People ask me, “Why do you carry a magnifying glass in your wallet? Are you that old you can’t read the menu or the phone?” Funny. I carry it for only one reason, starting a fire in an emergency when I have nothing else like a lighter or ferro rod (this is super rare as I carry a tiny ferro rod in my wallet).
If you can find dry tinder or have some on you, and there is visible sun that is not too obscured by clouds, you can easily start a fire with a magnifying glass, however small or large the glass is. Magnifying glass can take the intensity of the sun and magnify it, and at the right focal point, have an intense beam of photonic energy which can start a fire.
Items needed to start a fire with a ferro rod:
- Magnifying glass
- Piece of dry bark
- Dry tinder
- Dry twigs and dry larger branches
- (Optional) A telescoping pipe to blow air into the tinder
How to start a fire with a magnifying glass:
- Prepare your dry tinder on a piece of dry bark. If you can’t find dry bark, you don’t need it, but it makes it easier to pick it up to blow air into it.
- Make a fire tee pee with the dry twigs, and make another fire tee pee above that using the dry larger branches
- Find the sun and put the magnifying glass between the sun and the dry tinder. The optimal focal point for the fire to start is when the bright light on the tinder is as small as possible (about 7mm or quarter inch)
- When you see a bit of smoke, immediate use the telescoping pipe or just blow on the tinder repeatedly but gently until a flame catches.
- As soon as the flame catches, place it inside the fire tee pee and continue blowing until the dry twigs and branches catches fire.
This will not work with a damp tinder. The smoke will be seen, but nothing will catch on fire long enough for you to build a fire. If I know it’s a bit damp, I will use anything that ignites better like potato chips (not air fried), lint with wax, a cotton ball with petroleum jelly, or a bit of hand sanitizer gel on the tinder before I start. This has worked for me in the Pacific Northwest and in the humid and damp Appalachian trail where everything is damp most of the time.
