Full Answer
Use your knife to shave dry wood from the inside of the bark. Place slightly larger sticks on the starter material until you have a pile about 10 inches high. A tepee of larger sticks enclosing the kindling is a good way to start a fire. If there’s no breeze, light …
Starting a Fire Course Outline Starting a Fire If there is snow on the ground, build the fire on a platform of green logs or rocks. If the terrain is dry, clear a patch of bare dirt to avoid starting a grass or forest fire. Gather everything you need before starting the fire. Pile fuel ranging from small twigs to fuel logs next to the fire site.
Use your knife to shave dry wood from the inside of the bark. Place slightly larger sticks on the starter material until you have a pile about 10 inches high. A tepee of larger sticks enclosing the kindling is a good way to start a fire. If there’s no breeze, light …
Starting a Fire Course Outline Starting a Fire If there is snow on the ground, build the fire on a platform of green logs or rocks. If the terrain is dry, clear a patch of bare dirt to avoid starting a grass or forest fire. Gather everything you need before starting the fire. Pile fuel ranging from small twigs to fuel logs next to the fire site.
Starting a Fire. If there is snow on the ground, build the fire on a platform of green logs or rocks. If the terrain is dry, clear a patch of bare dirt to avoid starting a grass or forest fire. Gather everything you need before starting the fire. Pile fuel ranging from small twigs to fuel logs next to the fire site.
If you cannot find dry kindling, remove bark from trees. Use your knife to shave dry wood from the inside of the bark. Place slightly larger sticks on the starter material until you have a pile about 10 inches high. A tepee of larger sticks enclosing the kindling is a good way to start a fire.
If there’s no breeze, light the kindling in the middle of the base. If there is a breeze, light one end of the kindling so that the flame will be blown toward the rest of the fuel. As the kindling lights and the flames spread to the larger twigs, slowly add more wood to the blaze. Add larger pieces as the fire grows.
You build a fire much like you build anything. Start small, follow a plan, and have the right materials. You don’t just throw a house up. There are steps you take and things you need. It’s the same with baking. You can’t just skip to pulling a cookie out of the oven, yet on that same logic I constantly see people try to start a fire with a large pile of wood; skipping immediately to the end part where they want the fire to be. Building a fire in extreme conditions is all about the right materials, and the right building process to get it right the first time, every time.
When you really need a fire, you generally only get one shot at making it. In most camping and hunting scenarios you may take all the time in the world to build a fire but when things go south you might only get one shot. Doing it right may save your bacon. Every time you make a fire, make it with that in mind. Go from small to big and follow these five steps to building the perfect fire:
Keep adding wood but allow a few of the larger pieces to burn before adding too many larger pieces and smothering the flame. If the wood is wet, surround the fire with new wood to dry out. Continually add the driest pieces. If the fire burns down but there are still smoking logs, add some tinder and air to the coals. Blowing on the coals should ignite the tinder and bring a good flame back to your logs. Once burning again readjust them and add new wood to maintain the flame.
Grow the fire from small to big. As you add sticks, add oxygen by blowing on the fire to boost it up. Keep the shape loose enough and don’t add too much and crush the fire. Once a good amount of kindling is burning, start adding larger wood.
Use the fire you have to keep drying the next wood if needed. If in the backcountry and planning for weather, it is a great idea to gather wood early in the trip and stash it near camp. Place a tarp over it, place in the vestibule of your tent or just stack and cover with brush or pine boughs to keep dry.
Fire needs three things to exist: heat, fuel, and oxygen. Without those, it goes out or never starts. In order to build and maintain a fire, you need something to start the fire with – a catalyst like a match, lighter, striker, etc – something that creates the heat. From there, you will need tinder, kindling, and firewood. Tinder is what will burn and ignite easily. It will hold a flame and be used to light the kindling. Kindling is small sticks that are easily ignited but harder to light than tinder. Kindling in the base of the fire that will be used to ignite the harder-to-light firewood.
If you are unfamiliar with the classic Jack London short story To Build a Fire, it is a tale of a Yukon miner who makes a mistake, gets wet, then builds his survival fire under a tree full of snow. The snow extinguishes the fire and the man dies of hypothermia. I actually think of this short story a lot when I am out hunting – mostly because I know the importance of being able to build a good fire on the first try. I have on a few occasions found myself in need of a fire and have over the years honed that skill so when I need one the most, I can make it happen.