When the Gearpods products were released last year, I was impressed with how well thought out the kits and components were compared to other premade kits and containers on the market. Imagine my delight when they decided to update the line this year, improving the quality and moving the production of the main components to the US.
The new pods use Nalgene style threads to achieve their watertight feature instead of a rubber gasket like the first version. They also added some new colors, bringing the available color total to four with orange, black, tan, and olive drab. I made a few videos showing the connect systems, custom kits, and stove kit:
I procured some WetFire from UST recently and was honestly not really expecting a whole lot. I mean, how much better could a fire starting tinder be than the five million other ones I have tried (slight exaggeration as I think I only have four million different tinders sitting in my house)? I have to say that the WetFire did impress, especially with its resistance to water. The stuff floats, lights very easily, and can even be lit while floating in a puddle of water. You can’t say all that about many tinders, if there are even any other ones out there like it.
Here is a video I made showing the WetFire in action:
I saw these Kodiak Firestarters at a recent show and was very impressed with how well thought out they were. They incorporate a large magnesium rod, firesteel, paracord with striker, compass, and thermometer all into a stout wooden handle. The firesteel is one of the ones that is harder than the other ones I sell, so it is easier to use, but the sparks do not last quite as long. They still work great for any tinder I could find, especially when used in conjunction with the magnesium.
I have been very impressed with the little guy so far and it is definitely the easiest and most well thought out firesteel based tool that I have ever used. The initial reports had it rated for something like 100 strikes, but it has a 1/4″ firesteel in there that should be good for at least several hundred strikes. The version I stock is the brand new version with the rotating firesteel that lets you rotate the rod to a spot that has not been scraped yet if you want/need to do that for any reason.
Surprisingly, even my wife wanted one. She normally rolls her eyes at any light producing, fire starting, or sharp cutting implements, so having her want one was a bit of a shock to me. She gets all enthusiastic at gun shows when customers ask what it is and launches into a demonstration of fire on one of our tables that will surely get me in trouble with the show owners one day.
They are still plastic like the Blastmatch and Strikeforce, but the small size, light weight, and ease of use with the Sparkie are steps in the right direction for UST.
I played with fire a bit more after messing with the Sunlighter, this time using fresnel lenses. If you are not familiar with a fresnel lens, picture a magnifying glass that is flat. It uses grooved rings on the surface to focus light, and can focus the sun’s light on a single point if you aim it correctly. On a sunny day, it can light tinder in a matter of seconds. The really large sizes can burn through a piece of wood, which is ridiculous and awesome at the same time.
I spent some time playing with fire recently (shocking), this time using the sun. The Sunlighter uses a reflector to focus the sun’s rays on a single point to light your tinder. On a sunny day, tinders will start smoking almost instantly and will catch on fire soon thereafter.
I like fire as much as I like flashlights. Maybe even more. I waver back and forth, depending on which shiny new object has captured my attention most recently. Some little lighters that I got as samples from the manufacturer of my waterproof capsule lighter have been in my pack or kits for a long time and have held up really well, so I am pleased to finally be able to offer them to you folks.
First off, I have a slim lighter that you many have seen in my videos a time or two. If I need a lighter, this is usually the one I reach for. It’s not waterproof like the capsule lighter, but I am pretty good about keeping my gear clean and dry, so I’ve never had any problems with it. It’s got such a slim profile that it can slip just about anywhere and I never notice it there until I need it.
Next up we’ve got the squat lighter. It is a nice, compact size like the slim lighter, but on the height dimension instead of width. Like the slim lighter, it is an adjustable refillable butane lighter using a piezo ignition.
Last off is an interesting little lighter. The other two have a windproof blue flame, but this one has a more traditional Bic-like orange/yellow flame. Instead of using a piezo ignition, it has a (replaceable) flint striker. It looks like something from many moons ago, but has the modern benefit of refillable butane. It also has a nice black crinkle finish that gives it a good grip and a slick look.
How hard is it to make do with what you already have? To take advantages of resources readily available to you?
We burn fires in our fire pit quite a bit throughout the year, which means that I am always scouring the yard for firewood. I ran out last winter and started a search for someone who could delivery a decent amount at a reasonable price. Once I figured out how much a 1/4 or 1/2 cord of wood would cost, I started wondering if I could just get the wood myself out of our yard for the same price. The answer? Yeah, pretty much.
I went to the orange behemoth and bought a pole saw and their cheapest electric chainsaw for a total of around $80, which was about what the amount of wood I wanted would cost me. The chainsaw had excellent reviews online, and it lived up to expectations. It made quick work of even 1′ diameter logs. I went around the yard cutting down limbs that were damaged in storms, cutting up a couple of trees that had fallen in storms, and gathering all the branches that had fallen in recent months. Once I piled up the larger pieces, I had quite a bit, and I wasn’t even close to gathering all of the potential wood in our yard. Our yard is not very large at a little under an acre, so I was quite surprised at how much firewood was just sitting around on the ground or hanging dead off of trees.
There were even more small branches. A recent nasty thunderstorm with high winds had knocked down a small tree in our yard and a huge pine in a neighbor’s yard, which littered the ground with tons of branches. Add in the branches that had fallen off of the still living trees and we had a massive pile of branches sitting on our patio when they were all gathered together. One of these days, I’ll actually take the time to break the branches down into smaller, more fire pit friendly sizes. The picture to the left was only about half of the branches that we collected.
How about stuff to start a fire? If you are unlucky enough to have pine trees in your yard (I HATE southern pine trees), then you know that each tree drops approximately ten trillion pine cones on the ground every single day. Pine cones make great fire starters, so I gathered up a large bin of them, spread them out on the patio to dry in the sun, then put them back in the bin and covered it up to keep they dry and ready to use to start fires. By the time I use them up, I will have about a quadrillion more in the yard to pick up and dry out for next year. For trees that produces so many things I like and use (fatwood, pine cones, pine straw, pine bark, dimensional lumber, etc.), pine trees sure are a pain when they are on my property.
I swear I had a point to all this! Before you go and spend money on something, take a look at what you already have and see if you can make it work for you. Sure, I didn’t have a chainsaw or a pole saw before, but I needed them anyway to cut down trees and limbs that were threatening the house and couldn’t find anyone to borrow them from. As a bonus, I will probably never have to buy firewood.
I am not an economy doom and gloom kind of person, but I know that many people’s wallets are tight these days. My wife and I are putting most of our money back into my business, which means less money available for other things.  Be creative and figure out ways to make do with what you have. Unless, of course, you are planning on buying something from me. Then please, spend away.
If you thought the firesteel order was a lot of fire in one place, you should see my pile of fatwood:
I don’t think I’ll have any trouble starting fires anytime soon. Not that I did before, but I am a total failure if I can’t get a fire going with all of this.
I got 500 lbs total, in 3″, 4″, 8″, and 12″ sticks. I thought the little sticks were pretty cool, since they are already the right size to stuff into PSKs and any other nook and cranny you can find. I even got some massive chunks of fatwood, just in case anyone wants to carve a bear out of fatwood, or whatever else people do with several pounds of a firestarter.
