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).

How to Build An Emergency Shelter

You could be out in the woods you discover that you are lost. Or perhaps you’re driving along a rural road and your car stalls or gets a flat tyre. Maybe you’re doing some canoeing and it overturns on the lake, forcing you to swim to shore after which you find you’re many miles away from your camp and anyone else.

Regardless of the situation, when you’re stuck outdoors away from civilisation, lodging, or nearby help, you may need to build an emergency shelter. Especially when the weather conditions are cold and wet, or will be soon due to an approaching storm or nightfall, an emergency shelter could literally be a life saver. Here’s how to build a good one that will offer you protection from the elements and hold you over temporarily until you can get to safety or get rescued.

State of mind

Before you get started on a suitable shelter, though, you must be in the right frame of mind. Okay, so you’ve gotten into a sticky situation. The first thing you must resist is the urge to panic or make a hasty decision that makes a bad situation worse. Rather, do this instead:

• Stop and breathe slowly for a couple of minutes. Accept the situation as it is, and calm yourself. Think clearly and rationally.
• Assess your surroundings. What kind of environment are you in? Forest? Mountains? Countryside? What’s the weather and temperature like? How much daylight remains?
• What materials do you have with you? What’s out in the environment that you can use?

Choose a suitable location

Now that you’ve gotten your mental bearings, you can begin planning your shelter. And that first requires picking a location. This is the part where the evaluation you performed earlier comes into play. You’ll want to set up your shelter on dry ground, out of the wind if possible, and near resources such as trees and bushes. If a stream of clean drinking water is nearby, even better.

Assess your materials

The purpose of an emergency shelter isn’t to be all fancy and super comfortable. It’s to get you through the night alive and stave off hypothermia. So don’t worry about having the perfect materials lying around, since all you need is the basics. First, check your own belongings. Do you have a weather parka/poncho? Emergency blanket? Any kind of tarp or plastic bags that can act as covering?

Assess your environment

Now, look at the surrounding environment. Do you have tree branches, boughs, ferns, dead wood, leaves, and bushes around? Is there any “natural” shelter around such as an overhang, rock wall, or cave that can act as part of, or all of the shelter?

Decide what kind of shelter to build

After you’ve evaluated your location, materials, and environment, now it’s time to decide what kind of shelter to build. Keep in mind that it may be cold, dusk may be approaching, or you may be tired, hurt, or ill. So again, nothing fancy, just a quick overnight shelter to protect from the elements. There are dozens of outdoor shelter types you could build ranging from simple to complex, but the one of the quickest to construct is a basic double lean-to or A-frame shelter.

The A-frame shelter, 

For an A-frame, you’ll need to start with a long, thick branch or log about one and a half times your body length. This is the backbone of your shelter. Then, either prop one end against something sturdy like a fallen tree or an upright tree at a low angle and the other end into the ground. Next, place smaller branches along the sides to form “ribs.” The ribs or the walls should be lined up along both sides so that the skeleton of the shelter takes on an “A” shape.

Once the frame of the shelter is erected, you then begin filling in the space with leaves, branches, moss, and ferns. Keep working until you have the entire shelter covered, as you’ll need to keep the wind and rain out, and also trap heat from a fire if you can manage to build one. If you have a tarp, garbage bag, or poncho, you can drape it over the shelter for added insulation. And make the shelter as compact as possible, to help retain body heat. Of course, if there are others with you, then alter the size accordingly.

Try to be comfortable

You’ve got a shelter that should keep the wind, rain, and snow off of you, but it will still be quite cold.  So be sure to insulate your body from the cold ground, which sucks away body heat quickly. Lay down a bed of the same materials you used for the frame right on the ground to lay atop of. Bundle up under an emergency blanket or anything extra on hand, And of course get a fire started if at all possible. Be sure to build the fire close enough to the shelter so that you get some of the radiant heat, but not so close that your shelter catches fire.

When dawn breaks, you might be a bit worse for wear, but you’ll be alive. You feel a sense of accomplishment that you were able to take care of yourself (and others if they’re with you). And you can reassess your situation anew, and determine the best plan to get back to safety.

How to Purify Drinking Water

In our everyday lives, we don’t often give the purity of our drinking water a second thought. We just blindly assume the water from the tap is safe, and we have even more confidence in the bottled water we buy from the store.

But in an emergency situation like a natural disaster, or being out in the woods without access to pure water, the cleanliness of our drinking water takes on a heightened importance. As ingesting water from a source that harbors dangerous pathogens and/or heavy chemicals can bring on rapid sickness that can lead to death, knowing how to purify water is an absolutely essential skill that everyone should have.

Methods for Purifying Water

So if you’re on a hike or lost outdoors, or in an urban environment where flooding/water main break has contaminated the water supply, you shouldn’t trust any water source that wasn’t already prepackaged. But you’ll only survive a few days at most without water, so you’ll have to drink eventually. In the meantime, here are several ways you can purify your drinking water.

1. Boiling – This is by far the safest way to ensure the water you’re drinking is free of harmful bacteria. Although water reaches a boil at 212 degrees, it’s been said that you can kill any bacteria at just 158 degrees. To be safe, bring the water source to a boil and let boil roll for at least 2-3 minutes. There may still be sediment or particulates in the water depending on the source, but at least you’ll know it’s free of potentially deadly pathogens. Use a cup, canteen, bottle, or any container you have around for the task. It also helps to have some sort of fire-starting implement on hand to speed up the boiling process.
2. Purification via pumps and/or filters – You can find all kinds of pumps and filters at sporting goods and camping stores. So if you happen to have a store-bought filter with you, you’re in luck. These work by forcing the non-potable (undrinkable) water through filters of either charcoal or ceramic, and also treating the water with chemicals. Even if you don’t have a ready–made filter, you can use some of the key elements to partially purify your water in a pinch. Filtering water through regular charcoal, for example, is excellent for removing particulates. A regular coffee filter works well also. But you’ll still need to boil the water to ensure no bacteria is present.
3. Purification drops/tablets – This method uses chemicals such as iodine 2% and potassium permanganate added to the water in drops or tablets to purify it. After treating the water this way, be sure to give the chemical at least 20 minutes to work. Yes, the water will taste bad, but it will be safe to drink.
4. Evaporation – What you’re trying to do here is get the water source to evaporate, which leaves the bad stuff behind, and then capture the evaporated drops somehow. One way to do it is to wrap plastic around a branch or living greenery and then collect and drink the condensation. Or you could create a still and capture a few evaporated drops, but either way, the amount is really insignificant. So employ this method only in the direst emergencies.
5. UV Light – Did you know that UV light can kill bacteria? If you have a clear, plastic bottle on hand, fill it up with water and set it out in the sun for about five hours, double that time if it’s cloudy or overcast that day. It’s not the most optimal method, but it’ll work when you can’t boil the water.

Lastly, whatever you do, don’t drink your own urine or any salt-water like that found in an ocean or lake. The salt will bring on dehydration much faster than if you weren’t drinking anything at all, and it will kill you in short order. And if you absolutely must drink untreated water, try to locate a clear, running stream to sip from until an alternative source can be found.

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

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.

How to Make Your Own Primitive Fish Hooks

Gorge hooks may well be the oldest style of fish hooks on earth. They can be made from a wide range of materials and they can be surprisingly effective, though they are not suitable for catch-and-release. But that's okay: We're going to talk about them as a survival tool, so throwing back fish would be counter-productive.

The function of these hooks is pretty straightforward. Your goal is to entice the fish to swallow a pointed object that will lodge in the soft tissues of its stomach or oesophagus, allowing you to land the fish. Bait is usually involved, but the technique is different from those employed in modern fishing. When a fish nibbles at the gorge hook, give outline and wait. This is very contrary to the quick tug most of us are used to when setting our standard fish hooks. With the gorge you give out 10 to 15 feet of line, wait 30 seconds, and then gently retrieve the line (and hopefully the fish). Use a net (or a basket tied to a stick) to lift the fish from the water. It might throw the hook if you try to lift it without the aid of a net. Tear the gorge free, re-bait if necessary, and cast it out again.

Here are three different styles of gorge hooks, all of which can be fished in the same manner.

Single-Point Hook

The simplest style. Hawthorn, honey locust, hardy orange, and many other trees and shrubs have thorns that are sharp and ready to go without modification. Broken bone shards and wood splinters with a single point can be used, too. Tie your fishing line to the blunt end of the gorge, and insert the hook into a chunk of meat or a fat grub. Position the gorge so that it makes a "V" shape with the fishing line. This positioning enables it to act like a hook. Inch-long thorns are usually the right size for trout and panfish.

Double-Point Hook

This style of gorge is often made from bone shards that are sharp on both ends. Tie the fishing line in the centre of the gorge, like a toggle. Insert the gorge into the bait so that it is parallel to the fishing line. The "V" shape will either hook into the fish's innards, or the hook will turn perpendicular to the fishing line and hang up that way. A two-inch gorge like this can land fish up to five pounds.

Composite Hook

The composite hook is the closest match to a modern fishing hook. It comprises a sturdy yet thin shank of wood or bone and a thorn or bone shard to create the "V" shape and provide the point. Since damp wood, thorns, and bone aren't sharp enough to pierce through jaws and scales, the composite hook needs to be swallowed like the other gorge hooks. A one-inch barb on a two -inch shank can catch fish up to 10 pounds.