Watch: Make a Parabolic Mirror From a Space Blanket

You probably want a parabolic mirror, although you didn’t know it until now. Turns out, they are pretty cool, and they make pretty good fire-starters when the sun is shining.

This guy makes his using a cheap space blanket, some PVC board material, and a few other odds & ends. The coolest thing was that he used nothing but compressed air to form the curve in the shiny Mylar surface.

He first tried Great Stuff expanding foam; results weren’t great.

Fiberglass followed, with more success… but you can be sure that when he talks about how he made it using just a $1 space blanket, he spent a heck of a lot more on materials… especially the fiberglass. But hey, who’s counting?

In the end, he can use his creation to set stuff on fire, plus make money from people like us watching him do it. Now that sounds like a win-win.

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.