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I feel the same way bow drills are hard work before you see the first puff of smoke. A piece of magnesium and a fuel source makes it pretty easy. I'm not sure that is to far from a Zippo lighter. Those who can start a fire with the things you find in the woods is still a lost art. Heat,Air and Fuel make fire easier said than done.
I don't think it's the easiest way to do it, but it's definitely one of those generally useless skills that could come in handy in a difficult situation.
I guess this is one of the things I tend not to worry about - I doubt I have the strength to use the bow drill, and I carry lighters when away from civilization.
I tried years ago to do this and I got nowhere. I am not sure but I just don't think I was patient enough. Would be a great skill to have though.
I experimented today with the small magnifying glass on the whistle, compass, and thermometer gizmo from Coghlan and discovered I can light charred cloth and charred punk wood with it by focusing the magnified rays of the sun into a pin point on the charred cloth or charred punk wood. This might be handy if the small magnifier can't get a tinder bundle to stay lit. May not sound like much, but if I lose the usage of my flint and steel, I now have a reliable backup to build a fire as long as the sun is shining. I've also discovered today that when using charred punk wood break the bits into toothpick wide pieces or smaller and ignite them first. Place these smaller burning bits on top of a larger piece of charred punk to get it going. Place the larger piece of charred punk into the tinder bundle and blow on it like you do charred cloth. Burns hotter than charred cloth, IMHO.
The reflector around a flashlight bulb can also be used to start fire. Just sick the tinder in the hole and reflect.
always carry rubber with you if you are going to be making fire beacause it always burns when its wet so if you cant get the tinder going use the rubber i tend to use a inertube from a bike tyer
Does anyone have any ideas for how to build a primitive shelter if you don't have a tarp??
You don't need a tarp, you can insulate yourself from the weather using brush/branches/vegetation in place of a tarp.
the best thing to do is put the dead vergertation on your shelter 1st to insulate it then put alive green vegitaion on top of that 2 keep it waterproof
you guys may have covered this subject before i joined,if not i beleve fire is one of the most important things to prepare for,in my pack i always keep 1 film canister full of vasaline soaked cottonballs,1 canister full of 4-0 steel wool both work great. woodsey......:
i have found that charcloth is easyest to make in a shoepolish type can with a small pin hole in the top of the can cut your peices of cloth place them in the can and place it in the fire when smoke stops comming out the cloth is done use a cotton based cloth . quartz works better than flint and I use a nailset as the striker. hope this works
try kero instead on a peice of clean cotton cloth it starts fires well and can be used as light lube and rust inhibiter plus cloth can still be used as field dressing
I just bring along a bic lighter or two. Simple, reliable, and they can be used for quite a long time before they run out. Especially if one banks their fire at night to re-use the coals in their morning cooking to conserve the butane in thier lighter. I've considered bringing a chunk of flint to use with my knife as a backup, but I haven't bothered yet. Not exactly the best attitude to have when considering survival, but I'm just being honest.
BSM
I can if the wind isn’t blowing to hard. I did it a couple of times and used charred cloth, which works pretty good. But I’ve never don it without charred cloth. In substitute I’d try dried cattail fluff or something.
Flint and steel is the best way to start a fire due to the fact that you won't run out of materials like you would with matches. For best results with the flint and steel things like charred cloth, and other things like it that will start up very easy. A very handy thing to do is to get the flint that also has magnesium attached to it.
I have one of the little boy scout spark sticks. I have had more luck using dryer lint than anything else to catch a spark.
Lint is the best tinder for me. You don't really need a lighter for sock lint, pocket lint, belly lint, just need one spark from anything to light it.
a really tough way to make fire is to use a magusium lighter after a while it gets easy but other wise it is pretty hard anyone know of any other ways to make fire that are cool
Try fine steel wool and a battery