What fire making techniques work best for you?

[Winterhorse]

I'm pretty good with a bow drill and have had success with cordage made of dogbane and milkweed but it's used up by the time I get an ember. Now mind you, I'm not likely to succeed under conditions that are much less than optimal but I can walk into my neck of the woods in dry conditions without a knife and usually get a fire going. Willow bark makes some good cordage too. I've tried cat tail but it's unusable for a bow string in my opinion. You need to know your area and really take stock of your material and take your time in making your gear to get an ember going.

Have I addressed your question?

[Tokwan]

On my side of the planet, bow drills and other primitive fire making tools will take a long time to make a fire ..simply due to the damp conditions. Wood is always damp or simply wet. So a survival kit with reliable fire making tools is very essential, which without...could mean disaster, especially if you are really tired/sick or injured.
Anyway, you can still make fire with bow/hand drills or rubbing bamboo over the other...and I can guarantee..it will take a while to get the fire starting.
The best thing would be to get a small shelter so that when you are attempting to make fire, the rain does not foil your attempts. It rains without warning here.
I smoke..so I eitehr carry a Zippo or a IMCO lighter which I use alternatively. Reason is they have covers that helps to prevent or reduce the possibility the lighter getting wet.

[phreshayr]

For me here in Southcentral Alaska, I have found the Eskimo Strap Drill the easiest friction fire method to use with natural cordage. This is the authentic strap drill method performed while sitting on a log or rock. We use willow bark straight off the tree, bark and all, as is, or black spruce root as is. Both work fine. The spruce root can get quite a few embers in a row one after the other while the root is still fresh. I am very confident with friction fire techniques and also confident with found quartz rocks struck against my carbon steel knife and catching sparks in Chaga. I have also lit fires using rock against rock catching sparks in Chaga. But never the less, I still carry a zippo with bicycle inner tube seal, a BIC type lighter, strike anywhere matches as well as a ferro rod on my person when I am in the woods which is almost daily. I just plain love messing with fire no matter how it is done.

[Tokwan]

I was practicing after lunch today..with the bamboo friction method...took me about 45 minutes...sore arms now.

[MrFixIt]

I've only tried the bow drill routine twice, and was successful once.
I've never had a problem getting a fire going with a mag bar.
I smoke so I carry a couple lighters on my person.

[Adventure Wolf]

Recently I learned how to use a bow and drill. I read about it a lot, but never tried. Ended up succeeding for the first time a couple days ago I'm looking forward to learning more.

Flint and steel, firestarter, matches, lighter are my go tos. Call me a modernist if you'd like. I successfully used a magnifying glass once on the playground, and got in some trouble...

[DomC]

Seriously, I never leave home without at least a BIC lighter & some kind of knife on my person or in my pocket. If I lost my pants I'd be in trouble lol. I also wear some cordage in the form of a paracord or bankline bracelet. My key chain has a UST SPARKIE and Gerber DIME on it. Just because I recently learned to make fire with a bow drill I would not rely on it. Being able to get a coal in your backyard on a sunny day with a proven bow-drill set does not mean that you would be able to get a fire started in an actual survival situation.

There are numerous variables that will make getting a coal exponentially more difficult. For instance, you must be able to get a coal with a variety of woods, in a variety of conditions. The wood may be damp, you may not have a knife, you may not have any cordage or you may already be tired. It's for these reasons, it is good to practice dealing with each of these factors, first separately, and then bring them all together. The quest for fire without modern conveniences doesn't stop, it keeps going and now you have more challenges to overcome...just make sure to carry alternative methods of fire starting. For me success with the bow drill made me realize there are better and easier fire making methods and that I can make fire primitively if need be. It's a good skill to achieve, but not always reliable.

If you're not prepared to survive, you're gonna have a hard time imo...

DomC

[RandyRhoads]

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Always lights. Haha

[Highhawk1948]

as a last resort I carry a magnifying glass and hope the sun is out.

[ninjasurvivor]

I'm not good at primitive fire yet, not that I'd be inclined to use it very often even if I was. However, I usually use a really tiny fire steel, like an inch long. and a small amount of cotton I keep with it. I'll start the fire at night with no light in the wind just to challenge myself and keep myself honest. Using supercharged tinder and flames and accelerants makes it way to easy.

[DomC]

Using supercharged tinder and flames and accelerants makes it way to easy.

Yeah but when your butt's on the line that's a life saver. Who cares if you use "too easy" methods, making a fire is job 1 and you should guiltlessly use accelerants if you are lucky to have them on your person.

Dom

[ninjasurvivor]

Yeah but when your butt's on the line that's a life saver. Who cares if you use "too easy" methods, making a fire is job 1 and you should guiltlessly use accelerants if you are lucky to have them on your person.

Dom

There's a time and place for that, like grilling in the backyard. But if I go out into the bush and am camping or something, I'll resort to slightly more primitive means of fire starting just to hone my skills.

I had a friend who went camping in a really windy area. All he had on him was a bic. He came back and told me he couldn't get the fire going all three days because the bic blew out and when he got the tinder lit, it also blew out. The extent of his fire knowledge was "Flick the bic and the fire goes".

Unfortunately fire is a bit more finicky than that. If you don't have the experience or skills required to master it in any environment, all you'll ever be is a bic flicker. The solution to my friends dilemma was to create a wind shield and/or use a fire steel instead of a bic. But his fire skills were limited, and so he just assumed fire making was impossible under those conditions.

[DomC]

[QUOTE=ninjasurvivor;435900]I'll resort to slightly more primitive means of fire starting just to hone my skills. QUOTE]

Please elaborate...BTW the OP's question is "What techniques or methods have proven most successful for you to start a fire in the field...without bringing anything along, in other words just from found natural materials, that being a worst case scenario."

DomC

[ninjasurvivor]

[QUOTE=DomC;435901]

I'll resort to slightly more primitive means of fire starting just to hone my skills. QUOTE]

Please elaborate...BTW the OP's question is "What techniques or methods have proven most successful for you to start a fire in the field...without bringing anything along, in other words just from found natural materials, that being a worst case scenario."

DomC

I'm talking about using small fire steels and natural tinder.

I'm not really sure what range of methods the OP would expect for people to have used when it comes to making fire without bringing anything along. I mean your choices are fire drills and.....maybe, flint and rock? GOOD LUCK finding flint or rocks for making fire when you need it. I'm not sure how many people are using hand drills or plow drills, so that pretty much leaves the whole discussion to bowdrills.

When it comes to bowdrills they take time to make. You need the right woods and the right environmental conditions. I wouldn't expect many people at all to have been successful with bowdrills outside of a controlled environment. I've seen experts failing to get bowdrill fires going when it really counts. I'd be intrigued to read any real life accounts of folks making primitive fires off the cuff in a real world situation in the wilderness.

[DomC]

I agree with you wholeheartedly...my original answer was an honest "none" btw. If you brought nothing with you that would mean you would have no shoelaces for cordage to use a bow drill, you'd have to rely on making cordage and having no knife you'd have to rely on sharp rocks or shards of glass to fashion a BD set. Hand drill only requires two components: spindle and heathboard but you risk blistering your hands if you have not conditioned them beforehand.

Better to be prepared to survive...I don't classify firesteels as being primitive though...flint & steel yes. bow drill, hand drill, fire plow, yes...

Dom

[ninjasurvivor]

Better to be prepared to survive...I don't classify firesteels as being primitive though...flint & steel yes. bow drill, hand drill, fire plow, yes...

Dom

I mainly meant using natural tinder as being primitive. The fire steel principle is the same as flint and rocks because its creating fire from spark instead of flame. But obviously you are still talking about using a man made implement and not a found object in nature, so I acknowledge there is a big difference there.

[DomC]

Yes you are right... the flint (ferrocerium) in a zippo or butane lighter is of recent invention. I consider primitive as pre 1700s and before.

DomC

[hunter63]

Ferro rod and steel is basically a Bic with out butane........so not primitive at all.
Ferro rods are manufactured, as is steel......but steel and flint, real flint, as in rocks, has been around for quite awhile.

Most primitive cultures use a version or friction fire making, bow drill, hand drill, fire plow.......the basic "rubbing two sticks together".

As I do agree that practice at primitive making fire, with found materials leaves out most any type manufactured material....I still think that it is mostly a novelty, ...good to know, but maybe not real practical in general use.

Seems it as snob thing..........

I head out into to the wild to hunt, fish, hike to gather plants, nuts, mushrooms deer sheds, rocks....or to look over the woods for several reasons...or just to cover ground.

Fire making is a tool, not an end................Do what y'all want.

[ninjasurvivor]

Ferro rod and steel is basically a Bic with out butane........so not primitive at all.

I respectfully disagree. While I admit it's not primitive in the sense that it is a natural material, there is a BIG difference in sure spark vs. sure flame. A fero rod is like a bic with no fluid. Sparks a lot but doesn't create a flame. Most people would be screwed with an empty bic, because they don't know how to harness sparks into flames. That alone is an acquired skill.

I have a video of me using my fero rod to start a fire in the desert using natural tinder. I was on a mountain top with scarce tinder sources. I struck that fero rod a couple hundred times. At one point the tinder actually ignited but quickly went out. I couldn't get it going after that. If I had a lighter I would've lit the tinder or leaves on fire first try without a problem. That's a real life example of how much more challenging, and how similar to "primitive" methods a fero rod can be.

[hunter63]

Ferro rod and steel is basically a Bic with out butane........so not primitive at all.

A Bic with out butane IS a Bic with out fluid.........all I does is spark....same'o same'o and will spark natural tinder as a ferro rod does....just not intens or as much........more lock a rock and steel.

When something really has to burn.....why bring a ferro rod?, why not a road flare?

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