Pencil Sharpner

[Devonian]

Not sure if this has been covered before - if it has apologies!

But I just picked up this tip from another site...

Keep a metal (not plastic) pencil sharpner in each of your kits, they can be used to quickly and efficiently make tinder/kindling from branches, they also get to the centre of the wood, so even if your wood is wet from rain, you can quickly get to the dry wood and create lots of fine kindling to help get a fire started.

Can also be used for making points on improvised arrows/spears/punji sticks etc.

Also they are CHEAP!!

Get the ones with the 2 sharpening holes on them so you can put bigger sticks in them, I've just bought these, a pack of 5 for £1.25 (25p each) with free delivery:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000S...UTF8&psc=1

Put one in your pocket; a couple in your BOB; one in your GHB; and one in ......

[bigpaul]

I've got several of the arrow shaft sharpeners in my kit, not as cheap as pencil sharpeners but at least I know they are the right size for my shafts. you can also try "feathering" the wood for the fire if you have a sharp enough knife.

[CharlesHarris]

The hand twist-type pencil sharpeners are also a "must-have" item for your pocket fire-making kit, so that you can readily make wood shavings as tinder from any handy stick wood you can find.