*Fire Without Matches*
By Warlord
Ahhh the smell of a campfire. It brings up images of cool nights around the camp, good friends and the warm smell of delicious food wafting on the air. Some of the best times I remember have been had around just such a fire.
In modern society we take fire for granted, In fact, we take it so much for granted that we don't realize how LITTLE fire we actually see each day. Our Stoves are electric, our microwave ovens cook without heat, we light our homes with bulbs, we keep warm with a furnace, even our MRE's come with flameless heaters now. Fire is actually becoming a rarity to the modern non-smoker. Along with that increasing rarity of actual fire, comes the loss of the skills for making fire. Our "Insulative society" can be blamed for that. Fire can be dangerous, therefore society eliminates as much of it as possible to protect us from ourselves.
There was a time however, not so long ago, when the ability to make fire was a matter of life and death, not just for the individual, but for a whole tribe of people. It may someday be that way again. For right now there is enough "waste" in this country to permit us to easily make fire without much trouble, even in a Post TEOTWAWKI situation. Illegal garbage dumps are FULL of the materials it takes to make fire, and so are most homes, we just have to know how to do it. Knowledge is power, and so is fire....
The Modern Way:
Right now as I look around I see many ways to make fire around me. I am (as of this writing) a Smoker, so I always seem to have my trusty Zippo lighter on hand, or at least a bic.
I don't recommend a zippo for field use even though I carry mine everywhere. To carry a zippo you must also carry lighter fluid and flints, and I seem to always be running out of one or the other right when I need my lighter most. The Zippo was romantisized in Vietnam movies simply because it was better to carry than matches, and for a smoker, there is no better way to light a calming cigarette... but science and capitalism combined to give us better fire makers now. Enter the Bic style lighter.
Actually, the first butane lighters were finicky affairs, and even though we call them "Bic's" now the first disposable butane lighter was called a "Cricket". You older folks may remember the little TV commercials from way back when "Catch a cricket, for a dollar forty nine, thousands of lights and they still shine bright...". OK, you get the point, enough singing and reminiscing... I carry Bic lighters EVERYWHERE, I have at least 5 in my ALICE pack, three in my web gear, a whole pack in each vehicle, etc. They are only a few bux for a pack of five and there is NO reason not to have them stuffed every where for emergencies. They burn hot, they are reliable even when wet, they are simple to use (despite the hated "Modern child proofing") and they are safe. We've all heard the urban legend of the welder getting a spark on his pocket and causing his bic lighter to explode and blow his legs off. This is a Myth, it didn't happen.
But, despite modern technology and my urgings to carry butane lighters, you find yourself out in the wilds in a desperate situation and you NEED fire, what now? Find a trash dump. I have yet to see a trash dump that didn't have an old bic lighter in it or some steel wool and batteries. Even if the Bic is dead, you can disassemble the head and get the flint out of it and use it to start a fire. Look for flammable liquids in the dump also, paint thinner, gas, alcohol, etc... any of these can be set to light with a spark. There is no such thing as "cheating" when you are cold and wet and the situation is one of life or death... Brother's and sister's, you want all the edges you can get in that kind of situation!
Steel Wool:
I mentioned steel wool and batteries. This is a VERY effective and simple way to make fire. Just stretch the steel wool (the rustier the better) out some and allow it to LIGHTLY make contact against the ends of two Batteries. The ones in your flash light are Ideal. it'll start a fire burning right on the steel wool!
Be SURE you have all of your DRY fire starting stuff at hand before you light off your wool! I saw a guy once slave making a spark, he watched it smolder to life, and THEN he tried to scurry around looking for more tender and tiny twigs... Nope.. "build your fire BEFORE you light your fire!" Fire pits have been covered elsewhere in so much detail that I won't go into it in this article about Fire Starting except to say that when you start a fire, TINY is better. Tiny dry twigs, lots of em. Get a good coal bed started even if you ONLY burn TINY twigs the first few minutes. Most fires go out because of two things: lack of oxygen, and trying to build it up too fast. Patience is king here! If the ground is damp or it's raining, ONLY use standing dead wood. It's always dryer than wood found laying on the ground.
Magnesium Fire Starters:
These are a military item and found in most military surplus stores and camping stores. It's simply a block of magnesium metal with a long flint glued to one side. For all it's simplicity, it seems to be the hardest to use for some people. Again, PROPER knowledge is key.
The PROPER way to work this little beast is to FIRMLY ground one end of it against your tender, and then scrape off a pile of magnesium from the block with your knife, about the size of a quarter. If you're a beginner at fire building you might want to make the pile larger at first. This may take a few minutes despite what you saw on TV or a video. Hold the edge of your knife on the bare edge of the magnesium block and scrape downwards. DO NOT try to "cut" or "Shave" off the magnesium... keep the knife perpendicular to the block and scrape downward repeatedly with the blade's edge until you have a good pile of shavings.
Once you have the pile of magnesium shavings on your tender, turn the block over to the flint side and again ground the corner of the bar against your pile. Again holding the Knife perpendicular to the flint, scrape briskly downwards into the shavings. POOF, you have fire! Get more tender on it quick!
Fire Steel:
You don't NEED magnesium to start a fire, as many forest fire victims will tell you. A hot spark is often enough. Enter the "Fire steel" types of sparkers.
Gerber makes an excellent spark thrower called the "Blast Match", and it chunks out some serious sparks, but it seems to me much too big for the little bit of work it actually does. As far as sparkers go, I'd much rather have a "Swedish Fire Steel" on hand. This little device is about the size of a car key, and comes with a piece of flat steel attached to it with a string. You can attach it anywhere easily and it throws off PLENTY of sparks to start tender blazing with no trouble. Just grab it by the handle and hold the steel again the striker and briskly stroke downwards... SPARKS!
Sgt. Splatter sent me this one to test, and I really like it. You can get more info on the Swedish Fire Steel from him by E-mailing him, Sgt. Splatter.
Magnifiers
These include Magnifying glasses, fresnel lenses, even eye glasses and binocular lenses, but you MUST practice this method! It's hard to start a fire with a magnifier under the best of conditions unless you know what you're doing. Kids usually become quite adept at this (to the dismay of bugs every where). The trick is focusing the sun into a TINY pinpoint of light and holding it steady. The modern fresnel lenses do this much better than regular magnifying glasses, but I've started fires with strong eye glasses.
Chemicals:
In a word, don't. I'd be out of most other options before turning to chemical fire starters. They are bulky to carry and often messy and dangerous. Gelled fuel, ammonia, bleach, Brake fluid, etc can all be found in the above mentioned trash dumps and be used to start fires if you know how, but I am not going to discuss how here. I watched a friend poke his fingers into a gelled fuel fire starter once, and when he mixed the other chemical a tiny amount got on his wet fingers and burned like napalm. His hand (and Mine) was severely burned when it lit up, He made the mistake of shaking his hand to try to put it out which only fed the flame, I grabbed his hand and shoved it into the dirt to extinguish the flame.. Nuff said there. If you're interested in this information, I am sure you can find it else where.
More Primitive Methods:
If you can't find ANY other methods of starting a fire, as a last resort, we go to "ultra primitive methods". We've all heard of the "Bow and Drill" used by Indians and tribesmen around the world. It LOOKS so simple, but it's really complicated, and I tried unsuccessfully to start fires this way for many years. What you need is a very straight Hard wood drill and a dry, flat, soft wood board or log half. That wood type is the trick.
I could waste our time here describing how the Indians did it, cutting channels into the board to get the coal trough ready etc etc etc... but Why? I have a much better method of doing this if you have a few people handy, and your results are much more likely to yield fire.
Enter, Warlord's Industrial Bow and Drill Fire Starter
You'll need the above mentioned straight hardwood "drill", about two feet long and STRONG. You'll also need a strong sapling about 7 feet long, and some GOOD STRONG string such as paracord (This should be in your boot laces for just such an emergency).
Grab a soft wood plank or log-half and carve a little depression in the center to hold the drill. Form the sapling into a strong Bow with the Paracord and THEN wrap the drill ONCE into the string (this should be a bit difficult if the string is tight enough). Now, put one person on each end of the bow like the old two man log saws... have a third man hold down on the top of the drill with a tin can or dished out rock... BE CAREFUL! The third man controls the spin of the drill by how much pressure he puts downward on the drill, he also controls how fast the friction starts the fire. If you have a forth guy, he can put tender around the drill base and blow on it when the smoke starts. With this method you should have fire in under a minute of sawing!
This method works, Obviously, since I just did it again today to take these pictures, it'll even work if your tender is not the driest in the world. But as I said, BE CAREFUL... the spinning stick can get away from you and flip out of the bow at high velocities. If your string breaks it can feel like a bull whip across your face, AND the tin can or rock the third guy is holding tends to get VERY hot also (use gloves if you have them).
With a little knowledge and common sense, you'll see that the ability to make fire is all around us, you just have to know what to look for. As with any new skill, get out and practice, NOW, BEFORE you desperately need it.
Warlord
Send Warlord E-mail.
Address: 
All materials at this site not otherwise credited are Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Trip Williams. All rights reserved. May be reproduced for personal use only. Use of any material contained herein is subject to stated terms or written permission.