4 Tips For the Successful use of a Ferro Rod

I love spark rods. These durable, yet affordable spark throwers will work in any temperature extreme and even work after being wet. And while a butane lighter may work best in most situations (since an open flame ignites a wider range of tinder than sparks alone), a “Ferro rod” makes a great piece of backup gear. They’ve also been around for over a century. Ferrocerium was invented in 1903 by the chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach in Austria. This alloy produces hot sparks in excess of 3,000F when it’s scraped against a rough surface or sharp edge. The recipe for this alloy varies, but it’s generally 50 percent cerium, 25 percent lanthanum, 19 percent iron, with small amounts of praseodymium, neodymium, and magnesium.

Carl Auer von Welsbach 

Ferrocerium rods are a popular fire starter among survival enthusiasts, though quite often, they are sold in packaging that is devoid of detailed instruction. This knowledge gap leads to frustrated newbies and mistaken claims that the products don’t work. Over the years, I’ve watched fledgeling survivalists stumble over the same problems—which are easily solved with a little understanding.

1. Scrape Off The Paint

Many spark rods are coated with a slick black paint to prevent corrosion and to keep them from scraping against each other during manufacture and transport to the marketplace. This paint will need to be scraped off before the sparks start to fly. Most often, the pressure you’d apply to scrape off sparks will also scrape off the paint and expose the ferrocerium.

2. Scrape Hard

I often advise my students to scrape the rod “like you’re trying to break it!” Dainty scraping won’t remove enough material from the rod or provide enough friction to ignite the scrapings. Scrape it like you mean it!

3. Pick The Right Fuel

Spark rods don’t light everything on fire. You’ll need natural plant-based fuzz for the tinder on this ignition method. Cotton balls and dryer lint are great choices in the backyard, while cattail seed down, goldenrod fluff, and milkweed down are great materials to source in the wild. Dry, dead leaves and coarse wood shavings may also seem like a fit, but those usually won’t light with sparks alone. You’d typically need the open flame of a match or lighter to get them going.

4. Move the Rod, Not the Scraper

I often see beginners throwing more tinder around than sparks. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to correct that flawed technique. If you hold the scraper still and pull the rod away (imagine you’re pulling the cord to start a chainsaw or push mower) you won’t knock the tinder all over the place. You’ll still get your shower of hot sparks, without the destructive follow-through of the scraper.

How to Cook in a Steam Pit

The steam pit is one of those traditional cooking methods that is a fair bit of work, but it's also worth the trouble. If you've been to a real Luau, you have enjoyed the results of a steam pit (or steam mound). These cooking techniques use a hole or mound with hot rocks at the bottom, with layers of dirt, vegetation and food above the hot rocks. The heat of the rocks produces steam from the dirt and vegetation, cooking great tasting food that stays hot for hours until you're ready to eat it.

To start out, a pit of varying depth and width is dug in the dirt, clay or sand. The pit can be as small as one foot deep and one foot wide, or as big as you need if you have enough hot rocks and food to fill it. I typically dig two feet wide and a foot and a half deep to cook for a few people, but I once dug a steam pit as big as a grave to cook 72 fish for a large group.

Next, you'll need rocks and lots of firewood. Select suitable rocks from a high, dry location. These rocks are placed in the bottom of the pit to see how many it will take and where the stones fit best. You have a choice now of leaving the stones in the pit and building the fire on top of them, or taking the rocks out of the pit and placing them in a big fire. Either way, the stones should be heated for two hours.

If you heat the rocks in the pit, you must scoop the remaining wood, charcoal, coals and ash out of the pit when the rocks are hot enough. The wood, ash and charcoal will give the food an unpleasant "wet smoked" flavour otherwise. If you heat the rocks outside of the pit, you can use a shovel to scoop them up and move them into the pit. You can also just roll them or slide them with a stout pole.

Once the pit has the hot rocks in it, cover them with an inch or two of dirt or sand. Then place 6 to 8 inches of vegetation over the dirt. Next, put your food in a single layer, with the things that need the most cooking in the centre and the other foods around the edges. Leave a few inches of space between the foods and the wall of the pit for even cooking. Then cover your food with another 6 to 8 inches of vegetation.

Once you have your food in the pit between layers of vegetation, you can cover the pit with the dirt from digging the hole. A layer of bark, mats or cloth could go on before the dirt to make dirt removal easier when the cooking is done. When the final dirt goes on, your work is done. Just come back three or more hours later, dig up your food, and enjoy.

Tips for working with a Steam Pit:

• A "rock kettle" can make a good steam pit, but you'll still have to dig up some dirt to cover it.

• Work quickly to get your vegetation and food in the pit so that your hot rocks don't cool off too much before you seal the pit.

•  A few cups of water poured over the top layer of green vegetation will generate more steam and conduct heat to your food more efficiently.

• Use enough dirt on top so that no steam is seen escaping.

• In freezing cold weather, you may need to build a fire on top of the pit.

• If the ground is cold and/or very wet, use a thin layer of small or thin rocks before putting in the bigger hot rocks. This will keep the soil from conducting away too much of the rock's heat.

A wide variety of non-toxic vegetation can be used in Steam Pits. Here is a partial list of materials that are good -- and some materials to avoid.

Good Steam Pit Vegetation:

• Grasses, sedges, cordgrass, cattail leaves, reeds and rushes edible weeds like amaranth, lamb's quarters

• Leaves and leafy branches of mild smelling and tasting trees like maples and willows

• Good tasting and smelling leaves of sassafras and spicebush

• Seaweed (but watch out for sea lice and other little sea creatures)

• White Pine needles (and most other pines, except for ponderosa and loblolly pines which may be toxic)

Toxic or Foul Tasting Vegetation:

• Oak, walnut and tulip poplar leaves -- Foul tasting

• Buckeye and horse chestnut tree leaves -- Toxic

• Cherry tree leaves -- Become deadly poison as they wilt

• Pokeweed leaves and stalks -- Toxic to poisonous

• Rhododendron, laurel and most evergreen shrubs -- Toxic to poisonous

• Iris leaves and jimsonweed leaves -- Toxic

• Some ferns -- Toxic

• Any unknown herbs, weeds, wildflowers or shrubs -- Potentially toxic

Please tell let me know in the comments if you have done this technique, or just enjoyed the results of this great outdoor cooking method.

3 Tips for Better Tinder

Tinder is the dead, dry plant-based material that is capable of turning a coal, ember or spark into a flame. Tinder is one of the foundation pieces for fire making, and you can often find excellent tinder in the form of grasses, leaves, pine needles, fibrous tree bark, weed tops, seed down, wood shavings, and more unusual stuff like palm fibre and certain mosses. Whatever you choose, these natural materials should have several things in common.

First, it should all be dead—but usually not rotten—plant based materials. Rotten plants usually lose more and more of their fuel value as they decompose. But there are always exceptions. Just remember ... dead plant-based materials.

Second, it should be as dry as it possibly can be. In rainy weather, this may mean finding a few scraps of tinder at a time, even one leaf at a time, and KEEPING the tinder dry while you search for more.

Finally, it should be light, airy and have a lot of surface area for its mass. In other words, it needs to be fluffy. Materials that are not fluffy should be processed in some way to increase their surface area so that they can reach their combustion temperature as quickly as possible.

Not every tinder type is “ready to use” when you find it in nature. It may be too coarse, too flat, or too solid to burn effectively. But with the right processing technique, we can change this vital material - increasing its surface area and enabling it to burn quickly and easily. Here are three ways you can get your materials in shape for fire starting.

1. Shred It

That’s right, tear it apart by hand! Start by tearing at large sections, and then tear the remainders into shreds. This technique works well for tree bark fibre (like tulip poplar, basswood, cedar, pawpaw and many others). You can also shred weed tops and seed down into a fluffier form.

2. Pound Away

Easy and therapeutic, pounding your tinder with a rock can separate the fibres nicely (and give you a constructive place to vent your rage). Most of the fibrous dead inner tree barks and plant stalk fibres work really well with this trick. Wad up the fibres into a ball or fold them into a linear bundle, and pound them with a rock or similar hard object. Turn the bundle often, and you’ll cover all of your surface area with no trouble. Pound your tinder on a hard log or a stone for best results. Keep working until your tinder has the desired fluffiness. If you don’t have a dry place to work, shred the tinder instead of pounding. By pounding on damp or wet surfaces, you’re driving moisture into the tinder and reducing its flammability.

3. Scrape and Scratch

When dealing with trees that have a fibrous outer bark (like cedar, cypress and juniper), you can use your trusty knife or even a sharp stone to scrape off fibrous tinder. This can even be done on live trees, without harming them. Just scrape off some of the fibrous outer bark, and collect the fuzz you remove. You can also scrape wood to make wood shavings if no other tinder is available (or dry).

Make the Most of Your Fire with a Reflecting Wall

Retain more heat from your fire with a fire wall.

The reflecting wall is a great structure to build in semi-permanent camps, and you can even build quick ones at overnight stopping points. These walls block some of the wind (when positioned correctly) and they reflect more of the heat of a fire back toward the user. When used in conjunction with a survival shelter, these walls can create a much more comfortable micro-climate by literally “fencing in” the heat. The wall can be any size or shape, and built from many different materials. Of course, bigger is better. And smoother walls reflect heat better than rough ones. But as long as you have something in place to reflect back lost heat, each stick you burn will make you feel warmer than you would feel without the wall.

Wooden Walls

Any wood can be used for a reflecting wall. If you’d like it to last, cut and stack green wood for your wall. The extra moisture of live wood will limit its flammability. If you’d like the wall to double as a firewood drying rack, you can build it from dead wood that is wet. Just pull out the sticks as they dry, throw them in the fire, and replace them with new wet pieces as you go. You could even use rotten wood to build your wall, if that’s all you have available. The bottom logs or poles that are closest to the fire will dry out and begin to burn first, unless you plaster them with mud, prop flat stones against them, or build the wall far enough away (about 1 yard) that it cannot burn. To build your wall, gather a pile of logs or poles, and drive two stout stakes into the ground. They should be closer together than the length of your shortest log. Set your thickest log on the ground, butted up against the two stakes, then drive in another pair of stakes to pin the log in place. If you plan a low reflecting wall, use stakes about a yard long and drive one foot into the ground. Go for longer stakes is you want a higher wall.

Stone and Mud Walls

For semi-permanent camps (or when stone is your most abundant resource), build a stone wall to bounce back the heat of a fire which would normally be lost. The rocks can be laid “dry” (without any mortar), or you can use mud or clay as a mortar substitute. Mixing dead grass with the mud will add additional strength to the mortar. And if enough mud and grass were available, you could even build your reflecting wall entirely from mud mortar (also known today as “cob”). Make it wider at the base for stability, insert sticks here and there for internal support, smooth the surface for heat reflection, and don’t go too high all at once. Top heavy mud walls tend to flop over.

A Note on Safety

For any rocks you plan to use near a fire, make sure you get your rocks from a dry location. It’s also smart to test them in a campfire (while you’re at a distance) to make sure they don’t explode. NEVER use rocks you collected by a waterway (high rate of explosion). Ever built a fire reflecting wall? Please share your results by leaving a comment.

5 Essential Bushcraft Knife Skills to Learn

The best bushcraft knife in the World will not guarantee it's going to be useful for you in the wilderness.  In order for it to be useful when it really counts,  you need to learn and practice some basic bushcraft knife skills.  In this article, I'm going to show you 5 knife skills that you can start working on today.

The great thing about learning to use your bushcraft knife is that you can do this in your backyard.  Thpractisinging is fun and over time you will become proficient with your bush knife.  Then if the need ever arises in the wilderness or a survival situation you will be prepared and know that you have chosen the right knife for the task.

Carving

Carving is probably going to be one main uses for your bushcraft knife.   This will allow you to make useful tools like spoons, bowls, and fire boards.  Carving is also something that is fun to practice at home and will greatly increase your overall control with your bushcraft knife.

You are also going to find out how well your bushcraft knife does at some of the smaller tasks.  Many people want a thick long blade for their main knife but those knives can suffer sometimes when it comes to the finer tasks like carving.

There are many knives made especially for carving like hook knives.  And while I use and suggest you have these knives as well, I also suggest you learn to do carving with your main bushcraft knife.  That way if the situation ever arises where it's the only knife on your person you know what to expect from that knife and your bushcraft knife skill set.

Batoning

Okay, I'm going to start right off by saying that batoning is controversial among bushcrafters.  Many believe that you shouldn't use your bushcraft knife for batoning, myself included.  I prefer to carry an axe, saw or hatchet to perform wood tasks around the camp.

However, I still feel like it's a skill you should learn and practice because you never know when the situation arises that you don't have an axe or hatchet.  It's better to be prepared and know whether or not your knife can handle the task of batoning when you are at home in your backyard than when you really need it.

Most of your batoning will be done in the form of splitting wood.  You will need to select a bushcraft knife that is a few inches longer than the wood you are trying to split. 

Place the wood on a solid surface standing on end.  Then place your knife on top of that.  Strike out towards the exposed tip of the knife with a small hard piece of wood (the baton).  Keep batoning the knife until you split the wood. 

Try not to hit directly on the tip to protect the knife if possible.  A thicker blade will usually give you better results when batoning and is less like to take damage.  Also, it's important to have a full tang knife blade when doing this to avoid breaking the knife from the handle or scales.

Besides splitting wood, you can also baton with your knife when truncating wood.  This is when you are cutting small diameter wood into shorter pieces.  The procedure is basically the same as splitting wood but instead of placing the wood on its end you are placing it on its side.

Finally, you can baton with your knife to make deeper notches in your wood (similar to a wood chisel) or to also cut off small branches.   Even though not everyone agrees on using their knife for batoning I would still recommend learning the skill and to make sure you have a knife that can hold up to this bushcraft knife skill.

Feather Sticks

Making feather sticks is an important bushcraft skill to learn with your knife.   Feather sticks will allow you to start a fire when wood is damp and other methods might fail.  They will provide quick and intense heat for your fire at the beginning.  Another thing is that by making feather sticks you will improve your other bushcraft knife skills.

A good method is using a light touch to make light slices in the wood.  This will give you nice curls in your feather stick.  By practising this skill you will see how well your knife's blade bevel and sharpness does with this common bushcraft tasks.

Practice this skill in conjunction with your carving and fire starting skill below.  In no time you will be able to make some impressive feather sticks and you will be prepared to light a fire in adverse conditions.

Fire Starting

Making a fire is paramount in survival situations or just general bushcrafting.  It's important to know if your knife can handle this task.  It's also easy to practice at home in your backyard.

One technique to practice is whether or not the spine of your bushcraft blade can ignite a ferrocerium rod.   The Ferro rod is an easy way to start a fire and can be used thousands of times over. 

In order to do this, you will need a knife with a good 90-degree spine in order to throw a good amount of sparks.  You may need to file the knife spine down to achieve this but it's definitely worth the effort.  A good shower of sparks could be the difference between getting a fire started and sleeping in the cold.

Another fire starting technique to learn is flint and steel.  This technique will only work with your knife if it has a carbon blade.  A stainless steel knife blade won't throw off a spark when struck with a piece of flint.   For this reason, many bushcrafters only use carbon knives.

As with all bushcraft skills, practising fire starting at home and often will make your proficient for those times when you need to get a fire started in the wild.  I also suggest practising not only with dry material but also wet material.  The same applies to cold and warm weather.  It's much easier to gain confidence on starting a fire in wet cold conditions knowing your house is just a few yards away.

Chopping

As if batoning wasn't' controversial enough, I give you chopping.   Many people like to use their bushcraft knife to chop down small trees to make shelters or tools around the camp.  This can be very hard on a knife blade and can loosen handle scales and damage knives.

I'm going to say the same thing here as I did with batoning in that it's a good bushcraft knife skill that you can learn at home.  You will know right away if your knife is good for this type of task. 

The most common method of chopping with a knife is getting out towards the end of the handle with your grip.  Some people only use 3 fingers to grip the handle which makes it easier to give the knife some swinging momentum when striking wood.  Just be careful that you still have a decent grip on the knife for your own safety and the safety of others.

You might also find after using your knife for batoning and chopping that it will work but isn't great for those tasks so you will instead choose to carry and axe, saw or hatchet into the woods.  Again better to learn that now that in a situation where you really need it.

Summary

You will notice that the theme of this article is to practice these skills at home before you are in a situation where your life may depend on it.  Not only will you find out what your bushcraft knife is capable of but you will also improve your own bushcraft skill set. 

An okay bushcraft knife is better in someone's hands with expert skills than a great bushcraft knife is in someone lacking good bushcraft knife skills.  By working at this you will become the former and it will be less stressful when you need these skills.

I hope this helped and please if you have any tips of your own, comment with your thoughts below

What Do You Think Of The History Channel's Show "Alone?"

I'm curious, what do you all think of The History Channel's  show "Alone?" All the contestants appear to be Youtube guys, which makes sense since they have more experience with video, etc. I have great respect for them putting themselves out there like that. But many seemed to not have much experience spending time alone in the woods considering they are billing themselves as survival experts. After just a day or two, some were crying on camera. One couldn't make fire with fatwood, which is waterproof and burns in the rain. Many could not get a fire going after several days, unaware of how to dry tinder inside a jacket.

Still, I think it is an entertaining show and shows the harsh reality of life in a survival situation. I do think it's overzealous that History branded all of them as "survival experts" just because they have Youtube channels. Some of these guys obviously have good skills and are entertaining to watch, but some have padded their resumes a bit, or else History did it for them. Had they not been represented as survival experts, I would say most of them have done a great job so far. 

Maybe History Channel should just remove the "expert" moniker and then the show would better represent itself. I think many people have grown weary of survival shows misrepresenting themselves in this manner. What do you think?

Leave a comment below or join the discussion on Facebook

How to Sleep Well Outside

This post is aimed primarily at those who are getting started with camping, bushcraft etc. and will probably be old hat to most of you.  I won’t be covering hammock camping because I shall be covering that in a later post.

“The matter of a good portable bed is the most serious problem in outfitting. A man can stand almost any hardship by day, and be none the worse for it, provided he gets a comfortable night’s rest; but without sound sleep, he will soon go to pieces, no matter how gritty he may be.” – Horace Kephart

If you have read Horace Kephart’s “Camping and Woodcraft”, you know that he was a very practical and experience-based outdoorsman. Though some of his equipment and methods may be antiquated (he published his most famous book around a century ago, after all), a great amount of useful information can still be gleaned from his writings today, in my opinion, especially if you are fond of older-style gear and ways as I am. Kephart’s statement about sleeping outdoors is as true today as it has ever been, and my own experiences have mirrored this.

After trying an array of different tents, tarps, wool blankets, sleeping bags, browse beds, foam pads, animal fleeces, bivvy bags and combinations thereof in a variety of temperatures and conditions, I have identified the six conditions which I find must be met in order to sleep well:

1. Make sure you don’t get wet, whether it be from rain, snow, ground moisture or perspiration. Make sure your tarp or natural shelter is large enough (and thick enough, in the case of a natural shelter) to provide effective protection against the rain, which can drive sideways in windy conditions. This isn’t much of an issue if you are in a good fully enclosed tent. A plastic sheet or sufficient natural bedding material will separate you from the dampness of the ground if not in a tent. If your bivvy is not breathable, leave it unzipped part or most of the way to allow moisture from perspiration to escape so that it does not soak your sleeping bag.

2. You should be protected from the wind to prevent cold air from displacing the cocoon of warm air around you. Fully enclosed tents do this automatically, but tarps and natural shelters must be positioned so that their open side does not face the prevailing wind. Having a wind-proof bivvy bag makes positioning of the outer shelter less of an issue.

3. The material around you should be thick and insulative enough to provide insulation from the cold air. The colder the air, the thicker and more insulative the material, whether it be man-made or natural materials. It’s a good idea to use sleeping bags rated to lower temperatures than you think you’ll experience, just to be on the safe side. If using natural materials, wool blankets etc., only field testing will tell you if your insulation is warm enough. A proper heating fire can negate the need for material physically surrounding the body if you go that route.

4. The material underneath you should be thick enough to provide insulation from the cold ground. In many cases, a lot more heat can be lost through the ground than through the air, so ground insulation is one of the most crucial elements to keeping warm and sleeping well. If using spruce boughs in cold weather, for example, make your bed thick (30 cm/12 in thick at least). Some materials compress a lot when you lie on them, so be doubly sure you have enough. I have heard that inflatable sleeping pads are not as effective as good foam pads in cold weather, so that’s something else to be aware of.

5. The material underneath you should be thick enough to compensate for the hardness of the ground and any objects in/on it which would otherwise be uncomfortable to sleep on. Sleeping on the ground is a lot different from sleeping in your bed at night. The ground does not adjust to the contours of your body, so it’s your body that has to do the adjusting, including on rocks, sticks and other such annoyances (which, by the way, should be moved away beforehand anyway, if possible). Sufficiently thick bedding increases comfort immeasurably.

6. There should be a layer of protection against creepy-crawlies, mosquitoes etc. at some level if they are out and about. Whether it’s a tent or tarp’s mosquito netting, a smudge fire or mosquito netting stretched over the face area of the bivvy bag (my favourite method), there must be some physical or chemical barrier which prevents annoying insects from preying on you. Forgetting this crucial element in an area swarming with biting bugs can make any sleep, much less good sleep, very difficult.

These things may seem obvious to many of you, but if you are starting from scratch without much guidance, some of them may not be immediately evident. If it seems that I’m being overly thorough, it’s for the sake of completeness. If it seems I’m not being thorough enough, please share what you know!

After (lots of) trial and error, I’ve arrived at the following setup which works well for me (not saying it’s perfect or ideal, just that it works for me):

Shelter: Simple tarp or multi-configuration floorless tent with a plastic ground sheet (Open shelter allows heat from the fire to enter.)

Outermost sleep system layer: waterproof bivy bag, unzipped to allow moisture to escape.

Inside the bivvy bag: one or more sleeping bags on top of climate-appropriate sleeping pads/animal fleeces (Having the sleeping pads inside the bivy prevents me from rolling off them, which I often tend to do.)

In the Summer: mosquito netting stretched over the area of the bivy bag near my face.

Here are a few other ideas which can help improve the quality of your night out:

• Placing a bottle full of warm to hot water in your sleeping bag can help keep up the temperature inside.

• Keeping a clean bottle with a tight-fitting cap (“pee bottle”) inside your sleeping bag can allow men to answer nature’s call without having to leave their sleeping setup (sorry ladies).

• Drinking a bit of hot tea before bed can help keep you warm for a while after going to sleep.

• If you wake up a bit cold, “exercise” inside your sleeping bag (sit-ups etc.) to heat yourself and the bag again.

• If your clothes are not especially dry, change them before going to bed to avoid bringing extra moisture with you into your sleeping bag.

• Keep extra socks handy in case your feet get chilly overnight. In colder conditions, long underwear, gloves and a balaclava may also be useful.

• Don’t set up camp in a recessed area, if you can avoid it because it will likely be colder than surrounding areas.

3 Handy Tips for Ferrocerium Rods

Ferrocerium rods are a favourite fire starter among many outdoor and survival enthusiasts. Ferrocerium is a man-made metallic material that produces sparks in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit when it’s scraped with a rough surface or a sharp edge. The ferrocerium recipe varies by manufacturer, but it’s generally 50 percent cerium, 25 percent lanthanum, and 19 percent iron, with small amounts of praseodymium, neodymium, and magnesium. The most common use of this material is as the flint in cigarette lighters. And while a butane lighter may work best in most fire-starting situations, a “Ferro rod” makes a great back-up. Here are three things to keep in mind when using a Ferro rod to start a fire.

Pick The Best Tinder: It might seem odd to use natural plant fuzz as tinder, but it is truly one of your best choices for getting a flame started, and works as well as cotton balls or dryer lint. These fibrous and fluffy materials of botanical origin are the perfect fuel to allow the sparks to “stick” and begin burning. Cattail seed down, goldenrod fluff, and milkweed down are among my favourites to use. Just collect a little bit when it’s dry, and store it in a water-tight container for use in fire starting.

Move The Rod, Not The Scraper: Rather than pushing the scraper against the rod toward your tinder, pull the rod across the scraper toward yourself. You’ll still provide a hot shower of sparks, but avoid knocking your tinder all over the place with your follow-through.

In The Deep Cold: Can’t get your butane lighter to work at 10F? That’s because butane will begin to gel once temperatures get into the teens. If the butane gels, you may be able to warm it up by placing it inside your clothing for a while. Or you could just move to your ferrocerium rod, which is unaffected by temperature extremes, and even works when wet.

How do you use your Ferro rods? Let me know your method by leaving a comment.

Fire Pits, Mounds, and Platforms

Fire is one of our best friends in a wilderness emergency, and we need to plan accordingly for it. When it’s time to set up a fireplace, you’ll need to figure out exactly where and how to build it. Some conditions require a mound underneath your fire, while other circumstances demand a fire pit. And in a few situations, the fire has to be on a platform in order to burn at all. Here are some of the conditions in which to use each.

Fire Pits

These are the most common places to build and maintain a fire. Most fire pits are circular, dish-shaped depressions or holes. They can be almost any size or depth, depending on the size of the fire you need. These depressions cradle the fire, grouping the coals in the center to help them burn longer and hotter. You don’t want to make the hole so deep that it keeps in all the heat, unless you’ve had to build a fire under very windy conditions. For this case, you’ll want to create a Dakota fire hole. This is a Native American fireplace style which burns wood efficiently like a wood stove; and it provides a greater margin of fire safety by keeping coals and flames fairly contained in windy conditions. This setup involves two holes in the ground with a tunnel connecting them at the bottom. The “upwind” hole stays empty and acts as a funnel to catch the wind. The fire burns in the “downwind” hole, relatively safely.

Fire Mounds

In wetter climates, or in areas prone to sudden downpours of rain, the fire mound makes a lot of sense. Fire pits can easily fill with water and drown your coal bed. When this happens, your fire is doomed. The ancient forebears to the Seminole natives started using simple mounds of sand to keep their fires going in the wet and swampy terrain of the American southeast. This technique is still in use there today. Fire mounds can be made from almost any non-flammable material: Sand, soil, mud and stone can all be used to give you a mound for a high and dry fireplace. Build the mound as tall as you need, from a few inches to a foot tall.

Fire Platform

Burning a fire on top of the snow is often one of those things that you never really think about until you have to do it. In areas with little snow, you can always dig down to the soil surface to build your fire. But if the snow is very deep, or you lack digging tools, fire on top of the snow is the best option. Less experienced outdoor enthusiasts often get a rude shock the first time they try burning a fire directly on the snow. The fire starts out normally enough. Then the snow melts, which puts out your coals and leaves you with no fire and a jumble of wet, black sticks. To solve this problem, you’re going to need a platform. This can be a manmade material such as a piece of metal for a platform. You’ll just need some logs or rocks under it, so the metal doesn’t melt the snow underneath. If you don’t have metal, the platform can be made of dead wood, rotten wood or green wood. This last choice is the best, because the live wood has enough moisture in it to keep it from burning for a few hours, but not so much moisture that it puts out your burning sticks or bed of coals. You can use whole chunks of wood or split the wood in half to create a very flat platform. Obviously, the whole pieces will last longer than split wood. Replace the raft as needed.

The Paradisiacal Pine Resin

Pine resin or pitch is the secretion from pine trees caused by cuts in the tree trunk or from broken limbs. The trees secrete the resin to seal up any cuts or damage to the tree. If you find yourself lost or stranded in a wilderness environment one of the best-case scenarios is that there are pine trees in the area. Pine resin exposed to the air will harden/crystallise but it can be softened for use by heating.

Medical Uses for Pine Resin

Treating wounds

A traditional use for pine resin has been as an external treatment for burns and sores. A long-term study was done by Russian scientists and published in the April 2002 issue of the “Byulleten’ Eksperimental’noi Biologii I Meditsiny” found that pine resin, as a main active ingredient in Biopin ointment, inhibited antibodies found in bodily fluids but aided healing and prevented infection by boosting cell immunity. The ointment did not cause irritation or allergic reactions.

Rheumatism

Native Americans have used pine resin to treat rheumatism because of its anti-inflammatory properties. The resin acts to remove the joint inflammation caused by rheumatism, which helps to restore movement and to alleviate pain. The Costanoan Indians gained these benefits by chewing on the gum-like resin.

Other Uses for Pine Resin

During the American Civil War, the Confederate surgeon Francis Porter used pine resin as a stimulant, diuretic, and laxative. In China,  the resin from a particular pine tree is used to treat abscesses. Resin from the spruce tree was used by colonial Americans as a cold and cough remedy, as well as straight from the tree as a cancer treatment. Physicians in colonial America also recommended tar water, or ground pine resin mixed with water, as a remedy for ulcers, smallpox, and syphilis. These are traditional holistic medicinal uses for pine resin that have not, as of yet, been confirmed by modern science as effective, but that does not mean there is no basis for some of the claims made about resin’s anti-inflammatory properties.

This may be so but the fact is that the resin once applied to a cut or scrape will inhibit the growth of bacteria because it denies the bacteria the moisture it needs to survive. Because of its very sticky nature, pine resin can be applied directly to a bleeding cut to help stem the flow of blood and close the wound up similar to stitching. Some survival experts use pine pitch in place of super glue to seal up cuts. Leave the resin in place, and reapply as needed. There have been reported cases where serious bleeding wounds have been stemmed using pine resin.

Waterproofing Shoes and Other Materials

Pine resin is essentially impervious to water so it can be used to treat objects to make them resistant to the damages caused by moisture. It can be used to seal seams, repair breaks/holes in boats, shoes and structures to prevent water leaks. In a survival situation, you may have to repair holes in boots, shoes and shelters. You can also use the resin to waterproof the lower half of your hiking shoes or boots.

The resin must be heated to liquid form so it can be applied to the material. Avoid heating the resin in a shallow container over an open flame because the flames from the fire can easily ignite the resin, which is highly flammable. Let the fire burn down to coals before heating the pitch. Find a short green stick and repeatedly strike one end to create bristles in the wood, (paintbrush) or chew on the end to break the fibres apart so they can be used to apply the pitch. Use the resin to repair holes in canvas and heavy nylon. Lay the material flat where the rip or seam is exposed. Once the resin is heated to liquid form, apply using the fibrous end of the stick.

Pine Pitch Glue

Warm the resin to liquid form and while the resin is heating, crumble some charcoal from the fire as fine as possible. Once the resin is ready, remove it from the heat and stir in the powdered charcoal. The amount of charcoal added should be about one-third as compared to the volume of the pitch. Find a solid stick with a blunt end and dip repeatedly in the mixture to form a ball of pitch on the end. You may need two sticks. This is how the glue is stored until needed. The glue will harden and to use heat until pliable.

Use the glue to form fishhooks, repair the soles of shoes and use to repair holes in water containers. Use the glue to apply feathers to homemade arrows or allow hardening on the ends of fishing/hunting spears to prevent splintering. Glue in a survival situation has unlimited uses.

Fire Starting

Pine resin is flammable and can be used to help start a fire in damp conditions. You may find yourself in a situation where all of the available wood is damp but this does not mean you have to go without a fire.

Find some hardened pine resin and some pine sticks/branches. Split the sticks and look for streaks of resin in the wood. Use magnesium shavings and a flint bar or you can use a Ferro rod to ignite the pitch. Lay some dried pine needles near the pitch and ignite the pitch. It will burn like a candle long enough to dry the needles out and you can begin adding small pieces of the pine which even if somewhat damp in the middle will burn because of the resin. Once you have, a sizable flame established you could then begin drying out other wood.

Illumination and Heat

You can use pine resin to create a lamp. Find a stone with a depression or use a clamshell or any type of shell that can be filled with resin or use a cupped shaped piece of bark. You will also need material for a wick. Use some twisted cloth or even dried moss. Fill the depression with the pitch and lay the wick material on top. You ignite the wick first, which will, in turn, ignite the resin. The resin will burn like a candle and you can feed it more resin to maintain the flame once ignited.

To use as a heat source place a metal container that has plenty of air holes in it over the ignited pitch. The metal container will absorb the heat and conduct to the surrounding area. This method will not heat a large area but will warm hands and feet in an emergency.

Considerations

In most cases, you will find damaged pine trees/broken limbs that have secreted resin. It is recommended that you first look for damaged and fallen limbs before you purposely cut into a pine tree to harvest the resin. If you have to damage the tree do it in a small area on one side of the tree only. Only take as much as you need, you must allow some resin to remain on the tree so it can protect the cut to prevent boring insects from destroying the tree.

References and Resources

USDA Plant Guide: Monterey Pine

Pine Resin and Biopin Ointment: Immunotoxic and Allergenic Activity; Simbirtsev et al,

Plant Resins: Chemistry, Evolution, Ecology, and Ethnobotany; Jean H. Langenheim; Timber Press, 2003, pgs. 453-454

Plant Lore: Cattail

The most common cattail (Typha latifolia) that we all recognise is a tall plant often found growing in dense stands in wetland areas, such as marshes and bogs. Various other species of cattail are found worldwide.

General Characteristics:

The very recognisable and familiar cattail flowers begin as green spikes (female parts) with loose, dangling hairs containing pollen (male parts) above that. Once fertilised, the female parts turn dark brown and the male parts fall away, leaving a stiff, pointed spike. The leaves are very tall and narrow (grass-like). A tall marsh plant, that grows in dense groups. Early in the year, the top of the head has a slender tail of lighter coloured staminate flowers, the lower dark brown area being tightly packed pistillate flowers. In fact, the flowers are very prolific, one stalk will produce an estimated 220,000 seeds. Even with this number of seeds, cattails colonise by sending up clones from the creeping rhizomes. It has been recorded that a cattail marsh can travel up to 17 feet in a year with prime conditions through the cloning process. Colonisation can happen quickly, as one new seed produces a plant, that new shoot in its first year will send out rhizomes for ten feet in all directions and can produce 100 clones in that first growing season. Cattails can reach heights 3-9 feet.

There are some poisonous look-alikes that may be mistaken for cattail, but none of these look-alikes possesses the brown seed head.

Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) and Yellow Flag (Iris pseudoacorus) and other members of the iris family all possess the cattail-like leaves, but none possesses the brown seed head. All members of the Iris family are poisonous. Another look-alike which is not poisonous, but whose leaves look more like cattail than iris is the Sweet Flag (Acorus calumus). Sweet Flag has a very pleasant spicy, sweet aroma when the leaves are bruised. It also does not possess the brown seed head. Neither the irises nor cattail has the sweet, spicy aroma. I have seen large stands of cattails and sweet flag growing side by side. As with all wild edibles, positive identification is essential. If you are not sure, do not eat it.

The list of uses for this plant is quite extensive and it has been said that if a lost person has found cattails, they have four of the five things they need to survive: Water, food, shelter and a source of fuel for heat—the dry old stalks. The one item missing is companionship. Some of the plant's major uses are:

Food source

The stems a few inches above the soil line in early summer are young and tender and can be peeled and eaten raw or boiled. The roots are great as well, simply pull the lower stalks until the roots break free, peel and eat raw or boil. The cattail will also develop flower heads that can be eaten by roasting as if you would an ear of corn. By mid to late summer, pollen will collect on the heads and it is easily shaken loose into any container to be used like flour to make bread, pancakes and can be used for thickeners in gravies and sauces. The roots in late fall and early winter can be mashed and soaked in water to release the starch. The starch will settle on the bottom and will resemble wet flour. Drain the water off and make bread, by adding a little pollen or add to clean water to make soup. Cattails are an ideal survival food because they are easily recognisable and grow practically anywhere there is water.

Shelter Material

The green leaves can be cut and woven together into shingle like squares for covering a shelter roof. The material will provide protection from the rain, snow and the wind even after it has dried. Weave a sleeping mat by making two long mats. Connect the mats on one side so it can be folded like a sleeping bag. Before folding over fill one side with pine boughs or other material suitable for sleeping on and then fold the empty half over and tie off so the “stuffing” is secured inside. You can fold the mat up and carry it with you if you have to break camp for another location.

Medicinal Uses

Cattails are truly a survival plant in the truest sense of the word. They not only provide, food, material for shelters and cordage cattails have medicinal uses as well. To treat burns, scrapes, insect bites and bruises split open a cattail root and “bruise” the exposed portion so it can be used as a poultice that can be secured over the injured area.

The ash of burnt cattails is said to have antiseptic properties and many people have used the ashes to treat wounds and abrasions. If you look closely at the lower stems you will notice an amber or honey like substance that seeps from the stem, use this secretion to treat small wounds and even toothaches, because it also has antiseptic properties.

Baskets or Packs

You can get creative and weave baskets or small packs for carrying food or other items. Cross a number of leaves together and once you have the base the size you want you would fold the pieces up and then weave around the sides to secure the shape. You can easily weave handles or straps into the basket/pack. The basket will become stronger as the cattail leaves dry and harden.

Cordage

Peel strips from the leaves and allow them to dry somewhat. Once dried braid at least three strips together to create a line for fishing or use in shelter building.

As you can see there are many edible and useful parts of the cattail, but now we are going to take a look at the uses for the fluff from the seed head:

Tinder

Once shredded from the seed head, the cattail fluff expands into a soft, string-like material – perfect for trapping sparks to create a campfire. Ensure you mix some other material with it as well. However, cattail fluff can burn very quickly, sometimes too quickly!

Charcloth

For starting a fire with old-fashioned flint and steel sets, or when using a magnifying glass to intensify the sun’s rays to start a fire, Charcloth is an ideal product to use.

The steps to create this handy material are quite simple; just pack a metal box with cattail fluff, pierce the box with a nail to make a small hole, then place the box into a campfire for 5 minutes. Use a stick or rod to remove the box from the campfire after some time, then let it cool. Now you have a premium Charcloth!

Lamp wicks

The first people to roam America were the Paleoindians, and they had many resourceful ways to survive in the harshest conditions of the New World.

A simple oil lamp was one way that they lit their caves and rock shelters. A pinch of cattail fluff rising up out of oil made for a fine wick. Try it yourself! If for any reason you don’t have any ‘mammoth’ fat, try a block of lard with a cattail wick.

Insulation

You can use cattail fluff inside any item for warmth, such as your hat, some of your clothes, or your footwear. It’s like a plant-based variety of insulation.

Insect Repellent

In certain situations, the smoke from the seed head of a smouldering cattail can be a substitute for insect repellent. On a fire safe surface, put the smoking cattail head upwind from your location and the bug repelling smoke will waft over you for 20-30 minutes. You can even leave the seed head attached to the stalk and stick it in the ground as a stand.

Have you tried using cattail for any projects? If so, please tell me what you did by leaving a comment

Winter Camping, Is It Worth It?

Your summer calendar may be filled with camping trips, but this is not enough reason to completely close your doors to camping during the chillier months of the year. Believe it or not, winter camping has its own set of perks.

Photo Credit: Bushcraft and Survival Belgium

The Advantages of Winter Camping

If the brisk air and the frosty winter mornings are keeping you from venturing into camping, then you might want to take a look at some of the undeniable advantages of winter camping:

• Less Crowded Camping Sites: Camping off-season is not everybody’s guilty pleasure. With fewer campers on your trails, you can comfortably pick the most ideal camping spot. However, make sure that you are setting up your tent in areas where landslides and avalanches are least likely.

• Picturesque Winter Views: Camping during the winter season lets you see the world in a different perspective. Basically, you can expect scenic views as the snow slowly covers leaves and trails. The mountains may look a bit frostier, but you’ll never see picturesque winter views during the early months of the year.

• Bid Goodbye to Mosquito Bites: Just like many campers, ticks, mosquitoes and other bugs go dormant during the winter season.

• Rewarding Camping Experience: If winter camping has never been a part of your bucket list, you should try it at least once. Offering you a closer encounter with nature, winter hiking is a challenging, yet fulfilling experience.

Despite its plusses, winter camping is not for everybody. If you think you have the experience, knowledge and skills to go camping during the last few months of the year, go ahead and dive into a new adventure.

Just remember, there is no substitute for mental and physical preparation. Before scheduling a camping trip, research on some winter camping dos and don'ts so you would know what to do in case the going gets tough.

10 Tips to Make a Fire in a Tough Situation

ALWAYS BE THINKING ABOUT THE NEED FOR YOUR NEXT FIRE. THIS HELPS US TO BE PREPARED WITH OUR SKILLS AND ABILITY, TOOLS, AND EXPERIENCE TO LIGHT A FIRE EFFICIENTLY WHEN IT COUNTS THE MOST.

When the weather is great and you have all the time in the world, most anyone can light a fire. But when it’s raining or snowing, your hands are shaking, your decision-making abilities are compromised, and the ground is soaked – and you desperately need a fire – it can be a frustrating, difficult, and often impossible chore.

Fire is life. With it, you can dry out wet clothing, keep hypothermia at bay, disinfect water to drink, and provide a psychological boost in a dire situation.

If you ever hope to be able to make a fire in a tough situation, when the chips are down, you need to know how to make a fire the right way.  It’s all well and good that you have the latest piece of gear that can make a spark under water, but if you can’t make a fire from that spark, who cares?  If you can’t nurture an ember into flame and create a sustained fire, you’re dead.

Here are 10 tips that can help you make a fire in a tough situation:

• Think Fire.  Always be thinking about the need for your next fire.  Sure it might be a beautiful day, but how will you make fire if you have to?  Having a mindset that you will be required to create a fire helps us to be prepared with our skills and ability, tools, and experience to light a fire efficiently when it counts the most.

• Carry Fire Tools.  To make fire we need an ignition source, fuel, and oxygen. What ways can you easily ignite a fire?  What are the various tools you are carrying that create a flame or spark? A lighter? A ferrocerium rod? Flint and Steel? Have back up tools and carry them with you. I have a small leather pouch that I use as a fire kit. It contains a Flint and Steel, some petroleum jelly soaked cotton balls, and a couple of Sulphur Matches. I also carry a small butane lighter in my pocket.

• Think Simple.  When visiting South America I was watching a man prepare to start a fire.  I was hoping to learn some ancient Mayan fire-starting technique. Instead he pulls out an ordinary butane lighter. The expression on my face  must have been priceless. ¡Es sencillo! he says. “It’s simple!” He was right. In a survival situation, use the simplest way you have to ignite a fire. A butane lighter with an adjustable flame is a lifesaver.

• Collect Tinder as You Find it.  Even if you don’t plan on having to light a fire, hiking with a “Think Fire” mindset means that we get in the habit of collecting fine, dry tinder as we hike.  Ideal tinder materials are resin-rich fatwood, birch bark, cedar bark, tinder fungus, Old Man’s Beard tree moss. dried pine resin pieces, cattails, an abandoned bird’s nest, dead branches at the inside base of conifer trees, dry grass, and the like. Carry the tinder in a safe dry place. I use an old leather pouch  with a drawstring closure that has been wax treated. I also drop a few of those silica desiccant packets into the bottom of the sack to reduce moisture further. You can carry the bag tied to your belt or on a lanyard around your neck. If weather is poor, stick the bag under your coat to keep the tinder warm and dry.

• Protect Your Fire Making.  While you keep your tinder protected under your coat, in a pocket or in a tinder bag, locate the best place to build the fire.  Use a large stand of trees, a rock wall, or the opening of a cave to shelter the fire from wind, driving rain, or snow. Don’t build a fire under tree boughs full of snow – unless you want the fire extinguished by a mini avalanche of snow when you least expect it. If you have a tarp, set it up. It can protect the fire and reflect heat back to you.  Other members of your group could build a shelter from natural materials that could provide protection from the elements.

• Fire making is more than Producing an Ember.  Producing an ember is not creating a sustainable fire.  Many people practice sparking a piece of cotton with a fire steel, or creating an ember from a primitive hand drill or bow and drill. These are beneficial skills to have.  However you know as well as I do, that catching a spark or creating an ember is only the start.  Don’t neglect the important skills of transferring spark and ember to tinder, nurturing the ember to flame, and then patiently building a sustainable fire.

• Master the Tinder Bundle.  Take a look at the type of material that a small bird collects to make a nest.  Those are the same kinds and size of materials that we should collect to make a tinder bundle that could receive an ember or spark to create a flame.  Master the art of nest making like a bird. Try different materials to make the tinder bundle or birds nest.  Scrapings from birch bark or cedar or Old Man’s Beard tree moss can be placed in the center of the nest and will most easily welcome that spark or ember.  Once the spark is in the nest, be gentle, have patience, don’t flood the nest with billows of your moist breath in an attempt to have the ember take hold.  Protect the ember like a valuable jewel in the nest, because it is!

• Build a Hearth. Clear the fire making area from snow and create a fire hearth or platform of dry wood to get the fire up off the wet ground. Take some dry wood, about 18 inches long and an inch or so in diameter and make a “raft” of sorts on the ground that covers a larger area than the size of your expected fire. This helps prevent your dry tinder and other fuel from absorbing moisture from the ground.

• Prepare Fuel for the Flame.  Collect various size branches from dead standing trees.  If it’s raining or has recently snowed, you’ll find the driest branches at the inside base of conifer trees. Once you have a flame in the tinder bundle, you will need to feed it this dry wood starting from a very small size and increasing in diameter until the fire is sustainable.  Have patience.  Don’t fuss too much with the bundles of fuel.  Let the fire do its thing. Leave the branches 12-24 inches long so you can reposition them around the tinder bundle.

• Practice, Practice.  When you can consistently find tinder, kindling, and larger fuel in your familiar forest environment, and you are able to start a fire under the best of circumstances, then start applying these techniques to more adverse conditions.  Challenge yourself.  Keep practicing until it’s second nature. Go out hiking in the rain and build a fire. Use only one match. Practice building a fire with very little daylight left, or in the dark.  There’s no telling what sort of difficult situation you might find yourself in and have to build a lifesaving fire.

May a fire always be burning in your heart – and on your hearth.

I hope this post will encourage you to prepare for making fires in tough situations. If you know anyone who might benefit from this post then please share it with friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Finding 6 Great Tinder Sources in the Wild

Tinder is dead, dry plant-based material that is capable of turning a spark into a flame. Without some form of tinder, sparks and small flames cannot grow to be fires. Lucky for us, there are always materials relatively close at hand in the wild that can be used as tinder. Any natural tinder used for fire making should have several things in common.

First, it should all be dead—but usually not rotten—plant-based materials. Rotten plants tend to lose more and more of their fuel value as they decompose. There are always exceptions, but just remember to always use dead plant-based materials.

Second, it should be as dry as it possibly can be. In rainy weather, this might mean finding a few scraps at a time, even one leaf at a time, and keeping the tinder dry while you search for more.

Third, it should be light, airy and have a lot of surface area for its mass. In other words, it needs to be fluffy. Materials that are not fluffy should be processed in some way to increase their surface area so that they can start burning quickly and easily.

1. Grasses

Most species of grass can be used alone or mixed with other types of tinder for good results. Use tan or brown leaf blades and seed tops that are obviously dead. Some of the stems and stalks can help too. Most dead grasses make excellent tinder, providing they died on their own, and are very dry. Live grass that is cut and then dried retains a lot of nitrogen and water, which are naturally flame retardant. That means lawn clippings and hay aren’t too good for tinder. Grass is very vulnerable to dampness, and it may not light or stay lit if it is damp.

2. Leaves

Most dead leaves from trees and plants can be used as good tinder. Leaves’ tolerance to dampness varies among the different types and their level of decay, but leaves are usually somewhat dampness-resistant.

If it’s not raining, leaves are best harvested up off of the ground. Frequently, twigs with dead leaves still attached can be found hanging on branches and shrubs in the woods. Also, many members of the beech family (red oak, white oak, beech, and others ) hold on to a lot of their leaves through the winter.

When it is raining; look under leaning tree trunks, rock overhangs, in hollows at the bases of trees, in the dry centre of piles of brush and leaves, under evergreen trees and other sheltered spots to find dry leaves. Leaves usually catch fire the best from an open flame. Sparks tend to just bounce off them.

3. Pine needles

The dead needles from most pines and similar evergreens like cedars and cypress can be used as tinder. Pine needles handle dampness very well, perhaps better than any other tinder. Because of the small amount of flammable pitch in the needles, they should burn well unless soaking wet or rotten.

4. Inner and outer bark

This is my favourite type of tinder for any fire-making method. The dry inner bark from countless dead trees and plants can be isolated and processed into some of the best tinder materials. The dead inner bark from trees and branches of tulip poplar, cedar, juniper, mulberry, some oaks and other woods can be processed into great tinder. Some outer bark can also be used, such as cedar, juniper and finely shredded paper birch.

Inner bark can be processed by pounding, tearing, twisting, scraping, or buffing. Fibrous outer bark can all be processed in the same way. Pounding is usually the best way to fluff up barks, except birches, which should be shredded as finely as possible. Bark tinder can be the longest and steadiest burning tinder, great for most conditions.

5. Weed tops and seed down

The dead tops from many plants can be used as tinder. Some tops, such as goldenrod, have several grades of tinder in their top. Goldenrod has a fine down that is surrounded by papery chaff on slender twigs. These mixed grades of tinder can burn furiously.

Seed down can also be used as tinder. Things like thistle, cattail,  milkweed down, and even a few trees like cottonwoods make a fluff that can be used. These are very useful with spark-based fire starting methods like flint and steel.

6. Wood Shavings

Another type of tinder can actually be made from your fire wood itself. Wood shavings can be the driest tinder around in perpetually wet areas. The wood inside of standing dead wood is usually dry under the bark and below the surface of the wood.

Fine wood shavings can be scraped from most dead, dry hard and softwoods with a knife or even a stone scraper. The wood needs to be dead and dry in order to be scraped and burned properly.

Don't use dangerous tinder

All smoke is carcinogenic, so be careful not to breathe much smoke when handling and blowing on tinder. However, there is some good looking tinder that should not be used at all because of its toxic smoke. Black locust inner bark is toxic and can cause a headache when used. Large, old poison ivy vines are covered with a fuzzy brown fiber that looks like a tinder source, but even handling the fuzz will cause a rash to those allergic. Burning any part of poison ivy, poison sumac or poison oak can be even more dangerous. The smoke can carry the toxic oils into the lungs, and cover exposed skin and clothing.

Got some other suggestions for natural tinder? Let me know in the comments.

How to Use a Flint and Steel

As a follow on to my review of the Wilmas Steel Flint Striker, I thought it would be advantageous to write a brief tutorial on how how to use a flint and steel.

Sometimes I feel like I’m speaking a different language when the subject of true “flint and steel” comes up. For many people, ferrocerium rods and magnesium bars have become synonymous with flint (thank you, Jeff Probst). The Swedish Fire Steel makes other people think that ferrocerium can also be called steel. These days, it’s hard to have a nice conversation about fire starting without everyone getting really confused.

I’d love to clear all this up, so let’s talk about the real flint and steel fire kit—the one that was used by our ancestors  long before matches were ever invented.

Flint and steel is an early fire making technique that dates back to the first days of metal experimentation in Europe and Asia. This fire starting method creates a red hot spark by striking a piece of high-carbon steel against a hard, sharp stone edge (like a flake of flint). The steel shaving is ignited by the friction of striking steel and stone together. This steel spark is immediately caught in fire-charred material, then placed in dry tinder and blown into flame. Easy, right? Well, there is the unpleasant learning curve. Or, as I like to think of it, the part where you are scraping off more knuckle than steel. Just remember that practice makes perfect. 

The Equipment 

A Steel Striker

The striker is a piece of high-carbon steel that creates sparks when it is struck by the edge of the stone piece. Steel strikers are often worked by a blacksmith to achieve the right hardness and also to make the steel into a comfortable shape. Efficiently shaped strikers have been hammered into “C” shapes, “D” shapes and “Horse shoe” shapes over the centuries. Strikers are often made from old files, machetes and other tools, though some of these tools and some knives have the right hardness and carbon content to strike sparks without being modified.

Flint

The Flint can be almost any type of stone that is harder than the steel striker. The piece should fit comfortably in your hand and pose no danger of cutting you. The striking edge of the flint should be 90 degrees or less, though an edge less than 45 degrees will work best. Some of the most common stones in use are flint, chert, jasper, granite, and quartz, just to name a few. You can take a look at our stone tool butchering post if you’re wondering how to break the stone into flakes. (link to stone tool butchering post) 

Char Cloth 

The char cloth is some form of blackened, plant-based material for catching and feeding a spark. Cotton and linen are traditional American frontier char cloth materials; however most flammable plant fibres, tinder, some shelf fungi and punky, rotten wood can be turned into “char cloth." To make char cloth, you’ll need a metal container that is nearly air tight, with just a few small holes poked in it by a punch or nail. Fill the can with the material to be charred, and place it in the center of a campfire for five minutes.

Smoke and maybe some flames should begin to jet from the few small holes in the container. After a few minutes, usually three to five, the smoke should almost stop jetting out. At the 5-minute mark, use a stick to carefully roll the hot container out of the fire and let it become cool to the touch. The char cloth should be black and fragile, but not burned to ash. It should catch sparks well. If not, it may have been a poor material to use or it may need further charring. If it is not yet blackened and fragile, it will certainly need further charring.

Can you just grab some chunks of charcoal from a campfire to use as char? No, sorry. Charcoal was created in an oxygen-rich environment and it does not behave the same as true char cloth. Char materials must be created in a low-oxygen environment in order to work properly, or work at all for that matter.

FLINT AND STEEL TECHNIQUES

Strike the stone downward across your steel, holding the stone at a 45-degree angle to scrape off steel sparks. These sparks come from the carbon in the steel, and the sparks can be scraped off by any sharp stone that is harder than the steel.

The sparks can be struck onto char cloth that is already sitting on a bundle of tinder.

If you used cotton cloth for your char, you can also wrap the char cloth around the edge of the flint, strike through the brittle cloth, and then place the burning char cloth into the tinder. 

TROUBLESHOOTING

If you are having trouble striking sparks:

• Change the angle of the flint 

• Use a sharper edge on the flint 

• Strike harder or possibly softer with the striker 

• Change your striking motion

If the sparks will not catch on the char cloth:

• Strike the sparks closer to the char cloth 

• Change the angle at which you are striking sparks 

• Change out the char cloth with a different material

Got any helpful flint-and-steel tricks? Let me know in the comments.