Viking said:
Cut up small sticks of the wood, since it will be in a cabin all the wood in there are probably dry. There is also a lot of diffrent ways to start a fire here in sweden it´s all about looking in the right places, some call that knowledge.
We always say, leave he cabin as you want to find it...
If your hands are cold an old news paper, some sticks and some dry firewood (wich probably dry up in no time in a warm cabin) is enough for someone to easy light a fire. Why spend time making pretty looking feather sticks?
In places where fire literally means life and death people dont mess around lighting a fire, they want a fire first time, every time and in double quick time thats their aim not to carve some pretty stick.
Feathersticks are a good skill and a good way of lighting a fire but just like you wouldnt try a solar still in the arctic many bushcraft skills ONLY have their place if used in the correct context.
One of the things I found in Norway is that lighting a fire using standard british skills doesnt work very well - wood that is frozen to the core doesnt burn easy and as such a successful technique here doesnt work there.
As viking says practice and knowledge are what count.
Another interesting point I learnt in Norway was to sleep with my Parka over my head so I breathed down the sleeve - breathing into your sleeping bag is a no no but so is sleeping with your face exposed. I mentioned the suggestion once made by a well known bushcrafter on TV about 'just putting up with a cold nose' and the reply I got was frank and typically Norwegian - 'if he still has his nose he never sleeps in the cold' because frost bite will take your nose if its exposed to the elements while you sleep!
May be a couple of examples of theory clashing with reality!