“Why is that one careless match can start a forest fire, but a whole box of them is needed to start a camp fire?”
Lighting a fire in the wet jungle can be a challenge and having something to help it get going (a plastic bag or rubber inner tube) can make all the difference.
A natural alternative that is often found in the jungle is resin (know locally as damar) – it is great for firestarting as the resin vaporises as it heats up and feeds the flame giving your tinder a longer burn time. However, lighting resin on its own is very difficult (similar to trying to light a candle that has no wick) and more or less impossible if just using a firesteel.
In the video below I show how to make a waterproof, firestarter (that is easy to light with a firesteel) using resin and also do a quick test to check that my fatwood handle has not lost its ability to light from a spark over the years.
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