Making Fire From Ice

pict

pict

Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
2,373
Over the past two days I shot two videos that cover making fire from ice. I figured I would attempt it with natural ice, making the lens under field conditions and only a SAK to shape the lens.

To give credit where credit is due I got much of this information from the excellent article Fire From Ice found at the Wildwood Survival website, written by Rob Bicevskis.

The idea is to make a sphere of ice and use that to concentrate a beam of sunlight to form a coal. Much of the discussion surrounding this idea seems to center on how to make clear ice. I figured that if you can't find clear ice in nature the point is moot. The other day I found a large supply of clear ice on the creek behind my house and figured I'd have to give it a try.

The first video is about making the ice sphere. In the article, Rob B shows how to use a cut off pipe to shape a perfect sphere. I didn't use that method, mainly because I never have a little section of pipe with me.

Shaping an Ice Lens

The second video is all about fire.

Ice Fire

I had alot of fun doing this project. I'll let you decide whether I succeeded or not.

Mac
 
Excellent video!!!!!

I was surprised to see the Char Cloth light up so fast. It only took about twenty seconds.

Once again, excellent video and thanks for sharing it.
 
When I attended a Primitive Winter Survival course at the Maine Primitive Skills School a few years ago, the founder, Mike Douglas, made a lens out of ice, shaped it to a convex lens, focused the light and was able to get dried moose dung to smoke. It is possible but it is not easy. I give credit to anyone willing to try. I'll take my ferro rod any day and keep my warm hands.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Jeez pict, that must have been HELL to try and videotape. You must have alot of patience with that evil camera
 
Joezilla said:
Jeez pict, that must have been HELL to try and videotape. You must have alot of patience with that evil camera
Click to expand...

This is very true. On top of that this morning while I was looking for tinder the top of my cheesy little made in CHINA tripod snapped off. It was OK though as I had my

SAK HUNTSMAN

and I made a green-stick mono-pod. Mac
 
The other day I saw a program on TV that recommended the ice lens in sort of a flip way, "just take a piece of ice and create a lens to make fire". I thought, good night it can't be as easy as they make it out. Then there was a thread about it on another board and there seemed to be some debate as to if it was even possible or not. Most of the discussion I could find about it revolved around making clear ice in a freezer and that is nearly impossible. It seems lots of people get stuck at that point and give up. My point in that thread was that if you can't find clear ice in nature that it can't be considered at all, but nature forms clear ice quite often. I've found massive formations of clear ice beside waterfalls here in PA. Icicles often form large chunks of clear ice.

With all the cold weather here recently I took a short walk along the creek behind the house and found it covered with clear ice. At first I discounted it as skim ice but then my son walked right across it. I checked it out and it was about four inches thick in places. We were out there to collect sticks for a bird trap but my A.D.D brain went into overdrive and I had to try this.

Testing this method "in the shop" so to speak has already been done. The Wildwood article covered that extensively. I wanted to see if it could be done under the kind of conditions that a lost person might attempt it given that awful advice from the TV program (and no it wasn't Bear G). I figured, out for a winter walk, sunny, dry/cold conditions, SAK in the pocket. I set about it and then got snowed in with no possible way to make the thing work.

If I had relied on this method, and I started it in the sun, I would have spent a 13 degree night in the woods getting snowed on. It only worked the following day. I'm pretty sure I could have coaxed a coal out of that woods with a bow drill, at least I could have kept working past noon when it became overcast. The tinder resources were there, I just needed a coal.

If you're planning on doing this as a party trick, make the ice ball in advance. I estimate that it took me about an hour and a half to get a workable iceball, maybe two hours and change if you include harvesting the ice from the creek. It is hard to gauge the time because I was filming as well. I spent about a half hour collecting fire materials in the woods. If I had started at dawn on a clear cold day I would have had a working ice ball by noon and maybe a fire for lunch. I had tested it at 9:30 AM with no real heat against my hand, but it was focusing.

There is a serious logistical problem with this method for survival. You have to recognize that you are in a survival situation at dawn on a clear, cold, dry day with a nearby supply of very thick, crystal clear ice. You have to have a method for harvesting that four inch thick ice. A SAK won't cut it, I had to use repeated smashings with a large rock. You have to get that iceball done before you lose the correct sun conditions necessary to make it work. You have to collect or create dry tinder in a winter woods.

This method is certainly fun to try but it really does rank very low in practical terms. It's just too dependent upon conditions you have no control over, too many planets have to line up to make it happen. Char cloth is the real hero in this story, you can even light it at 20 degrees F with a crude lens made of ice. Mac
 
In defense of this method, I was able to locate false tinder fungus in the same forest. My ice lens was long gone but it formed a coal almost instantly with my pocket sized flat plastic lens. Had I used this instead of weeds seed heads as my initial tinder the test would have been a success. I just made fire with a piece of it wrapped in shredded cedar bark from further up in the forest.

In all fairness though that broken Cedar tree yielded a nice fire board and spindle, in addition to a big ball of tinder. I still think that fire from ice is a viable method given clear ice, clear skies, and the proper tinder. Making a friction fire from the cedar tree would have been a better method given the weather. Mac
 
Pict.. I've been enjoying your videos for sometime.. ..had no idea who it was. ;) ..however, I thought I'd let you know I've added a few of your videos to a social networking site I use called Stumbleupon, so there will be quite a few more people who now will find them. ..good stuff. Now.. ..do tell me how you get to play in Brazil so much when you're a fellow Pennsylvaniaite.
 
MagicDot said:
Pict.. I've been enjoying your videos for sometime.. ..had no idea who it was. ;) ..however, I thought I'd let you know I've added a few of your videos to a social networking site I use called Stumbleupon, so there will be quite a few more people who now will find them. ..good stuff. Now.. ..do tell me how you get to play in Brazil so much when you're a fellow Pennsylvaniaite.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. I have a lot of fun doing the videos. I put them out there to for people to watch so thanks for embedding them.

I grew up in PA. I happened to marry a girl who grew up in Brazil. I took a two year teaching job there a year after we were married. One thing led to another and we moved back in 1999 as Baptist missionaries. I work in Belo Horizonte (pop 5.3 million) but we have some world class wilderness areas within easy reach. The wilderness stuff I do down there is an outgrowth of my work with inner city youth. I've found the survival experience to be a great teacher.

I don't charge for the survival course (Per Ardua - Latin for "Through Difficulty). Most of the kit I use for it has been donated. One of the main criticisms of wilderness ministry in general is that it it only accessible to those who have the means. My goal is to provide that kind of experience to inner city kids who would never have the opportunity to participate in a guided wilderness adventure. One of the coolest things about it is that if I get the same four guys together, even years later, Per Ardua is THE topic of conversation.

Every four years we have to come back for one year to report to our supporters and raise additional support. That is going to be a tough one this year but we are confident it will happen soon enough. We hope to be headed back in August.

(Pastor) Mac
 
Mac,

Great stuff as always. The ice fire may not be practical, but the exercise is important in that it demonstrates the physical concepts of starting a fire this way, and reinforces the multitude of resources that are available to someone who is knowledgeable and skilled.

I am also a great fan of your mission. I think that you should author a book that combines your interest in wilderness skills and your faith, I'm pretty sure you would sell a couple of copies here..... If your mission needs resources when you return to Brazil, remember that you have friends here.....

Mike
 
pict-
You've got a big fan over here as well. In a forum full of LEO's, EMT's, and other high speed/low drag types, a preacher or two isn't out of order IMHO. I think you can take the parentheses off the word Pastor in "Pastor Mac." :thumbup: You do work with the deadliest and most unstable substance on earth - teenage males. :) Thanks for "your service." (pun intended)
 
LittleHairyApe said:
pict-
You've got a big fan over here as well. In a forum full of LEO's, EMT's, and other high speed/low drag types, a preacher or two isn't out of order IMHO. I think you can take the parentheses off the word Pastor in "Pastor Mac." :thumbup: You do work with the deadliest and most unstable substance on earth - teenage males. :) Thanks for "your service." (pun intended)
Click to expand...

LHA,

I'm not big on titles. I really get annoyed sometimes with the pastoral halo effect that comes with the position. Whenever I tell someone what I do there always follows this little "moment of weirdness". It's worse when I tell people I'm a missionary. They usually picture jungles and natives. I work in the urban jungle.

Mac
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top