Best way of making fire

[Ogri the trog]

I think it is satisfying to start a fire without matches or a lighter, but using a lighter to light a fire lighter is quicker. It's not cheating, the objective is to light a fire. I do, however, think that to have the ability to use other methods is important if you are going on a serious trip.

I very much agree, having the ability to create fire from foraged materials is a skill that eliminates the "I've run out of matches, therefore we must go home" attitude. I believe there is plent of reason to practice all manner of primative-technology firemaking, to lessen our reliance on commercially produced "goods".

Ogri the trog

 

[spamel]

Although I have practised and succeeded with the bow drill, I've never lit my fire on an outing with it. I'm gonna change that this year, hopefully. I've never found success with the hand drill, just blisters!!

So for me, I use matches or more often than not my firesick. I have a traditional flint and steel, with a bit of chrcloth that is a great way of firestarting. I usually use birch bark too, I just love the smell of it burning!!

 

[Agile]

Most effective - well for the all in on package I personally think the chemical way of starting fire takes a lot of beating - Potassium Permanganate and glycerine work really well, and if you overdo the glycerine a little bit, then this will provide a good "starter" fuel for your fire.

Most enjoyable - bow drill, but I use the word "enjoyable" interchangeably with frustrating....

Agile

 

[Lee_shanahan]

I seen on one of the survival programmes on telly (not sure what one) rubbing one of the square batteries against wire wool, gets it soo hot it glows red and from this get a fire going using tinder.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Discuss hunting!

Go on then:

Cheers

 

[pataviking]

hey i voted lighter but it is good to have alternitive methods, when I go picnicing with my daughters my ravenous wee 2 year old wants whatever is to be cooked in a hurry. but i think about the making of fire heat fuel air/oxygen and it is more about your tinder choice wheather it is lichen cotton balls and petroleum jelly magnesium or fungus stuff. i think tinder is a very important possibles bag ingredient. also today at my work it so happens i and a few buckskinners were talking of flint and steel, and we joked the second man in history using flint and steel probally bent over stuck them between his knees and lit a lovey blue flame just kidding have a great day Pat

 

[w00dsmoke]

I studied Social Anthropology for a masters as well as Environmental Archaeology at uni for a couple of years and it is fascinating using them both and applying it to "bushcraft".

Reading the discussions there are far too many broad questions and answers and some really fair ones on the survivability of the evidence in Northern Europe for us to know what was used and what wasn't.

Looking at variables such as climate change over pre-history and the evidence for the plant and archaological record for example since the Loch Lomond stadial (mini ice age) around 10-15,000 bp, it is possible other methods of fire lighting developed such as fire by friction but it is possibly better to suggest that flint was the main method of firelighting because early hunter gatherers would have found this plentifull on their journey up the coasts from the south and would have used these as their main fire lighting method as the evidence suggests.

Looking at recent history in remote communities such as Hirta, fire lighting was held in high esteem by the community and they had only one tinderbox with one steel which was used collectively for the whole community. Not everyone had access to their own method of firelighting hence the importance of keepingn it safe for everyones use.

Me personally I like to use flint n steel for most things except in mental weather when I use a zippo!

 

[Mike Ameling]

My preferred way to start a fire? That's a simple answer, although not listed in the poll.

Have a buddy along to start it!

Hey, it's something of an old Cowboy thing. Never walk when you can ride, never stand when you can sit. And always sit in the middle when riding in the pickup truck - you don't have to drive, and you don't have to open/close the gates!

Since I forge up 5 to 6 hundred traditional steel flint strikers a year, based on originals from over 2500 years of their use, I'm more than a little biased in this poll - Flint and Steel of course.

Fire by friction is satisfying, and there's just something mesmerizing about using the magnifying lens. Fire by chemical reactions is ... amazing the first time, but scary once the realization sets in. Soooo many times I've been way too close to an accidental fire when messing around with chemicals. Now the fire piston has all the look of a miracle. Really astounds anyone who doesn't understand the physics involved. But how may of you, besides blacksmiths, have taken a piece of cold iron and hammered on it until the end glowed red - to then light a fire? It still takes a strong arm, steady breathing, and tired muscles. (Every hammer blow puts energy into the iron, and it starts to accumulate in the iron. If you hammer hard enough and fast enough, you add energy faster than it radiates/dissipates from the iron. Eventually it gets hot enough that the iron starts to glow red, and you can touch it to tinder to start a fire. But have a friend there to take over and finish making the fire - because you will be pretty tuckered out.) Heck, even jumpering a screwdriver across the terminals of a car battery to get/catch a spark amazes some people. But a lot of people are too easily impressed these days.

Just my humble thoughts to share.

Mike Ameling - alledged blacksmith and known iron torturer

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

I dont suppose im allowed napalm ?

 

[British Red]

Spike mate YOU aren't even allowed matches

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Spike mate YOU aren't even allowed matches

:theyareon

 

[wentworth]

I love my firesteel, made by our own Jason01 here. Something so satisfying about banging two things together.

 

[spamel]

I love my firesteel, made by our own Jason01 here. Something so satisfying about banging two things together.

Got to agree with that, I still use mine when I go out. He does make fine steels!

I think it is a really difficult choice with the variety of fire making methods available to us, I use most, just some more than others.

 

[falling rain]

I like both bow drill and traditional flint and steel as both make me feel I'm doing something my ancestors may have done long down my family tree. I love natural tinders and will use them whenever possible especially a good buffed ball of clematis, feather sticks and cramp balls. I've had a bit of succes with hand drill but can't yet do it consistantly every time but I'm working on it.
I really don't like any man made tinders like your cotton wool balls with vaseline or Pot perm etc etc. But I do have some green heat and wetfire tinder in case I'm caught out in the pouring rain and have no natural tinder on me and I'm cold and wet and tired. I usually prepare my kit according to any bad weather so have never had to use the emergency man made tinder yet but if I was really in the pooh and needed to get warm quickly I'd of course use it with some feathers or shaved wood. (and no I wouldn't have a problem with frost bitten hands unable to make feathers because I wouldn't let it get that far, I'd get a fire going way before that) I really can't decide between flint and steel or bow drill as both are very historical. F & S must be at least a thousand years old and bow drill many thousands. Great stuff both of them.

 

[cyclist]

having a volcano in the neighbourhood you could use fresh magma

 

[OzaawaaMigiziNini]

I've been practising with the flint and steel method for over 5 years now. I've made fire in extreme sub-zero temperatures, downpours, as well as in total darkness. I've used my knife and a hunk of quartz, as well as the traditional steel striker with jasper, flint, and numerous other stones.

To me.. as long as I have some steel.. I have fire.. It, in my opinion is the easiest, and most trust worthy method of fire starting... but I suppose after over half a decade of focusing on it alone, I've become a bit biased in my opinion

 

[Westnorfolk]

i used to prefer firesteel but since getting a steel steel confused: ) this is now my favorite. after a months or so practice i have found it very reliable. and of course it looks very good when people see you blow an ember into flame.

 

[OzaawaaMigiziNini]

i used to prefer firesteel but since getting a steel steel confused: ) this is now my favorite. after a months or so practice i have found it very reliable. and of course it looks very good when people see you blow an ember into flame.

I just call it steel striker. Sounds about right lol. And you're right, very reliable and you always feel accomplished when the fire is made.

 

[pataviking]

technically um matches are friction.
please dont shoot the messenger.
good help is hard to find

 

[British Red]

Could in fact argued that they are chemical secondary - with a choice of primary ignition methods (since they can be lit via concentrated solar as an alternative) . It also spends on whether they are safety or non safety since the phosphorous is present in the safety striker on a safety match so its pressure combination of chemicals wheras in "strike anywhere" the latent chemical combination is entirely in the head on a strike anywhere!



Red