Nice. I'm in, BH #89. This is gonna be fun, mostly urban for me though.
1. Hobo Fire
Having spent quite a few unpleasant nights without accomodation in several large european cities (London, Oslo, Bergen, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin) in my scouting time, I alway wanted to see what it was like to make fire in an urban environment with only what you have or can scrounge on the go. Dumpster diving, keeping the fire low, making the most of resources are the keywords here. I just went out the door with my normal EDC loadout (BK14, ferro rod, flashlight and a few other items that were not used during this "outing") and started looking around. Here's what I gathered:
A piece of aluminum foil to keep the fire off the ground and to protect both of them from each other
some fuzzes of pine wood, scraped off from a sign someone had set up on the side of the road
A piece of toilet paper, used for something, but not for its normal purpose.
A few strips of blue paper from one of these "take one, call the number that is on the strip" thingies
Half a newspaper. Crappy newspaper, so it's okay to burn it
Some cardboard, probably about 4 sq ft.
A piece of wood, dried up, remains from the heavy storms last fall.
I could have taken much more of the cardboard from the dumpster and a 1"x10"x6ft piece of wood, but since I wanted to keep the fire down, I left those where they were.
Luckily, the toilet paper was dry enough to be ignited with my ferro rod, and a few strips of newspaper and cardboard later I had this:
Far from self sustaining, but I didn't want to alarm anyone. There have been some arson attacks in the area in the last months, and people wouldn't only look funny if they saw me playing around with fire.
2. Bamboo Fire Saw
Ever since I saw this on Dual Survival (Cody Lundin made a fire with this in the Vietnam jungle) I wanted to make fire with a fire saw. How does it work? split a piece of bamboo (preferrably 1" or larger) and cut a notch in one of the pieces. Place tinder into the "half pipe" section near the notch, turn around. Use the other half of the bamboo with lots of pressure and a saw-like motion. The friction will generate enough heat to light the tinder.
I must admit, I cheated a bit, after 2 hours of generating smoke, coal and blisters, I put a bit of Zippo lighter fluid on the cotton ball.
Works.
3. Bamboo Featherstick Fire
Pretty straightforward. Scrape off tiny fuzzes from a piece of split bamboo, light said fuzzes with ferro rod.
4. Fatwood Fire
Yes, we all know the drill. Scrape off fatwood, light fuzzes with ferro rod. Pretty sure fire, even in conditions with moderate to high suck factor.
5. Birch Bark Fire
My preferred tinder, because birches are everywhere here. I always keep a 35mm film canister of birch bark with me. Rip the bark into thin strips, bundle up into a ball, light with ferro rod. Add bamboo curls just for the heck of it.
(bamboo in the front, birch bark in the back)
Burns quite nicely, huh?
6. Dumbass Fire
[video=youtube;oSk9nU8UimQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSk9nU8UimQ[/video]
7. Hemp rope and custom firestarter Fire
Some fuzzed up hemp rope and a firestarter. I make these out of the stumps of old torches. My scout group always puts them out when there's about 2-3" left. The starter itself consists of cotton fibers, paper and wax. Very similar to what the Wehrmacht had in WW2.
The rope can be easily lit with a ferro rod, and it gives off enough heat to light the firestarter.
8. Grinder Fire - Fail
[video=youtube;JSst1ASnlCQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSst1ASnlCQ[/video]
Although the sparks coming from the grinder are 1200°C hot, they burn out too quickly to ignite the wool. Might work with some alcohol though.
9. Dumbass Fire vol. 2
I planned to reenact the firemaking method from the very first episode of Dual Survival. Flaregun. Due to a sudden and unexpexted lack of flareguns in my father's safe, I had to think of something else with a similarly high awesome factor. I give you....
*drum roll*
Silicon Oil Spray Fire.
[video=youtube;GjR_tSU899U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjR_tSU899U[/video]
meat.
