CanAmPreppers

Self Reliance - Prepping - Primitive Skills - Homesteading

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Be Practical

Be Realistic

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Feature

Fire.

Fire has been essential to human existence for many thousands of years, whether it is to provide heat to provide warmth, heat for cooking or smoke for a signal fire. Of all the animal life on the planet only man has mastered fire.  It is essential to know how to make fire and how to control it. Ultimately  your life may depend on it.  Fire can be a life sustainer but it can equally be a life taker.  Always have respect for fire.

Before you start a fire, any fire, make sure that you have any necessary permits and most of all make doubly sure that the conditions are right.  Hot dry days with tinder dry surroundings and wind are recopies for disaster. Also have respect for others, smoke can travel a long way it can both be seen and smelt.  Although a smoky fire may be your intention id you are lost in the wild and want to attract attention to be rescued at other times a smoke can give away your location and could have deadly consequences. It has been my experience that neighbors do not like smoky fires and they do little to promote neighborhood bonding.

Do not attempt to experiment with any information presented here unless you are a competent adult and feel fully capable of doing so and have all the necessary means to extinguish the fire once it has served its purpose.

There are a number of ways to create fire. Most of us light a fire using a match or a gas lighter of some sort. What would you do if you desperately need to light a fire and none of these tools were available?  Most of us have seen the old Boy Scout trick of vigorously rubbing sticks together but how many of you have actually tried it. More to the point how many of you were successful? Here is a list of ways to make fire with some tips to go along with them.

To build a fire you will need three things, an ignition source, tinder and fuel. Depending on the circumstances you may also consider an accelerant or flame extender and possibly a coal extender.

Ignition Sources
Batteries and wire wool
Blast Match
Convex Lens
Ferrocium Rod
Fire Piston
Flint & Steel
Fresnel lens
Friction methods (various options)
Iron Pyrites
Lighter
Magnifying Glass
Matches
Quartz & Steel
Quartz & Quartz
 

Tinder falls into two categories natural like birch bark and manufactured like paper. You might not think that wire wool makes excellent tinder under some circumstances. A nine volt battery and some wire wool is an excellent way to ignite a fire even in less than ideal conditions.

Natural Tinder
Birch Bark
Bird nets (old ones)
Cat Tail Seed heads
Cedar Bark
Chaga Fungus
Citrus Fruit Pith (dried)
Clematis Bark
Clematis Seed heads
Cramp Ball fungus
Dandelion Seed Heads (dry}
Dry Leaves
Dry Grasses
Dry Ferns
Fat Wood
Honeysuckle Bark
Horses Hoof Fungus
Rodent Nests (old ones)
Thistle Seed Heads (dry)
Usnea lichen
Wood Shavings
 

Other Tinder
Alcohol Prep Pads
Char Cloth
Cotton Wool soaked in Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly
Cotton Wool soaked in Wax
Dryer Lint
Feather Sticks
Hand Sanitizer containing alcohol
Hexamine fuel tablets
Jute Twine
Magnesium Shavings
Maya Dust
Paper
Potato chips with HIGH fat content
Quick Tinder
Rubber (from an inner tube)
Tea-Bag
Tampon
Trioxane
Wet Fire
Wire Wool (for use with a 9v battery)
 

Once your fire is going you might want to use a flame extender or accelerant.

Accelerants & Flame Extenders
Aftershave
Alcohol
Lip Balm
Methylated Spirits
Paint Thinners
Paraffin
Perfume
Petrol
Petroleum Jelly
Pine Resin
Wax
WD40
Vaseline
 

To keep your fire going longer using a coal extender will help.

Coal Extenders
Charcoal from previous fires
Cramp Balls
Pine Cones

When it comes to fuel most of think of wood however any combustible material can be used if need be. Even a good fuel source may turn out to be useless if it is wet or it is too large. Of course not all wood is equal when it comes to making a fire. Generally all hardwoods burn slower and burn longer than softwoods. Hardwoods also produce more heat than softwoods.  Softwoods if cut small enough are ideal for kindling.  Although, depending on circumstance, you may not have any choice dry wood is much better than green wood. Green firewood may contain 50% or more water by weigh than dry wood. Green wood produces less heat because heat must be used to boil off water before combustion can occur. Green wood also produces more smoke and creosote than dry wood.

Excellent Firewood
These are all hardwoods these firewood types are easy to burn, produce high amounts of heat and produce little smoke.

Ash
Beech
Dogwood
Hard Maple
Hickory 
Red Oak
White Oak 
 

Good Firewood
These firewood types are easy to burn and produce little smoke.

Apple
Birch

Cedar
Cherry
Douglas fir
Pine
Soft Maple
Walnut
 

Fair Firewood
Aspen
Basswood
Elm
Cottonwood
Gum
Poplar
Spruce

Sycamore
Tamarack
Yellow Poplar
 

Poor Firewood
Alder
Walnut
Willow

 

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