Accessing dry kindling without batoning?

O

onebagnomad

Joined
Sep 8, 2009
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Does anyone have a good method for reaching the dry innards of rain-soaked wood without a large fixed blade they can baton? You've become lost while backpacking (humor me), it's rained for the past two days and everything is soaked, including you. The sun is setting, the temperatures are dropping and you can't find any fatwood. You need to get a fire started, how do you get to dry fuel with the tools at hand (small neck knife/folder/slipjoint)? Any and all solutions to this dilemma are welcome. This is something I realized I don't have a good answer to, but I'm sure someone here has something slick up their sleeve.
 
Start a split with your necker, build a wedge and drive the wedge into the split with the baton.
 
You could take the neck knife/folder and baton it into the log until the spine is flush with the top of the log, then take it out and insert a carved wooden wedge into the log and pound that through.

You could scavenge for any dry wood located under cover.

You could find some wrist thick branches that are well seasoned and cut off the wet outer layers of wood, then make some shavings to ignite with the dry wood underneath.
 
Use your small knife to shave the kindling from the outside in :thumbup:

The first layer of shavings will probably be wet, but you'll reach the drier wood on the inside. Another benefit is you'll have much thinner strips of wood that will catch alight easier :thumbup:


[youtube]je8CgtP1-jU[/youtube]


and you'll end up with a pile of kindling chips.
Shavingsforkindling1.jpg





Kind regards
Mick
 
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Thank you guys. Feeling a bit foolish for not seeing the obvious solution, but thank you for pointing it out to me.:) I'd love to hear any other techniques as well, though.
 
I would think to either make a crap load of shavings to get down to the dry stuff or make it a hellacious fuzz stick, if you're not up for batoning to get to the dry stuff...

Did something similar with soaked twigs, but used a pencil sharpener to collect enough to dry and light fast in a tinder can as well as feeding a fire...

You've got a good bit of work in front of you either way you choose...

HTH
 
I'd strip off the really fine outer birch bark, or if you could find a tree with a very dense canopy and find some dead leaves clinging to it that did not get as much rain that were sort of dry.

Anyway I'd gather up as much leaves and small stuff like that as I could maybe even a bushel basket full.

Then I'd move up and collect as many dead branch tips as I could, possibly also under the trees with the biggest canopies. real fine spruce tips that are dead work great for me. I'd get probably a water bucket full of them or more.

Then I'd get stuff about as big as a pencil then a finger, then maybe as big as a flashlight and I'd get it all stacked there ready to go.

I'd start with the first stuff and get it going then the next and work my way up.

Also if you got any rocks or anything suspend some of the larger crap you have collected over the small fire you got going and that will help dry it as you work on getting the fire going.

Also pine sap or spruce sap helps and other stuff.

But at least in my experience it is possible to get a fire going even when it's been raining just takes more time and judicious selection of stuff.

Like I say look for dead branches and leaves on trees with a big canopy. Standing dead limbs or limbs caught in the underbrush on their fall down are drier than stuff on the ground.

Mostly common sense really but since you asked.:thumbup:
 
onebagnomad said:
...I'd love to hear any other techniques as well, though.
Click to expand...
The shaving method will produce dry kindling regardless of the type of timber.

Depending on whether you have access to deadfall, another method that works for me is to prop up one end of the deadfall off the ground (a log will do) and stomp on it. When done right, the deadfall will fragment when it breaks, exposing the drier inside.

[youtube]928mnpV5M6E[/youtube]




Kind regards
Mick
 
Don't forget sticking it in the crotch of a tree and breaking it. Sometimes this can start cracks with the grain exposing the dry dead wood.
 
Birch bark, cedar bark, cypress bark and the small fine twigs growing close to the trunk on different types of pines, such as hemlock, are all usually dry enough to catch light even after very hard rains. Several different weed stems and weed fluff remains dry, especially if protected by a seed pod. On some occasions you may have to search the off or underside of trunks of the trees. If you know where to look there is virtually always dry tinder available with nothing more than your hands to gather it.

I never saw my grandfather baton anything and am fairly sure he new nothing at all of the technique, besides splitting shingles with a froe. In the many times with him hunting and fishing I never remember being without a fire, and this in the very damp southern appalichians. Batonning is just one technique, IMO knowing the local flora is much more important. Chris
 
Joezilla said:
Don't forget sticking it in the crotch of a tree and breaking it. Sometimes this can start cracks with the grain exposing the dry dead wood.
Click to expand...

This is one of my favorite techniques. Close growing "twin" trees work too for a fulcrum if they are substantial enough. Failing to find either, I swing the larger stick at a single tree like a baseball bat, striking with the middle of the stick on the side of the tree so the stick's outer end's momentum adds to the force of the strike. Quite often it will shatter roughly all the way through, or leave the two ragged ends attached so loosely that you can "fold" it and feed the ends into the flames.

I also agree with HD about finding "almost fallen" branches since they are usually drier than sticks laying on the ground. And his method of gathering progressively larger fodder for the fire separated into piles BEFORE you strike the first spark (unless you have a helper willing to work really fast).
 
Allot of great stuff has been covered (shaving is particularly usefull in wet conditions)... in addition I have this to offer for what it is worth....95 percent of having a good fire is preparation... This means playing it by the numbers an in addition to having good tinder colecting 3 stages of kindling...
1st stage up to match stick thickness
2nd stage uo to pencil thickness
3rd stage up to finger thickness

2-3 handfulls of each stage will ensure a blaz that will burn larger wood even if it is Damp

the dead thin twigs that are still on the trees (closer to the bottom than the top) are the best places to collect these types of kindling) often called squaw wood, It can also be found on the ground at the bases of trees which offer allot of cover

Good prep work in my opinion will cover up allot of evils in terms of dampness and such

once the fire is going good damp wood shouldnt be a problem but even still damp wood can be put close to the fire to dry out...

hope this helps
 
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smash your wet kindling/branches with a big rock and bust it up into smaller multi facet pieces.
 
Joezilla said:
Don't forget sticking it in the crotch of a tree and breaking it. Sometimes this can start cracks with the grain exposing the dry dead wood.
Click to expand...
+1 :thumbup:

[youtube]XQEgOwpDXhI[/youtube]


It's also a good way to breakdown firewood into shorter lengths :thumbup:


BTW Joe, what did you think of the Bearded Dragon?




Kind regards
Mick
 
G'day RR

RescueRiley said:
.....95 percent of having a good fire is preparation... This means playing it by the numbers an in addition to having good tinder colecting 3 stages of tinder...
1st stage up to match stick thickness
2nd stage uo to pencil thickness
3rd stage up to finger thickness

2-3 handfulls of each stage will ensure a blaz that will burn larger wood even if it is Damp
Click to expand...
I agree 100% :thumbup::thumbup:

Gradesofkindling1-1.jpg






Kind regards
Mick
 
Look for a downed conifer tree. The small branches pointing up and down will be the driest. The branches pointing sideways allow water drops to remain for a long time, soaking them. Snap off the up and down branches--the smaller the better for making tinder. Even if they are wet, you can put them in your pocket and drive some of the moisture off. The same technique works for seed-pod type tinders as well.
 
Bushman5 said:
smash your wet kindling/branches with a big rock and bust it up into smaller multi facet pieces.
Click to expand...

Bushman, my uncle use to do that very thing with the back of his axe whenever he had to collect wet or damp wood.. He also always kept a a few tied up bundles of VERY dry pine needles that were about the thickness of an avg man's forearm to mix with the busted up wood.. He always used that when he wanted to get some heat going fast in his old shack.. All he had was an old barrel for a stove but he had it so hot in there with it that he'd be in his shorts and t-shirt ...lol
 
If you carry a SAK with a saw, cut halfway through a thick piece of wood, then hit it against a rock, it splits the wood neatly into thinner pieces. Repeat as many times as necessary.
 
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