Thursday 17 August 2017

Bushcraft Napalm And How To Make It


Quite a few of you probably pride yourselves on your skills with fire by friction, and I salute you for you dedication. This stuff is for the times when you actually need a fire blazing NOW!

Perfect Example: When Mr Grendel and myself were dropped off by The Ghillie at the lodge and told "there's a wee stove make yerselfs a fierr" sure there was stacks of wood, in the kind of sizes you'd use as props to hold a mineshaft up, but no axe and we only had skinning knives with us. It was snowing, we were soaked from hats to gaiters. Without any kindling to speak of we had to rummage about a bit to get a blaze on.  A few bits of cardboard from the bin and a couple of candles from a kitchen drawer, and we were soon drying out. As we were huffing and puffing the fire into life I'd remarked "I wish we had some Bushcraft Napalm this would be a piece of piss". 

Mr Grendel enquired "WTF is Bushcraft Napalm?"

I've not made any Bushcraft Napalm in ages, but as I promised him I'd do a How To [about eighteen months ago], here it is. 

Bushcraft Napalm is cheap soap and petrol, mixed into a paste, and here's the clever bit, stored in an old toothpaste tube.

You need a bowl you can heat up, without causing an outburst of rage to intrude on the peace of your dwelling.

 You need the cheapest soap you can get - this was three bars for one Great British Pound

 Chop the soap up a bit

 Chop the soap up a bit a bit more. It would be even better to use a cheese grater.

Soften it it in the microwave - our microwave has lost the facility of the number one button, two mins and twenty two seconds was way too long, twenty two seconds not long enough. Your mileage may vary.

As the soap softens its time to start adding petrol, the great thing about using the microwave is its much less likely to burst into flames than using the stove top. Don't ask.

In preparation you'll have carefully sliced off the sealed end of your old toothpaste tubes, soaked and washed them until clear and clean, then left them to dry out.

 When you can let the mix cool but still remain a paste, you'll know you've got the soap to petrol/gas mix right. Milage will vary. Spoon the gloop into the tubes, trying to keep the cut edge gloop free.

It helps to use a bit of brown paper to stop molten plastic from ruining the iron. Don't ask.
I've also had good results using a old pair of pilers heated in a gas flame.

 Heat seal the cut end of the tube, with an iron. Pretty soon you'll have sealed the end of the tube, thus.

Probably a good idea to label the tubes to avoid accidents.

 A little squidge is all you need

Spark it up with your ferro rod, and it smells like VICTORY

More Soon
Your pal
SBW

PS My favourite Spark Stick/Ferro Rod reviewed HERE






11 comments:

Lagrandeimage said...

Hello,

Awesome stuff, I am going to try this to add to my fire kit?

Any special requirement for the soap? Must it have any particular substance in it?

What about the petrol? What kind do you use?

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

I just use the cheapest stuff the shop has to offer. same with the petrol
SBW

Unknown said...

Brilliant, although not wishing to teach my granny to suck eggs, but have you tried same using BBQ fluid instead of petrol, just a little safer.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Where the fun in that?

Anonymous said...

Hello. How much petrol : 1 bar of soap?

Unknown said...

Being that petrol is so easy to evaporate, (yes, it's kept in the tube), which would keep better over time... petrol or bbq lighter fluid?

Unknown said...

Being that petrol is so easy to evaporate, (yes, it's kept in the tube), which would keep better over time... petrol or bbq lighter fluid?

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Ive never stored it long enough for it to be a problem
SBW

Anonymous said...

Can you use a high percent alcohol like Everclear (95% alcohol by volume) or does that change the outcome entirely?

Anonymous said...

I’m curious as to what you’re calling petro, is it Vaseline ?

Anonymous said...

Washing powder mixed into the petrol slowly until it makes a jelly works too.