Back to Fire

Since fire is what got me started writing this blog, it's only right I talk about fire now.

You need several things to build a fire, first and foremost you need something to create a spark, create a hot ember, or fire itself.

If the disposable lighter in your pocket has gotten wet, and you can't use it (this is temporary, your lighter will be fine when it drys). Then your next best bet is to pull your flint and steel out of your kit, grab your steel wool while you are in your kit as well, and if you duplicated my survival kit two then grab a tinder tablet from your kit as well.

If you have built a campfire before you know you need the 3 main components, which are tinder, kindling and fuel. However, those 3 components to building a fire won't do you any good if you can't get them burning. Tinder is very dry, very flammable, and will hold a flame long enough to get the kindling burning.

Tinder - dryer lint (I have seen dryer lint fail so don‘t make this your first choice), dry crumbled pine needles, dry ground up bark, dry tree rot, dry grass, empty birds nest, etc. (hair or fur of any kind is not tinder, and paper usually does not work so well either)

Kindling - dry twigs, split shavings from a log, etc.

Fuel - logs (split is better, but fuel is the big stuff)

OK, let's start that fire, fluff up your tinder so it looks like a birds nest and about the same size as your hand, place a piece of steel wool in the center, with your tinder cube under the steel wool, if you have one. Take out your flint and steel and strike in the direction of your steel wool, it will catch quick and hold the flame long enough to start your tinder on fire, you may have to blow on it gently.

Place your now burning tinder in the center of where your fire will be. Start adding your kindling, remember to always build up, not flat. Once you have a good fire going with your kindling and some coals going, you can start adding your fuel. Now you have fire.

I need to make some sidebar notes here:  You will have to carry a ton of steel wool if steel wool is the only thing you use to get your fire started. The method I mentioned above is the method that works best for me and the method I have used 100s of times. I use the steel wool to flame up long enough to flame up my tinder nest as I described above. You can also make your own “flame ball” I don’t know what to call it, soak some cotton balls in petroleum jelly, store them in a pill bottle and stick it in your kit.

Always have a back up plan for fire, I carry flint and steel, a lighter and waterproof matches. I use the lighter first, but a lighter will not work in cold weather or at high elevations. Then matches (remember though matches are finite, you only have so many and they have a shelf life). Then flint and steel.

Then if you plan to move to another site the best way to preserve your work in building a fire is to carry fire with you to your next site, I will explain how to do this tomorrow.

It's always best to have gathered all three components to your fire before you actually start the fire, it will only take you one time to remember that you forgot some fuel and kindling, because your tinder will go out and you will have to start all over again.

Remember to build up not flat, think tepee, build your fire like a tepee not a flat wall or cabin.

Remember you don’t really need a monster fire unless you are building a signal fire, keep your fire small and under control.

Remember it is always good to practice, get your bbq pit out and practice building a good campfire if you have never done this before.

Here is a good place to talk real briefly (because I will talk about this subject in depth later) about knife selection. If you are like me you have your pocket knife, and some sort of field knife. Here is where what type of knife you carry will make a big difference. A camp knife tends to be a large knife (not to be confused with a "bowie" knife), but has a thinner blade and is great for chopping and cutting. A hunting knife is usually designed for skinning and cutting, I carry these two knifes besides my pocket knife.
Camp Knife - Schrade X-Timer Camp Knife

Hunting Knife - Gerber's Bear Grylls Survival Knife, though not available til 11/15/2010 this is a good knife.