I don’t like to use lighters to start fires. It’s so easy it’s boring, I prefer firesteels. I don’t use paper either, only natural materials. I use 3 sizes of wood to get the fire going before I put the larger wood on. I use 1 handful of each size, but until you’re more confident with your skills, you may want to gather 2-3 large handfuls of each size. The first smallest size I gather is matchstick to pencil size in thickness. I break it into pieces the width of my hand, and gather enough that I have a large handful.

The next largest size I gather is approximate pencil width size, again breaking into pieces the width of my hand until I have a large handful. The third larger size I gather approximate finger width pieces, breaking into hand width pieces until I have a large handful. After I have these three sizes of wood, I also gather my larger wood, tinder, and sometimes fatwood, and proceed as follows.

I take a piece of wood, and lay it down as a brace as shown below. I lay down a piece of cotton ball in the middle, and sometimes I sprinkle some fatwood shavings on the cotton that I keep in an Altoids tin. Then I stack a few small pieces of fatwood or matchstick size sticks as shown. The brace holds up the smaller wood above the cotton which will quickly turn to flames, while allowing airflow to keep the fire going.


(The waterproof pill fob attached to my firesteel is full of cotton balls)


Here’s a closeup of my 3 sizes of wood to get the fire going, along with my Altoids tin of fatwood shavings and some cotton.




I keep all the wood close, and have the larger wood pieces ready to go too.


I strike the firesteel close to my cotton ball, and it ignites catching the fatwood/match stick sized wood on fire. As soon as it catches, I start putting wood from the smallest pile on, being careful not to put it too quickly and smoother the fire. After the handful of the smallest wood is added, I move to the next larger size, and keep adding it until it’s all on, then I go to the largest pile of the three and add it. Usually by the time all three handfuls are on, I can add wrist size or larger wood and keep building up until it will burn anything.

Here’s a fire I started at my Aunt’s house using a firesteel, some cotton, and wood only:






The more you practice your firestarting the more your skill will improve. Eventually you’ll be able to confidently start a fire in any weather, even in the snow. This fire was again started using only a firesteel, cotton, and wood.





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It’s good to learn to start fires well, especially with a firesteel. They work in any altitude, have no moving parts to break, are impervious to the elements, and will start thousands of fires. The larger the firesteel, the hotter/larger the sparks it will throw, and the easier it is to start a fire. You don’t even need cotton to start a fire with a firesteel if you practice enough. You can ignite any dry fragile material such as wood dust, or inner tree bark:

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I attached this large waterproof stainless steel pill fob on my firesteel which will hold seven jumbo cotton balls.
[img]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/andywayne/Fire/4-11-06-16.jpg[/img]

Keep practicing, and you’ll get better at it. In time, it will become too easy, and you can challenge yourself to make it harder by doing it in worse weather (cold, wind, rain or snow) or by using more difficult materials, such as less wood, wet wood, etc.

Good luck! [img]http://swcbc.org/IMAGE/animated_fire_2.gif[/img]