I’ve always been a bit of a firebug. If there’s one area where I tend to go overboard when it comes to camping and outdoor recreation, it’s the combustibles. Over the years, I’ve played around with a ton of different fire starters, from homemade concoctions to store-bought products. The goal is to always have something that’s easy to light with a variety of means, and that will burn long enough and hot enough to ignite your other tinder and kindling.
For a couple of years now, I’ve been relying on Black Beard Fire for the bulk of my ignition supplies.
The Fire Plug is my primary fire starter. I keep a small supply of them in every kit I build. They’re reliable, easy to use, and burn hot. I’ve experimented with a few other brands that are similar in design, but the Black Beard ones consistently burn longer.
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A Fire Plug is small and cylindrical. It’s about 1.5 inches long and 0.375 inches thick. It feels like wax-infused fabric threads. I’ll admit I don’t know the exact chemical makeup.
To use, bend and twist the Fire Plug to loosen the fibers. Then, you can either light it as is or pull it apart and unroll it. I’ve found that unrolling it gives you more surface area to light, but it also speeds up the burn time.
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The Fire Plug will light from either flame or spark. I always have both a lighter (either a BIC or an Exotac titanLIGHT) and a ferrocerium rod with me, and I usually go with the ferro rod whenever possible. This saves the fuel in the lighter for occasions when it might be truly necessary.
Fully unrolled, the Fire Plug burns for about three minutes. If you leave it rolled up and just twist it around a bit to loosen it a tough, it’ll burn for upwards of seven or eight minutes.
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The Fire Plugs are waterproof, owing to the wax content, I would presume. I’ve even unrolled one and lit it while it floated on water.
Black Beard Fire Starter Rope
Rather than having a handful of fire starters stored in a bag, here we have just a single length of rope. It’s fibrous, and it’s been infused with substances to help it light easily and burn for a while.
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New, the rope is about six inches long and an inch thick. It arrives packed in a tight plastic wrapper.
The Fire Starter Rope requires a knife, which shouldn’t be much of a hurdle to most of you. Use the blade to cut off a hunk of the rope. I usually go with about a half-inch or a bit more. Remove the plastic wrapper, then start pulling the rope fibers apart. What works well is to just take them and rub them between your palms.
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Once you have a small pile or bird’s nest, you can light it with a lighter or ferro rod. For the purposes of this review, I cut off about 0.75 inches from the rope, processed it between my fingers, and lit it with a ferro rod. The pile burned hot and brisk for about five minutes before it started to die down.
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Recommendations
Personally, I prefer the Fire Plug to the Fire Starter Rope, all other things being equal. Both of them work great, but the Fire Plugs are easier to divide amongst different kits. That said, the Fire Starter Rope is perfect if you want something that’s all one piece and easy to pack.
Find them both at the Black Beard Fire site. They offer several different kits and package deals.
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