What is the way you prepare a fire?

Diomedes Industries

Diomedes Industries

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Mar 19, 2007
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Take me through the steps on what YOU think is the best way to make a fire. Assume you are in a woods near your house and everything is fairly dry.

What do you use for starter, tinder, fuel, and the like? How do you build it? How do you maintain it? EVerything!

TF
 
Hi Jason I just bumped the thread that mistwalker started about his Breeden knife number 3 and On page 5 I did just what you are asking with the MEGA Warthorn I made my fire set up from start to finish so I could fire harden my spear that I made.
If you go that thread I just bumped it up and look on page 5 it will tell and show what I do. I would have posted the link but I do not know how. anyways this fires starting set up is what I do 99% of the time down to even making my own match to start it and then using my firesteel

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Bryan
 
On my last camping trip I built my first self feeding fire. You alternate wood layers, log cabin style filling in each layer, but start with the biggest wood on bottom. You work up to layers of twigs and I topped mine with a ball of frayed jute in a small fat wood teepee. It burned for hours without touching/feeding it.
 
BushcraftBrainTrust said:
I know putting the biggest logs on the bottom is counterintuitive, but it does work.
Click to expand...

Well...yeah, putting the biggest logs on bottom will work because you then have fuel above and delow the flame. Eventually those bigger logs will be part of your ember bed as the fire burns through them. When it's been really wet out I'll sometimes split larger limbs and lay them side by side with the split side up and use that as the platform I build my fire on.
 
My current favorite thing to do is use flint and steel for getting a flame because it is both primitive method but faster and easier to do than bowdrill. I like bowdrill but you gotta be in a mood to do it ;D

But I think what the OP is asking is how do you normally start a fire. Unfortunately, I can't really claim anything exotic. I use shavings of fatwood as initial kindling. I will make thicker pieces of kindling with a log by splitting it down into dowel sized pieces. I will take two of them and make a fuzzy. I save one of the larger (1/8 split piece of a log) for the bottom, then I just lay the fat wood slices on bottom piece in little ramps. I overlay the fuzz sticks over the fatwood. I light the fatwood (with a bic :() then I just fied the fire with fuel as needed. Somtimes this means continuing to cut kindling sized pieces, sometimes I just start adding larger pieces depending on how well the flame is doing.

I do prefer splitting up the wood by batoning my knife....I'm just goofy that way, although an axe would be faster.
 
[youtube]wFM71oT-DQU[/youtube]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/331857/how_rednecks_start_fires/

redneck_fire_starter.jpg


redneck_fire_starter_2.jpg
 
I use the same set up for dry wood as I do for wet wood.

[youtube]gqW0lmj6lzA[/youtube]

Firestarter is 3 ply cardboard soaked in candle wax.

Start with small wood, and progressively add larger pieces.

Once established, add wood as needed.

Works for me :thumbup:



Kind regards
Mick
 
step 1: line the bottom of the fire area with a covering of dry barks or sticks... (this is clutch to keep the fire from sucking up moisture fromt he soil)

step 2: gather 3 stages of kindling.. (this is the most time consuming part)
2 handfulls of match stick thick twigs
2 handfulls of pencil thick
4 handfulls of pencil to thumb thick

step 3: gather fuel armloads of wrist to arm thick

step 4 gather and prep tinder: dry grasses are great 4 handfulls and then beat. twist and tease them up take than divide in half and make 2 birds nests

step 5: stick a twig into the dirt behind my fire area at an extremely accute angle st that it angles out over the fire area

step 6:arrange to handfulls of matchstick size tinder over that twig (almost like an airy debris hut

step 7: follow suit with other size tinder

Step 8 ignite the first birde nest and place it in the opening of the fire lay beneath the twigs
step 9 gentl feed small kindling on top to allot flames to reach the scaffolding of kindling you've created..
.
step:10 continue to nurture and enjoy
 
Here's what I do in most of the cases.
First of all, nothing is dry in the Japanese woods.
All we can find within the woods is wet to some extent.

1. gather enough dead coniferous leaves and twigs. They have good amount of resin to keep fire. At higher altitude, birch bark will also be fine.
2. Ignite them with twisted yesterday's newspaper, which is kept within a plastic bag to keep dry. Light newspaper with BIC. If I don't have one, with firesteel.
3. Add more twigs and small logs to keep fire.
 
It's surprising, but I guess a sign of the times, how many people really don't know how to make a fire. (Not sayin' you Talfuchre, just the populus in general). Seems so simple to lil' pyros like me.

Not sure what tricks you are looking for, my technique is like Riley's. I make a dry bed; if on snow I'll make a little platform of sticks, logs, or even rocks (NOT river rocks!). I have my materials ready: lots of tinder, kindling, and small sticks. Bigger fuel waits in a separate pile. Form a loose tinder ball from what's at hand, bigger the better to catch a spark or flame. I light the tinder ball whatever that may be: cattails, scraped bark, dry grasses, etc. Then I slowly start adding kindling: small twigs, shaved wood, split branches. Progressively I'll add, thicker and thicker fuel until the fire has started to develop small coals and real heat. Only then do I add the split logs or thick branches.

I know some people like to set all the stuff in one big pile and then add a match, but I find it's quicker to nurture the fire along by adding bit of fuel until it really gets going.
 
I usualy get arm sive wood split and make two layer of split arm sized wood. And build my fire on top of that. Many people belive you need som sort of structure to make a fire .......tepee log cabin etc. You just need practice on geting the corect fuel to air ratio and you can build a fire almost any place. this works well also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMeRBBWv7lQ
 
I used to gather dry wood make a pyramid of small to large sticks and light with a match from the bottom. Sometimes it would take me 30 min just to get it ready to light. Of course this was all in good weather. A little more involved if everything was damp. Then I went camping with a friend from Wyoming. I was doing my bit when he asked "what the hell are you doing"? Building a fire I answered. At which point he went over and poured gas on the wood and threw a match. Since then I pretty much use chainsaw fuel. :-) Sorry, I just still find it amusing when thinking about it.
 
Many of my fires are started and built differently. It depends on what is available but the general form is to first split up wood, from this many of the pieces will have shattered splinters and I’ll pull these off the splits. Usually it’s enough splinters and debris to get a good fire started. I’ll pick up kindling as I see it or split up some slivers of fat lighter/resin pine, dead Spanish moss, canvas from palm trees, coconut husk, or whatever is laying around, newspaper, paper plates, trash just about anything. I lay out my kindling assorted in general sizes.

The nastiest gnarly log or piece of wood will be set as a wind break or to channel the wind, if one of my splits is very flat I’ll use that as a platform.

The flame source depends on how I feel, sometimes a lighter, match, flint, steel and char cloth, embers from a previous fire, a coal taken from another. I use char cloth quite a bit but since I’ve come to this forum I’ve stashed cotton and PJ and napalm fire goo, and ferro rods, the spark from these is amazing.

Catch the spark in char cloth, ignite the kindling then start piling on the smallest stuff working my way up to the big stuff.
 
1. I start by placing some thicker branches/logs on the ground. This is mainly done to feed the fire from below plus the embers will help start a new fire up in the morning. I also do it to avoid scorching the earth.

2. Preparation is key. Before i start my fire up, ive collected all the firewood ill need and shaved some birch-bark. I start splitting the thicker wood as square edges is easier to burn in the start. I make some fuzz sticks and place it all in a pyramid with my kindling in the middle. Its gotta be some thin sticks/splinters of wood that the kindling will ignite easily.

3. I find that it dosent take more than 1-3 strikes with the firesteel to ignite the birch-bark...After that, as long as ive prepared my firewood, its a breeze keeping it going.
 
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