Ferro-rod fire without Fatwood.

pitdog

pitdog

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When it comes to making a fire I'm guilty of relying on Fatwood much of the time but there are obviously many other options you can find in the bush. I decided to grab whatever tinder caught my eye as I hiked.
What I finished up with was some Cedar Bark, some old dried bracket fungi and a little dried resin.

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By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-03

I prepped the bark with my ML Survialist and then just crumbled the resin and fungi over the top:

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By pitdog2010 at 2010-09-03

Now to try and light it :

YouTube - Fire using Cedar bark, Dried Fungi and Dried Resin.

I was quite suprised just how quick it lit and as I also had some Fatwood anyway I decided to see how they compared:

YouTube - Fire using Ferro-rod and Fatwood.

I think the Cedar combo worked even better than the old fatwood eh !

Just make sure ya fires are well out when you leave !!!
 
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I've been working on my fire skills too.

I've gotten ignition now with red cedar shavings, pine punkwood, and milkweed.

lol the latter one doesn't so much light disappear in a ball of flame, but still. :D
 
Many good tinders out there Pit. The main reason i use so much fatwood is because there is so much here and I will often use less energy with it than other tinders here in this temperate rain forest.

My father the Marine always told me that my energy conservation skills were so good that I should love survival skills studies. Now looking back...I think he was calling me lazy :o
 
mistwalker said:
Many good tinders out there Pit. The main reason i use so much fatwood is because there is so much here and I will often use less energy with it than other tinders here in this temperate rain forest.

My father the Marine always told me that my energy conservation skills were so good that I should love survival skills studies. Now looking back...I think he was calling me lazy :o
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I agree totally but in the example I posted the cedar bark combo was easier than the Fatwood and could easily have been done even without a knife !
 
pitdog said:
I agree totally but in the example I posted the cedar bark combo was easier than the Fatwood and could easily have been done even without a knife !
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I understand that. I know that Cedar...much like punk...is truly fantastic when it is dry. It was a great demo. But I just lnow how cedar can be some work when it is really damp and it's even worse in the rain. Same with thistle and and other fluff tinders. When dry they are the fastest thing going, but when wet.....
 
Thats so true.....Its super hard to get some tinders goin when damp. Plus, they tend to burn up fast, so prep work is a must with some shavings etc....

Cedar Bark is great, my fave natural tinder since we lack fatwood and birch bark here. If we had fatwood everywhere like some places, I would use it all the time too..lol...

Good job pit. Great to get out of your comfort zone every once in awhile.

Do you do bowdrill man?
 
I use birch bark most commonly up this way. Fatwood is plentiful, but if you don't have it on you it sure takes a lot of energy to get! There are so many paper birch trees around here it doesn't take long to find a dead one with plenty of dry bark. Just shred up a bit really fine and you're good to go!
 
j williams said:
Cedar Bark is great, my fave natural tinder since we lack fatwood and birch bark here. If we had fatwood everywhere like some places, I would use it all the time too..lol...
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Cedar bark is great, it will work with a bow drill even damp if you have a large enough coal to work with. I have ignited damp Cedar bark with a Going Gear mischmetal ferro rod several times but i did it by scraping shavings of the rod into the nest then igniting that and then as that burned gently blew the Cedar into a coaling state and kept blowing expanding the size of the ember until it flamed


FortyTwoBlades said:
I use birch bark most commonly up this way. Fatwood is plentiful, but if you don't have it on you it sure takes a lot of energy to get! There are so many paper birch trees around here it doesn't take long to find a dead one with plenty of dry bark. Just shred up a bit really fine and you're good to go!
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I can sometimes find dead cherry trees with dried papery sections of bark, I wish we had paper bark birch down here.
 
I've been playing with the inner lining of dead trees such as oak, and a few others.. Can't recall them all but scraping the inside of the bark made some mighty fine tinder for fire quite a few times..

Some of them peeled off like paper, while others were pretty stringy..

Just thought I'd share..
 
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