Fire building

J

Jimbo

Joined
Aug 10, 1999
Messages
546
With all of the threads on chopping equipment and firestarters - I can't remember a full thread on techniques of building fires.
Since at this time of year most of us are getting out - what do you find most successful? What woods do you prefer? Any special tips?
I find that I build fires very differently depending on what wood I'm using and how dry it is. What about you?

Jimbo
 
hemlock is one of my favorites. the small dead stuff, preferably off the tree, is best. any pine cone works well. fine steel wool and some real flint is good when you know how to use it. waxed cotton balls. a bow or pump drill works even when it's wet, but takes a long time and alot of muscular endurance. But the best one around is... a Zippo and alot of newspaper.
 
Hi Jimbo,

the type of fire I build depends on the environment and the climate that I am in.

If it is dry... I tend to use squaw wood (dead branches found on the bottom of trees... best are firs for the first stages and large pine branches for maintaining).

If it is wet I use heart wood (usually obtained from dead standing stumps that are left after a tree died a violent death... not by a chainsaw though)

My favorite woods are cedar and pitch. For squaw wood I like fir (douglass).

I start my fires with hand drills, bow and drills, metal matches, batteries and steel wool, flint and steel (using charred cloth), etc. I never... never.... never... use matches or lighters.

I love fire... I also love navigation (with and without a map and compass)....

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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
Best tinder I find is the stringy stuff on the inside bark of old poplar (Aspen)tree.
I like to do friction stuff and I save it when I find it for practice.
 
Most of my camping is done out of a truck so most of the time I just use a gallon of gas and a match...the wood doesn't seem to matter too much.
smile.gif


If I'm feeling like I need some exercise I usually find someone's stashed bottle of Jack Daniels (or whatever is on hand - it's survival ya know) and use that.
biggrin.gif


Seriously though, I try to use just a metal match and some sort of dry tinder (which thus far has been squaw wood). I need lots of practice, so I try to stay away from the matches and lighters. I've got a hike planned for this summer in the Alberta Rockies, so I'm plannin' on doin' lots of practicing before I go...and building a couple of blades to take along too!

By the way, what type of fire do you guys usually build...a teepee style or a log cabin kinda thing and why?

Later.

Darren
 
Hi all,

in a survival situation you have to use what ever tinder and fuel you have or find...
But when I really do make fires I rely on the items I find in my gear and kit. I believe in bic lighters, I have lots of them everywhere, although i also can operate a metal match. As firestarter I very often use Esbit bars, as fuel mostly sqaw wood directly picked from trees, it´s usually dry. Also birchwood, if availible. The reason for using dead wood which I collect is that I´m too lazy to chop or even use a saw.
Styles of fire: it depends which one you want to cover: personal protection= heating fire or sustenance= cooking fire, or both. Also sometimes you have to consider being "tactical", thats when I would use fireholes plus screens but smoke diffusor. If I had a scanner, I could post some pictures of diff. fires, but I think you all know them.
My 0.02 EURO
 
Probably most of you are familiar with this but required reading for this thread should be "To Build a Fire," the short story by Jack London. Aside from being a wonderful story about man in the wilderness, there are some good tips in there about what NOT to do.



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Hoodoo

The low, hoarse purr of the whirling stone—the light-press’d blade,
Diffusing, dropping, sideways-darting, in tiny showers of gold,
Sparkles from the wheel.

Walt Whitman
 
Darren,

I lean toward a "log cabin" type fire build. I think it insures better air flow. Once the fire is going good, though, I'll modify that, depending on whether the fire is going TOO good! In that case, I'll arrange the wood fairly tight, to cut air flow and slow the fire.
 
Hi guys - thanks for the input!

I still puzzle over ways to improve my fires built under wet conditions. Here I'm talking about spring conditions where most wood has been under a lot of snow all winter. I do use heartwood, but around here it takes a large axe to get deep enough into stumps to get dry stuff.
Without the axe I find that the only fire that will work is a very open tepee or log cabin style with lots of draft. Eventually there's enough coals to dry out whatever else is put on and life continues as normal - but that takes up to an hour. In normal drier conditions I prefer to have wood parallel leaning up against something - but that doesn't leave enough spaces for draft with wet wood.
An interesting observation is that cottonwood dries fast even when you start with pretty wet stuff. Cedar on the other hand seems to retain moisture and some chunks never do completely burn through.
I'm sure still learning. We sometimes use green birch wood and that often works fine if the fire is hot - except once we managed to try with a paper/water birch hybrid and that sure didn't want to burn green!

Jimbo
 
A saw and a stout knife will get you heart wood. cut down a dead tree. If you can find one that is still solid all the way through, and has been standing a few years, that's best. That may not be likely. Any _standing_ dead tree will work.

Cut a chunk or two out that is about two feet long, adjusted to your preferences. It should be a chunk that is and inch or two narrower than your knife at it's widest. Take a good pounding stick, and drive the knife through like a wedge, once it's sunk, you will need to pound on the tip end sticking through. This will split the wood nicely for you.

This may take just as long as starting that wet wood fire, but at least for this time you are actively working. And you'll have a nice supply of wood for a few hours with a whole tree.


Stryver
 
I usually carry some squares of birch bark, only 1 layer thick, and sort of roll my fiberous tinder into a short, fat cigar. If I can put a pinch of very fine fluff at the tip, so much the better. I call this my "tinder spliff"!
smile.gif


Once I have a coal in the fluff, I blow it into a big old wad of ember. This will usually ignite the birchbark, which I then drop and use to ignite twigs. The majority of my soft tinder is then left to reuse!
 
kwheeler,
If you can start a fire with just a straight stick (no bow) and a fire board with regularity, I guarantee you can get a fire going under stress with steel matches , lighters or any of the modern stuff.

"Train hard survive easy."
 
Bill,

I have never even tried to start a fire with just a stick. Can you give me some reccomendations as to how to go about it? Just email me if they are too long to post.

Thanks,

Kris

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kwheeler3644@cs.com
 
Hi Kris:

Take a look at this page for firestarting with flint and by friction. http://lynx.dac.neu.edu/m/mbennett/

I'm just getting back to trying friction fire starting after many years. I'm drying out some drills and boards now. The key is getting the right wood to start with. I'm trying willow and cottonwood as the best woods found in my area. You might want to start collecting some wood and giving it time to dry thoroughly. I remember that years ago I used an electric drill to turn the drill sticks as I tried out various kinds. If it works that way then you can move on to bows and such.

Jimbo
 
What has always worked for me in any set of conditions is ensure you have a dry platform or ground space, the lay a brace, a 2-4 inch bolt of wood across that near the "edge", if you are using another flat piece of wood. This will allow you to lay your wood against it to allow for oxygen flow, or you can raise it to allow more O2 to get in. My firelays started with a grid, just fan 5 or 6 pieces and lay them like a hand of cards. My next set would be perpendicular to the first. I would do this for three or four times. You know its time to add more fuel when the flames lip up past your top layer. From here I went to a teepee firelay, allowing time for the bottom pieces to burn and get a coal bed started. If needed I would add more in a teepee fashion and then after this I would go to a "log cabin" firelay to allow larger and possibly moist or damp pieces of wood to dry out and catch fire. After 10 minutes of well prepared wood and using the firelays you should ahve a fire going. From here you just build it up until you have the desired size. I hope this helps. If you want illustrations I can scan some and send them to whoever would like them. Take care.

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Yol bolsun,
Jamie
 
Thanks Jamie:

I've been experimenting with just such a method in the past few days. I'm lucky in that I can get out to have coffee right by the Kitimat river in a forestry campsite. It's situated so that the site catches all of the dampness from the river. Here there's lots of damp/wet wood in rounds so that I can compare from day to day.
I've found that I had been vastly underestimating the effect of the damp ground, so that constructing a platform sure speeds things up for the initial stages. I now use cottonwood bark ridges as an insulator to prevent the initial stages of the fire from warming the ground and contributing steam - and to allow lots of air space. It's the driest stuff available at the site (with the outside chopped off). From then on I haven't yet found any method to beat what you have described - starting with a setup against a brace, moving to tepee, and then to log cabin.
Considering the materials that I'm working with, I'm pretty happy with the results.

 
Hello all, does anyone use the Dakota Hole? I read about it in BWM and am curious how well it really works?--Mykl

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Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
 
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