Fire making is a need-to-know skill if you are planning on spending any time in the wilderness. Fire is the second most important need when in a survival situation, shelter being the first, and once obtained it can be used for many things including: boiling water to make it drinkable, hardening wood for spears, arrows, digging tools, firing pottery, keeping you warm, and the list goes on.

This article will discuss the different methods of fire creation that you should know about when venturing into the wild. We will cover flint and steel, ferro rods, lighters, matches, and different drill methods. This will not cover all the fire making methods in detail, but should be enough to inform you of the pro's and con's of each method and give you a place to start when choosing how you want to create fire when making camp.

Hand Drill Method

The drill methods for creating fire create a coal, which can then be blown into a flame, by using friction between two pieces of wood. A hearth board is placed on the ground and a spindle is then rotated back and forth onto the hearth board. The friction created between the two pieces of wood produces dust, which will heat up enough to form an ember or coal. This ember can then be moved into a bundle of tinder and blown into a flame. When using the hand drill method, the spindle used is usually a dry wood or vegetation (such as a mullien or cattail stalk) that has a very soft and pithy center. As the name implies, the spindles is turned with the power of the hands. The bow drill method utilizes a bow (much like a the type used to shoot arrows) to spin the spindle. This allows much more speed and power to be put into turning the spindle and it has less chance of blistering your hands. These drill methods are very reliable once you have the skill, however they can take some time to prepare.

Flint and steel have been around for ages. The basic concept is that you have a piece of flint, and a piece of steel - like that which metal files are made from. By striking the two together, sparks are created. These sparks are then caught by your tinder and can be blown into an ember and then into flames. It's a fairly easy method to use, and also compact and lightweight to carry. The only thing you need in addition to the flint and steel is charcloth. Charcloth is a natural fiber, such as cotton, which has been heated to the point that its chemical makeup changes, but the air is kept from the fibers so that it will not burst into flame, but rather just char. The reason you need charcloth is because it catches a spark extremely easy. You can then place your red hot charcloth into your tinder bundle and blow it into flames. You can usually use the container in which you carry your fire kit (i.e. an altoid tin) to make the charcloth. You just place the natural fiber into the container, close it up, and stick it in the fire. After awhile you can pull it out and it will be black but not burned up.

A ferrocerium rod (aka a ferro rod) is the next step in the flint and steel evolution. The rod will throw off a lot of sparks when a piece of steel (such as the back of your knife blade) is run down the rod. These sparks can then be caught in charcloth or another tinder and be blown into flames. The advantage of the ferro rod ofer flint and steel is that it is a smaller package and easier to use.

Matches take the "spark" step out of fire making and go directly to flame. Although matches generally work OK, if they are wet they will not light. They can also snap easily. Its not a bad idea to carry some on you, but don't depend on them.

Lighters are a step above matches. They also go directly to flame, but have the advantage of having a much larger fuel source (i.e. they can produce more flames for longer) and if they are wet, some can be dried out and used. Just as with the matches, its never a bad idea to have a lighter on you, just don't depend on it.



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