Dedicating the Cabin

I finally built a small fire at the Cabin.
We've had a lot of rain, so everything was soaked. I pulled out the fire starter, a cotton ball impregnated with wax, and broke off some twigs from a dead branch suspended from a tree.

Easy does it. The ground beneath is damp, so I laid some dry twigs down first.
The fire starter was lit with a match, then placed carefully on my twigs.

I feed my fires slowly, keeping in mind that its easy to suffocate a newborn flame.

I visit my cabin regularly and add materials to it. Being 100% natural, it will decompose and collapse someday. For now, its part of my school.

Eleven Ways to Make Fire

Making fire is so basic to survivalists that whole pages and websites are built around that very concept. I started a list of ways I've seen fires made with the most basic of materials and came up with eleven.

The page is on this blog, to the right. First and most important to all fire building is dry material. Fire requires fuel, oxygen, and ignition. When fuel is wet oxygen and ignition are nearly impossible.

I watched Cody on Dual Survival put the punky wet wood next to his body, but inside his coat to cause the wood to dry out via body heat. He made sure not to put it on his skin because it would drain heat away from his body.

I knew a thru hiker who never cooked or used a fire. He also ran 100 mile marathons. This is the exception. He'd just hike and eat on the move til he got tired. Then, he'd simply roll out his bed and sleep on the trail until he woke up, and go again.

All the stories and episodes watched on survival can never replace hands on approach. One by one, I'm trying every method, working on my techniques until perfected. Not only does it build actual fire building skills, but it increases my confidence. Confidence and the will to live are paramount in survival. Panic is the biggest enemy.

Sucessful Fire Building

Building a fire, whether in a hobo stove, on a beach, or in the woods requires fuel, oxygen, and a source of ignition.

If you take away any of those three things fire won't happen.

If your fuel becomes inoperable, like wood becoming soaked in water, or liquid fuels becoming diluted with non flammable substance, ignition and subsequent heat will be very difficult if, not impossible, to achieve.

If you deprive the fire of oxygen, either initially or into the process, it will suffocate and go out. Adding too much firewood too quickly is an example of suffocation. If the firewood is wet, one should be especially careful of suffocation because the water must evaporate from the wood through heating in order for the wood to be usable fuel. Water acts to suffocate fire.

Without a source of ignition an entire stand of dry timber is safe. Ignition can be as simple as a burning cigarette stub, broken glass on the side of the road which the sun uses to focus rays thus causing the ignition, a lightning strike, or deliberate striking of a match.

To build a quick, successful fire, remember these three key ingredients.

Other tips I've learned over the years is to always build a fire on a dry base. Even when building in a fire ring or pit, the ashes left from before could be damp. Put down dry material, or a rock, and build upon that.

Lay your wood upon the fire in either log cabin or tepee pattern. This avoids over crowding of large pieces and subsequent smouldering or suffocation.

Another favorite configuration is the lean-to fire. Choose one large log, lay it in the fire ring. Lay small twigs against on the log, reaching to the ground at an angel sort of like this: /O .
The O represents the end of the log and the slash represents the twigs. Gradually increase the size of the twigs.

Fire safety includes safe choice of location. Not too close to a flammable shelter, not on top of duff and pine needles without barriers to rapid spread. Not where strong winds or gusts could carry embers to available fuel sources.

Two Strike Fire Starter

In the north east corner of Georgia there are great places to practice survival skills. While camping at this remote campsite, Rainmaker took a couple photos and shot some film of my method for making a fire with flint and blade.

You can watch this video at my channel on youtube:

http://youtube.com/user/brawny03

Brawny is my trail name since 1999 when it was bestowed on me by fellow hikers, but more about that later.

After attempting to light this dry grass and tinder with just a flint (no magnesium shavings added) and blade, and getting pitiful results, I added my "fire starter". With two strokes of the blade I had a great flame.

The fire starter is just a simple 100% cotton ball with a generous glob of petroleum jelly smeared on it. Vaseline is the brand name. I use Dollar store stuff. Sometimes you'll find the basic, unadulterated product is the cheapest. Look for it in dollar stores, or Wal-mart.

Petroleum jelly/Vaseline and cotton balls are things that I usually carry on a backpacking trip for general hygiene purposes, cleaning wounds, treating scrapes and sore feet.

Other good fire starters use dryer lint (if you use a dryer) charred cloth, and mouse nests. As you can see, cotton balls are readily available. Adding the petroleum is a smart move to increase temperature output.

To speed up fire making in wet weather use this "fire starter" as well. It will help dry out those small twigs with hot burning grease.

The trick with fires is using small tinder, adding slowly so that you don't suffocate it.

Always begin your fire on a dry base. If you are uncertain about the base, lay down a large rock or dry wood first. Wet ground, or a fire ring will cause moisture to leach into your tinder

and effectively twart any attempts at successful fire building.