The woods & first attempt at lighting birchbark!

[JDWilts]

Hi All

Thought I'd let you know about my first trip to my local woodland area. Savernake Forest.

http://www.savernakeestate.co.uk/

Theres 4200 acres of it which is a lot in Wiltshire terms as Wilts is nearly all downland. I havent been in the woods seriously since I moved here a year ago. This was my first trip to the woods looking through my new bushcraft eyes. The main point of my trip was to find and try different types of tinder. I had a job finding a decent Silverbirch which to harvest. When I did I could only get very thin and long strips off the tree. Then I discovered dancing round the thing pulling bark at right angles, which proved to be much more successful. Anyone got any tips for stripping?

I also found crump ball fungus but as it was raining rather hard I thought I would forego trying to harvest any at present to try to light.

I purchased a fire strike a few days ago and thought I would try to light the birch as tinder with it. However, to no sucess. I am a great beliver in reading instructions. I faithfully followed the advise in Mr Mears Essential Bushcraft plus all the stuff I have read on here. I wonder where I am going wrong. I got some smolders but no true ignition. The tinder was dry to the touch. I scraped the white side to a fine dust and shvings. (dont the B***dy stuff roll up quick as it dries out). I took all the black coating off the rod and moved the rod and strike together or just the rod and got a great flash of sparks. But it just didnt catch. I tried with a dying match and only just took the match near the bark and it went up in an instant nice bright orange flame, so my choice and prep of the material was correct. Any advice anyone.

JD

 

[jakunen]

I had similar problems when I did a course with Gary.
Took me ages until he helped me.

Make sure you tinder is nicely fluffed up.
Hold the knife firmly infront of the tinder.
Pull the STRIKER firmly back towards you.

This way get much more control and send a shower of spark exactly where you want them, into the tinder.
And you don't end up throwing the tinder everywhere.

 

[Gary]

As Jak points out that is the best way to use the fire steel and provided your tinder is prep'd correctly will work well (as Jak found out on my course ) - but if you are struggling with a tinder that is resisting your best efforts (this works well with birch dust/scrapings) try holding the fire steel as close to the tinder as possible then using you thumb to give added pressure pull back the fire steel (a sort of reverse potato peeling action) hold the striker in place above the tinder - scrap onto the last 1/8 inch of the steel but by adding extra pressure you will caste a small (radius) but intence and very direct spray of real hot sparks into your tinder.

Hope that helped, however its hard to explain these things without showing you and as such i can only point out that a basic bushcraft course with a decent school is usually a good idea.

 

[Womble]

Any... particular... school you have in mind Gary?

 

[Adi007]

I find that people are far too delicate with firesteels when it comes to using them. Get in there and give it some force! If you don't like the idea of using the back of your knife or you find the striker a bit lame, use a bit of hacksaw blade or a jigsaw blade ... you'll get a huge shower of hot sparks that way that really maximize your chances of success.

How you position yourself is important too - back to the wind or in a sheltered spot is a lot better.

Practice is key though ... the papery outer is ideal for a firesteel I find and you can use this to make the oily inner bark catch fire.

Oh, another trick with the papery outer ... gather up a small bundle of the fine, feathery outer the size of a cotton wool ball. Hole the striker between thumb and forefinger and position the tinder ball on the striker in front (the direction of travel along the firesteel) - you will be able to hold this using your forefinger on the striker. Now strike along the rod - the tinder is in the ideal spot to catch the sparks ... again, this is harder to explain than show!

 

[Gary]

Womble, errmmmmmmmmmm :?: I could name one or two!

 

[Lurch]

Make sure the school is approved by the self-appointed Bushcraft police!