Day 8: Creating THE FIRE Piston…
His eyes were like fire.
The Fire Piston: Another not very well known primitive technique is the fire piston. For those of you that understand how a diesel engine works without a spark plug in essence, if you take all of the heat in a large space and instantly put it into a small space it can create a spark. Put some char cloth in that space when the spark goes off and you have a coal, then transfer it to a nest add O2, and you have fire. With the fire piston it is also all about technique. I have a little Mantra that I like to use called hit, pause, pull. This technique keeps the char cloth under pressure for just enough time to allow the spark to take hold and not so much time that it suffocates the flame.
Step By Step Fire Piston Card…
FIRE PISTON Instruction Video…
Day 7: Creating THE FIRE BUNDLE…
He is a Holy Fire.
The fire next or fire bundle: The fire nest for the fire bundle is the magical Junction that happens after spark flame Tinder and before kindling and fuel in the fire making process. Knowing how to make a good fire nest can be the difference between creating a fire and having the fire burn out. A good fire Nest is also key to restarting a fire at 2:00 in the morning after it has gone out. A good fire nest can be placed on a cold and covered in sticks and will in about 15 minutes reignite a dead fire. A good fire nest is integral to creating any Flame after you do a bow drill, hand drill flint and steel or most other more primitive type Fire Starting methods. so learning how to create a quality fire nest separates the men from the boys and the girls from the women. check out this video for more.
Step By Step Fire Bundle Creating Card…
Creating A Fire Bundle Instruction Video…
Day 6: USING fLINT AND STEEL
He is a consuming fire.
Flint and Steel: Flint and steel often confused with the Ferro rod. Flint and steel is essentially how your great-grandparents made fire before matches were invented. The key to flint and steel isn't necessarily the ability to throw a spark using a rock and some hardened metal but knowing what to throw it on. Making char cloth is the real magical secret to flint and steel fire starting. Char cloth is essentially plant-based material cooked without oxygen. This is how we make coal and most people are familiar with that.
One way that I like to do it is to get an Altoids can throw a rolled up piece of pure cotton Levi's or cotton shirt into the can and cook it in the fire until the little flame that squirts out of the side goes away letting you know that it is done. A little note here it has to be cotton, it cannot be mixed cotton or have any plastic or nylon in it otherwise the nylon/plastic will melt and bind with the cotton and it won't take a spark. After you have cooked the cotton, use a stick to slide it out of the fire and don't immediately open it or that will introduce oxygen and start burning it the rest of the way. Once it is cold to the touch you can put a little bit of the char cloth on the top and bottom of the place where your left hand holds the rock while you use your right hand to generate a spark, assuming you are right handed. When you do this, if the spark goes up or down it will catch on the char cloth which you immediately transfer to nesting material. If it was good enough for Grandma it is good enough for you.
Step By Step Flint And SteEL Fire Creation Card…
Flint & Steel Fire Creation Instruction Video…
Day 5: Using The ferro rod
Fear not.
Ferro Rod: The Ferro Rod is truly a space age material. Not to be confused with flint and steel. Flint and steel is literally a piece of hardened Rock and Ferrous or iron. In that technique you scrape iron off with a hardened rock or Flint and it oxidizes in the air creating a spark. The Ferro rod is ferro cerium and iron that oxidizes and creates sparks at a substantially higher temperature than just iron alone. The Ferro Rod creates a huge cascade of sparks making it much easier to start fire with than just flint and Steel. Often times your Ferro kit will come with magnesium on one side and Ferro cerium on the other side. As is often the case with the very familiar Walmart or boy scout kits. When this happens you scrape a pile of magnesium into your Tinder then ignite it with the Ferro Rod. The key here is technique. Everyone wants to use the knife hand to throw Sparks at the material they are trying to start on fire. when in reality it is easier to pull the Ferro Rod backwards and let the knife hand stay in the same place so that the location of your Sparks is predictable. That way you can move the knife hand on top of your petroleum and Vaseline or pile of magnesium or fluffed up cambium layer of the Cottonwood tree or whatever you are trying to start on fire and predictably put the spark where you want it. This technique is great for introducing children to the backcountry and Bushcraft techniques. check out this video for more
Step By Step Ferro Rod Instruction Card…
Ferro Rod Video Instruction…
Day 4: Creating A Bow Drill Fire
Who the Son sets free, is free.
Bow Drills: Bow drills at first seem like an insurmountable task. But with patience and practice they can reliably start fires every single time. Bow drills have the best mechanical advantage of all of the friction fire sets. My personal favorite is the Egyptian bow drill method. The reason it is so effective is because it works great with 550 cord, shoelaces, and modern string that everyone wears on their person at all times in the form of the bottom of a shirt, or shoelaces, or purse strings. The Egyptian bow drill set consists of five items: string, a bow that is kind of straight, a spindle that is as straight as possible, a socket and a hearth board.
To make an Egyptian set you find a greenstick about thumb width, preferably something springy like willow. I like to fire Harden My bow later on after the first fire has been created. To make the bow you skin the bark off of your bow stick then there are many ways that you can add a string to a stick. I like to create a figure 8 knot and slip it over the top of the stick then create a divot at the bottom of the stick where your hand rides and wrap it a bunch of times then Tuck the string inside of it. This gives me the ability to quickly adjust the tension for each different sized spindle as the string stretches.
Next you create a similar diameter spindle from an extremely dry and mostly straight stick. I like to say you can cut a banana straight to give the best visual on how to do this. Don't be afraid of taking a lot of material off of the spindle because it has to be straight. When it rolls on your Hearth Board, it needs to roll like a marble across a clean floor.
Next you make the Hearth board, the Hearth board is basically a 2x4 shaped board, about the thickness of your spindle. Lastly you need a socket on top of your spindle. This can be many things. I really like to use the brass bowl-shaped divot inside of my knife as a spindle socket. You can however use a little chunk of wood from the upper portion of the creation of your Hearth board as a temporary socket. The key is as little friction on the socket on top and as much friction on the Health Board as possible. One way to achieve this is to put green leafy material, maybe a bug or something slick on the top between your socket and spindle. Otherwise you will find yourself busting a coal on the socket instead of the Hearth board. This is a skill that is best learned from a friend who knows how to do it in person, however once learned and repeated on your own is something no one can ever take from you. Because knowledge weighs nothing.
