This new review is about a handy piece of equipment for firestarting: The Origin Outdoors fatrope. Basically it’s a short piece of treated rope you can use both as tinder and to catch sparks.
When making a fire with a firesteel or friction you usually need three stages of material:
- Something highly flammable with a huge surface to. (Read: “fluffy”). With this you catch a spark or embers and produce a tiny flame.
- Tinder that will easily catch this small flame and help with growing it
- Regular fuel
The Origin Outdoors fatrope will provide you with items 1 and 2. While 2 and 3 are usually easily collected outdoors it can be quite hard to find something that will ignite from a single spark. Especially in cold and wet environments it can be very challenging to find something that will work.
Most survivalists or bushcrafters I know bring something to catch a spark like tampons, fatwood or similar items. The Origin Outdoors fatrope is an alternative to consider. It does not take a lot of space, ignites easily and burns long enough to light even suboptimal tinder. As a big difference to other fire starting material it even works when wet.
How to use Origin Outdoors fatrope
The manufacturer shows on their website that you should unravel the rope into it’s smaller strands and then fluff them up. I tried the fatrope before reading the website so I just cut some short pieces from the whole rope, piled them up and used a firesteel on them. Well, worked like a charm.
The only thing you need to consider is that you will need something to cut the rope on – it’s not stiff enough to just cut through it while it’s hanging freely. Do not cut it on stone or your knives edge might cut through the rope and get dull when hitting the stone. My solution was to use a small tree branch. I held it in parallel with the rope and thus could cut it easily.
Since Origin Outdoors claim that their fatrope would even work when wet, I wanted to test this too. I went out on a rainy day to the river banks. Then I dunked one end of a piece of fatrope into the river for about 7 seconds. Then I cut this end off, fluffed it up and used a firesteel on it. I have to admit that I was astonished when I saw a flame immediately. Telling from how the rope looks and feels I thought that despite the paraffin it would soak up the water. But it seems I was wrong. This is a huge bonus for fire starting material.
What is fatrope?
I guess the name borrows from “fatwood” which is basically wood of trees that are known to have lots of resin and is considered great tinder. This variant of fatrope is simply hemp rope soaked in paraffin. While paraffin is not of natural origin, most people consider it safer for candles and fire than most other fire starting chemical. Hemp rope should not be considered as problematic. So if you are worried about chemicals in your cooking fire, fatrope should not give you any headache.
Conclusion about Origin Outdoors fatrope
For me it’s a valid alternative to most other fire starting material under normal conditions. What I really like about it is that you carry it as a single piece of rope. So no mess, no stains, no wrapping. And a single piece of rope will be sufficient to light a significant count of fires.
I will keep one piece of it in my bag together with a fire steel. It’s too big for my tinderbox but it’s just the right size to keep in an EDC bag just in case you want to start a fire but haven’t planned for it.
What I really like about it is that you can cut it to exactly the size you need. If you have great tinder at hand and just need something to catch a spark, a tiny amount will suffice. Like in the video and the pictures. If you don’t have great tinder and need a bigger and longer burning flame you can use more fatrope. You can even fuel your initial flame with more fatrope when you see you didn’t cut enough.
If you want a pack for yourself, Perunika has them in stock.