Been out with the family today on a little walk and went past a stack of silver birch logs and sticks. My eldest (3) asked what the white is on the sticks. I said bark, perfect for making fire with.
He: "Can we make a camp fire in the garden?"
Me: **big grin**
The strips of bark are good tinder, even when damp. I used the Fallkniven F1 to process the sticks to make kindling.
Then I used a ferro rod to ignite the bark (it ignites really fast and has a big flame instantly) and put the kindling and the rest of the sticks on. The whole process from starting to process the sticks and splitting the bigger sticks and preparing the bark took about 10 minutes.
As the sticks were wet (you might be able to hear it in the video) they take a long time to dry out and catch flame when they are not split and if they still have the bark on (the bark is more or less waterproof).
So if you have questionable wood (damp) it is always a good idea to at least split the sticks once, as then the water vapour can get out of the wood a lot faster, which means that the stick dries out a lot quicker and the fire is less prone to dying down when the bark has burned out.
[video=youtube;eyQ3vqTTzAM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQ3vqTTzAM[/video]
He: "Can we make a camp fire in the garden?"
Me: **big grin**
The strips of bark are good tinder, even when damp. I used the Fallkniven F1 to process the sticks to make kindling.
Then I used a ferro rod to ignite the bark (it ignites really fast and has a big flame instantly) and put the kindling and the rest of the sticks on. The whole process from starting to process the sticks and splitting the bigger sticks and preparing the bark took about 10 minutes.
As the sticks were wet (you might be able to hear it in the video) they take a long time to dry out and catch flame when they are not split and if they still have the bark on (the bark is more or less waterproof).
So if you have questionable wood (damp) it is always a good idea to at least split the sticks once, as then the water vapour can get out of the wood a lot faster, which means that the stick dries out a lot quicker and the fire is less prone to dying down when the bark has burned out.
[video=youtube;eyQ3vqTTzAM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQ3vqTTzAM[/video]
Hehe of course you're right, the kids do not care so much for the fire (yet), but for the marshmallows!
