Making Fire From Ice, the movie

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Over the past two days I shot two videos that cover making fire from ice. I figured I would attempt it with natural ice, making the lens under field conditions and only a SAK to shape the lens.

To give credit where credit is due I got much of this information from the excellent article Fire From Ice (http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/ice/index.html) found at the Wildwood Survival website, written by Rob Bicevskis.

The idea is to make a sphere of ice and use that to concentrate a beam of sunlight to form a coal. Much of the discussion surrounding this idea seems to center on how to make clear ice. I figured that if you can't find clear ice in nature the point is moot. The other day I found a large supply of clear ice on the creek behind my house and figured I'd have to give it a try.

The first video is about making the ice sphere. In the article, Rob B shows how to use a cut off pipe to shape a perfect sphere. I didn't use that method, mainly because I never have a little section of pipe with me.

Shaping an Ice Lens
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owF15LQT78o&feature=channel_page)
The second video is all about fire.

Ice Fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rL8Nt73gpY)

I had alot of fun doing this project. I'll let you decide whether I succeeded or not.

Mac

[rebel]

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Great pieces of work to add to your collection. Thanks for the info.

[crashdive123]

Great work. Wait for it.....wait for it.....I hope the frozen water didn't need to be treated before licking it.:eek::D

[Runs With Beer]

That was too cool Great video. Looks like its a little cooler there than south America.

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That was too cool Great video. Looks like its a little cooler there than south America.

Yeah, I figured I'd better get a winter skills video up there while I had the chance to avoid getting type-cast as a "tropical only" survivor.

I was really surprised that the char cloth lit up so fast. I was expecting to get skunked. The lens was tricky in that turning it in any direction brought about a different focus. It wasn't like a uniform flat lens that just has to oriented correctly and then adjusted for focal length. With this lens it was a matter of slowly turning it until you had a majority opinion on where the light was supposed to go.

I am happy with the test. I decided to use the char cloth for two reasons.

#1. I am primarily a tropical survival guy and sitting out in the snow in 20 degree weather with an 8 mph breeze and a wet butt... you get the idea.

#2. I figured I'd probably take a long time to light natural tinder and there was scant good resources for an initial coal in my little patch of forest. I was prepared to give it an hour with char cloth but if it didn't light that I'd have no possibility of lighting anything else.

Char cloth is great stuff. I do carry that little can in my kit for making more. Mac

[MCBushbaby]

Where the hell does it snow in Brazil?! lol

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Mitch,

Only in the extreme south in the higher elevations. I'm in PA right now.

[MCBushbaby]

Ah,I was thinking you were still in Brazil as per your youtube page. m'bad

[dbldrew]

I’ve always had marginal success trying to light grass by using a magnifying glass, it always seemed to burn through a few layers of the grass and basically burn itself out of focus. What I have had success with is using a stick, basically just concentrate the beam at the tip of the stick, slowly rotate the stick until the whole tip is a small coal. Then transfer that into the tinder bundle and blow into flame.

If you still have the ice lens it might be worth a try to see if it is powerful enough to create a coal on a stick. But regardless I agree with your assessment that it would just be easier to make fire by friction. Good vid though

[crashdive123]

Mitch - It snows in a lot of places that you wouldn't normally think of as having snow. I've been snow skiign in Hawaii.

[ClayPick]

I’ve felt heat from a ice window before but it never occurred to me to make a magnifier. If a person had a bowl with just the right shape ................:)

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I’ve felt heat from a ice window before but it never occurred to me to make a magnifier. If a person had a bowl with just the right shape ................:)

Getting water to freeze clear enough in the bowl would be a problem. I suppose you could melt the ends with a spherical shaped metal bowl and body heat but that would require the right sized piece of ice. The best way to shape ice into a sphere is to use the cut off end of a pipe. Rub it back and forth and it will shape out a sphere. I didn't use this method because I don't normally carry a cut off piece of pipe in the bush. I suppose a shotgun choke tube would work well, maybe an aluminum match case too. There are all sorts of bits of kit that could work. Mac

[Geronimo!]

very well done. nice trick. never seen that before.

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In defense of this method, I was able to locate false tinder fungus in the same forest. My ice lens was long gone but it formed a coal almost instantly with my pocket sized flat plastic lens. Had I used this instead of weeds seed heads as my initial tinder the test would have been a success. I just made fire with a piece of it wrapped in shredded cedar bark from further up in the forest.

In all fairness though that broken Cedar tree yielded a nice fire board and spindle, in addition to a big ball of tinder. I still think that fire from ice is a viable method given clear ice, clear skies, and the proper tinder. Making a friction fire from the cedar tree would have been a better method given the weather. Mac