Building A Fire An Essential Outdoor Skill

Not so long ago, an outdoorsman’s reputation was directly related to his skill in building a fire.

A man or woman who couldn’t get the coffee water boiling in 15 minutes, probably couldn’t track an elk, catch a fish, skin a grizzly, or any of the other crafts an outdoorsman was expected to master.

Flames were more than a means to calm coffee jitters. A fire was the essence of survival.

Some things never change.

Should your V-8 sputter to a stop, or your Coleman stove poop out or your snowmobile smash into a tree in the dark, you might suddenly wish you had practiced the art of fire-building.

To light a fire, you need a heat source, tinder and kindling.

The heat source, which you should always carry outdoors, can be a flint or waterproof matches, which should be carried in a waterproof container.

In addition to these essential heat sources, one also could carry a butane lighter for convenience. But don’t rely on it.

The tinder can be a number of easily ignited materials, including shredded birch bark, shavings of pitchwood, dry red pine needles, toilet paper or even wool fuzz scraped from your shirt.

Survival instructors recommend carrying a plastic film container stuffed with cottonballs that have been smeared with petroleum jelly.

Combine several kinds of tinder if you want, but make sure you have a generous supply before you light it.

Your tinder must be dry and well aerated. Dry grass, for instance, might just smoke when sparked with a flint. But pulling the grass apart while it’s smoldering will create flames.

If you use cotton balls smeared with petroleum jelly, you must pull the cotton apart until it has hundreds of easily ignited fuzzy ends.

Once you get a generous supply of tinder, stack up a generous supply of dry kindling - dried pencil-sized twigs. Then stack some larger diameter branches in another pile.

Patience is a critical element of firemaking. You’ll need it before and after you strike the match.

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