Starting a fire in the wettest place on earth

[adriaticum]

Let's imagine this news report:

"Chilliwack search and rescue reports after 3 days of search and rescue operations they have located hunter A.M. 100 miles from Hope, frozen to death clutching matches in one hand and cotton balls in another. Rescuers believe he died because he didn't know how to start a fire even though he had all the materials he needed in his hands."

:mrgreen::mrgreen:

Ok, let's not imagine that.

So on Saturday after the hunt we decide to start a fire in the bush just for practice and low and behold couldn't get it going. It was around 5 degrees, everything was wet and soaked and I though just gathering some small dead spruce branches would do it. Not a chance. It would burn for about 1-2 minutes and die. I had matches and Vaseline soaked cotton balls and as soon as the cotton burns out the fire goes out. To my dismay, my fire starting knowledge is not so current after all. In hind sight we didn't put a whole lot of thought and there was no need to be imaginative. But got a big fat F for that class.
WTF!

How do you take care of this, most basic, need?

[markomoose]

Gasoline works but seriously i carry fire starter briquettes.

[pnbrock]

tube of firestarter works like a charm

[longstonec]

Blowtorch.

Firestarter mini brick thingys work.

In my fishing vest I carry a vacuum packed ziplock bag with blue SM foam soaked in gas. It flattens out in whatever pocket its in and will burn for quite a while. Even less dry stuff in the woods in Feb-March steelheading after you have gone for an impromptu swim.

[bigneily]

Dryer lint rubbed with Vaseline works awesome and cheap, Heard cotton balls do the same but have not tried em.

[albravo2]

a tip i got on here a year ago was that inner tube is light, packable and it burns for a very long time. a bit smokey, for sure, but minor inconvenience given the stakes.

i've lit numerous fires using inner tube, but i haven't tried to do it in the serious wet stuff.

when i worked for the railway i got my hands on a few signal flares (fusees, we called 'em) and they would light a fire like a hot damn.

[604redneck]

if u have one spent cartridge and one live round u can pull the bullet and utilize the powder(i have legitimately done this in a situation where a fire was needed) i carry one fire starter some strike anywhere matches with a cotton ball and a lighter in my pack even for day hunts and also even if all the wood seems wet there is always a way to get a fire going. In this day and age it seems alot of parents dont teach there children basic outdoor survival skills. what do they think is gonna happen when the zombies attack!

[luckofthedraw]

Homemade fire starters. Egg carton cut into individual cups. Fill with dryer lint, sprinkle a heavy layer of chainsaw saw dust on top and melt candle wax all over to hold it all together. Discovered this when my 3 year old daughter wanted to do a craft. Works like a hot damn. 1 unit will burn for 10 mins and can be kicked across wet lawn repeatedly without going out.

[BearStump]

implrtant to gather up all your material first. dont try to light it without everything at hand. we ran into this exact scenario once and my under dressed 12 year old was already at the beyond shivering point. yikes!! ended up using a can of muskol bug spray that was in the bottom of my backpack. used it like a blowtorch. did the trick and it was the nicest fire ive ever felt.

[finaddict]

Homemade fire starters. Egg carton cut into individual cups. Fill with dryer lint, sprinkle a heavy layer of chainsaw saw dust on top and melt candle wax all over to hold it all together. Discovered this when my 3 year old daughter wanted to do a craft. Works like a hot damn. 1 unit will burn for 10 mins and can be kicked across wet lawn repeatedly without going out.Great idea!! thanks

[One Shot]

It would be very sad to hear. From my experience I would say that the individual in the scenario waited to long before attempting to find shelter and start a fire. Glad to hear that you took time to practice making a fire. Failure can be sobering. It does not matter what you have learned or carry for survival equipment THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE OTHER THAN ACTUAL PRACTICE IN REAL CONDITIONS for that which you may encounter. In practice find out what survival equipment you need to make fire happen. Learn what and where you can find suitable fire making material out in the bush in your area. It takes a lot of energy to make wet cold wood to burn. There are several good books on survival out there.

[Coyote]

Bearstump is right. Get all yer stuff in place.
Old cedar stumps will have a lot of dry very burnable wood. You'll work to access it but it's there. A small hatchet can be a life saver to get at it. Old growth Doug fir bark will give a hot fire.

[BimmerBob]

I always carry a small chunk of pitchwood in my pocket, about like this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64595952/DSCN0847r.jpg

it is great as it can not get wet even if soaked in water and a few splinters shaved off the piece about the size of matchsticks will burn long enough to light small branches for starting a fire.

The great thing in BC is it is very abundant and can be found in old dead evergreen stumps and blowdowns almost everywhere you go. If you make the slivers small enough you can get it going with jute tinder and a flint and steel, but it does take practice.

[One Shot]

Homemade fire starters. Egg carton cut into individual cups. Fill with dryer lint, sprinkle a heavy layer of chainsaw saw dust on top and melt candle wax all over to hold it all together. Discovered this when my 3 year old daughter wanted to do a craft. Works like a hot damn. 1 unit will burn for 10 mins and can be kicked across wet lawn repeatedly without going out.

With all the synthetics being worn these days the effectiveness of the lint in not the same as when cotton was the norm.

[Sofa King]

Gasoline works but seriously i carry fire starter briquettes.

gas doesn't work as well as one would think.
if the wood is dry, yeah, but if the wood is dry, one sure doesn't need gas to get it going.
if everything is wet, the gas just burns until it's done and there's still no fire.
motor oil works much better and lasts longer.
it soaks into the wood.

[dryflyguy57]

Homemade fire starters. Egg carton cut into individual cups. Fill with dryer lint, sprinkle a heavy layer of chainsaw saw dust on top and melt candle wax all over to hold it all together. Discovered this when my 3 year old daughter wanted to do a craft. Works like a hot damn. 1 unit will burn for 10 mins and can be kicked across wet lawn repeatedly without going out.
I second that , best tip I have ever had for fire start , haven't added anything but wax and still works well , willl try the dryer lint . Grab some candles at the dollar store , melt in an old pot(just for that) and your in businerss

[the hopper]

Dry strips of cedar bark can nearly always be found even on the north island and the midcoast, look for a sloping or curved cedar tree live or dead and down near the base the underside nearly always you can pull some reasonably dry bark strips off, enough to sorta hit critical fire mass anyways.
Its great for getting from the "starter" to some small branches, the trickiest part.

[adriaticum]

Thanks for the feedback guys. We had fire starting material but could not keep the fire going for more than a few minutes. I will definitely practice this in variety of conditions.

[Mtn Man]

just hit Ikea buy a hundred pack of there tea lights, throw a half a dozen in your pack, they burn for an hour each a constant flame and slowly start adding small sticks, used it on a few occasions. dryer lint works good too.

[Big Lew]

As others have mentioned, very important to gather plenty of material before trying to start a fire. Most people can get a flame going, but it does no good if you haven't enough small dry stuff to build it into a fire. If it's possible, get out of scoured, partly grown re-planted areas as there just isn't enough burnable material to sustain a fire if it's miserably wet out.

[Ubertuber]

Roll three inch wide lengths of newspaper and tie with string then dip/soak in melted wax until saturated. When you light them the newspaper unfolds in the heat and makes for a large starter fire.
I also make the dryer lint filled egg cartons, they burn hot and long. For best results, you should heat them in oven as you fill them so the wax saturates completely. I don't use the chainsaw dust, but no harm in that.
I'm a cotton guy, no Disco Stu synthetics here.:mrgreen:

[sparkes3]

if your gonna use gas put it in a small can with no lid,
it will burn longer instead of just a poof and be gone

[M.Dean]

Like BimmerBob said, pitch wood works real good. I get mine from big dead Fir tree's when cutting fire wood. Take a good hand full, wrap it up in paper towel or news paper, put it in a few Zip Lock bag's, add a Brand New Bic lighter and Bob's Your uncle!!! But, know matter what you use to "Start" a fire, you have to find some dry wood to keep it going! If you simply grab arm fulls of wet tree branches, then put your Fire Starter under it and wait for big huge flames, you may freeze to death waiting! If possible look around for a big olde tree that's half assly dry under neath, it's more than likely a big Spruce tree, get in close to the truck and pick any and all wood that looks and feels dry, the more the merrier!!! If the only other wood around is wet branches, try to scrap the outer wet part off a bunch of them, start small then go a bit bigger. If possible try to light your fire under that big Spruce tree, or Fir tree, or what looks like the driest place near to you. Get all your wood beside you when you do finally place your Fire Starter on the driest ground you can find, if you have too, place logs together to make a platform to light the fire on if the grounds real wet. Your fire Starter go's down first, then the real small dry twigs you've gathered, pile them up like a Tee Pee, and don't put any damp wood on yet! Get one of the 2 or 3 New Bic lighters you've got in a few different pockets, in case on pocket fill's with snow, or water etc. Take it out of the Water Tight bag you put it in cuz I mentioned it before on here, now light your Fire Starter!Now, Baby your Fire!!! Get it going with more and more of the driest wood you've got to start with!!! Then, if dry wood is in short supply, start to add some of the "Not So Dry" pieces, not so many your fires just a steaming trying to burn, just enough that the hot fire will dry them out and let them burn. You can also, well looking for dry twigs is to keep your eye out for any Birch Tree's, the bark on them burns like gasoline!!! Also look for pitch, any kind will burn, so peel it off the tree, "with your buddy's knife" and add that to your Fire Starter too! And, the most important thing of all, like mentioned from others, try this before your life depends on it!!! Next time your out in the bush, take a hour to start a fire, it's easy if you've done it a few times before! When our Kids were young, and now, all the Grand Kids, we let them light the outside fire when we have a Hot Dog Roast. Practice makes perfect! It may save there life some day! This time of the year, Hunting or Fishing, I keep my Propane Torch in the rear box of my Quad, it makes wet wood DRY!!! In a hell'va Hurry too!

[M.Dean]

if your gonna use gas put it in a small can with no lid,
it will burn longer instead of just a poof and be gone A cut off Beer can works great! And, if you can, add a piece of rolled up cloth, shirt tail, old mitt, any thing, it makes it burn longer!

[rides bike to work]

Even with a starter like lint cotton balls or what have you gathering a large amount of small dry tinder is key and that can be hard in certain areas when we did the same excersize we had to hike a good ways to find a good supply of dry tinder in all sizes to build up the fire in soaking wet conditions.we used shavings off a good dry branch. Turned from what we thought would be a half hour into over two hours before we got a good fire and enough wood that we thought would last the night. That was with a small hatchet and knife as well usually wouldnt have the hatchet but do carry a fold up bone saw .Shelter is key as well if your fire isn't big yet a heavy shower on the coast can put it right out . Eye opening for us as well.

[Jager]

Learn how to find pitch wood aka fat wood aka nookie wood like BimmerBob mentioned. Douglas fir and pine are the ticket. Look for old windfalls or ancient rotted stumps and cut into the hard spike of wood surrounded by the punky crap. Sometimes it's just a hard spike sticking out of the ground. This is your fire starting gold. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort to extract (an axe or hatchet is helpful) but once you learn to recognize it you will feel confident you can start a fire in a blizzard with all natural materials.

[finngun]

and where ever yu can find a birch tree,,bark of it is good fire starter:wink:

[Jagermeister]

You need to sustain a flame temp of 100°c or 212°F to liberate moisture from the wood. Wood will burn better once that temp and the moisture is evaporating. When the flame temp hits around 550°F charcoal embers start to develop and the flame should be burning how.
Another trick is to make your fire on some kind of base, maybe a large flat stone, old tree stump* or some limbs or small logs laid alongside each other.
The three elements of fire are fuel, heat and oxygen,
At this time of year, small dead spruce/balsam/pine limbs like those up to ½" absorb water due to the high relative humidity. The best bet is to take the larger twigs and feather them with a knife. (Better still is to use cedar if it is handy, dead cedar that is.) Make sure you have an adequate supply of kindling and small logs so that you're not searching around once the fire is starting. Fuel must be handy to maintain the flame. As the intensity increases, add the larger pieces.
(* An old tree stump is great if you should think you're going to be awhile because it is going to burn into the roots. There is a good side and a bad side to this.
The good side is as the fire progresses into the root system, the ground is going to heat up in a large area making it a little more cozy.
The bad side is that as the fires progresses, the ground is no longer supported by the former roots and now is subject to collapse when weight comes to bear. This could result in lower leg injuries making matters worse.
Also, depending on the size of the stump and the mass of the roots, it could burn for days of months long after you have left. Not so bad in late fall or winter, but not good if it is spring or summer.)
Candles are good. Half a dozen of those about 6 or 8" long and an inch in diameter. You can put 2 or 3 together to increase flame area if for some reason you think you need it.
Practice makes perfect.

[guest]

Toilet paper soaked in paraffin wax ........ Peel off chunks .......... Vavoom

[elknut]

Just used a real good fire starter this year hunting..Wood chips and diesel..This stuff will start a fire ..It lasts not like gasoline...A bucket of wood chips and pour in some diesel to soak the chips well...Use a stick to spread on the split wood ...Light..and woulla...fire. It will light round logs split in 4 pieces..You dont really need fine kindling..

[blackbart]

Ever hear of a Blue Angel? Take enough beer and peperoni and you should be good to go on that front:)

Blue flames are hot right????

[SPEYMAN]

Those Ketchup cups you get at a fast food place,two or three pieces of string for a wick and fill with wax.Light the string and your good to go.

[mungojeerie]

When i was in boy scouts I got lots of practice... got quite into bare bones winter survival stuff... havent practiced any of that for close to 20 years, and for some reason hiking into 2' of snow with near no gear and living off the minimum (no tents, etc) for 4 or 5 days has slightly less appeal to me now than it did then.

I have used the egg carton ones before, but one thing I have made and they still do this in scouts and girl guides is buddy burners that you can use as a personal stove, but also double as a great fire starter. Originally it was a tuna can with strips of corrugated cardboard cut slightly under the height of the can. the cardboard strips (as long as poss/needed) are rolled with candle wick in the center and more as needed, sometimes I used 3 spaced out. Just roll it until its the inside dimension of the can then put it in the can so the corrugations are now vertical and the wicks are sticking up, then pour melted paraffin wax so that it soaks into the cardboard and wick and fills the corrugations to the top. It should be fairly tight fitting but no so tightly rolled that the corrugations are crushed.

This works great but is heavy and bulky if packing light. I have done mini versions of this with old air rifle pellet tins... the lid screws back on, its compact and fairly light... works great!

[Ambush]

Most grocery stores sell small boxes containing four slabs of paraffin wax that is used for sealing jams jars.

Get an old pot that will have no other use and heat the paraffin until liquid and stir in as much sawdust as it will take while still being pliable . Spoon it into cardboard egg cartoons, pressing it down and let cool slowly. When cooled break each cartoon in twelve pieces. They never go bad, won't soak up water, are easy to light and burn for quite a long time. Saw dust is easier to collect and burns better then drier lint. Although some guys could probably get enough greasy belly button lint, in one digging, to light a good fire in the pouring rain.

Green spruce boughs will produce a short but intense heat for igniting other materials.

[SingleShot]

- Stay calm and work methodically.
- Collect all the materials first and then double it.
-Start really small in the driest and most wind sheltered place you can find, a flat rock makes a great start.
-Lichen, (witch's hair) pitch, dead twigs off of standing trees all are useful.
-Build the fire so that it can breathe.
-Once it is self consuming, pile all your materials around the fire so they warm and start to dry.

[TyTy]

on the coast, bottomline, you need to travel until you find old growth cedar. be it stumps, slabs, whatever. find fuel and find lots of it.

i carry a large gerber 'keyhole' type saw. between that, my knife, wedges i can cut with my knife, and a club to pound the wedges i can cut with the saw, i can split wood into useable fuel. if i have further concerns with venturing out in the winter, ill pack a hatchet

[139grainsofhell]

Tea candles can keep lit and dry out your small tinder enough to get a fire going

[Marlin375]

I always carry a small chunk of pitchwood in my pocket, about like this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64595952/DSCN0847r.jpg

it is great as it can not get wet even if soaked in water and a few splinters shaved off the piece about the size of matchsticks will burn long enough to light small branches for starting a fire.

The great thing in BC is it is very abundant and can be found in old dead evergreen stumps and blowdowns almost everywhere you go. If you make the slivers small enough you can get it going with jute tinder and a flint and steel, but it does take practice.


Like BimmerBob said, pitch wood works real good. I get mine from big dead Fir tree's when cutting fire wood. Take a good hand full, wrap it up in paper towel or news paper, put it in a few Zip Lock bag's, add a Brand New Bic lighter and Bob's Your uncle!!! But, know matter what you use to "Start" a fire, you have to find some dry wood to keep it going! If you simply grab arm fulls of wet tree branches, then put your Fire Starter under it and wait for big huge flames, you may freeze to death waiting! If possible look around for a big olde tree that's half assly dry under neath, it's more than likely a big Spruce tree, get in close to the truck and pick any and all wood that looks and feels dry, the more the merrier!!! If the only other wood around is wet branches, try to scrap the outer wet part off a bunch of them, start small then go a bit bigger. If possible try to light your fire under that big Spruce tree, or Fir tree, or what looks like the driest place near to you. Get all your wood beside you when you do finally place your Fire Starter on the driest ground you can find, if you have too, place logs together to make a platform to light the fire on if the grounds real wet. Your fire Starter go's down first, then the real small dry twigs you've gathered, pile them up like a Tee Pee, and don't put any damp wood on yet! Get one of the 2 or 3 New Bic lighters you've got in a few different pockets, in case on pocket fill's with snow, or water etc. Take it out of the Water Tight bag you put it in cuz I mentioned it before on here, now light your Fire Starter!Now, Baby your Fire!!! Get it going with more and more of the driest wood you've got to start with!!! Then, if dry wood is in short supply, start to add some of the "Not So Dry" pieces, not so many your fires just a steaming trying to burn, just enough that the hot fire will dry them out and let them burn. You can also, well looking for dry twigs is to keep your eye out for any Birch Tree's, the bark on them burns like gasoline!!! Also look for pitch, any kind will burn, so peel it off the tree, "with your buddy's knife" and add that to your Fire Starter too! And, the most important thing of all, like mentioned from others, try this before your life depends on it!!! Next time your out in the bush, take a hour to start a fire, it's easy if you've done it a few times before! When our Kids were young, and now, all the Grand Kids, we let them light the outside fire when we have a Hot Dog Roast. Practice makes perfect! It may save there life some day! This time of the year, Hunting or Fishing, I keep my Propane Torch in the rear box of my Quad, it makes wet wood DRY!!! In a hell'va Hurry too!



Bob N Dean have it. In a Wetcoast rainforest all you need is an old doug fir stump a pair of boots a knife and a bic lighter. Best stumps are rotten but died of natural causes like a blow down, older the better so the boots work is easier. Kick your way through the punkie crap till you get to the heartwood it will be a spire of pure pitch wood it smells like turpentine and burns like kerosene. Feather a piece with your knife and light it with one flick of the bic. When you light a good sized piece place it on top of your ready to go fire (collected dry dead under branches) it will drip down and get the whole thing roaring in no time. Hint....don't cook over the pitchwood fire, it will ruin a perfectly good smokie.

[Jelvis]

Take your local arsonist hunting with you.

[ElectricDyck]

just hit Ikea buy a hundred pack of there tea lights, throw a half a dozen in your pack, they burn for an hour each a constant flame and slowly start adding small sticks, used it on a few occasions. dryer lint works good too.

Totally, we've got some roaring fires out of one t light and some patience in some huge down pours, just stack in on slow, with enough heat anything burns. One thing I learned this year is plastic food wrappers work pretty good too.

[Chopper]

If you cannot get a fire going with a Bic Lighter ... you deserve to die

[Darksith]

Im surprised not many people have mentioned how to find dry wood or tinder. I only saw the 1 or 2 posts about birch and cedar bark. Another trick is the heart wood of a log. You might not always have fire starting fuels with you for whatever reason. Learn where to look and you can usually find dry wood or tinder material

[brian]

The biggest problem is most people don't know how to make a good fire using dry wood without resorting to starters like paper, cotton balls, pitch, candles, or inner tubes. Even a little extra humidity in seemingly dry wood makes building a good fire much harder. I mean really dry sun baked wood is the easiest stuff to keep burning once you get it lit. If you can't build a fire using this stuff then you really don't have much hope of getting a fire going in any kind of adverse conditions. What I do is I build fires from scratch every time I light one be it in my fireplace, my fire pit, or camping. I don't use any tinder that I don't make on the spot or scrounge, I try to always use different wood, and I try to do it differently all the time. I guarantee that the first few times of doing this will be eye opening for the uninitiated. The second step is to bring it out of the controlled environment. It gets much much tougher when it is wet out. There is an old adage that says 'starting a fire is more difficult the more you are in need of it'. So here are a few tips I can think of for starting fires in adverse conditions.

1. Look for dry standing wood. Sometimes good dry kindling can be found under the canopy of younger thick furs or spruce (Christmas tree sizish). You are looking for the tiny dead match stick size branches. Do the snap test to see if they are dry enough.
2. Pine pitch is fire starting gold.
3. Often the interior wood is still dry even if the exterior is wet. Look for dead standing timber that you can take down or break branches off of and see if the interior is dry enough to use. Once again the snap test is helpful.
4. protect dry wood any way you can.
5. Try to build your fires out of the elements if at all possible. Build the fire on something to protect it from the wet ground. Bark or a small stick platform will work for this. Also try to screen it from the wind and rain.
6. Any fire starting tricks you carry will only extend your initial lighting period. In wet conditions starting a fire is only half the battle, keeping it going and getting it hot enough can be a real challenge. Once you get the fire going smaller pieces will dry out and burn a lot better than larger pieces will. You have it made once that fire is snapping and crackling. Until then attend it like it is a baby on life support.
7. I think that for fire building a good hatchet is better than a good knife and matches are better than lighters as long as you can keep them dry.
8. I typically build teepee fires and one key is to make enough room so that you can get your match/starter under the tinder so the flame can spread upwards into the teepee. Then you simply need to have each size of wood ignite the next size up. Fires only need two things to keep going, fuel and air. So don't smother it at the start, collect plenty of fuel, and hopefully you will have a good hot bed of coals in no time.
9. Practice building them until it is second nature. Start with easy ones before you head out and try to light harder ones.

[mungojeerie]

Bob N Dean have it. In a Wetcoast rainforest all you need is an old doug fir stump a pair of boots a knife and a bic lighter. Best stumps are rotten but died of natural causes like a blow down, older the better so the boots work is easier. Kick your way through the punkie crap till you get to the heartwood it will be a spire of pure pitch wood it smells like turpentine and burns like kerosene. Feather a piece with your knife and light it with one flick of the bic. When you light a good sized piece place it on top of your ready to go fire (collected dry dead under branches) it will drip down and get the whole thing roaring in no time. Hint....don't cook over the pitchwood fire, it will ruin a perfectly good smokie.

Exactly... I was always taught that that feathered piece was called a "fuzz stick" whittle lots of fine shavings up and down all around close to each other.... shave until they start to lift/curl but dont shave them off... continue until you have a what you would imagine a "fuzz stick" looks like use this in the center of your fire.

[brian]

I am going to have to look for those pitch sticks next time I am out. They sound awesome!

[tigrr]

Thanks for all the tips and tricks guys. Never know when you'll need them.
I have dug out my bic and a hurricane lighter that works in all conditions. They go into my emergency pack thats on my back when out sledding or hunting.

[BCKyle]

Brian nailed it here; there are a million and one great tricks to get your first flame going, but it's worthless if you can't get it to catch well into the wood. For your starting kindling there is often standing clumps of scrappy hardwoods that you can just yank out of the clump by hand (just watch out for any little rotten tops snapping and landing on your dome).

The only thing in that post that I would debate is the hatchet vs. knife thing: but that's been beaten to death all over the internet. I often carry a small hatchet. But I ALWAYS carry a biggish 'bush' knife (I use an ESEE Laser Strike). I can beat the crap out of it batoning (using a sort of 'club' stick to hammer it through small logs as a splitting method) and not worry about it breaking. It's not a scandinavian grind so it's not the best for making feather sticks: but it works pretty well and it holds a good edge. So to me the knife is the 100% of the time tool where the hatchet is the sometimes tool that can often make things easier (especially shelter building).

Like Brian said, in wet wet conditions the dry wood is in the middle of the dead standing stuff. In wet weather like that your fire may totally depend on your being able to split a few starter pieces of kindling in half to get at the goods in the middle. Then this is where the knife shines in tinder prep because you can easily baton a chunk of dry wood into everything from shavings to pencil thin starter sticks and up, and all from the middle wood where the moisture hasn't soaked.

I'm no expert but I do like practicing this stuff and whenever I am out camping I try to start my fires with nothing but the available natural materials and a firesteel, because like they say without the practice the knowledge is useless.

One other thing: in my experience even though birch bark is a great starter, the actual birch wood is often not much use. They rot from the inside out and if they are dead they often seem to have a lot of moisture in them. They will also freeze up inside in the winter, and they can be hazardous to push over because they often have loose tops that can pop off backwards at you right before the tree falls over.

[Redneck Rocket]

I always have pitch.

Although, considering how many beer cans I see in the bush and on the river, maybe this is more apropos:


http://vimeo.com/64726512

[hunter1947]

Pitch from a tree lower hidden branches is what I would use..

[Rackem]

For very wet conditions, and when you need to travel light, say on an Alpine hike where weight counts, use innertube. When Arne and I went sheep hunting, it was raining, and everything was soaked. The moss and lichen in the Alpine soak up water like sponges.

After gathering up a bunch of wet dead wood and some green scrub pine branches Arne pulled out the one inch squares of innertube, he had them in an outside pocket, so they were wet too. He had a lighter, and lit ONE square of innertube. That little square of rubber burned hot and long, got that wet wood and pine roaring, with no effort. Now I won't go into the bush without innertube.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1391888_10151675099810754_894480199_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1240319_10151623131725754_1153059205_n.jpg

[frenchbar]

:confused:didnt everybody learn this stuff in cubs and boyscouts...

[Muliechaser]

:confused:didnt everybody learn this stuff in cubs and boyscouts...

Sure did! Well... Some of us lmao.

[Muliechaser]

One of the most valuable things i learnt while being a cub then cadets same all the way thru. For us anyways was pine or simular bark. Dig down a layer and walla resin filled bark shit lights up like nothin

[Rackem]

:confused:didnt everybody learn this stuff in cubs and boyscouts...

Nope, never in cubs, boyscouts, or cadets lol. I learned to make fire from my daddy. Then I learned from SAR and my hunting buddy, awesome tips to make it very easy.

[Big Lew]

The biggest problem is most people don't know how to make a good fire using dry wood without resorting to starters like paper, cotton balls, pitch, candles, or inner tubes. Even a little extra humidity in seemingly dry wood makes building a good fire much harder. I mean really dry sun baked wood is the easiest stuff to keep burning once you get it lit. If you can't build a fire using this stuff then you really don't have much hope of getting a fire going in any kind of adverse conditions. What I do is I build fires from scratch every time I light one be it in my fireplace, my fire pit, or camping. I don't use any tinder that I don't make on the spot or scrounge, I try to always use different wood, and I try to do it differently all the time. I guarantee that the first few times of doing this will be eye opening for the uninitiated. The second step is to bring it out of the controlled environment. It gets much much tougher when it is wet out. There is an old adage that says 'starting a fire is more difficult the more you are in need of it'. So here are a few tips I can think of for starting fires in adverse conditions.

1. Look for dry standing wood. Sometimes good dry kindling can be found under the canopy of younger thick furs or spruce (Christmas tree sizish). You are looking for the tiny dead match stick size branches. Do the snap test to see if they are dry enough.
2. Pine pitch is fire starting gold.
3. Often the interior wood is still dry even if the exterior is wet. Look for dead standing timber that you can take down or break branches off of and see if the interior is dry enough to use. Once again the snap test is helpful.
4. protect dry wood any way you can.
5. Try to build your fires out of the elements if at all possible. Build the fire on something to protect it from the wet ground. Bark or a small stick platform will work for this. Also try to screen it from the wind and rain.
6. Any fire starting tricks you carry will only extend your initial lighting period. In wet conditions starting a fire is only half the battle, keeping it going and getting it hot enough can be a real challenge. Once you get the fire going smaller pieces will dry out and burn a lot better than larger pieces will. You have it made once that fire is snapping and crackling. Until then attend it like it is a baby on life support.
7. I think that for fire building a good hatchet is better than a good knife and matches are better than lighters as long as you can keep them dry.
8. I typically build teepee fires and one key is to make enough room so that you can get your match/starter under the tinder so the flame can spread upwards into the teepee. Then you simply need to have each size of wood ignite the next size up. Fires only need two things to keep going, fuel and air. So don't smother it at the start, collect plenty of fuel, and hopefully you will have a good hot bed of coals in no time.
9. Practice building them until it is second nature. Start with easy ones before you head out and try to light harder ones.

Very good post...My family, consisting of one Grandfather, my Dad, three Brothers, and myself always did like you, started our fires from scratch regardless of the conditions. It was, and is a matter of pride...and competitive ridicule if anyone was caught cheating. Fuzz sticks, whittled shavings, small dry dead lower branches from fir, and of course, pitch sticks and shaved pitch from tree 'bleeding were our main starting materials.

[Walksalot]

I carry a small six inch road flare which burns at one gozillon degrees. Stand it up straight, strike it and then start placing wood on it. The flare will dry out wet wood in no time. This is for a survival situation only. For normally starting a fire I carry a bunch of those fire sticks hardware stores sell. As important as the fire starter is a saw or hatchet because I have been in situations where deep snow made finding wood difficult. Personally I carry both a folding saw and a hatchet. Also, and this has been mentioned before, one must be able to think clearly and one can't think clearly when one is well into a state of hypothermia. So knowing when to start getting things in order is very important. More than one unlucky soul has been found in the past tense when all they needed to survive was in a pack they never utilized. The sinister part of hypothermia is how quickly it can sneak up on a person.And yes, it can happen to you.

[Chopper]

For very wet conditions, and when you need to travel light, say on an Alpine hike where weight counts, use innertube. When Arne and I went sheep hunting, it was raining, and everything was soaked. The moss and lichen in the Alpine soak up water like sponges.

After gathering up a bunch of wet dead wood and some green scrub pine branches Arne pulled out the one inch squares of innertube, he had them in an outside pocket, so they were wet too. He had a lighter, and lit ONE square of innertube. That little square of rubber burned hot and long, got that wet wood and pine roaring, with no effort. Now I won't go into the bush without innertube.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1391888_10151675099810754_894480199_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1240319_10151623131725754_1153059205_n.jpg


Now that's a hunting camp ! great pics

[Philcott]

Good reading and very good tips.

In my opinion the most important tip is to practice. Not only lighting, but without being able to sustain the fire as well you're hooped.

When I was a scout leader we taught the kids how to light fires and keep them going. We got a bit of flack from some over protective parents for doing this but I felt fire craft as well as knife and axe skills were the most important things we could teach the kids. Fire is life when lost or stuck in the bush.

I am inspired by this thread to head out a couple of times this Christmas season to put my skills to the test a couple times. I think I'll bring a couple of smokies along as an incentive to get the fire going nice and hot.

Thanks for starting this thread Adriaticum. It could save someones life.

[Mishka]

I agree, thanks Adriaticum for starting this thread. It's motivated me to get out there and practice, especially in the really wet stuff when everything is just soaked.

[RINO]

Railway Flares and or Tigertorch....

[Big Lew]

Railway Flares and or Tigertorch....

There you go...no fooling around. If you're going to cheat, go big time, bring along a Tigertorch. As a bonus, you'll get in better shape packing it and the tank, and after making your fire, you can heat up a big rock slab to sleep on.:tongue::wink::smile:

[BernDawg]

Good reading and very good tips.

In my opinion the most important tip is to practice. Not only lighting, but without being able to sustain the fire as well you're hooped.

When I was a scout leader we taught the kids how to light fires and keep them going. We got a bit of flack from some over protective parents for doing this but I felt fire craft as well as knife and axe skills were the most important things we could teach the kids. Fire is life when lost or stuck in the bush.

I am inspired by this thread to head out a couple of times this Christmas season to put my skills to the test a couple times. I think I'll bring a couple of smokies along as an incentive to get the fire going nice and hot.

Thanks for starting this thread Adriaticum. It could save someones life.

Holy Crap!! What did they think they were signing their kids up for? Quilting classes??? We always did that in Cubs / Scouts. It used to be a matter of pride to use only a single match.

[RiverOtter]

Trouble with fire is, when you need them the most, they are the hardest to start....

I light a fire a day on the side of a mountain, from about mid October to break-up(Late March) and some days just literally suck ass. Pouring rain and the damp downdraft that comes with it is prolly the worst, with windy days where snow is blowing out of the tree canopy being a close second. Easy to laugh at people who can't get a "significant" fire going when they need it the most, but I can see how it can happen, especially with cold hands, wet clothes, shivering body, hungry and a head not thinking quite as "crisp", do to same.

Biggest advantage you can put in your favor, aside from carrying good fire starting supplies, is a little "Site" planning. For a true emergency, try to find a rotten stump near a tree that has a decent canopy. You don't need the rotten stump to start the fire, as it's damp, but if you build your fire right next to it, it can/will literally burn for days once it smoulders into the root pockets in the ground. When we had the last cold snap, my "lunch" fire burnt for 6 days, as it got into a rotten chunk of wood I didn't notice uner the snow. Pretty funny when your boss calls you on the radio monday morning in the dead of winter, to tell you your fire from Thursday hasn't went out yet.......:twisted: Would be pretty beneficial in an emergency though, especially if you dozed off for a while, as you'd still have heat to wake up to.

I also light a lot of fires in waist deep+ snow, which poses a different set of challenges, as snow turns to water, which removes "heat" from the fire triangle(fuel, heat, oxygen) and you don't have fire without all 3. Digging down to ground level, making a couple air channels and then lining the ground with a dense layer of drier fuel will go a long ways towards getting a fire to go and stay going. Also, knock the snowy edges off of your fire pit before you start, as once you do start getting heat they will sluff in and put your fire out. Ask me how I know......:-D

While I do have access to gas, as I'm a hand faller, I choose to do without. Can't remember the last work fire I started with anything more than a Bic lighter and a hand full of legthwise cut dry sawdust. That stuff is amazing and lights up faster and hotter than dry newsprint. Obviously a bit different, when a "Crummy" isn't a 15-30 minute hike away, as back up, but still, no such thing as lighting a fire "Too Good"........

For hiking/hunting I'm a huge fan of inner tube squares, "Wet Fire" cubes, minimum of 2 lighters and "Start My Fire" sparker stick as a "Plan Z" if all else fails.

[panhead]

a tip i got on here a year ago was that inner tube is light, packable and it burns for a very long time. a bit smokey, for sure, but minor inconvenience given the stakes.

i've lit numerous fires using inner tube, but i haven't tried to do it in the serious wet stuff.

when i worked for the railway i got my hands on a few signal flares (fusees, we called 'em) and they would light a fire like a hot damn.

Second that ... they burn at 2000 degrees for the length of the fusee. Always take them along fishing with a little used engine oil.

[BlacktailStalker]

Lots of really good ideas here. On the "wet coast" any of these accelerants with that old mans beard is the cats ass. Enough of that with the dead tinder off the bottom of the fir trees (even if wet) will dry out quick enough to start to burn and then you can be more aggressive adding more as the fire starts to retain heat.
If you can build next to a bluff or large rock (lots of those here) the rock will help reflect the heat of the fire as well as retain it.

One other thing people overlook here, is do you REALLY need to stop.
All I'm saying is sometimes it's best to push on, not forgetting that can be a life or death decision as well.
I've come out of some really, REALLY chitty, COLD situations sopping wet and frozen long past dark with dogs in tow that can barely drag their asses off the mountain, sometimes just curling up on a frozen ledge while I'm looking for a way down and not wanting to get up again.
I'm positive I would have froze to death regardless had I stayed over night, fire or not.
I know I've had mild to moderate hypothermia for sure on two occasions and you don't realize it til you look back and see you started going/feeling delusional in a sense.

I think one of the worst times of the year is when people head out in spring and early fall on a "nice" warm day and end up in a jam and realize how damn cold it is at night or an unexpected system flows in, that's when most people get caught off guard.

Get a SPOT for xmas as well. It's one more life line.

[270ruger]

I always pack a cedar shingle(weighs nothing),couple of tea candles and bic lighter,never failed yet

[BearStump]

every time we go camping in the summer my son is the official fire starter. has been since he was 6. he takes pride in the fires that he starts and although its tempting to just put some gas on it and get it going, he is learning more every time. learning what works and what doesn't. sometimes I'd throw him a bone and give him a tip here and there. but he's now 14, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find any kid that can get a fire going like Logan in any conditions.

[adriaticum]

Boy scout experience is good but it's also local. Boy scouts in California have to utilize different resources that are available only to them. And boy scouts here have a different set of resources.
I watched a few videos on fire making and they used things like birch bark, pine needles etc.But this was all in the dry areas.
Watched an Alaskan start a fire using dead spruce branches in cold winter conditions.
I thought because we have lots of dead spruce in the area we were that we were going to be able to do the same.
Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.
In Alaska during snow and cold the dead spruce branches are actually dry and dehydrated by the cold and burn like a hot damn.
But our spruce here is soaked wet and without 5 minutes by the fire to dry it off, you can't really use it.
So I thought I'd get some local info. Nothing like info from the local guys that have experience in the woods.

[Philcott]

I forgot to mention we taught the Scouts a little phrase we hoped would stick with them. "Go to the living, for the dead". This references going to a live spruce to break off the small dry branches near the base of the tree for kindling.

[Blair]

I always carry a rolled up piece of tarpaper. Then when I need a fire, I find a big conifer (fir, spruce or pine - they all are good) and get a large amount of the finest dead branches off the bottom. Then some larger branches - the driest I can find. The tarpaper has never let me down and having the rest of the fuel all ready before lighting is the key.

[Philcott]

Holy Crap!! What did they think they were signing their kids up for? Quilting classes??? We always did that in Cubs / Scouts. It used to be a matter of pride to use only a single match.

The best reactions I got were when they asked if we would be camping in bear country.......LOL..... I would say not only bear but cougar and wolf too. We did teach the boys bear aware and cougar caution but I think we were always pretty safe because the little shites were never quiet long enough to see any wild game.

[Big Lew]

"Philcott" 'We did teach the boys bear aware and cougar caution but I think we were always pretty safe because the little shites were never quiet long enough to see any wild game.'

I snicker about your comment:-D....I used to take kids between 8years and 13 on outdoor hikes, sometimes as many as 12-15 including a couple of parents. One minute of requested silence is the equivalent to an hour to a kid.
Heck, even many adults are the same. I took my teenage brother and my 24 year old wife hunting in the arid canyons south of Savona ONCE and even though I had them walk well behind me, all I could hear was them stepping on dry, noisey, broad-leafed plants, giggling, and then doing it again. I was beyond angry, but realized it was a hopeless situation, so gave up on hunting.

[Philcott]

but realized it was a hopeless situation, so gave up on hunting.

I hear you on that. Same as taking a kid fishing. You might just as well leave your rod at home and not have the frustration. Just enjoy the lesson.

[widger]

No problem. Carry around a 20l jug of diesel. I probably start 60-70 fires a year in the bush camping and this is all I use. Just keep dumping the stuff on until your hair starts to singe and then step back and hit it again. I once had to use the whole 20l on a fire on a sand bar in Terrace as the wood was too wet but persistence paid off in the end, she took and we got to eat those smokey diesel dogs one and all. I realilze they can be heavy and drag you down crossing rivers while wading but when the chips are down you will thank me as there is nothing quite like that smell of diesel and that whoosh and sooty black smoke telling you that you are now the master of the flame!

[finngun]

wettest place on earth--- Waialeale in English without the ʻokina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOkina)) at an elevation of 5,148 feet (1,569 m), is a shield volcano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_volcano) and the second highest point on the island of Kauaʻi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kauai) in the Hawaiian Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Islands). Averaging more than 452 inches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch) (11,500 mm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimetre)) of rain a year since 1912, with a record 683 inches (17,300 mm):mrgreen:

[tightgrouper]

Wettest place on earth? Try living on the west coast of vancouver island. Its the wettest place I know. You MUST MUST MUST carry something that is fuel. For year I always brought a tin of lighter fluid. Seemed to work for me but even still you have to nurse a fire to life here by selecting your wood carefully. Even once you have a good fire established you will not have nice flames coming off it. For the most part it just glows red with a bit of flame but it hot. Its also a good idea to pile wood around the fire to get it drying before you put it on. Matches of any kind are a bad choice. I like to role with 2 lighters.

[island6]

Start it with a 9 volt battery and extra fine steel wool and keep it going with some pitch wood, also shave little bits almost off the pitch wood and let the small but catch the larger piece on fire then build up with tinder

[finngun]

Wettest place on earth? Try living on the west coast of vancouver island. Its the wettest place I know. You MUST MUST MUST carry something that is fuel. For year I always brought a tin of lighter fluid. Seemed to work for me but even still you have to nurse a fire to life here by selecting your wood carefully. Even once you have a good fire established you will not have nice flames coming off it. For the most part it just glows red with a bit of flame but it hot. Its also a good idea to pile wood around the fire to get it drying before you put it on. Matches of any kind are a bad choice. I like to role with 2 lighters.
tell me about it:mrgreen: 21 years...nanaimo..16 years of it work in port alb.. hahaa no more,,3years in BB ..much dryer here..nice..

[Chopper]

I live on the north end of Vancouver Island ... or what the rest of Canada knows as " Mordor "

[aggiehunter]

Not only should you not trust a bic lighter but when your hands are frozen they are not the easiest thing to use...I carry one but also have matches in a waterproof container....a birds nest...pitch pieces and pre-cut cedar kindling...this weighs hardly anything and can, will and has saved the day.

[curt]

best thing ever we started fires time after time with wet wood go get yourself some road flares keep them in your pack they will save your ass everytime!!

[skibum]

Not only should you not trust a bic lighter..................

Ya no kidding - when I was young and stupid did not pack a flame source snow caving because my buddy said we would bring his new fancy torch lighter.

Spent a long cold night under the snow without any warm drink - man that still pisses me off

[Salty]

You can have the best man made 'fire starter' but you don't have shit until you have the best driest fuel (wood) you can gather. As has been said don't even try starting a fire until you do. Gather all your uber small kindling, kindling, small sticks, bigger sticks to the biggest stuff you want to burn then start the fire. I've seen lots of people start with a handful or two of small branches take out their favorite petrochemical fire starter goop get a flame or two and then go out looking for wood. Fail.

Ya its tough in wet conditions but there'll be half assed dry stuff somewhere even around here. As said look for dead standing stuff. Look under logs, in tree caves wherever the rain doesn't hit for dry areas with woody debris. Around here I look for big spruce or fir trees check for 'bleeders' where there's open sores with sap oozing out. dig out some hardened pitch chunks with your knife. There's your starter. In the interior - birch bark or pitch. For wood also look for dead standing pecker poles without mushrooms growing on them you can likely push them over and bust'm up if you don't have an axe.

[HarryToolips]

You can have the best man made 'fire starter' but you don't have shit until you have the best driest fuel (wood) you can gather. As has been said don't even try starting a fire until you do. Gather all your uber small kindling, kindling, small sticks, bigger sticks to the biggest stuff you want to burn then start the fire. I've seen lots of people start with a handful or two of small branches take out their favorite petrochemical fire starter goop get a flame or two and then go out looking for wood. Fail.

Ya its tough in wet conditions but there'll be half assed dry stuff somewhere even around here. As said look for dead standing stuff. Look under logs, in tree caves wherever the rain doesn't hit for dry areas with woody debris. Around here I look for big spruce or fir trees check for 'bleeders' where there's open sores with sap oozing out. dig out some hardened pitch chunks with your knife. There's your starter. In the interior - birch bark or pitch. For wood also look for dead standing pecker poles without mushrooms growing on them you can likely push them over and bust'm up if you don't have an axe.
Bingo..this guys got it..dead standing stuff is the key..and like survivorman say's:gather your wood first, and once you think you have enough to last the night, go grab 5 times that amount.. gettin it started of course is the hardest part, for natural stuff I find dry old man's beard works well, especially in the winter here in the interior since the air is so dry in the cold months..

[solo]

I carry a small ziplock bag with dry shavings and small kindling in it. Throw it down on wet ground in a cold windy rain, and light the bag with a bic lighter. I always carry two bics. Matches don't often work here, in the persistent damp. The bag will catch fire no matter how wet it gets, and protect your fire from the damp ground. It is important to start your fire in a protected spot where the wind and rain are minimal, you may have to look for a while to find that spot-the small rain shadow of a large conifer, for instance. Finding dry wood to burn can be really difficult under our local conditions, but some careful searching will reveal it. Look for trees or stumps that have a rain shadow, or a rotten or hollow spot near the base, and there will be some dry fuel there. Where I live, all small exposed branches will be soaked from rain or humidity under rainy conditions, and unusable. Every year, in the early spring, usually in March, I have a fire lighting challenge for my Venture Company (scouts aged 15-18) at our camp on Sumas mountain. I try to hold it on a rainy evening, and there is a prize for the best fire after 1 1/2 hours. Good times, and we always manage to have at least one fire going well by the end of the evening.

[Crab Bait]

I agree that practice makes perfect, and the more you practice lighting a fire in wet conditions, the better off you will be. Sometimes it's not about being a woodsman, it's about "light the fire or die". Been there once, and carrying shavings, pitchwood, paper etc would have been really bad. The following saved my bacon.

In my fanny pack there are 3 esbit stove fuel tablets (hexamine) that are shrink wrapped along with a new bic lighter, 12 waterproof matches and a folded piece of tinfoil. The lighter has a zap tie just below the fuel button so it cannot release fuel when I sit on it. This little packet is never used for the lunch fire. Emergency only!

The fanny pack has my spot, bullets, knife, rope/string, space blanket, licenses and first aid kit, and always goes with me, even on five minute walks from the truck (because the short walks sometimes turn into all day+). Take it with you! It does no good in your daypack in the truck.

The fuel tablets burn long enough to dry out bush fuel. The tinfoil can be used as a cup to heat water (warms you up from the inside), or as a dry base to light the fire on.

I always carry another lighter in my pocket for day to day use.

[RustyRipper]

Didn't feel like reading all 9 pages so my advice may have already been given, oh well. From what I did read tho, lots of great advice for fire starting. One thing I always do is make a platform of some sort for the fire to get it off the cold wet ground, it will suck the life out of your fire. Building it on top of some dry sticks or a piece of bark will work. Obviously dry tinder, kindling and wood are essential if not crucial. For tinder, I always bring with me some of those make up removal cotton pads with Vaseline between each one (about a stack of 20, they take up next to no room). and they burn for enough time to get any other tinder you can find, old mans beard, dry grass or twigs. Even on the west coast in a rainstorm you can find dry tinder. The pitch inside a punky stump will burn pretty well. Next is the dry wood you've collected. I usually cut the wood as much as possible for after the tinder, more surface area, the better. It may take an hour or more to get it going but there is nothing better than a warm fire when you're wet and cold and your spirits are down. When I'm hunting I usually will make myself a little fire at a nice view point where I can sit and have a snack and do some glassing mid-day. can really recharge your body for the rest of the day, sometimes I get so cozy I may even have a little cat nap. Either way it's good to feel confident in making fires anywhere, you know no matter what you'll be fine. Gives you the confidence to venture further, and for longer. Always prepare for the worst and hope for the best!!


Edit: Also I notice few guys talk about bringing gasoline out with them, that may work but if you want a more practical and less volatile solution to that, always keep a little bottle of sanitizing gel on you. It's basically pure alcohol and burns like gasoline, but because it's gel you can localize it where you want it to burn. Also it has a double feature, it cleans your hands and if you cut yourself you can use it to disinfect the wound.

[Nikoenig]

My dad and I pulled a bunch of big blobs of pitch off some pine trees and boiled them down, adding small wood chips. Boiled them in a big ketchup can. Once boiling pour the hot liquid into a troff, once cooled break off small chunks and wrap them in tar paper or wax paper. The paper lights up quick and then catches the pitch. Works amazing... The only time they havnt worked is when the wind is too strong to keep the match lit. It's a bit of a process but we've done this once and we still have lots of them. They burn for about 15-20 minutes and that is plenty of time to get the fire going

[warnniklz]

Dried moose shit soaked in paraffin wax is suppose to be a good starter.

Growing up in the cariboo.... there was never a shortage of dry wood.

After moving to terrace and starting to hunt goats... I've tried to start all of three fires. With the dense wood I just accept I'm not going to have a fire. I just pack a dedicated set of dry clothes for shelter time. Wet clotbes go back on when it's time to move.

So I know my fire starting skills are about as a 300 year old ladie's hip.

[adriaticum]

Well I learned lots last weekend about fire starting in the snow!!
Wanted to put lots of research and information from this thread into practice.
Keeping a fire going with no dry wood is lots of work that's for sure.
Also learned that an axe or a hatchet is your best friend in the winter. Knives are over rated :).
I had my wilderness bbq going all day long.
The most practical fire starter in terms of weight, amount of heat and reliability is cotton balls dipped in petroleum jelly along with matches or a lighter.
I have some tobacco pucks with cotton balls that I carry with me everywhere I go.
Basically there is nothing dry in the woods in open spaces. I went into the thickest parts of the bush and looked for some spruce trees.
Then I cut down lots of dead spruce pencil thick branches and piled them all together.
Next thing was to break off the thinnest, toothpick sized pieces and collect 3 handfuls of those.
Then I took the next size up which were the secondary branches and broke those down to 6 inch lengths.
Again about 3-4 handfuls. Finally I took the main pencil sized branches and broke them down into a good bunch.
When all the wood was ready I cleared snow from about 3' x 3' laid some wood on the frozen ground.
Built a little nest from all the kindling and set it on fire with a cotton ball.
Cotton ball flame burned just enough to light some of those small branches on fire and with some blowing it finally started.
Once the fire was going it was hard to find anything else that would burn. Even the dead or rotting wood that was on the ground exposed to the elements wouldn't burn.
So I had to constantly stoke the fire with dead spruce branches.
All in all I didn't find any kitty tracks but barbecued sausages were great.

[Philcott]

Adriaticum, good for you for getting out and trying the info here. It is definitely a tough task to keep a fire going in our forests when wet. I agree a knife is over rated for wood collection. Imagine how hard it would have been to get the fire you had if you were cold, wet, hungry and maybe even lost and injured.

[Big Lew]

I agree that having a small axe is better than having only a knife regardless of how big the knife is, but when you're really cold, tired, and desperate to get a fire going an axe can potentially be very dangerous.

[adriaticum]

I agree that having a small axe is better than having only a knife regardless of how big the knife is, but when you're really cold, tired, and desperate to get a fire going an axe can potentially be very dangerous.

I will definitely look at my axes in a whole new light and keep them sharp. :)

[millman911]

never tried a small bone saw on wood. Always have one in my pack when on long hikes. A lot lighter then a hatchet, but not sure if it would be any better. Pitch wood is my go to fire starter. Smells natural if it were to open in your pack.

[bigbuckbuster]

I always carry a small chunk of pitchwood in my pocket, about like this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64595952/DSCN0847r.jpg

it is great as it can not get wet even if soaked in water and a few splinters shaved off the piece about the size of matchsticks will burn long enough to light small branches for starting a fire.

The great thing in BC is it is very abundant and can be found in old dead evergreen stumps and blowdowns almost everywhere you go. If you make the slivers small enough you can get it going with jute tinder and a flint and steel, but it does take practice.
I'm surprised how little people know about pitchwood. Its abundant, lightweight and works better than anything I have ever used. It also burns when its wet so its almost foolproof.

[BCHunterFSJ]

implrtant to gather up all your material first. dont try to light it without everything at hand. we ran into this exact scenario once and my under dressed 12 year old was already at the beyond shivering point. yikes!! ended up using a can of muskol bug spray that was in the bottom of my backpack. used it like a blowtorch. did the trick and it was the nicest fire ive ever felt.

Believe it or not, I too have successfully used Muskol in a rather dire situation... It actually worked!!

[RiverOtter]

Believe it or not, I too have successfully used Muskol in a rather dire situation... It actually worked!!

I hear good things about Doritos as well.....

[kodimack]

I use a empty bean can and fill with gas it will only burn at the top of the can and will last about 15- 20 min , it will start a fire in driving rain . My other choice is Coghlan's fire lighters (match and tinder in one ) they burn for about 5-7 min.
I have yet to carry a axe to heavy, I carry a sierra saw or any good pruning saw will do . I always carry a bic lighter .

[BimmerBob]

Believe it or not, I too have successfully used Muskol in a rather dire situation... It actually worked!!

I would be very careful around burning Muskol as DEET is a suspected (known?) carcinogen, burning may create toxic gas which is significantly more dangerous than in it's liquid state. But... in a dire situation it is either the devil you know or the one you don't so nice to know for sure.

Cheers, Bob