if you're in a survival situation and it'swindy outside, matches can be extremely unreliable, and they certainly won't light a fire whenthey're wet. so in this project let's try using a bit of backyard science, to take thetrouble out of lighting your tinder. because with this special mix, the tinder, lightsitself. let's begin this project with the soda capcontainer we made in a previous project. they're lightweight, cheap to make, and amazinglyuseful, so look for how to build them in another video. now our matchless fire starter is aboutas 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 propertiesand water treatment abilities. but mix them
together, and it opens up a whole new worldof possibilities. this purple product is sold commercially as a rejuvenator for certaintypes of water filters, and i found mine in the water treatment section of a pool supplystore. 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 awareof the risks before you try handling it. some people have used it for disinfecting water, making antiseptic solutions, providing anti-fungal treatmentfor hands and feet, and making emergency signals on snow. now i loaded up one half of my containerusing a spoon and a funnel, and that seemed to work pretty to prevent spills. now let'sscrew the cap back on nice and tight, so the
powder is locked in securely where it shouldbe kept safe and dry. alright, now we can add the glycerin to the other side. i foundthis 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. somepeople 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 endsof my container with different caps, and that's to help identify which chemicals are in whichend. since the container is made out of bottle caps, it's completely water resistant, soeverything stays dry, even if the container
gets completely submerged in water. not onlyis it waterproof, and incredibly small, but even when it's fully loaded, the whole thingweighs a mere 1 oz, or about 29 g. chances are, that's small and light enough to be addedto any type of day pack, without making any noticeable difference. now let's go on a littletrip to the mountains to see how this reacts when we mix the 2 chemicals together. firstwe'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 experimentwith disinfecting water. all it takes is a very small pinch of potassium permanganatecrystals in a liter of water to begin the disinfecting process. you can see when thecrystals 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'sprobably 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, andi'm using about half the container for this demonstration. now, it's a good idea to pusha little indentation into the center of the pile, so that when we pour the glycerin ontop, it'll be held neatly in place, right in the center. these next few seconds feellike nothing is happening, but make sure you've got some dry leaves, twigs, and other lightweightkindling gathered up, because when this reaction happens, it's going to happen fast. it cantake anywhere up to a minute to notice anything
changing, but if you look closely now, youshould start to see the glycerin soaking down into the powder, and starting to smoke. makesure you've got your dry leaves ready, because the heat and smoke will continue to buildrapidly, until the the pile spontaneously bursts into flames. let's go ahead and gentlyset our leaves and sticks overtop, and you should be able to see how quickly the flamesbegin to build. now if you've left a little gap at the bottom for air to get in, yourmatchless survival fire should continue to build quickly on it's own, without havingto 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 howto make char-cloth, as well. now whatever you do, don't ever mix glycerin directly intothe same compartment as the potassium permanganate. i tried screwing the lid back on to seal outany oxygen, but the potassium permanganate is still a strong enough oxidizer to startthe reaction. and like any air-tight container holding a rapidly expanding gas, it's eventuallygoing to blow. so if you want to error on the side of caution and avoid any unnecessarymesses, feel free to store your ingredients in completely separate containers. well nowyou know how to take two very different, but very useful emergency kit items, and mix themtogether to get an awesome synergistic benefit.
the matchless survival fire. if you likedthis project perhaps you'll like some of my others. check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com
