Watch: How to Start a Fire With an Empty Butane Lighter

I wasted three minutes of my life to find you this tip. You’re welcome.

The video proclaims to demonstrate “4 Magic Tricks with Lighters.” It’s a lie! The first three are lame, and if you value your time even a little bit, skip directly to the 3:00 mark.

That’s where the useful demo begins, showing how you can grind off and gather tiny bits of flint, and then ignite them in a flash on a small piece of paper to start a camp fire.

I saw another video–trust me, you don’t want to watch it–that used a square of toilet paper instead. The tissue paper allows you to use fewer flint shavings, so you can actually start multiple fires with one dead lighter.

Pretty cool!

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.