Survivorman starts a fire with an LED headlamp

I was just watching the first episode of the new 3rd season of Survivorman. This episode has Les in the Sierra Nevada range. From what I call tell he was just north of Bass Lake to the south of Yosemite National Park.

Anyways, in this episode he plays a lost backpacker so he has some luxuries that he normally doesn't have... like a tent and an LED headlamp. He disassembled the headlamp (run by three AAA cells) and connected the leads together which generated enough heat to start a wad of cotton on fire. I haven't tried such a trick before, but I would be leery in a survival situation to sacrifice my headlamp just to start a fire. There are other ways to start a fire that don't require destroying your equipment. They didn't show whether the light was salvageable or not after the fire was started. Maybe Les doesn't consider a light to be all that important or maybe he simply relies on his video cameras for light after dark.

Anyone else catch this episode?

I have it on my DVR, shame on you for the spoiler

That makes sense that you'd start a fire with your batteries though, there are all kinds of safety and hazard issues since you're essentially shorting the cell, but I'd wager that if you could briefly rub together positive and negative wires leading to a high-amp battery(s), you'd have plenty of spark for tinder..

It's a classic trick to start a fire with a battery and steel wool.

I had a surprise a while back from a 9 volt alkaline and a bunch of keys in my pocket. Initially it felt like a ruptured blood vessel.

Many years ago I acquired some 500mAH NiCd button cells and was using them as battery packs for my walkman. I had already had one spontaneously explode at work which gave my co-worker a fright... then a while later she was giving me a lift in her car and I felt things getting warm under my armpit when the crummy connector on another pack shorted.
Luckily we were driving past some waste ground and I was able to lob it out of the window. !

I think he mentioned that he left it in the fire.

He shorted it, started some cotton batten with the heat, and left it in the fire afterwards. He even mentioned to stay away from the noxious fumes and not to do it inside.

Wow, I'm psyched there's a new series of Survivorman! Didn't know until I saw this thread.

I wouldn't leave my light in the fire....
it isn't good fuel

Got it recorded, but still haven't watched it.

_

That works much better if you have something with enough voltage to cause sparks instead of only heating up. With only 3AAAs, there is a good chance that it won't work, especially if the batteries are partially used. There is also a chance that the batteries will explode. A 9 volt battery works much better (with steel wool). I don't think I'd sacrifice a headlight for a chance to start a fire in an emergency. There's other ways to do it besides destroying a tool that helps you find your way in the dark as well as being a signaling device. Why destroy a tool that can help you find your way home when you are lost?

Lee1959 said:

He shorted it, started some cotton batten with the heat, and left it in the fire afterwards. He even mentioned to stay away from the noxious fumes and not to do it inside.

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I must have missed that part. He should have mentioned it's not a good idea to burn your light. I'm guessing it would've still work after shorting the batteries.

Ok, anybody know what brand the cheap looking incandescent light was on last night's show? It looked like a cheap 2D clunker and the way he activated it gives me the impression, it had the cheap slide switch that you see on the $3.95 specials. It would be interesting to buy a cheap incandescent flashlight and see if you could duplicate what he did on the show. I also thought it was a deserved dig at Bear Grylls when he caught the fish and mentioned something about how eating it raw might look sensational for the camera but why would he do that when he had a fire going?

FYI, Les does have a new book out now.

the Good news:

Sometimes Les Stroud has a Flashlight.

:twothumbs



the Bad news:

All he ever does with them is Break 'em,

and use it to start a fire.

:candle:

_

FYI, this is the final season of Survivorman. Les is saying going for a week at a time without eating takes a toll on his body. Only five episodes remain.

Link *The link also mentions that Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild had some staged scenes in the first season.

geepondy said:

Ok, anybody know what brand the cheap looking incandescent light was on last night's show? It looked like a cheap 2D clunker and the way he activated it gives me the impression, it had the cheap slide switch that you see on the $3.95 specials. It would be interesting to buy a cheap incandescent flashlight and see if you could duplicate what he did on the show.

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You could do the filament/tinder trick using any incan flashlight. It'd work best on a light that had an actual metal reflector, because you could quickly transfer the burning tinder to your fire, then just rinse out the head of the flashlight, replace the bulb, and it'd still work..

LowBat said:

FYI, this is the final season of Survivorman. Les is saying going for a week at a time without eating takes a toll on his body. Only five episodes remain.

Link *The link also mentions that Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild had some staged scenes in the first season.

Click to expand...

seriously.
when the show first started, he was slightly chubby.

now.. pretty skinny.

hey! a new diet strategy!

i really like Les Stroud.


It's alright for him to end his "SurvivorMan" series,

but we still wanna' see him in SOMETHING !



Hey, Discovery Channel, don't let him get away !

:twothumbs
_

Well there was his documentary video "Off The Grid" that describes him building his self-contained house which I think we discussed here about a year ago.

Burgess said:

i really like Les Stroud.


It's alright for him to end his "SurvivorMan" series,

but we still wanna' see him in SOMETHING !



Hey, Discovery Channel, don't let him get away !

:twothumbs
_

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This is not a show I usually watch, but I was in a hotel with cable the other night and caught the incandescent flashlight version of fire starting, a filament will work quite well as an igniter so it did not surprise me that it worked.

But it occurs to me, given that big reflector, and a small bit of tinder on a stick, like a Q-tip, couldn't you just remove the reflector from the light, point the reflector at the sun and hold the tinder in from the back at the focal point? Seems worth a try before busting up the lamp. (and why doesn't he have a light with a spare bulb in the tailcap?)

Has anybody else noticed that he more or less starves himself for a week eating nuts and berries, or whatever plants he can find... but never catches any meat?? I'm afraid the poor guy would die if the show was 2-weeks or a month long.

Also, I was watching a "behind the scenes" of SurviverMan sometime last season... and they showed how before an episode, Les goes and spends some time with an "expert" in the region he's about to go to... and gets all kinds of advice/tips. Then when he's filming, he just regurgitates the information that the expert told to him... it really kind of ruined the show for me. I want to see a SurviverMan filmed by the "expert"! Not someone who's never been there before, and just learned everything a day or two before!

Sorry for the rant!

KingSmono said:

Has anybody else noticed that he more or less starves himself for a week eating nuts and berries, or whatever plants he can find... but never catches any meat??

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You missed the most recent episode, Les gets the largest meal in the show's history :thumbsup:

KingSmono said:

I want to see a SurviverMan filmed by the "expert"! Not someone who's never been there before, and just learned everything a day or two before!

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The survival experts Les learns from are all locals, so while you could have a show done by that one person in the one area they know best, you obviously couldn't take the Sierra Nevada expert and send him for a week into the Amazon..