Not sure whether this is better off being here or on Firecraft but as it's a little more generalised than true fire craft I'll leave it here..
Last week I was visiting a friend on the South coast for a few days sea fishing. The weather was, quite simply, attrocious, with on-shore gales of force 10 and driving rain and hail. We knew that it wasn't going to stop us getting out there but felt the need to make provisions for a little warmth and comfort beneath the fishing brolly. My mate said "That's Ok, I've got stuff in the car we can build a little fire with!" so off we went...
Turns out that he had packed a bag of BBQ charcoal briquettes, and nothing else.
We tried in vain to find anything on or near the beach that would burn (Other than horrid old plastic) and what with the wind and rain, lighting the damned briquettes turned out to be almost impossible.... Almost.
For years I have carried in my fishing box one of those little magnesium block and ferro rod fire lighters. I realised that the conditions meant that the shavings of magnesium would be gone to the horizon long before I had enough to be of any use if I tried the normal trick of making a nice pile of them before striking the sparks onto them. But how to get the charcoal lit?
After borrowing a braincell or two ( I think they were from something soft and squishy washed up at the high water mark) I decided to use the can opener blade of my SAK to make a deep, conical hole in one of the briquettes. I drilled almost all the way through the briquette in no time, and filled the hole with shavings from the magnesium block. One strike of sparks from the ferro rod and they caught, burning so intensely that the charcoal had little option other than to light.
Within a few minutes we had a heap of burning briquettes in a hollow in the sand under the brolly and kept ourselves warm by it for the next 8 hours.
I hate to think of all the miles I've carried that little block of magnesium, but it certainly isn't ever going to be left behind now. It really earned it's keep that day, lighting the briquette first time on a day when even my powerful 3 flame jet lighter kept blowing out and refusing to even get the charcoal warm.
Had it not been for that little fire I'm sure we would have packed up our kit hours earlier than we did, and then I'd have not caught that big fat Dover Sole I had for dinner when we eventually got home that night
Last week I was visiting a friend on the South coast for a few days sea fishing. The weather was, quite simply, attrocious, with on-shore gales of force 10 and driving rain and hail. We knew that it wasn't going to stop us getting out there but felt the need to make provisions for a little warmth and comfort beneath the fishing brolly. My mate said "That's Ok, I've got stuff in the car we can build a little fire with!" so off we went...
Turns out that he had packed a bag of BBQ charcoal briquettes, and nothing else.
We tried in vain to find anything on or near the beach that would burn (Other than horrid old plastic) and what with the wind and rain, lighting the damned briquettes turned out to be almost impossible.... Almost.
For years I have carried in my fishing box one of those little magnesium block and ferro rod fire lighters. I realised that the conditions meant that the shavings of magnesium would be gone to the horizon long before I had enough to be of any use if I tried the normal trick of making a nice pile of them before striking the sparks onto them. But how to get the charcoal lit?
After borrowing a braincell or two ( I think they were from something soft and squishy washed up at the high water mark) I decided to use the can opener blade of my SAK to make a deep, conical hole in one of the briquettes. I drilled almost all the way through the briquette in no time, and filled the hole with shavings from the magnesium block. One strike of sparks from the ferro rod and they caught, burning so intensely that the charcoal had little option other than to light.
Within a few minutes we had a heap of burning briquettes in a hollow in the sand under the brolly and kept ourselves warm by it for the next 8 hours.
I hate to think of all the miles I've carried that little block of magnesium, but it certainly isn't ever going to be left behind now. It really earned it's keep that day, lighting the briquette first time on a day when even my powerful 3 flame jet lighter kept blowing out and refusing to even get the charcoal warm.
Had it not been for that little fire I'm sure we would have packed up our kit hours earlier than we did, and then I'd have not caught that big fat Dover Sole I had for dinner when we eventually got home that night
