Survival Uses of Chap Stick©

 

 

A tube of ChapStick® brand lip balm, photograph by the Author.

 

When I taught Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills Training (IOLST), for the local Boy Scout Council, this was the favorite lesson of my friend, the head trainer, Ron Krawczyk, who always liked to say that he carried a tube of lip balm in the woods because of this lesson – Authors Note.

 

So, what survival supplies do you carry in your pockets every day, a knife, a bandana, ... how about chap stick¹?

 

A tube of lip balm is small and light, a ChapStick® tube only weighs .15 ounce (4 grams), and there are lot things that it can help you with during a wilderness emergency. 

 

Three different types of lip balm, photograph by the Author.

And now, with a nod towards the 1966 Clint Eastwood film, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, let’s talk about the good, the not-so-good, and the not really useful-in-the-wilderness uses for chap stick.

 

The Good Uses...

 

The number one “good” use for chap stick in the wilderness is for first aid. 

 

Chap stick, obviously, can be used to prevent your lips from getting windburned, dry, chapped, or cracked!  It can do the same for any exposed part of your skin; your fingers, your nose, cheekbones, ears – any place the wind, the cold or the sun can dry or damage your skin.  Chap stick will create a barrier between your skin and the environment, which will decrease your chances of getting windburn or frostbite, besides soothing and moisturizing your skin.

 

A Wegmans Sport Sunscreen Stick, SPF 50, photograph by the Author.

Chap stick can also be used to protect you from being sunburned, just smear it on your cheekbones, nose, ears, lips or wherever your skin is exposed to the Sun². 

 

You can also use it to help prevent snow blindness, by mixing it with some ashes or powdered charcoal and putting under your eyes as “eye black”.

 

“Friction Blisters on Human foot due to running barefoot”, from Wikimedia, photograph by AndryFrench, November 19, 2009, HERE.

Have you ever been hiking and started to get a “hot spot” on your foot, where it was rubbing against the inside of your shoe; or maybe a pack strap was chafing your shoulder?  Did you know that you could rub chap stick on the spot to stop the chafing and to keep the “hot spot” from turning into a blister?  Blisters are bad news in the wilderness, at best they hurt and will slow you down; at worst they can keep you from moving at all and could even burst and become badly infected.  Stop them before they start, by using chap stick to reduce the friction and prevent a “hot spot” from growing.

 

Chap stick has a lot of other first aid uses, and you can even use it to treat small cuts and scrapes, by smearing it on the wound to seal out the dirt and germs and stop the bleeding.  If you intend to use it on cuts and scrapes, it is probably best to use a plain, unscented flavor of chap stick.  Chap stick can even help you remove a ring from a finger, which is important if you have injured it and it is beginning to swell, because if you don’t get that ring off, the swelling and the ring can cut the circulation off.  Other writers have also suggested that chap stick can be used to soothe bug bites, particularly the menthol flavor, personally I haven’t tried that, but I will this summer during mosquito season!

 

A fire in the wilderness, photograph by the Author.

Having a fire in a life-or-death survival situation or wilderness emergency is vital, for warmth, for disinfecting water, to cook your food, for comfort and so much more.  If you don’t have a fire extender in your survival kit or, horrors, you don’t have a survival kit, the chap stick in your pocket could mean the difference between having a fire or not having one at all.

 

And the number two “good” use for chap stick in the wilderness is as a fire extender.  Chap stick makes a great fire extender, smear it on a cotton ball or pad or scrape a chunk into any other tinder you have, to help the tinder burn longer.  The longer your tinder burns the more likely it is that you will get your fire going.

 

Chap stick and tools, photograph by the Author.

The number three “good” use for chap stick in the wilderness is to protect and lubricate your tools.  You can protect your carbon steel knife blades from rust, by smearing them with chap stick.  This is a good idea, particularly if the weather is going to be wet or you are going to be out on the water.  You can also work some chap stick into the joint of your pocketknife, where the blade pivots into the handle, to keep it opening smoothly and easily.  The chap stick will help to protect it from rust, grit, and dust, which can make it difficult to open. 

 

You can coat your other iron tools as well, to protect them from dust, rust and wet.  You can also use chap stick to waterproof leather or canvas equipment.

 

Ideally you would want to do this before you entered the wilderness, in which case I would recommend using something other than chap stick, something like Sno-Seal³, but for spot repairs in the woods, chap stick is ideal.

 

Coating the threads of your match safe or flashlight with chap stick to keep out water and dust, photograph by the Author.

You can lubricate the threads of your flashlight or of any other piece of equipment or tool, by rubbing some chap stick on them.  This will help to keep out water and dust.  One survival writer suggests putting some on the threads of your flashlight, every time you change the batteries.

 

Some other equipment related uses for chap stick would be to temporarily plug a pinhole in a tent or poncho, by smearing a dab of chap stick on it.   or by waxing threads, Also, before beginning a sewing repair in the field, you can wax your thread by pulling it through your chap stick.  Waxed threads slide through material better and make a waterproof seal. 

 

The Not-So-Good Uses...

 

There are only two not-so-good wilderness uses of chap stick in my opinion. 

 

The first not-so-good wilderness use of chap stick would be turning your tube of lip balm into a candle.  Sure, you can do it by pushing half of a Q-TIPS® cotton swab or a piece of cotton ball, smearing the fuzzed-up cotton with some lip balm before pushing it into the center of your tube of chap stick, but why would you?  Wouldn’t it be better to use your chap stick to help light a campfire, instead? 

 

Chap stick, in my experience, does not keep your glasses from fogging up, photograph by the Author.

The second not-so-good wilderness use of chap stick would be using it to keep your glasses from fogging up.  Several authors, who wrote about using chap stick in survival situations mentioned using chap stick for this.  I experimented with it, and my glasses still fogged up.  At best the treated side fogged up a little less than the untreated side, but they still fogged up! 

 

The Not Really Useful-In-The-Wilderness Uses...

 

There were a several not really useful-in-the wilderness uses for chap stick that the other writers mentioned, uses that in my mind just didn’t apply to a life-or-death survival situation or wilderness emergency, such as using chap stick to lubricate wooden drawers, quiet squeaky doors, remove sticker gunk, or to help drive nails or screws.  These are all useful things that chap stick can help you with, but they just don’t apply to wilderness emergencies.

 

A tube of chap stick is small, it doesn’t weigh very much, but it does so much more than simply soothe chapped lips.  Don’t leave home without it!

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “A. J “Skunk” Johnson ©”, where we will talk about Skunk Johnson and how he got his name.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ There are many different brands of lip balm, some chap sticks, like Burt's Bees Beeswax Moisturizing Lip Balm are made of beeswax and natural oils, some like ChapStick® are made of a mix of petrolatum, paraffins and wax, and others, like Vaseline® Lip Therapy®, are 100% petrolatum.  

 

ChapStick® brand lip balm is probably the best known.  In fact, it is so well known that people often call any type of lip balm, “ChapStick”, so to prevent confusion, I will use the words “chap stick” to refer to other brands of lip balm, and ChapStick® to refer to the lip balm made by Pfizer.

 

The back of a package of a tube of ChapStick® brand lip balm, photograph by the Author.

² The ChapStick® Classic Original has an SPF of 4, ChapStick® Moisturizer Original has an SPF of 15 and ChapStick® Sun Defense has an SPF of 25.  When I am on the water, as a wilderness canoe guide, I always carry a tube of Banana Boat Performance Sunscreen Stick, which weighs .55 ounce (15.6 gram) and is rated as SPF 50 or a store brand, like Wegmans Sport Sunscreen Stick, SPF 50, other than that I always have a tube of ChapStick® Classic in my pocket.

 

³ Sno-Seal is 35% beeswax and 65% mineral oil, which is also called liquid paraffin, paraffin oil or white mineral oil.  I have used Sno-Seal for years to waterproof and condition all my leather items, from boots, to coats, to belts and a leather cowboy hat, with great success.  Besides leather, you can use it on waxed cotton.  Before you enter the wilderness, smear some Sno-Seal on axe or knife blade or other iron tools, because the beeswax and mineral oil will prevent rusting.

 

A can of Sno-Seal, photograph by the Author.

 

Sources

 

ASG Staff, “Pucker Up: 10 Survival Uses For Lip Balm”, August 30, 2018, [© 2020 - American Survival Guide], https://www.asgmag.com/survival-gear/pucker-up-10-survival-uses-for-lip-balm/#, accessed May 10, 2021

 

J.R.G., “40 Survival Uses for Chapstick © 2020 Copyright DIY Prepper”, https://www.diyprepper.com/survival-uses-for-chapstick/, accessed May 10, 2021

 

Survival Dispatch Staff, “ChapStick as EDC/Survival Gear?”, August 22, 2018, [@2021 Survival Dispatch Inc.], https://survivaldispatch.com/chapstick-as-survival-gear/, accessed May 10, 2021

 

Wikimedia, “Friction Blisters on Human foot due to running barefoot”, by AndryFrench, November 19, 2009, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Friction_Blisters_On_Human_Foot.jpg, accessed May 13, 2021