- Joined
- Nov 14, 2005
- Messages
- 11,135
The wife and I were both off work today, and she wanted to come with me to the woods. So I grabbed the pack, and we hit the river valley. She has never started a fire, or used a firesteel. She got a crash course in firecraft, and actually started her own one stick fire. We also covered some trees, and I got to try out something new.....
We started with the construction of a fire. I covered a base and brace, and the elements of a fire. I used twigs as a visual aid. I then covered man made tinders and firesteel technique. After a few tries she was lighting PJ balls with no problem. Awesome! After manmade tinder, I showed her how to harvest Cedar bark, and prep it into tinder. She had trouble lighting it with a ferro, but once she adjusted her technique, she caught on. On to the one stick fire. She loved spliting all the wood down to size, and made better shavings then Ive seen some people post on here. lol...Shes also less messy then me. hahaha....Well after 3 times of having to make scrapings after knocking em off the brace, and the wind blowing them away, she got the tinder to go.....She started by placing shavings on one at a time. "That aint gonna burn in piles!" I said, in my best IAwoodsman....She then built a fire. Im proud of her. She took direction well....for a woman. lol
I tried to snap as many pics as I could, but I found that its hard to do when you are teaching.
Cedar bark with firesteel. Her first natural tinder.
shavings
Scrapings
Her fire!
Tina enjoyin the fruits of labor, and some lunch.
Ok, heres something new. Last time I was out with Iz, he was telling me about charing bracket mushrooms so they would take a spark. He also told me about charing w/o a container. I had to try.
I found some and I knocked one off a tree with a long pole and put it in the fire. After messing with it and getting a char, it took a spark very well. It turned into a nice fat coal pretty quickly. While it was charring, I made up a tinder bundle from cedar bark. Blew into flame no prob. Thanks Iz....Another tool for the chest.
It required alot of attention to keep it from just burning up....
Cedar bundle
Check out this coal
From coal to flame....
Anyhow, hope ya enjoyed the pics. I had fun, my wife is awesome. Even if she left my firesteel in the fire. Heres something strange....After she left my firesteel to close and it got burnt up a bit, It wont spark now. It seems harder or something. Im happy I had a spare, but Im not happy about having to clean up my Brass handle and cord end, and replacing the rod....Ah, oh well. No biggie. She learned a lesson in keepin track of gear. At least it wasnt an expensive one!!
We started with the construction of a fire. I covered a base and brace, and the elements of a fire. I used twigs as a visual aid. I then covered man made tinders and firesteel technique. After a few tries she was lighting PJ balls with no problem. Awesome! After manmade tinder, I showed her how to harvest Cedar bark, and prep it into tinder. She had trouble lighting it with a ferro, but once she adjusted her technique, she caught on. On to the one stick fire. She loved spliting all the wood down to size, and made better shavings then Ive seen some people post on here. lol...Shes also less messy then me. hahaha....Well after 3 times of having to make scrapings after knocking em off the brace, and the wind blowing them away, she got the tinder to go.....She started by placing shavings on one at a time. "That aint gonna burn in piles!" I said, in my best IAwoodsman....She then built a fire. Im proud of her. She took direction well....for a woman. lol
I tried to snap as many pics as I could, but I found that its hard to do when you are teaching.
Cedar bark with firesteel. Her first natural tinder.
shavings
Scrapings
Her fire!
Tina enjoyin the fruits of labor, and some lunch.
Ok, heres something new. Last time I was out with Iz, he was telling me about charing bracket mushrooms so they would take a spark. He also told me about charing w/o a container. I had to try.
I found some and I knocked one off a tree with a long pole and put it in the fire. After messing with it and getting a char, it took a spark very well. It turned into a nice fat coal pretty quickly. While it was charring, I made up a tinder bundle from cedar bark. Blew into flame no prob. Thanks Iz....Another tool for the chest.
It required alot of attention to keep it from just burning up....
Cedar bundle
Check out this coal
From coal to flame....
Anyhow, hope ya enjoyed the pics. I had fun, my wife is awesome. Even if she left my firesteel in the fire. Heres something strange....After she left my firesteel to close and it got burnt up a bit, It wont spark now. It seems harder or something. Im happy I had a spare, but Im not happy about having to clean up my Brass handle and cord end, and replacing the rod....Ah, oh well. No biggie. She learned a lesson in keepin track of gear. At least it wasnt an expensive one!!
hope all is well with you folks.. tell Tina and the boys we said "hi"..
