Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting To Build a Fire

The "Surviving a cold wet night" post is excellent but has become a bit cumbersome to sort through. I've been teaching survival skills for about 25 years and I've been amazed at the amount of knowledge and experience among the backpack hunters in this forum. I thought it might be nice to address some of these topics individually.

As for fire, my personal preference is to carry a ferrocerium rod. I keep it tethered on about a six inch line to my pocket knife. I retired my last one after about 20 years of use. It built many hundreds, if not thousands of fires and still had a usable stub.

As for tinder, I'm a believer in cotton balls and petroleum jelly. You can shove a couple dozen of them in a 35mm film canister. Coat them individually as you pack them in the container and be very generous with the vasaline. Use 100% cotton balls. When you pull one out, fluff (aerate) it to catch a spark more easily. They also have medical uses. With survival items, multi use is important.

My choice in natural tinder is pitchwood. Pitchwood in found in coniferous (pine) forests. It can be found in old stumps or by breaking a stob (base of a dead limb) off a tree. The darker the color, the better the quality. It will have a decidedly stong pine sent. Scrape it into fine shavings and or small curls.

In the deciduous forest, I prefer birch bark. Tear and shread it to make it light more easily with a spark.

All these choices are resilient to moisture and will light even after they have been submerged.

There is a fairly good video on YouTube about using resin from Douglas Fir "blisters" as a liquid tender.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBJeUQOkP4

Read the short story too......

i second that on the pitch wood stumps. Even if the area has just been dumped with rain or snow the pitch wood in the stump is ussually dry and all you need is a ax or something similiar to get to it.

Vibe, good video on how to collect the pitch but nothing that I saw on how to use it. I did a quick look through the titles but didn't see if he actually starts a fire with the stuff in one of them. My personal experience is that straight pitch has been almost useless in starting a fire, whether in liquid or hard form. I wonder if the liquid pitch would work well if you put it on the cotton balls. Probably so. I'd like to see how this guy uses the pitch.

He acts competent enough that I think he has something to offer. For one thing, he is the first of these "instructors" I've seen who uses existing structures, like the down tree as the frame for his shelter, rather than going out into the open and building it all.

Pitch impregnated wood is excellent fire starter, as stated in the first post, when slivered or thin shavings. And a chunk of it gives a strong heart to a fire to get larger stuff going and makes a hot fire for a long time.

However, we often hunt in PNW coastal areas where there is no pine nor birch, and pitch wood is hard to find. Doug fir makes pretty good pitch wood at times, but it is usually a lot harder to get than from pine, nothing we can count on finding or being able to access with backpack tools.

My rule of thumb is that if an area grows pine, starting a fire is not all that difficult, in rain snow or whatever conditions.

Kind of jet lagged and probably rambling here, catchiing up on several weeks of missed posts. A dedicated thread on fire starting is a good idea.

This is a good topic and I do have a question. This pertains to spring time when things are wet and soggy. I have yet to build a fire by friction but want to do it this year. A magnesium stick is pretty easy to start a fire with. I usually scrap some off find a fallen tree with dead pine needles still attached. Fire is easy enough to get going. But I have also noticed that other than that there isn't really anything to start a fire. Grass is green even in the fall when I hunt. Back in the trees the ground is bare. I have yet to find a bird's nest. So what else is out there to use if I don't bring anything in my pack?

Pitch blisters are what we call a supplemental tinder; meaning you have to mix it with something else. Soak it up with something flammable and absorbant to give it a wick.

I haven't tried cotton balls with pitch blisters. I guess when I have the forsight to bring them as tinder, I put some vasaline on them. It would work really well, but I would avoid burning my med kit if I have another option. I have used strips of a cotton t-shirt or a kerchief. I try to avoid destroying my clothing unless I'm in a real pickle.

Dry goats beard (lichen) or really, really dry moss will burn longer with some pitch smeared around on it. Put the damp goats beard (without the pitch)under your hat and it will dry as you move through the woods. It also adds to the insulation (dead air space) under your hat.

The dry pitch stuck to the tree can be crumbled and sprinkled on any tinder that will already easily light. Once it melts and catches on fire it will be of benefit. The problem is preventing it from just falling through the tinder and laying on the ground where it doesn't help much.

Globular pitch (thick taffy like stuff)stuck to the side of a tree can be ripped in pieces and fed very carefully to the tinder once it gets lit.

The first rule in survival is -always- without exception- carry at least a minimal personal survival kit.

The rule of five P's ...

Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

If you prefer 7 P's ...

Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

I would like to say, "I wouldn't be caught dead in the woods without my pack." (or a vest) Actually, that's the perfect way to get caught dead.

Even lone fighter pilots have a seat kit and are taught to keep a minimum personal survival kit on their person.

Wet conditions make building a fire more of a challenge, and is best handled by preparing before hand.

1) Bring a good, hot, long burning tinder with you.

2) Dry tonight's tinder, with this mornings fire.

3) Know where to look.

Choose areas that mother nature protects. Under trees, cliffs, etc. Look for dead grass around the base of a tree. In spring it might be behind, mixed in, or under newer grass. Break small dead branches from around the base of the tree or the underside of a leaning dead tree. Dead, dry bark or leaves. It all has to be dry, dry, dry..

In worst conditions, your only option may be to get to the dry wood inside a dead tree or branch. An axe or saw would be nice for big stuff. If all you have is a knife, you will probably be limited to stuff under an inch. Without a knife, smash small limbs with a rock - pull it apart where it splits. Strip all the bark from small twigs. Always, avoid picking material directly from the ground.

Larger items can sometimes be split without an axe by banging it against a rock or log. Or use a tree wrench - Find two trees close together, put the log or limb between them and push as if you were going to wrap it around the trees. Try not to break it off, but start a split and work on it from there. Find a crack and use wedges made from rocks or wood to split it apart.

Survival skills are much more fun to practice, than to rely on.

I forgot to mention that once you get to the dry wood, you have to scrape it into shavings, make small-long-thin wood curls, or feather sticks in order to use it as a tinder. Work your way up to your fuel sized material in stages from there. Perhaps pencil lead size, to pencil size, to finger size, wrist size, etc.

Vasaline + cottonball + firesteel = fire. Oh white birch bark rocks too.

Blue masking tape.

Part 2 0f the same title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSpihMe61hM&feature=related

Look at 1 minute 25 seconds in, to 1 minute 55 seconds into the video.

Vibe, Thanks for finding that. Fascinating and I believe what I see in the video. I also know that I could barely get straight pitch to burn with a direct flame on the several times I have tried it when starting fires in the bush. I have tried the liquid from blisters and also stiffer stuff right on to hardened resin chunks chipped off of stumps. Once you have a fire going, the hard stuff will melt and burn with a hot flame, but has been of little use in the initial starting of the fire. In the video he starts it with flint and steel sparks.

Now I'm curious why my experience is different than what he showed in the video. Next time in the bush I am going to try starting pitch on fire. We have some different factor giving us different results.

Well first clue was that there was no snow on the ground.
I'm sure the ambient temp had something to do with it. No telling how warm that slab of wood was either. And even then it took him several attempts.

Good point! Duh

I wonder how many on this forum have read this Jack London short story?

Reading it should give one a bit deeper appreciation for the advice contained in this thread!

M Bell

"Jack London Story?"
Where can I read it?

Get some milsurp Trioxane (sp) tabs. They work...



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I.ve always wanted to be a procrastinator, I just keep putting it off.