How to Make Your Own Survival Fire Putty (AKA Napalm)

Step One: Gather Your Ingredients

Round up these necessary items and you’re ready to get started. Most of these items you probably have laying around the house.
· Styrofoam (bowls, plates or cups will do)
· Acetone (nail polish remover) or Gasoline
· Matches
· Plastic Bottle
· Scissors or Knife
· Plastic Gloves

Step Two: Get Your Base Ready

The bottom portion of a plastic bottle will work well as a base for creating survival fire putty. However, it is important to note that this is not a good long-term storage solution for the putty or the ingredients that are used to make it. Simply cut the bottom portion off of your bottle and you’ll be ready to move on to the next step.

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Step Three: Pour Your Acetone in the Base

Grab the bottle of nail polish removal and fill up the bottom of the bottle about a third of the way, as shown in the image below and the nearby video. If you prefer, you can use gasoline instead.

Step Four: Add the Styrofoam

You can rip up Styrofoam plates or cups and add them into the acetone or gasoline. Keep in mind that it must be pure Styrofoam in order for this survival fire putty trick to work. In other words, if the item you rip up does not work, that means you need to select a different Styrofoam item to rip up.

Step Five: Form the Styrofoam

It will be necessary to put several pieces of torn up Styrofoam into the bottom of the bottle, and you may need to put a bit more acetone or gasoline on top of it. You need to push the Styrofoam down to make it all fit and to shape it. You can use a pencil or a twig to help you accomplish this part of the process. The yellow in the image came from the pencil.

Step Six: Put On Your Plastic Gloves

If they’re not on yet, it is now time to don your plastic gloves. Make sure you are using gloves that will not dissolve from acetone or gasoline.

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Step Seven: Pull the Putty Out and Finish Forming It

After you have mashed all of the Styrofoam tightly together with a pencil or stick and let it sit for a few minutes, your survival fire putty should be ready to come out of the bottle. Again, if you are going to handle your creation, you MUST be wearing durable gloves that are able to handle acetone and gasoline.

Step Eight: Put the Survival Fire Putty in Place and Light it Up!

It is best to put your fire putty on a log or other surface that can handle fire. The gasoline one produces a much higher and more intense flame, but they both work. Also, the acetone survival fire putty does not let off as much smoke.
In this particular experiment, the acetone putty burned for 4 ½ minutes in the rain before it went out. This gives you a good amount of time to get a larger fire going by placing kindling and wood over the putty. The gasoline lasted one minute longer if you need more time.

Ultimately, the advantage of making survival fire putty with Styrofoam instead of simply pouring gasoline or acetone on wood is that the Styrofoam helps the fire burn stronger and hotter. This makes it much easier to get a solid fire going that, if well-tended, will last through the night. Make sure you are careful at all times while working with this substance as the base components are the same items that were used to make napalm!