My co-worker mentioned somethign he saw on an episode of Survivor Man. The "star" of the show needed to start a fire and used corn chips as a fire starter. I thought this was a lot of hog wash (Frito's are good and I didn't think they'd combust) so I went to the vending machine here at work and bought a small pack of chili cheese flavored Frito's. I took a lighter and lit a corner of a chip and lo-and-behold the thing burned. It was noted that one chip approximately 1" long put out a decent amount of heat to start a fire. I let this chip burn for about 30 seconds and only used up half of it.

My conlusion is that Frito's just might be the ultimate survival food. You can eat it if you're hungry and you cna light it and make a fire with.

You learn something new every day. In all of my survival planning, I never factored in a bag of Fritos.

I didn't see this particular episode of Survivorman (which, incidentally, is a VERY good show on the Discovery Channel). Frankly, I would rather carry a couple briquettes of match-light charcoal than a bag of Fritos, but I'm going to give this a try. Thanks, LA Confederate!

Onward and upward,
airforce

Steel wool pads used for washing pots & pans work well also. They're also lightweight and compact and will work well even if you pull them out of a bucket of water.