Natural Tinder

tonym

tonym

Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
9,491
With winter rolling in and the temps dropping; making a fire becomes an important skill to have. I know many of you if not all of you are plenty capable of getting a fire going. You also probably carry a plethera of different tinder materials with you; such as PJCB's, char cloth, jute twine, wetfire, etc.. But how many of you are confident in your abilities to get the fire going with out those wonderful lil accelerants? Do you practice finding and using natural material to get your fire started and keep it going? There are plenty of good natural tinder around that work as well if not better than the other types sitting in your altoids tin. However different parts of the world offer different materials. That is why I am posting this. To share as well as learn from each other is what makes these forums great.

In the states there are a bunch of natural materials to be used. Up her in New England birch bark reigns supreme IMO.
Fat wood(alot of other names for it as well), is another outstanding material. Cedar bark is also good, but it doesn't have the water resistant ability of the other 2 I mentioned.

Here are a few videos I did recently on tinder, and fire.

Please be sure to share what natural tinder works for you.

Thanks.

[youtube]6OTrqA0vfss[/youtube]

[youtube]8LgU-9TqtMk[/youtube]


[youtube]2okWHpQlrHw[/youtube]
 
cool post ,
I always practice with natural tinder and if I have issues I lean toward to wetfire or tinder tabs etc... but I always give it a go witth natural items first.
 
Great post! You did a great job with the videos. I need to get out and practice using only natural material.
 
Good post! I always try to start my fires with natural tinder first--if all else fail then I go to the PJCBs. :cool:
 
Thanks fellas, don't forget to tell us what tinder you prefer to use in your area.
 
Birch bark for me! And if that's not around I can usually find pine/spruce resin or a fistful of dry pine needles. :)
 
When you say "birch bark", you're talking specifically about what we call the "paper birch", correct? That stuff is fantastic for starting campfires - so much so that when I find a large supply of downed paperbirch I bring ziploc baggies of the stuff home to KY with me. lol

Edit - should've watched the video before asking that question. My bad.
One thing I'll reiterate (obviously this doesn't apply to true survival situations) - I only strip the bark from downed/dead trees, as peeling too much of that "paper" away could kill an otherwise live tree.

KD
 
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oruacat2 said:
When you say "birch bark", you're talking specifically about what we call the "paper birch", correct?

KD
Click to expand...

Doesn't have to be paper birch (White Birch). It can be Yellow Birch or nearly any other kind as far as I've seen. White Birch is just the most commonly available (by far).
 
Found several of these little bundles while building a debris shelter recently. They lit on the first strike with my ferro rod.

10zmkiv.jpg
 
oruacat2 said:
When you say "birch bark", you're talking specifically about what we call the "paper birch", correct? That stuff is fantastic for starting campfires - so much so that when I find a large supply of downed paperbirch I bring ziploc baggies of the stuff home to KY with me. lol

Edit - should've watched the video before asking that question. My bad.
One thing I'll reiterate (obviously this doesn't apply to true survival situations) - I only strip the bark from downed/dead trees, as peeling too much of that "paper" away could kill an otherwise live tree.

KD
Click to expand...

The paper birch is the easiest and requires the least prep to get to take a spark. The other birches like silver etc will also take a spark, but you realy need to scrape it up and get it flakey to take a spark.
 
Chainsaw noodles.

After cutting a tree into sections, quarter the large rounds lengthwise. The resulting long stringy chips (called noodles by chainsaw freaks) are awesome tinder.
 
In the prairies, I like using dried seed heads. Milkweed, phragmites, thistle mixed in with a bit of bark and small twigs and you are good to go.
Good vid. tonym.....You got a do something about that itch though :D
 
I found it easy to get good tinder in the highcountry off of a cedar/juniper tree using the serrated blade on my leatherman wave. By keeping the blade at a low angle with the spine down, I was able to shave some spaghetti like strings in a matter of a few seconds. These cedar/juniper strings took a spark no problem. This is nice when there's lots of snow on the ground or coming down. Works on standing dead aspen too. JM2C

Thanks for the videos tony, good stuff.
 
Right on Burddog:thumbup: Northern Red Cedar is some cool stuff. The squared spine of a knife works well to scrape that bark as well. I have had some issues getting a spark with it in rainy damp conditions though. But found if I collect it early and dry it between my layers of clothes or in a bandana in my pack it works well.:thumbup:

kgd said:
Good vid. tonym.....You got a do something about that itch though :D
Click to expand...

You silly Canadians, Ken, you're suppose to be looking at the fire not me;):p
 
kgd said:
In the prairies, I like using dried seed heads. Milkweed, phragmites, thistle mixed in with a bit of bark and small twigs and you are good to go.
Good vid. tonym.....You got a do something about that itch though :D
Click to expand...

I just learned about milkweed ovum from another forum, they catch and hold a spark pretty well and glow as an ember long enough to blow into a flame with your tender nest, and you can store quite a few in an altoids tin. I wish I had some pic's of them but I got carried away and used them all up.
 
Must try!! Shredded pine needles work as well as cotton balls , I'm guessing the birds and squirrels use it for nesting so every once in a while I run along a clump on the ground.
For an easier way to find it in great quanitities; Look for pine straw on the roadway you'll find some that is shredded to perfection. You have to try it. I keep a ziplock bag of it in my daypack always. (along with fatwood and pjcb).
 
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