Andy,
It's good to see you posting again!!!
Hope that things are well with you my friend.
Cheers
DotD
Thanks. I’m ok, I’ve just been kinda busy recently and haven’t had a chance to keep up with posts here.
This is part of what is missing from your fire equation. It will help to start the fuel logs much easier.
Until you do, another option I could suggest that I do is use a length of conduit pipe or other small diameter pipe. Hold it like a blowgun and blow your breath through it into the fire. It concentrates your airflow over a smaller area compared to leaning in close and blowing w/o a pipe, and it keeps the smoke and hot air away from your body. Just don’t screw up and take a deep breath in while the pipe is to your mouth, otherwise you’ll inhale a large breath of dangerous superheated gas and smoke and cause SEVERE injury to your lungs.
I have been playing with a flint/steel setup and also considering making " char cloth" and " jute" ? Haven't done it yet- but putting pieces together. Perhaps I should stick this on another thread and maybe Andy or others have played with this ?Thanks <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve read about it a lot. I just haven’t gotten around to trying it yet. Momaw explained how to make it in another thread. While not holding a lot of material, for field use one tin I’ve seen a lot of people use is an Altoids tin. Drill an 1/8” hole in the middle of the lid. You can throw it in a fire before first use to burn the paint off. When you want to use it, you put some cotton, linen, tinder fungas, cattail fluff, punky wood, etc. inside, close the lid and put it in a fire. The lack of sufficient oxygen will keep the material from burning up and it will smolder, turning black in the process. A small flame may be seen by the hole in the tin, as expelled gas is ignited in the presence of oxygen. When smoke quits coming out the hole, wait an extra 20-30 seconds and take the tin out and let it cool. It should be blackish and fragile and slightly crumbly.
You can use the tin to store the charred material in if you like in your pack while in the field. While afield, if you need to make more, you can gather the required dry easily combustible materials and use the Altoids tin to make more char material in the field.
Just curious, how often should I be tending to the fire at first? When do I get to just walk away and leave it alone, once a big log gets going?
The larger the log, the longer it will burn. Once the big ones are burning, you just need to stir the logs every 30 mins or so, so it burns evenly. A good bed of coals will stay really hot for a while. So, if you’re away too long and the fire dies down, you can stir up the coals, throw some handfuls of small wood on, and blow hard on it a few times (increasing oxygen flow) and it will roar back to life engulfed in flames and you can build it back up to larger logs.
Hope this helps, if you need any more info just let us know! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
