Starting a long fire

[hollowdweller]

I've never done one of these long fires like Mors Kochanski describes here:

http://www.karamat.com/PDF Files/fires001.pdf

I've done a few fires with smaller logs paralell but it always seemed to me to get them going I had to pretty much start with a "teepee" sort of fire and then get a good pile of coals built up, and then put a couple of dogs on each side of the coals and then put the paralell stuff up on them in order for there to be enough air for them to combust properly.

Anybody who has built a big long fire like this:

How do you get the things to combust all along their length short of building up tons of coals first??

 

[skammer]

I've never done one of these long fires like Mors Kochanski describes here:

http://www.karamat.com/PDF Files/fires001.pdf


How do you get the things to combust all along their length short of building up tons of coals first??

You dont. You have to build up the coals and fire and then add logs when the time is right. ITs effort up front but saves in the end.

Skam

 

[hollowdweller]

OK Then I know how to do THAT:thumbup:

I just thought there was some cool trick or something

 

[Brian Jones]

Yup, I'll second what Skam said.

 

[skammer]

Yup, I'll second what Skam said.

Nice to see you in the saddle B.

Skam

 

[Brian Jones]

Thanks, Skam. How ya been?

 

[skammer]

Thanks, Skam. How ya been?

Good, Causing s@#t and interest as usual. What else is new .

What about you? Still snortin cordite regularly?

Skam

 

[Brian Jones]

LMAO! Of course you are...

Trying to cut down on the cordite these days. It burns.

 

[siguy]

How do you get the things to combust all along their length short of building up tons of coals first??

i generally use a couple or three logs as a base for my fire, when i am building a larger fire. i make the fire ontop of a sort of floor made by putting the logs next to eachother. as the fire gets going and burns, the heat in the heart of the fire begins burning the wood underneath. as the wood in the middle burns and falls apart, i push the logs slowly in, so that those couple of inches are taken up by fresh wood that will continue burning.

 

[hollowdweller]

that makes sense:thumbup:

 

[Grampa]

Actually used this type years ago in a "survival" situation with three other guys. Temps at night below freezing, no tent, no sleeping bag, no coats. One BIC lighter.

The worst night we built four long fires in a square, and slept in the middle.

We would start a single fire, and as soon as it was going, use it to start additional fires the length of the long fire. Doesn't take long at all.

Every time we woke up from cold with the fire going low, we'd stoke it up again, and switch sleeping positions - the two outside guys moved to the inside, etc. Between the fire and each other's body heat, we made it home in four days.

Uses a LOT of wood.

 

[SkunkWerX]

I noticed the text said Boreal Forests, so thats a bit north of me.

Each region has different trees, different wood, with different burning characteristic.

I can make a mean fire here in the Mid-Atalantic region, but I am guessing that out west and way up north there are different skills needed to make the most of the types of wood available?

It's one thing to get a fire going, quite another to have the regional knowledge to know what types burn, how they burn, and at what rate.