Fire starters.
 

Anyone ever start a fire with a magnifying glass? I have seen it on T.V. but never tried it.
Weather conditions permitting. I bet it would work. When it gets a little sunnier here in Florida. I am going too try it.
I bet it might work under the rite conditions. ?
If not. What is the best fire starter you guys have used?

I've done it. It's pretty easy. I've even seen where folks use ice carved into a lens to start fire! Or use the bottom of a coke can, polished with a Hershey bar, as a mirror to start a fire. I've done the fire bow, and flint and steel is pretty easy if you practice. Primitive fire-building is something we try to teach scouts. They don't always listen...

My son using flint & steel.

This here is the lens you want to start a fire. Fresnel parabolic Lens these things start fires in seconds! This guy in down your way also. Check out this vid

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Here is another vid of him boiling water with a Parabolic Mirror
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A very effective fire starter is potassium permanganate (used in green sand water filters and sold by Ace Hardware) and glycerin (used as skin moisturizer and sold at any drug store) keep them stored in 35 film containers, mixed together; they ignite in about 30 seconds and will easily ignite tinder

The key for me is making fire without any pre-prepared stuff. Sort of like Tom Hanks on the island in Castaway. It's one of those things that you need to practice a bit; if you never practice, you'll never know how to do it if you really need it.

A couple of sites on primitive fire-building...
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And the one I think is best (lots of info besides firemaking)
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The magnifying glass works pretty good. I've heard of using the same technique with water in the corner of a plastic ziplock bag. I've only tried the water in the bag once but didn't work for me because the sun was too low in the sky. I had dug a snow cave after last years blizzard and by the time I finished it was almost sundown. Admittedly I used a zippo that time.
Potassium perm also works w/ antifreeze. Don't breath the smoke.
Pool shock and brake fluid, same thing. Don't breath the smoke. (chlorine gas)
Bowdrills are very reliable w/ lots of practice.
All my vehicles have one of the 'light my fire' firesteels hanging on the turn signal lever. It's a good place to start if you want to learn some easy to master alternative skills.
Steel wool or homemade charcloth will catch a spark quickly.
In fact, try rubbing some fine steel wool across the top of a 9 volt battery. Fire is easy to make,,,,when ya don't need it.
Start off with the easier ones and work your way into primitive.

Yeah I have not had luck doing the magnifying lens with a CHEAP lens, or on a cloudy day. Always good luck with a GOOD lens, like a reading lens as you would find on the small magnifying lenses sold at drug stores like Rite Aid, etc. in the same area where the pill boxes and other 'elderly' things are sold.

FYI, I bought a 3-pack of flints from Sportsmans Guide for something like $3/each and they work really well. Stepson uses them to start fires in our outside fire pit all summer long! I taught him how to start a fire without matches and he thinks it is the coolest thing ever. :)

Like othes have said, with a cheap lens it's a pain. I have a magnum lens made of glass I took out of a projector that is crazy. Last week I brought it out to clean it and try it out in the winter. Even with the sun low (Michigan) in the sky it makes flames on a 2X4 at the focal point. The flames only stay lit when the point is on the wood, it goes out as soon as I move the lens, but it's easy to get tinder going.

Magnifying glass works great. Didn't ya ever burn things with one when ya was a kid? Get a good one 6-8 in. dia., keep it in a leather case, put a lanyard on it. 15-30$ should do a good one these days.