Fire bow, ember but no fire!

**simonovjr** · 08-13-2007, 02:09 AM

This is killing me. Several times now I have successfully made a glowing ember and put it on my tinder bundle, only to have it go out without lighting the bundle into a fire. The last time I cheated and used regular tissue in the bundle; the ember was a big smoking piece of wood about an inch across and all it did was slowly burn through the tissue paper while I blew at various intensities until it winked out. HELP!

**owl_girl** · 08-13-2007, 02:25 AM

What did you use as tinder besides tissue, are you sure it was dry enough?

**simonovjr** · 08-13-2007, 11:48 AM

I used birds nest grass from a pretty old nest (mocking bird if it matters), along with the kleenex and lint from a sock. What else do you suggest? Also, how hard do you blow on the ember and how do you place it in the tinder?

**Fog_Harbor** · 08-13-2007, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by simonovjr

I used birds nest grass from a pretty old nest (mocking bird if it matters), along with the kleenex and lint from a sock. What else do you suggest? Also, how hard do you blow on the ember and how do you place it in the tinder?

Getting a fire from an ember is a little bit like the old joke; "How do you get to Carnagie Hall?"
"Practice, man, practice"

You'll get it, that's why you practice. If it was easy, everyone would do it - few can.

I saw an episode of "Mythbusters", and the build team was trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together - they couldn't do it with power tools, don't fret if you can't blow it into flame the first few times.

Be sure your tinder is dry, and that the material that makes up the bundle is fluffy enough to ignite easily. If you have what amounts to a bunch of small sticks, it'll be tough going.

You didn't state what material your socks were - wool makes for horrible tinder. Cotton would be better, but if you compress it too much, you defeat the purpose.

Your best bet is to carry your tinder with you, and not depend on Nature to provide you with it. I carry vaseline soaked cotton balls, and have never had to worry about getting a flame - a few sparks and you've got a few minutes to build your fire on top of it, or better yet, place it in your already built fire structure.

Hope this helps

**Tony uk** · 08-15-2007, 10:55 AM

A non-woven bandage from my med kit is what i use sometimes since it lights easy

Steel Wool will not be light by a burning ember but it will easy with a spark Make sure you get REALLY fine steel wool

**trax** · 08-15-2007, 11:23 AM

Not like I'm there looking over your shoulder simon, but something I've noticed is that people start adding their tinder and blowing as soon as they get a "glow". Work the fire drill a little longer and the ember's only going to get hotter. If you can feel the heat, you should be good, place your tinder and blow lightly. The other thing I've noticed is people don't have their other materials ready, as soon as your tinder lights, you should have some really small kindling to add and then some larger stuff. I've seen people get their tinder burning and it's burned out before they can add any wood to the fire. Not meaning to sound preachy, just hoping this is helpful. The tinder from the old bird's nest actually sounds like a good idea to me, I've never tried that, but I will.

**glocker36** · 08-16-2007, 06:39 AM

It took me a bunch of practice to be able to consistently blow a coal into fire. But because getting a coal with friction can be a lot of work, try this.

Put together a bunch of tinder bundles, an easy way is go to a hardware store and get a roll of jute twine, which can be stripped to individual threads and fluffed up into a great tinder bundle. About 12 inches is enough to make a good tinder bundle the size of your fist.

Then, with a fire already going, (remember this is practice) take a small coal from the fire, place it in your bundle and practice blowing this into flame a bunch of times, this will improve your technique so that your hard won bow drill coal will be childs play once you have blown a bunch of the other coals.

This technique also allows you to play with a lot of different tinder bundle types and figure out what works and what doesn't without a lot of effort.

If you don't want to go the fire route, use char cloth and flint and steel to make the coal.

**BAKWOODS** · 09-22-2007, 07:03 AM

Try Opening Your Hands At The Bottom So Air Can Get Through I Found This Workrd Well .its A Good Buzz When It Goes Up In Flames Even If U Loose A Few Eyelashes. Good Luck Let Me Know How U Get On.

**WildGoth** · 09-22-2007, 07:17 AM

i have tried the bid nest before it is not the best tinder in the world it takes almost 2x as long to inginte and useing a flint stiker 75 times and then 10 more after i got a spark on there

**pilgrim** · 10-01-2007, 01:40 AM

i like to make char-cloth by putting a piece of a cotton t shirt in a small tin. Poke a hole or two in the top and put it in a fire. The outcome is a fine black material that will catch and hold a spark very well. i like to put the char cloth in a nest of dryer lint. This works especially well when using flint and steel. I like to practice by using a bow drill or flint and steel when starting a fire in my fireplace at my house. Hope this helps

**scabbyota** · 10-01-2007, 01:10 PM

The fuffy part on ceder bark works for me. I made a fire yesterday in under three minutes with my bow and drill.

**darkraven_2185** · 10-01-2007, 01:14 PM

it may not pretain to the subjet .but i could do with some help.im writing a book on survival. i would like any info .that you might want to shair.anythang will help.you can e-mail me directly at [email protected]