Here's a little trick I wanted to pass on, as well:
Several people have mentioned the magnesium match. No-one should be without one. Ever. I've used one quite a bit, and refined my technique.
Fire starting basics: You gather your wood (about five times as much as you need), hunt down some good tender, build a 'bird's nest' of coarse tender, put fine tender in the middle, scrape some magnesium into the center of that, put your striker close, scrape your knife edge over the striker, and your follow-through knocks the 'bird's nest' flying... Or at least that's the way it used to go for me. If it didn't go flying, the blow would, at least, knock the magnesium filings out of their neat little pile.
Then I said to myself, I said, "Self, there has to be a better way." So I reversed the striking part of the process. I still hold the striker and knife edge the same way, except instead of pushing the knife edge DOWN with my right hand I pull the striker UP with my left hand, so that the momentum is in a safe direction. Kinda awkward, but it works much better.
Now, can I give my thoughts on 'traditional' (pre-Zippo) fire starting?
Hijack Alert! Hijack Alert!
1. If you know how to use a bow-drill, and want a fire by nightfall, start drilling about 8AM. The old Indian movies make it look like it takes about 3 passes of the bow to get a bon fire. At least SurvivorMan and Bear Grylls make it look a lot tougher, but they still must practice a lot, and bring along their own kiln-dried spindle and hearth. From my experience, picking up sticks in the forest to use, after what seems like an hour of pumping, you get a wisp of smoke. Don't get excited; just keep going. You should be engulfed in smoke before you stop drilling and start looking for that elusive ember. The good thing about a bow drill is that the exercise will keep you warm while you are trying to get that mythical ember (possibly all night). The best luck I've had was way back in my Boy Scout days, using an official Boy Scout bow drill (again, kiln-dried wood). I started three fires during a Saturday Jamboree, and I was completely tuckered. Also, rather than taking the ember to the tender, I place the tender bundle under the 'hearth' of the bow drill, so that once the smoke is rolling all I have to do is pick the whole thing up and start blowing on it, hearth and all.
2. So you want to be a mountain man? Get an old file and break off about 3". This is your steel, and nothing works better. Take it out in the woods and wander around picking up rocks. Keep an eye out for glassy looking rocks like obsidian, quartz, and, of course, flint... Marble even works, but tends to shower pieces of rock along with the sparks. When you find a good looking rock stick it in your pocket, then find half a dozen or so more, just in case. Break them so you have nice sharp edges to work with, but they're still big enough to hang on to. Now test them by striking the sharp edge of the rock against the file, using a glancing blow along the edge of the file. You should, of course, see sparks, but don't hope for the shower of sparks you're used to from your commercial metal match. Next, get yerself an old pint-sized paint can, and put a nail hole in the center of the lid. Gather up a bunch of thin cotton cloth (100% cotton. Old bed sheets work well. New bed sheets work just as well, but don't get caught!), cut the cloth into 3" squares, stack 'em neatly, and put 'em in the can. Put the lid on the can, nice and tight, and throw it in the fire (obviously, you need to plan ahead. If you wait 'til you need a fire, you're not going to have the fire to throw the can in!) and let it bake for a few hours. You should see a thin blue flame shooting out of the nail hole from the hot gasses escaping. Since you are preping this ahead of time, you can throw it in your wood stove overnight, but then you don't get to see that cool flame. After a few hours take the can out of the fire (after the flame goes out, or after the fire burns out), let 'er cool, and open 'er up. You will have a nice pile of charred cloth. Store it some place where it won't get wet. Prep your 'bird's nest' of tender, and set it on the ground beside you. Take another handful of the tender and rub it between your hands so that a bunch of the powdered tender falls in the middle of the bird's nest. Kneel or sit with a piece of the charred cloth on your knee (if you're wearing shorts, I'd put something between your knee and the cloth
), and strike the flint against the file in a manner that directs the sparks toward the cloth. If you've done everything right, one of the sparks will 'light' on the cloth long enough, and you will see a small glowing circle on the cloth. Blow lightly on the red circle, and as the circle starts to grow, continue blowing on it as you transfer the cloth to the middle of your 'bird's nest'. Roll the edges up around it, and start blowing through the nest, soft but steady. Hold it up at an angle so that the smoke doesn't make you cry, but not above you where burning embers 'll get ya. As the smoke builds, blow harder. Soon the whole thing will erupt in fire, and you'll find yourself with a handful of burning tender, wondering why you didn't get some firewood ready...
