fire skills; ongoing

[wareagle69]

well i have been told to spend a year focusing on different apsects of skills, such as shelters, food water and fire the focus for fire is really 3 seasons fall winter and spring, but summer can also have its diffuculties, as many of you know i have basically mastered the swedish firesteel to a point that it is all that i use anymore, but alan always likes to throw things at me when i train so i like to cheat if you will in that i practice with many differnt materials all including the firesteel for my spark but always tring to change my tinder. once i have started a fire with a particular tinder i rarely ever use it again,well let me clarify that rarely in the application ie;sunshine and blue skies then windy then damp then snowy then at night, the point of this exercise is to become profiecnt at all materials so that when out and about you do not have to look far for your comfort zone.
now that being said i think that i will have to spend two years on fire lighting(maybe i'm slower than most) but i want to master all manners of tinder first with the fire steel before moving on to fricton fires, see where i'm heading with this if i know i can get a fire easy enough with a spark and what material works best then when i have a coal i will start with my 100 percent tinder first before moving up in diffuculty.
tonight i used the fluff from sow thistle, much like dandelion fluff it has little mini explosions, so i have found that if i collect a baseball sized amount then pack it tight it works better than spreading it like a birds nest. next make sure your first bit of wood is only match sized that should catch on quickly enough as your tinder will burn fast.
i wish you good luck and always experiiment and document.


as a clarification to the top part when i say spend a year i mean just focus on fire this year, shelter next year water the next and so on

[crashdive123]

I can appreciate your dedication to learning a new craft and skill. As you say learning is an ongoing and continuing process. It's kind of like a journey with no ultimate destination, just some really interesting visits along the way.

[Gray Wolf]

It's kind of like a journey with no ultimate destination, just some really interesting visits along the way.

Well said crash!

[RobertRogers]

I agree, as soon as you stop learning - THAT is when you are in trouble. Many people become set in their ways and rarely try different ways of doing things or experimenting. This inflexibility causes them to loose out in many ways.

[wareagle69]

so this week i used the inner bark of a maple tree was still on a dead standing tree with the rain lately the inards were still dry just pulled the fibres apart and good lighting, used leaves to dry and help fan the fire but am not a fan of the dry leaves for one thing to much smoke so i used my old back up which is dried pine branches but that feels too easy to me as you know i like to use varied materials for starting and confidence, stay tuned next fire will be with canada thistle stalks with fall coming on strong lots of dead vegatation to play with