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A campfire on a chilly winter day, photograph by the Author.
There
has been a lot written on how to start a fire, in fact I have written a lot on building
fires. It’s one of the top ten
wilderness survival skills that you absolutely must know before you wander in
the wilderness.
Over
the last 45 years or so, I have made a lot of bad fires, and some pretty good
ones. The tips below are some things that
I found out the hard way, some other things that I read about and have used
with great success over the years, and hopefully they will be helpful to you.
Getting
started...
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An excerpt from Military Review, April 1946, page 96.
Building
your fire on a slab of rock or a gravel bar along a stream prevents your fire
from escaping by burning underground, and it leaves little long-term evidence
of your passage through the wilderness. Always
clear away all the burnable material for ten feet (3 meters) from where you
plan to build your fire. Never build
your fire under low-hanging branches, against a tree trunk, or near a pile of
brush or bushes. You want to have a
campfire, not a forest fire!
 |
An excerpt from the Complete Book of Outdoor Lore, by Clyde Ormond, page 125.
Oh,
and don’t forget, only build as much fire as you need. If it is too big, it will just use up a lot
of wood, and you can’t get close to it.
Better to sit close and save the wood!
 |
An excerpt from Out of Doors, by Emerson Hough, page 258 and 259.
“Coals are
for cooking -- flames are for boiling”
 |
An excerpt from Out of Doors, by Emerson Hough, page 262.
Before
you build your fire, decide what you want to do with it, is it for boiling
water and cooking a meal, is it to keep you warm, or does it need to do both.
Remember
if you are cooking “Coals are for cooking -- flames are for boiling”1. Oh, and if you are boiling water, fill and hang
your pot over the fire before you light it.
This way you won’t accidently put out your fire when you hang your pot
full of water over the flames. Also hang
the pot about a foot from the ground, that way there is plenty of space for the
flames, if you put pot right on the wood of fire, you will smother the flames
and maybe, even, put out your fire.
 |
An excerpt from Military Review, April 1946, page 96.
Build a
fire...
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An excerpt from Out of Doors, by Emerson Hough, page 259.
Now
that you know what job your fire is supposed to do, start gathering your fire
building materials. Always gather enough
tinder, kindling and fuel wood to build your fire before you strike a match.
 |
Graphic by the Author.
Remember,
tinder is the smallest, finest, and fluffiest of stuff, no bigger than a pencil
lead, it has the greatest surface area, and you need enough to fill a circle
made with your hands. Kindling is next
in size, it is no thicker than your thumb, and you will need a generous armload
of it. Fuel wood is wrist-sized or
larger, has the least surface area, and you will need a stack as high as your
knee just to start the fire. Also, make
sure that your tinder, kindling and your first couple of armloads of fuel wood
are bone dry, so that your fire will light easily.
 |
Graphic by the Author.
Once
you have gathered everything that you need to light a fire, you should build your
fire. Do this before you build your
tinder bundle and before you ever light your first match.
The
two most used campfires in areas where wood is plentiful, are the “Long-pole”
fire, which is also called a “Parallel wood” or “Long” fire, and
the “Crosswood” or “Hunter’s” fire.
 |
Drawing by the Author.
A
long-pole fire, can be used for both warming and cooking and it is built of
firewood which is from ½ up to 1-½ times your height long, laid parallel to
each other, and to the wind. The fire is
started in the middle of the pile and will burn up and down its length.
 |
An excerpt from Out of Doors, by Emerson Hough, page 262 and 264.
 |
An excerpt from Military Review, April 1946, page 96, adapted by the Author.
The
crosswood fire is in between a long-pole fire and a “starfire”2
and is used for cooking, for warmth and for “sectioning”, which making
big logs into smaller ones by burning them in half. This helpful when you do not have an axe or a
saw. Start by building a long-pole fire
and then cross it with the logs that you are sectioning into two.
 |
An excerpt from Military Review, April 1946, page 96.
How to Make
a Tinder Bundle or Bird’s Nest ...
 |
A bird’s nest, fallen from a tree on the left and a “bird’s nest” tinder bundle on the right. Photograph by the Author.
Once
you have enough tinder and kindling, you can build a tinder bundle, which is
also called “Bird’s Nest”. A
tinder bundle is a circle of kindling with tinder in the center. And just like birds, who build a strong ring
of twigs to hold soft grasses and padding to cushion their eggs, you should
build a ring of kindling with tinder in the center to help your fire grow. The bird’s nest tinder bundle in the picture
above, was made with a ring of fine pine twigs, surrounding a ring of yellow
birch bark, which is around a piece of toilet paper and a piece of fuzzed up
jute string.
Feeding
Your Fire...
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Photograph by the Author.
In
the picture above, note how I am holding the tinder bundle upside down against
a piece of bark, so that the flames from the lighter can rise through it. The bark will shield my fingers from the heat
of the flames, and it will prevent any ground water from extinguishing the new
fire. Next put your flaming tinder bundle
into your already prepared fire. Now all
you must do is feed your fire and keep it going.
 |
An excerpt from Winter Camping, by Warwick S. Carpenter, page 91
Remember
besides fuel, a fire’s greatest need is air, so don’t put too much wood onto it
too quickly or you will smother it.
Start with small pieces of kindling, and then gradually add wrist-sized
pieces of fuel as the flames grow.
But what if
it is wet or windy?
 |
An excerpt from Woodcraft, by E.H. Kreps, page 38.
 |
An excerpt from The Book of Knowledge, Camping and Camp Lore, page 1037.
If
you must set up your fire on snowfield, if the ground is wet or you are building
your fire in a low spot, where the water table is close to the surface, build a
platform to keep your tinder and fire off the ground. The platform will keep your fire from melting
down through the snow and extinguishing itself in a puddle of its own
making. And if the ground is wet and the water table
is close to the surface, the platform will protect the fire, since as the fire
grows it will warm up the moisture in the ground below it, drawing the
resulting water vapor upwards and making it difficult to keep the fire going.
 |
An excerpt from Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 65.
Besides
building a platform to keep your tinder and fire off the wet ground, you can
use a fire pan or if you don’t have a fire pan, a piece of dry bark. However, these two will not work in snow, unless
they are set on a log platform.
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The Author’s firepan, after I extinguished the fire, photograph by the Author.
Additionally,
since, you can never predict the weather or whether you will be able to find
dry tinder when you need it, you should always carry a waterproof tinder-bag,
full of things that make starting your fire easier. My tinder-bag contains dry tinder,
fire-starters, and fire-sustainers, things like a couple of tea-candles and a
small tube of Vaseline® Jelly. And I
keep some trick birthday candles, the type that you can’t blow out, in my
survival kit.
 |
The Author’s tinder-bag, clockwise, (1) Ziploc® bag with birchbark, dryer lint old jute twine and cotton pads, (2) my waterproof tinder-bag, (3) a tea candle, (4) strike-anywhere and UCO Stormproof matches and a striker, (5) a mini-BIC® lighter, (6) a Landmann Fire Starter and (7) petroleum jelly as a fire sustainer, photograph by the Author.
Also,
whenever you see dry tinder, gather it to replace things that you have used up from
your tinder-bag. And when the weather
looks threatening, I will gather dry kindling and tinder and put it in a
2.5-gallon Ziploc® bag and store it in my pack.
It doesn’t weigh much, and it can pay huge dividends if the weather
turns foul!
Extinguishing
Your Fire...
 |
An excerpt from the Complete Book of Outdoor Lore, by Clyde Ormond, page 138 and 139.
As
Clyde Ormond said in the Complete Book of Outdoor Life, “It is just
as important to know how to put out a fire as to know how to build one”. Always make sure your fire is out and cold to
the touch before you leave. Stir the
dead coals and ashes around with a stick and check for hotspots by holding your
hand close to the wet ashes, keep adding water until you don’t feel any heat.
 |
A fire at night, photograph by the Author.
For
more on fire building check out these articles, “The Top
Ten Wilderness Survival Skills...Number Six©”, HERE,
“Fire Burns Up! ©”, HERE,
“The Book of Knowledge, Camping and Camp Lore, 1957©”, HERE
and “Survival Tips From Jack London, Part One©”, HERE.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read ““The Top Ten Wilderness
Survival Skills...Number Seven©”, where we will talk water, hydration and
survival.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
An excerpt from Scouting Out of Doors, by Gilcraft, 1926, p 20-21
2
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Excerpts from Military Review, April 1946, page 96 and 97.
When
the gap between the burning logs is larger than the width of your hand, they
will tend to stop burning, so you will have to keep moving them closer
together.
Sources
Gilcraft,
Scouting Out of Doors, 1926, p 20-21, [C. Arthur Pearson, Ltd, London,
1932], http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/ScoutingOutdoors.pdf,
accessed December 3, 2021
Hough,
Emerson; Out of Doors, [D. Appleton and Company, New York, and London,
1915], pages 253 to 262, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadmvhX8a3wUB-PjU-Mf8AM4ugTJLowe10sMUX8EQpXJqLDj-nDH6-M1y4HjNDMW2qBpdh4_A20snog1YjlV7pBWS9Of0qIgxv_d7M83kzk0u59EyjHjQ5VlJQYRi8ByD5sgC0sXLQufhcQEknu8tAdLnZtX-3ROE2WFL78Sciuj_DaUz8Ypd-Keipthwdq13wVs-wjF2U41a6TujFN-FdWMIKJp13ASz4NFkVfSdKC58ox5ms7q0xNm39ulRn5cFQt0cuax,
Accessed October 23, 2021
Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, [Scandinavian Airlines System, Stockholm,
1957], page 64-65
Klusmann,
Wes H.; The Book of Knowledge, Children’s Encyclopedia, Volume 3, “Camping and Camp Lore”, [The Grolier Society Inc., New
York, 1957], pages 1031 to 1038
Kreps,
E.H.; Woodcraft, [A. R. Harding Publishing Company, Columbus, OH, 1978],
page 38
Military
Review, April 1946, Volume XXVI, Number 1, page 96, https://books.google.com/books?id=lhWh_fP6SKYC&pg=RA1-PA95&dq=Military+Review+%22How+to+Keep+Warm+in+Winter%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiIlpCO6ar0AhWuVzABHccFB18Q6AF6BAgIEAI#v=onepage&q=Military%20Review%20%22How%20to%20Keep%20Warm%20in%20Winter%22&f=false, November 21, 2021
Ormond, Clyde; Complete
Book of Outdoor Lore, Ninth Printing, [Outdoor Life, Harper & Row, New
York, NY,1971], pages 123 to 138
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