Today... I failed....

[grunt soldier]

since folks are talking about birch bark. i seriously have better luck with it than fat wood. on a walk this year i found a couple birch trees that had blown over and were covered in snow. i wiped the snow off pulled off a couple pieces, roughed it up in the hands a bit and scraped it with the knife. 2 strikes and it was going. its some beautiful stuff lol

 

[Nonprophet]

Pic above reminds me of a quote

Indian makes small fire, sits close.
White man makes big fire, sits far away.

-- Stalking Wolf

AkA Grandfather right? I've read a bunch o fthe tracker books. Good stuff and several of my family have been to his school. Said it was very good!

 

[jeff_c]

Im not sure we have too many birch trees around here. At least not like in other regions.

 

[Dizwolf]

Pic above reminds me of a quote

Indian makes small fire, sits close.
White man makes big fire, sits far away.

-- Stalking Wolf

[youtube]zaspuQzdslQ[/youtube]

Who wants to sit close? That'll warm your beer up!

Started that fire with some shavings, magnesium filings, 2 makeup removal pads with vasoline, and one paper plate. The area has been snowed in for months, with a few periods of rain. I found 4 trees that had dropped and hung up on the way over. 2 of them were too big to safely take solo without powetools. The other two, I cut as high as I could reach. Trick is, be uphill, and be alert. Tie them off anyways, and move quick when they break. Lucky for me, it worked and they dropped clean out of the hangup. I got a bunch of good, clean, dry and seasoned wood out of that. With a full tree like that, you don't need to split anything. plenty of sticks and twigs.

 

[GTFord1]

Im not sure we have too many birch trees around here. At least not like in other regions.

This seems like a problem with an easy solution:

Plant birch tree in your backyard.

Wait 20 years for tree to grow.

Revel in easy-to-start fire in your backyard.

 

[JV3]

I was using a fire steel that I got a while back at a sportsmens show. I think its called the "strike master" or something. It works ok, but the rod on it is kind of thin, and I used quite a bit of it yesterday. The cotton balls were stuff from my dads air force survival kit. They werent soaked in anything, and later i tried out some dipped in vasoline, and some paper towels with olive oil on it, and they both worked great.

you need to go to goinggear and get yourself one of these .50cal firesteels

 

[rodloos]

excellent job practicing.
i'm anxious to get out there myself.

I don't see a lot of people using magnesium bars, is there any reason behind that?

I have several magnesium bars, but they just aren't as easy for me to get enough filings from to start the kindling. It takes a lot of scraping for me to just get a few sprinkles of metal filings, and it takes a pretty good amount of them to help get the kindling going. I have used them on occasion though, and of course they are not affected by getting wet, as a cotton ball would be.

 

[savagesicslayer]

Some pearls of wisdom I've learned over the years about fires.
Get your S*** together.(prep)
Start small especially with wet materials.Small things burn better than big things.
Build a base to start the fire on.it keeps it dry long enough for the fire to establish it's self.
split wood of ALL sizes.the sharp edges of the wood catch better than the round edges.
If you give up on a fire than you don't need one.(I forget where I heard this but I always liked it)
As was stated above Practice,practice,practice.
If you PJCBs won't work try dousing them with lighter fluid when you make them.They catch even better and burn hotter than normal.

 

[savagesicslayer]

you need to go to goinggear and get yourself one of these .50cal firesteels

I'd love to get one of those firesteels but I want a .50 cal casing to put it in.
(love that knife btw).

 

[kfgk14]

Same problem. Could get the packed tinder going (cotton ball with vaseline, dryer lint, etc.) and that could start my tinder. But I couldn't find anything dry enough to burn. I though about bringing down a few saplings, but my 6 and a baton just can't do that kind of heavy work.
Need me a good chopping blade.

 

[jeff_c]

Same problem. Could get the packed tinder going (cotton ball with vaseline, dryer lint, etc.) and that could start my tinder. But I couldn't find anything dry enough to burn. I though about bringing down a few saplings, but my 6 and a baton just can't do that kind of heavy work.
Need me a good chopping blade.

Sapplings would likely not burn well. Too green and wet. (inside).

 

[Gadgetaholic]

Need me a good chopping blade.

ESEE Lite Machete - it can chop!

 

[basb]

Make fine wood curls or fuzz sticks. They burn on PJCB even when damp/wet. The cotton balls and petroleum jelly produce enough heat to for that.
Saplings are better left untouched. Look for dead wood. Standing rather than lying. And personally i don't like taking down live wood for non-emergency cases
All can be done with the 4