Since my first fire, I've experimented a little more and I've learned how crucial it is to take smaller steps. Before after I got a small fire, I'd throw in the big pieces of wood right away. I was more patient today thanks to some snacks.



I tried out the cotton ball and vaseline last night and it was great, however tonight I wanted to try without it.


This time I used my favorite knife. The res-c handle was really comfortable and the choil helped with the smaller tasks. Ban helped me reprofile the edge by taking down the shoulder and thinning the angle, it cuts a lot better!


I found an old piece of wood in the backyard to make shavings and curls.


After that, I gathered some bigger pieces.




The striker that comes with the firesteel is pretty much useless so I used my Gossman PSK (also reprofiled).


2-3 strikes later!




Cool pictures.


[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/MRpilot/fire/IMG_0252.jpg[/img]

And it only took me one bottle of heineken! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/MRpilot/fire/IMG_0254.jpg[/img]

Seems like you made out okay. Is your camera's color balance off? It looks like the base of the flames in the second to last picture are purple. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Something you might want to practice is laying a more structured fire, which can really speed things along. Some people advocate a "teepee" style, others are into log cabins or other pseudo-architectural forms. As long as the fuel is stacked in such a way that it surrounds the initial flame as much as possible without obstructing air intake at the base, you're good. The point here is that if you have your fuel all arranged and ready to go, you can work on getting your flame using a scrap of bark or something as a work surfface and then put it into the ready made "hut". The fire should grow much more quickly this way than building it "openly" , which is losing a ton of heat to the air.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Burning stuff is great fun. There is always a thrill at awakening a lively fire using nothing more than a bit of applied metallurgy or friction. It is vastly more interactive than using chemical fuels, more satisfying, more "I made this happen". I suspect that some people I know think I'm a pyromanic.

Nice Firemaking MRpink! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

I bet those Cheetos would work pretty good for getting a fire going too! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />



The color of the fire may be due to the chemicals in the wood. It looks like pressure treated wood, which means it has toxic chemicals like Arsenic in it... Be careful burning that stuff... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
I could be wrong though on the type of wood, I'm always hesitant to burn any building material type wood, I prefer to stick to natural wood whenever possible. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Great Post.

My wife and I once went to a friends bar-b-que. Just happened to see the flames cooking the meat...and wouldn't you know it they were green and the smoke was blue. Looked in the pit and he was cooking with a 35 year old table that had been painted about 100 times. We didnt eat...that much <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the tips, next time I'll arrange the tepee/hut first.

Yeah, I know about the wood. I wasn't sure myself if it was chemically treated or not so I was extra cautious. Still had a lot of fun.

I don't have to much natural wood around. I did harvest a bunch of fresh wood when the city came around cut down some trees, but they're still green.

nice job!
I've been making some fires in my fireplace to practice gathering materials and preparation.
(though I use a lighter)

I really want a ferro rod.

I've been trying to get a friction fire for about two weeks now!
it's only a matter of time.
I think it's just that I don't have enough endurance.
I'm using white cedar for the spindle and baseboard and it works well.

My friend had a "festival" in his town were a guy representing a native American Indian was and he taught me a lot and showed me how he made fire with his set up.
my teacher also said that anyone who makes fire using primitive techniques gets extra credit, and we can bring in our stuff and do it for the class one day! pretty cool huh?
It's been a good motivation for me.
also, it's just a cool learning experience.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

sorry for kind of getting off topic a little and highjacking your thread pink.

Oh My goodness! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> I think I would have lost my appetite real fast. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sad.gif" alt="" /> No telling what kinda fumes were getting into that meat. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/barf.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sad.gif" alt="" />


MRpink, I figured you probably knew and after all you weren't actually cooking anything, just practicing fire making. I can't imagine living where there's not much natural wood around. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Don't worry about it, I don't mind. I jack threads all the time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Friction fire is next. When I visited mtnfolkmike, she showed me his setup and it was cool. I don't know wood to use around here.




I also made sure the wind was blowing away from me and my stuff just in case. Yeah, I definitely wished I lived closer to the woods, but many places like the Santa Cruz area isn't to far of a drive. I'm just to busy with school and work to be driving around to start fires. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

How far are you getting with your friction fire? Are you doing the hand drill, bow drill, or plow method? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I'd like to try the bow drill method first as it seems like the easiest, and once I get that down I'll try the hand drill and plow. I don't even know what kind of wood to use as the board, drill, and bow. I have a friend who lives not to far from me that has a bow drill setup, I should ask him where he gets the wood. Would a piece of 2x4 work as the board?

I’m sure some of you have read of Ishi of the Yahi tribe, the “last wild Indian” in California. He spend his life hiding in the hills until the last of his family died. Ishi finally gave up and walked into the lowlands, expecting to be killed. Instead he was shipped to San Francisco and given to the care of an anthropologist named Alfred Kroeber. (Alfred and Theodora Kroeber had a child that science fiction readers may recognize—Ursula Le Guin. Traces of her anthropological home life are all over her stories.)

One thing Kroeber learned from Ishi was how to start a fire. IIRC Ishi taught him the fire drill method, spinning the drill by hand, not with a fire bow. Under Ishi’s careful tutelage, Kroeber learned to start a fire by rubbing sticks together. He took his new knowledge to school with him. He told a class of anthropology students that he expected them to learn to start a fire old school. In fact, any of them who failed at the task could not expect a passing grade. Then Alfred demonstrated. And demonstrated. And demonstrated. Without Ishi there to help him, he couldn’t get a fire started for the life of him.

The moral is, practice. Practice before your life—or your dignity—is on the line.

I don't think your average Home Depot variety 2*4 (1.75*3.75....) would work. I have gotten fire from using white pine, but it was carefully selected and air dried. I would be very interested in being proven wrong but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Head over to the doweling department instead and see if they have any poplar. Poplar works pretty good for bow drilling because it is soft and, for lack of a better word, fuzzy. A piece of 1 inch should serve as the hearth, and a piece of 1/4 inch should work as the spindle. Use your favorite knife to flatten off the bigger piece so it lays flat.

The bow itself isn't too materials-demanding, it can be any sort of stick. Some people have more luck with an actual "bow", that is, the stick is springy and pulls tension. I prefer my technique, which uses a fairly stiff stick, and I apply the tension with my thumb as I'm drilling. You'll prefer one way or another, a lot of it probably just depends on what you first gain proficiency with. The string can be just about anything if you use the "egyptian" winding: that is, to tie the string to the spindle, and wrap it in both directions several turns. This makes it impossible for the string to slip on the spindle.

I had a thread somewhere in this forum about bow drilling for fire, it talked a lot about notch geometry and technique.

And yeah, fire-from-friction is not easy. Quite a lot of it is based on discovering what you can get in your area that will work. Don't be discouraged! Your first step is to get fire using very good materials (kiln-dried poplar dowels, cotton lint tinder) to learn the technique and to build confidence. Once you have confidence in your ability to make it work with those materials, then is the time to ramp up the difficulty by using "found" things.