fire Archives | Tennessee Gun

31 Mar 2016

Gates of Fire

Gates of Fire is a national bestseller!

At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army.

Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces.

Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history–one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale….

The gates of fire is a book worth reading. If possible it is also worth hearing the spoken version of the text.

The story of the 300 Spartans has captured the hearts of Warriors throughout the ages. What a few men can do when they have the courage and will to dare is unimaginable.

It was because of these 300 men that Greece was not conquered by Persia. Imagine if Greece was not free but part of Iran. How would that have impacted the Iran/Iraq war? Our modern life? The impacts of this battle are immeasurable.

18 Jan 2016

Camping: How to Start a Fire With a Battery

Being a DIY Prepper involves learning multi-disciplines, and while I believe living off the land in a wilderness setting is a unrealistic TEOTWAWKI plan, I still think everyone should have basic wilderness survival skill. One outdoor skill everyone should possess is the ability to make fire. This is one skill that redundancy is especially useful. Today we are going to show how to use steel wool to show how to light a fire with a battery. Once the basics are understood this process is repeatable with almost an unlimited variety of batteries. Theoretically, it can even be done remote controlled.

All you need to do is to take a piece of fine steel wool – the finer the better (I use 0000 grade), pull it apart a little to separate a few threads. Then to light it, take the steel wool threads and short circuit a battery by connecting the wool to both battery terminals. Be careful because the steel will immediately turn red hot. Blow on it a little and it will burst into flame. You can make it even more effective by mixing in a little dryer lint.

Once you have done it with a 9 volt battery and see how easy it is, you can take the back off a flashlight, turn it on and use the battery and the metal flashlight case to do the same thing. As you can see from the video you can even do it with a cell phone battery.

How does it work?

The basic principle is that there is more electrical current that wants to flowing through the fibers, than the fibers can handle – the resistance to the current causes the wool to get hot. If the steel wool is not fine enough, the electricity will just flow through it. This will drain your battery without giving you the heat. If this is the case, increase the current.

Another factor is the total voltage that is applied to the strands. The higher the voltage, the hotter the wires will get. (The relationship between current and voltage is linear – double the voltage, to get twice the current.) This means, the more cells that you run in “series” the hotter the wires will get.

3 Dec 2015

How to Use Potassium Permanganate Fire Starter

Using Potassium Permanganate Fire Starter is a common topic for prepper and survival website. It is commonly found in lists of things you should always keep in your first aid kits.

Potassium Permanganate or KMnO₄ is a strong oxidizer and when mixed with certain materials it will spontaneously ignite. It will also kill bacteria and organisms in water.

Most commonly it is mixed with glycerine to burn. I mostly use it to light my thermite.

I don’t think it is as effective as a prepper tool because the reaction is dependent on the ambient temperature. If it is too cold it won’t work. This video was in my cool basement and you saw the delayed reaction.

I also think that space taken up by a one time chemical would be better suited to a lighter, a pack of matches, flint and steel, a feocioum rod, or a fire piston. Any of these take up less space and give more fires per size.

However, if you just think this is cool and you want to carry it for the mall ninja effect, I say go for it. I am not hating on you, just carry a backup tool just in case.

3 Apr 2014

How to Make Camp Fire Baked Potatoes in a Can

Recipe: Camp Fire Baked Potatoes — Buy at Amazon

Here is a great recipe/technique for Camp Fire baked potatoes that would work well for camping, grilling out, or making food in a grid down SHTF scenario

To bake a potato in a can simply:

Remove the entire top of a soda can. (Using you P-38 can opener gets extra points)
Smear the whole potato with butter or oil (and any other seasoning you like).
Insert the raw potato into the soda can
Cover top with aluminum foil and place the can onto the hot coals of your campfire.

The Potatoes bake in the can just as they would in the oven.

This is a great campfire recipe – especially for kids. It is easy and takes no effort at all. I find my boy is more likely to try new foods if he was excited about cooking them. I did say more likely though, he will get out of bed just to crack and egg, but I can’t get him to put one in his mouth for all the sweets in the world.

He will, however, do this. Maybe its the excitement of cooking on a fire like a mountain man? I don’t know, but I do know that done right so the potato gets crispy but not burnt this is one awesome tater in a can.

3 Apr 2014

How to Estimate Campfire Temperature: The Hand Test

This is camp cooking temp that tip is handy to know.

If you have ever tried to manipulated something in a campfire fire, you know that the hotter the fire the less time you can stand to have your hands near it.

This means that you can learn to judge the temperature of a fire by knowing how much heat a common person can stand.

Please use some common sense with this.

If you cautiously hold your hand, palm side down, over the fire at cooking height and count the number of seconds you can hold that position and you will have an indicator of how hot the fire temperature is.

Camp Fire Temperature Estimation Times:

5 seconds = low
4 seconds = medium
3 seconds = medium-high
2 seconds = high

This is an awesome prepper skill to have, it works great with outdoor baking as well as other cooking skills.

I have used it to cook steak over coals for a really impressive and testosterone fueled dinner. This skill really separates the woodsmen from the campers.

Until you do this enough to memorize, I would laminate an index card with the chart below and stick in somewhere with your camping/bugout equipment

Tag Archives: fire