Fire in the swamp with a swampy rat !

Even though it had stopped raining today it had been raining all night so typical for this time of the year everything was soaked in the woods.
The PNW is well known for being a tough place to get fire going, however, we are fortunate to have some great Tinder aids to help with such conditions !

I firstly scraped up some Cedar bark to get some fine dry tinder to catch my spark, I then added some resin from a nearby Douglas Fir this will prolong the flame.





Once the resin catches that's all she wrote, even a heavy down pour won't put this stuff out in a hurry !



My knife of the day was my little Swamp Warden, I'm not a hunter but did recently skin and gut a large rabbit using this knife and it performed awesomely. Yeah I know you are thinking that you don't even really need a knife at all for a fresh rabbit but some clown had left me this rabbit in a fridge over night.....quite a different beast !

No rabbits today but did use it for sausage duty !;)




No doubt a Scrapivore would probably make an even better skinner.......[censored] that's another to add to my ever growing bucket list.....Elmax knife, 311, Scrapivore !

You and your little knives! Seriously, you do more with sub 4 inch blades than most of us do with 4-6 inch knives.

I too enjoy the challenge of getting a fire going under difficult conditions.

When hiking in remote areas, it is a must, to be able to make a fire, regardless of weather.

This fall, I more or less forced my hiking buddy to perfect his firelighting skills.

Fire is an art

It's actually a skill that can be improved.

Some people can get a fire going in blowing wind and rain with only a firesteel and soaking wet green veg. Others...well...I've watched people who couldn't build a sustainable fire with CHARCOAL STARTER FLUID on a sunny day.

I can't build a fire with at match or lighter for nothing. But with one of DT's Super firestarter kits, piece of cake!

A great exercise, is 'a one stick fire'.
Simply making a fire from one stick and a firesteel.

No accelerant or kindling to help the fire going.

So then my PJCB isn't legal? Hey, I'm of the adage that if you're not cheating you're not trying hard enough.

Back in October, I participated in a 'one stick fire' competition.

Got beaten by a NORWEGIAN! ! ! (Using a Mora knife)
Never have the urge to cheat been so strong.

My shoulders did shield him from the wind though, so we weren't competing on even terms!

Rasmus. One stick and steel is cake, if I can choose the stick. A feather stick made from a nice piece of fatwood and a fire steel is about as easy as you can get to make a fire.

That is true.
Only the challenge here was to build a fire from that 6" stick to burn a piece of cord 12" up.
Pretty tough to find a piece of Fatwood big enough to make a fire big enough.
We used pinewood with no resin in it. Therein lay the challenge.

But yes, give me a piece of Fatwood, and there is no problem getting the fire going.

Fatwood is insensitive. We prefer to call it "weight challenged wood" in the states.









I hope you know I'm being flippant.

^^^LOL^^^

Arch just says that cause he's skinny. You've seen my pictures so let's just call it Fatwood!