Why do you use primitive skills?

[jeeptj1978]

Howdy. Was reading a new book from Amazon called Survival Theory. When I got to the chapter on fire ignition the author made an interesting point I'd never thought about.

According to him, primitive skills like bow drills and hand drills are good to know just because, but they should never really be relied upon for fire starting in an emergency or after a disaster. The logic being you might be exhausted or injured. So things like flint and steel or fire pistons were good for saving matches or your Bic, but primitive skills should not actually replace the modern method.

It got me to thinking.

So do you use primitive skills as your primary method? Or why do you practice and learn them?

Jeep

[hunter63]

Practice and learn as many as possible........on the outside chance it may be needed.
The time to learn and practice is not when you NEED to....but when you Want to.

[Sunset Sam]

primitive skills should not actually replace the modern method.

It got me to thinking.

So do you use primitive skills as your primary method? Or why do you practice and learn them?

Jeep

I agree with the author. The rule of murphy states that the best laid plans will go wrong somehow. If someone has all their firemaking equipment in a fanny pack or a backpack that becomes lost (like in a river crossing, crevasse recovery, theft) and it is a survival situation, it is good to know the primitive skills.

However, where more modern tools/methods are available, those should be used because they are quicker and burn up far less energy. Conserving mental and physical energy is a top priority in any potential survival situation. So the primitive skills are the backup and not the primary. The same is true of other primitive skills. If you can shoot a hare or squirrel, do that instead of making traps and setting snares, especially if you are on the move. If your gun went down the river with your backpack, then you wind up falling back on the primitive skills.

[MrFixIt]

I practice and use primitive skills to honor those before me.
Having said that, I don't rely on them. But primitive skills are nice to know because you never know...

[hunter63]

............................... If your gun went down the river with your backpack, then you wind up falling back on the primitive skills.

........or your back up piece and PSK....One is none, two is a good start.

[natertot]

I learn them just to learn them. I like education and learning and it is just fun. Fun that may become useful later.

[Rick]

Because I can.

[point man]

My instincts urge me to and I'm addicted to knowledge


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[Old Professor]

Hunter63 summed up my beliefs!

[jeeptj1978]

Sounds reasonable. Thanks for the input. I always supposed being able to apply one thing made you better at the other. Sorta like if you can harvest deer with a bow, you should have the odds way in your favor with a rifle.

Thinking about that in terms of fire, water, shelter....know how to do it the hard way but when it counts just get it done is what I take away from it. So spending time on primitive skills really does still have a big place in it.

[1stimestar]

I think they are fun and interesting things to do while hanging around my camp. I've not really gotten into primitive fire starting (yet) but more into primitive cooking, shelter, grass weaving, that kind of stuff. All stuff fun to do while relaxing around camp. It's really good to know things like fire starting even if you never HAVE to use them. It helps open the brain paths to other insights that might come in useful in emergencies. If you don't have the mindset of thinking outside the box, you are in much more danger then if you are not only willing, but ABLE to think of other options.

[backpacker3]

You could look at gear the same way to a certain extent. Matches can get wet lighters can break even fire steels and pistons can fail. Even worse you may not have the gear or lose it or have it stolen. I always look at it this way the gear is great to have and it is better but I might not have it all the time, knowledge however is always carried with me.

Also I think back to the times when people had to rely on those skills they too may have been injured or exhausted but had no other choice, in situations like that easy or not sometimes you have to rely on mental strength over physical strength

[Batch]

Nobody really questions the why of flint napping, primitive cooking, shelter, grass weaving, brain tanning, food preserving, wild edibles and so forth.

The primitive skill just as the OP said that everyone questions is primitive fire. Why learn it?

When you first try you will much more likely fail. Every failure is a lesson. I would go back and watch a couple of videos and see that I had missed something. Even after I succeeded in getting a coal I still failed to grow it a few times. Then when you master the coal and transfer to the tinder bundle. You still have the learning of how to build the best tinder bundle.

Tinder bundles that would ignite effortlessly with a match or a lighter would be problematic with a coal. I had to learn to break up the material at hand to create bundles of parts that had an area small enough to be quickly be brought up to combustion temperature to ignite. Look at it like if I hand you a wrist size piece of firewood and you have good fire skills. You would shave some fine tinder, some shavings, some small tinder, medium tinder, large tinder and progressively larger. It using flint or ferro you probably would make a dust pile to add to the fine tinder.

That same philosophy of fire applies to an already good tinder. By working from the smallest particles up. You make a fire ladder that will light almost instantly and faithful transfer heat to the next rung in the ladder. It helped to make lighting a fire even in very adverse conditions a simple matter of raising the temperature of the material.

Once you master fire to this level. Even when others might struggle to get a flame, just a flick of your Bic will do the trick!

[kyratshooter]

Practicing primitive fire-making and other skills is just added insurance for the absent minded or hard headed.

It ain't easy, and until you try it a few times, and finally master it, that might be something one simply pushes out of mind.

After realizing how perfect the materials and conditions have to be to obtain fire using primitive methods the average hard headed male, who will not stop and ask directions, will decide that dropping a lighter in the pocket or keeping a ferro rod on the keychain is much easier than "Putting yourself through all that!"

I have done the fire trick many times using many different methods, firebow, primitive flint and steel, burning glass, sparks from batteries, bla, bla, bla....

And due to that I find myself buying disposable lighters in 5-packs every trip to the dollar store, hording strike anywhere kitchen matches in Mason jars, stripping the shelves at Harbor Freight of ferro-mag blocks at every sale, carrying a boy scout ferro-rod on my keychain and being the proud owner of three lifetime guaranteed Zippo lighters....

And I don't even smoke!

Same with flint knapping, much easier to fish the pocket knife out of the change bowl and drop it in the pocket that start a search for sharp rocks or broken glass.

[jeeptj1978]

Thanks for the replies. Really awesome points from everyone. Collectively ya'll really lock in the point that an outdoorsman or survivalist should still learn some primitive craft no matter how many gadgets they carry, even if they do not master it, the effort will make him or her better. I'm going to make sure my kids devote some time in to primitive fire, it'll be a good learning experience.

Jeep

[DomC]

So do you use primitive skills as your primary method? Or why do you practice and learn them?

Jeep

No, primitive skills are not my primary method but I practice them. I just recently made my first bow drill fire at the age of 61. It was a milestone reached and was on my bucket list. My son reached it at age 17. It's a good skill to know and a challenge to overcome. I love challenges.

So, have you reached that milestone? A bit of advice, learn it while you're young & PRACTICE using the natural resources unique to your region/environment.

Here is a scenario. It's two years after teotwawki, there's no matches, butane lighters, no type of fuel period, no electricity, no ammo for guns, you get the picture. It's time to make fire for cooking, warmth, purifying water, etc. Thank God for primitive methods...

DomC



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[jeeptj1978]

So, have you reached that milestone? A bit of advice, learn it while you're young & PRACTICE using the natural resources unique to your region/environment.

Here is a scenario. It's two years after teotwawki, there's no matches, butane lighters, no type of fuel period, no electricity, no ammo for guns, you get the picture. It's time to make fire for cooking, warmth, purifying water, etc. Thank God for primitive methods...

DomC

Yes, I'd say the first time I made fire with a bow drill, hand drill, or flints was in the boy scouts around 25 years ago. As a kid I was fascinated by anything to do with primitive or prehistoric life. Later in the army I got addicted to the never ending gadgets from all over the world though.

I totally agree with your teotwawki scenario.

[Faiaoga]

Learning the primitive skills, even if they are never really mastered or used daily, should make a person more skilled in the outdoors because he or she will think carefully and use resources as efficiently as possible. Even in a suburban setting, the person who uses a wood fire to light charcoal will have to plan and think about building the fire rather than simply dousing charcoal with gasoline and using a propane torch.

[hunter63]

Learning the primitive skills, even if they are never really mastered or used daily, should make a person more skilled in the outdoors because he or she will think carefully and use resources as efficiently as possible. Even in a suburban setting, the person who uses a wood fire to light charcoal will have to plan and think about building the fire rather than simply dousing charcoal with gasoline and using a propane torch.

Bingo.....It becomes a mind-set and way of life.......
Good observation.

[Adventure Wolf]

I started learning primitive skills after I lost my backpack on a four day hiking adventure. Someone found it and returned it to me on day three, but I learned that life is hard if you lose your backpack, and have no primitive skills.