long, his clothes would catch on fire. Literally, lol. We were doing outdoor shows and the sun would reflect off the mirrors and start their clothes on fire. Of course, I'd always warn them at the beginning of the load ins, but no one believed me till they saw the smoke, lol. My rule was that if their clothes caught fire, I'd fire them- I sent a few hands off to pull 4/0 across the stadiums, with holes in their clothes, lol.

texican · #14 12/10/08, 07:30 PM

I've used my 35mm camera lenses to start fires... have a few extra 'dead' lenses, that I also use as 'microscopes'... very handy for removing splinters and whatnot...

Haggis · #15 12/11/08, 07:41 AM

When I was a much younger fellow I delighted in spending my days alone in the bens and glens about our cottage, where I eventually took an interest in the days of the American Mountain Men. This of course led to reading copiously of the period, and led to the discovery of a great many simple tricks for survival much overlooked by lay recreationists. One such "trick" was mentioned in the text of "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville", by I believe Washington Irving. As I understand it, Bonneville kept a journal of sorts, and Irving used the journal to write his book.

Long way 'round here and if you haven’t yet nodded off, here is the tale of it; Bonneville was at one point being besieged by a group of aborigines in want of gun powder, but, wrote Bonneville, he couldn’t give them powder, black powder in the days of yore, because he had barely ample “to start his fires”.

This wee bit of knowledge set me thinking that I could start a fire by pouring a small amount of powder on a bit of dry tinder (tinder fungus or char-cloth are best, but even dried leaves, dried grass, small twigs will work with powder) and with the flintlock of my fusil strike a spark to ignite it. If one has powder, one has fire: the edge of a carbon steel knife will spark when struck with a flint, as will the barrel of most guns, or steel traps. I’ve often read of folk loading their caplock rifles with nothing but powder and wadding, fire the wadding into the air, quickly catch it up, watch for a spark, and blow it into enough of a coal to ignite tinder, but I’ve never had luck with it.

hunter63 · #16 12/11/08, 09:25 AM

Haggis, next time you try it, make sure the wadding is greased up good.
I've done it, but just used the primer and a greased patch.

In warm weather, I use lard ( not Crisco, real lard) as a patch grease, and smoldering patches after firing are common..
Commercial lubes don't seem to do that.

Pulling a bullet of a modern cartridge, firing the primer in to the powder also works, here again, put the powder into a greased piece of cloth, like a cleaning patch, fire the primer into it under your tinder bundle.

Be prepared to have the powder fly all over the place, though. Kinda messy, but works.

Blu3duk · #17 12/11/08, 07:40 PM

the 38x44 fresnel lens can be used to melt copper and a whole lot more, i understand they can get hot enough to melt platinum but i do not have one that large to play with..... not something i would reccomend to have around the house as kids will be kids and most adults qualify!..... okokokokok at least i qualify as willing to try to melt platinum, gold, silver and any other metal that might warrant refining.....

William

Ohio Rusty · #18 12/11/08, 08:23 PM

Fresnel lenses are great !! Where I work they are always putting new ones in the overhead projectors for the schools. There is nothing wrong with the old ones !! I think I have gotten 7 or 8 big fresnel lenses in the last month that were being tossed into the dumpster... 16 by 16 inches in size. The power of one of those to start a fire is amazing. I've melted lead with a fresnel lens. That means I can make bullets without a fire. Anything the beam touches seems to almost instantly burst into flames. I also picked up a couple of pocket sized fresnel lenses they were giving away at the fair for people who have trouble reading. If you find a fresnel lens, be sure to try it. There are two different types of lenses .... Divergent and Convergent. The convergent type is the one that makes fire as the beam 'converges' into a tight hot spot.
They are great for survival purposes, and being lightweight they can be easily packed into any car or BOB.
Ohio Rusty ><>

Haggis · #19 12/12/08, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunter63

Haggis, next time you try it, make sure the wadding is greased up good.
I've done it, but just used the primer and a greased patch.

In warm weather, I use lard ( not Crisco, real lard) as a patch grease, and smoldering patches after firing are common..
Commercial lubes don't seem to do that.

Pulling a bullet of a modern cartridge, firing the primer in to the powder also works, here again, put the powder into a greased piece of cloth, like a cleaning patch, fire the primer into it under your tinder bundle.

Be prepared to have the powder fly all over the place, though. Kinda messy, but works.

Thanks you kindly, I can see my trouble now as I've never used any but a "spit patch"; a round ball and a tight moist cloth patch.

Herself has ever and always laughed at my walking about and shooting targets, or in the squirrel woods, with a long strip of pillow ticking hanging from my mouth (readying my patch for the next shoot). The only way I've tried to catch a spark with a caplock was a dry patch over a bit of powder, and fired it into the air.

gideonprime · #20 12/12/08, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunter63

Actually it works on "compression" of the air column.

I guess I asked the question improperly.
It should have been, "How do they work in "practice"?
I haven't used one, just curious.

Yeah. You are right I totally messed that up it is compression not friction. Where was my brain?