Primitive firemaking suggestions?

[Darton]

When I was a boy scout we would always have a little competition between my patrol and the others in the troop when we'd go camping to see who could start a fire with the least amount of matches. Then once we mastered using only one match we moved on to which patrol could start a sustainable fire the quickest with a steel.

I remember we would always raid our parents clothes dryers at home before we met up for a trip. Also I would roll up strips of newspaper and tie them around with a piece of twine then melt some wax and soak the paper in the hot wax once it sets it makes an awesome waterproof fire starter, and were small and light enough to carry multiple ones on a trip. one was always plenty enough to get a camp fire going.

Having the fire starting challenges made doing it fun, and we were always concious of how to conserve resources when fire starting when we got older.

Look in a sboy scout handbook there's alot of fire startin knowledge in there along with different types of fire structures.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I tried using Vaseline worked into dryer lint at home. Did not work for me. It would not light using a cigarette lighter. Which was a bummer because I was looking forward to having a reason to make the homophobics nervous!

Primitive fire starting thread: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9479

Fire Steel thread: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22521

The only purpose of the Vaseline is to extend the burning time of the cotton balls or dryer lint. Try a small amount rubbed on the outside of the cotton ball or dryer lint. When you go to spark it pull the cotton or lint apart to dry cotton or lint and it will ignite with ease. For demonstration purposes dont use any Vaseline.

I like the fire bow myself. I spent many years and many attempts before I did it. The biggest part of a bow is understanding what is supposed to happen in the process. Once you learn the process it make a world of difference and its easy to understand why it never worked before and why it was so hard. But now with the right set I can have fire in under 2mins.

 

[ntsqd]

After seeing these two posts about the Vaseline I will try it again. I honestly do not recall what the saturation level was. Could have easily been quite high.
Grazia!!

 

[85CUCV]

Flint shard, steel, char, tender and a little lighter knot. Keep it in a metal ink can. Drill a small hole through the side of the lid/can so you can line them up to make char in the fire when more is needed. Simple enough my 6 year old started on it last year. (He is hooked on Surviorman)

Char= Charcoal made from cotton cloth is invaluable for firestarting. I would use it with modern commercially available flints.

Keep a 9 volt battery and some fine steel wool. Works good.

 

[robert]

After seeing these two posts about the Vaseline I will try it again. I honestly do not recall what the saturation level was. Could have easily been quite high.
Grazia!!

Yeah you want just barely enough to moisten about half of it and as mentioned, tease it apart then strike your spark. If you get too much it will still work fine with a match, but using a flint is harder to do. Of course it also makes a mess on your hands. Ground up fat lighter works as do ground up trioxane bars (be careful using them as they are easier to burn yourself with and do not get any in your food/water). Carrying a candle stub is another trick to help get a fire going.

 

[highlandercj-7]

For getting wet fire wood going, we used to use barge rope. (Probally more of a east coast thing) We used to go up and down the river and pick up scrap pieces of rope (1.5-2.5" dia) cut it into 12-14" logs and toss one in under the wet wood. It would burn hot as can be drying out the wood and getting the fire rollin. The brown and white stuff in the pics below used to fall off river boats and wash up on shore all the time. It also makes a cool fence and stair railing

 

[rusty_tlc]

Pocket lint makes a great tinder.
As does dryer lint.

 

[Metcalf]

I was a Wildland Firefighter for a decade....so...yeah....I like fire

Anyways....be careful first off.

Some other interesting challenges....

-Try making a fire with nothing more than a pocket knife. Fire by friction is pretty dang hard. The number one mistake I see is using some kind of resinous wood like pine, the chances of getting it to work is next to nothing. It will smoke a lot but getting it to light is very hard. Use a soft or hard wood other than pine, spruce, or fir.

-Make a fire plow
-Make a fire drill
-Make a hand drill
-Make a bow drill

-Start a fire with ice. Much harder than it sounds. The secret is making a round sphere out of clear polished ice, not a lens in the conventional way. Hold the sphere with a piece of leather or your belt. The sphere only needs to be about 2-3" in dia at most.

-Make a fire piston.

-Learn how to find and prepare good tinder in the wild. Don't get use to using dryer lint, newspaper, etc. Generally you won't have it when you need it. Remember, you really can't have too much tinder.

-Learn how to find pitch wood. Old pine stumps are pretty easy to find, be it lighting trees, blow down, or old logging stumps.

-Chemical fire making
-Electrical fire making

-The ultimate goal is being able to have nothing in your pockets at all, walk out into the wood, at night, and make a fire. If you can do that you should be ok

-Also, try doing this in different areas that your not familiar with. I always try messing around when I travel. Its different in different areas.

 

[BigJim]

Wrong.... the correct answer is

Fixed it for you.

A mag block with with flint rod on the back and a pocket knife will start a fire any where any time... So easy officers in the army can do it.



Coop

 

[paulj]

The magnesium block and firesteel are similar in a key point - both use a ferrocerium rod to generate the sparks. The firesteel is a substantial rod with a handle. The magnesium block has a smaller rod embedded on an edge.

Traditional flint is just a hard rock that scrapes carbon off old carbon steel knife blades. With the modern stuff, the knife (or any steel edge) scrapes bits off the ferro rod.

The rest of magnesium rod is a source of tinder - magnesium shavings. As mentioned there are other good sources of tinder, such as dryer lint.

 

[SAR_Squid79]

Making a fire is really a great skill to practice, and even better to teach your kids!

Every time I go camping now, I always start the fire with a "primative" or alternative method. For tender, and kindlng I'll only use what I can find in the area - I won't use anything I bought with me. I won't use matches or a lighter, or any kind of accelerant. I am a big fan of the magnesium block & flint. Just the flint (without the magnesium) is extremely useful. You can use the sock-picking method with the flint, if you're having a hard time scrounging up tinder. Don't get too caught up in which device to use - it's more important to stick to the basics. Remember, you need 4 things to get a fire going: 1 - a heat source, 2 - tinder, 3 - kindling, 4 - fire wood. With kindling - start as small as you can, and gradually get a little bigger, and a little bigger until you work your way up to the fire wood. Where there's smoke - there IS fire.

 

[bugnout]

Get a patio brick and spend a Saturday with your kids collecting kindling and making fires in your backyard or local campground. Practice is the key.

The skill is to make fire when you only have one chance, when your impaired by cold, when your in shock, in the rain, or in the snow. That is the most valuable thing you can teach someone.

I've found that having anyway to make a spark will do you no good unless you know how to build a fire.
1. Gather the tinder, kindling and wood you need for your fire. - Its got to burn!
2. build a nest that will light first time and stay lit. - This skill comes from building lots of fires.
3. Always be aware of the everyday things that will help you do the first two.
- Pocket lint,
- Paper or cloth in your wallet or purse
- Clothing - cotton burns well and may be the only thing around you that is dry.
- Hand sanitizer (contains alcohol)
- Frito's or potato chips - Lots of oil that will burn
- Lip balm (some are parafin based)
- and lots more.

Unless you make a habit of carrying flint or magnesium, I think its better to stick with the basics. Put matches and lighters in your glove box, in your car's ashtray, in your favorite coat pockets, in your fanny pack, in your first aid kit, in just about anything you might have with you when you will need to make a fire. I have a lighter or book of matches in plastic bags in every coat I own.

The cotton ball thing works, When I was in the AF, I cut the bottom off of old (empty) bic lighters and stuffed vasoline soaked cotton balls in the empty fuel chamber. Covered the end with a plastic connector plug.

 

[biglos454]

ive always been into "survivalist" style camping and i can tell you that starting a fire is all about practice with whats most comfortable to you. ive successfully started fires with bows. flint. pistons, batteries, and pretty much every other method there is. personally i always carry a fire steel and char cloth in my possibles pouch. but its all about what your comfortable with and what you prefer to carry. i have a buddy who can start a fire with a bow very quickly. i can start a fire many many ways witch is good just in case but i just prefer the steel and char cloth. id let your kids try all the different methods and see which one they like best.