Vargo Ultimate Fire Starter Discussions | Drop

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Aug 8, 2017

Just tested this out while camping over the weekend, and the bellows turned out to be extremely useful. It's significantly more effective than just blowing or fanning.
I'm a complete newbie to using firestarters like this, and have always just used lighters or matches to start campfires, but was curious enough to give this one a try. I had a few unsuccessful attempts trying to start a fire with this thing, but I guess it just comes down to having flammable enough tinder. It was hard to find decent tinder in the area due to having rained recently. My first attempts were with dead leaves and wood shavings, which probably could have worked if they were drier.
I tried again later with petroleum jelly-coated cotton balls, which ignited quite easily. That felt a bit like cheating, though, and I would perhaps be better off packing the equivalent weight in matches. I'd probably need to be more experienced in finding/making good tinder in the woods before relying on this as a primary means of starting fires.
TL;DR: Happy with my purchase, will probably bring this with me from now on based on the usefulness of the bellows alone, with the added benefit of having a (theoretical) backup firestarter in the event that I run out of matches.

EverythingIsBetterOutdoors

Jan 8, 2018

JWCookCongratulations on making a fire from scratch ! There's a lot of great information on natural, home-made and store-bought tinders online that you can use to continue learning and practicing with.

Troutman

Apr 7, 2018

JWCookThere's not such thing as "cheating" when building a fire. I carry multiple sources of fire, and dry tinder. You will thank yourself if you ever get in a situation when you really need to get a fire going.