Starting a Fire
Fire building is one of the most useful
and necessary skills for survival.
Preparation
Choose a location near your shelter that
is dry, and gives you access to plenty of wood for burning.
Clear leaves and debris at least 3 feet around the perimeter
of your fire. If you need fire for warmth then prepare
a fire wall made from logs or rock (Use caution, porous
rocks may explode). To keep your fire alive throughout
the night you will need to collect about 5 times as
much wood as you think you may need.
Next locate your kindling, and tender. Even in the wettest
environments there is dry wood, and other kindling to
be found. Look around the base of trees, under the bark
of fallen logs.
There are 3 types of material need for a successful
easy to start fire.
Fuel
Fuel is anything that will burn; but for a fire, fuel
is anything that will burn for an extended period of
time.
- Wood (logs, sticks, etc.)
- Grass (bunched together)
- Animal Dung (dried)
- Oils (animal fat, etc.)
Kindling
Kindling is usually smaller pieces
of fuel that can help create a fast
burning hot fire. Kindling is used
to help get your main fuel source
ignited.
- Dry Leaves (leaves, pine needle, etc.)
- Wood ([punk] dry rotted logs, small sticks, dry
evergreen limbs, pine knots, fire stick, cardboard)
- Dry Grass
Tender
Tender is anything that can catch fire with a spark.
Tender is used to get your initial flame, and start
your kindling. Most tender should be extremely dry!
Gather your tender in a bundle
similar to a birds nest; this will make starting a fire
much easier.
- Wood ([punk] dry rotted logs, saw
dust, fine wood shavings, paper, shavings from a pine
knot [evergreen knot], Birch Bark, birch tinder fungus,
shredded inter bark from Cedar, red elm, and chestnut
trees)
- Plants (dead dry fern, moss, fungi)
(dry palm leaves) (down seed heads from milkweed,
dry cattails, dandelion, golden rod, bulrush, Canada
thistle) (cotton) (dried vegetable fibers)(spongy
thread from a dead dry puffball mushroom) (straw)
(skin-like bamboo lining)(outer bamboo shavings)
- Pocket Lint
- Waxed Paper
- Gun Powder
Building the fire
Start with the kindling at the base, and your fuel-wood
on the top. Allow easy access to the kindling; this
will help you transfer your tender to ignite the kindling.
The most popular fire design is the tepee, for more
advanced fire building techniques click
here.
Starting the Fire
In this section we will review many non-conventional
methods for starting a fire.
Two stick friction methods
(You must read “Creating
a Fireboard” and “Friction Hand Drill”
to understand all of the friction drill methods)
Creating a Fireboard
(You must read this to understand
many of the methods used below!)
A fireboard is used for several of the friction methods
listed below.
- Find a flat/semi-flat piece of wood (large
enough to hold steady with one foot) (choose a softwood
that is softer than the stick you will be using).
- Dig out a circular indention in the wood (see illustration).
- Cut a V shaped grove in the wood
(this will allow hot embers to fall downward to your
tender or bark).
Friction Hand Drill
(This is the basic method used for
drills, you must read this to understand many of the
methods used below!)
- Find a straight stick about 2 feet long and as wide
as your thumb to use as a spindle (choose
a wood hat is harder than your fireboard).
- Place the spindle, in the depression of your fireboard.
- Roll the spindle between the palms of your hands,
while maintaining downward pressure, do this in quick
burst. Keep up this action until embers are formed.
- You can use a piece of bark to transfer the embers
to your tender, or deposit the embers directly on
your tender.
- Blow on the embers until your tender is ignited.
Two-Man Drill
This method is similar to the Hand Drill above.
- Find a piece of wood, or rock with a depression
to use as a socket; this is to hold downward pressure
on your spindle.
- Wrap a rope around the spinal going around it 2
times.
- While one person applies downward pressure, the
other pulls back and forth on the rope to spin the
spindle.
Bow Drill
This method is similar to the Drill methods used above.
- Find a piece of wood, or rock with a depression
to use as a socket; this is to hold downward pressure
on your spindle.
- Create a bow using a stick, and string.
- Wrap your bow string around the spindle.
- While holding downward pressure with your socket,
run the bow back & forth to spin the spindle and
create hot embers.
Pump Fire Drill
- Drill a hole in the center of a rounded piece of
hardwood and insert the spindle so that it fits very
snugly.
- Drill a hole in your crossbar so that it will move
freely over your spindle.
- Drill a hole through the top of your spindle.
- Attach your crossbar to the spindle using a string.
- Wind up the string and push with downward pressure,
releasing pressure as you reach
the bottom. The motion will cause
the spindle to rewind like a yo
yo. Continue this until your embers
are formed.
Fire Plough
- Cut a grove into the length of your fireboard.
- Rub a slightly harder stick back and forth until
embers are formed. (This method
can be used if you are unable to find tender; it creates
its own tender)
Spark Methods
With a proper ignition source a spark can ignite a
fire in no time at all. Using a cotton ball, or char
cloth will make it easier to ignite.
Flint (or quartzite) and Steel
Striking steel against a flint works great, if it is
done properly!
- Hold a shard of hard rock (flint, quartzite, or
other spark producing rock) between your thumb and
forefinger.
- You can hold a piece of char cloth, cotton, or birch
bark fungi between your thumb and the rock.
- Strike the rock with a carbon metal tool (knife,
etc.).
- You can also lay a tool such as an axe on a steady
surface and strike the tip of the axe
(facing away from you; getting hurt in a survival
situation will only make things worse)
with the rock into the direction of your ignition
fuel.
- Always quickly transfer your embers to your tender
bundle, and blow on it until flames are produced.
Commercial Flint Fire Starting Tools
Flint and steel set. (This
is my favorite!)
- Hold the steel in one hand close to your starter
fuel (cotton ball, etc.).
- Hold the flint rod in your other hand under your
steel tool.
- Pull back on the flint rod to shower sparks towards
your ignition source.
Tip:
I use a commercial fire starter,
and dental gauze (works extremely well)
to start my fires. I keep them inside of a water proof
match container. You can also water proof your cotton
ball/gauze by coating it in Vaseline.
Magnesium Fire Starter
You can scrape the magnesium into
a pile in your tender bundle, and
then light it with your knife and
the flint provided on the magnesium
fire starter. The magnesium burns
at over 5,000 Fahrenheit for 1-2 seconds.
Other Fire Starting Methods
Magnifying Lens
This only works well on bright sunny days. You can use
a magnifying glass (camera lens, binoculars, eye glasses,
etc.), or a glass of water.
- Focus the suns beam of light onto your tender bundle.
- Focusing the light to the smallest point will intensify
the light enough to start a fire.
- Blow on your tender until flames are produced.
Battery
Attach a wire to each battery terminal.
Quickly touch each wire together to
create a spark near your cotton ball,
or tender.
Tip:
Touching a 9 volt battery to
an iron wool pad creates a fast fire starter
(this is why batters should not be stored in kitchen
drawers).
Gunpowder
You can extract gun powder from a shell by removing
the bullet. Gunpowder works very well for the spark
method of fire starting. You may also be able to light
a pile of gunpowder by using the empty case
(no bullet), and firing the primer at the gunpowder.
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