Zippo Black Matte
Windproof Lighter

Zippo Flints

Zippo Wicks

Lighter Fluid 12 Oz.


Wholesale Disposable Lighters - 50 w/Stand


Windmill Delta
Stormproof Lighter


Vector Quintuple Refined Butane Gas Fuel - 2 Cans

Found a good "Survival Fire" link? Let Us Know!

Methods:

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION: How To Make A Fire-Board, Bow, Drill And Thimble -- Indian Legend Of The Source Of Fire -- Record Fire -Makers -- Rubbing-Stick Outfit -- Eskimo Thimble -- Bow, Bow-String, Thimble, Fire-Board, Fire-Pan -- Tinder, Charred Rags, Puff Balls -- Fire-Makers Of The Balkan -- Fire Without A Bow, Co-Li-Li, The Fire Saw -- Fire Pumping Of The Iroquois -- Pyropneumatic Apparatus. Excerpt from the "Book of Camp-Lore & Woodcraft" By Dan Beard Chapter I, 1920

Fire Making By Percussion: The White Man's Method; How To Use Flint And Steel -- Where To Obtain The Flint And Steel -- Chucknucks, Punk Boxes, Spunks And Matches -- Real Lucifer Matches -- Slow Match -- How To Catch The Spark -- Substitutes For Flint And Steel. Excerpt from the "Book of Camp-Lore & Woodcraft" By Dan Beard Chapter II, 1920

How To Lay And Light A Fire: An Experience With Tenderfeet -- Modern Fear Of Doing Manual Labor -- Matches -- Fire-Makers And Babylonians -- The Palpitating Heart Of The Camp -- Gummy Fagots Of The Pine -- How To Make A Fire In Wet Weather -- Backwoodsmen's Fire -- The Necessity Of Small Kindling Wood -- Good Firewood -- Advantage Of Split Wood -- Fire-Dogs -- How To Open A Knife -- How To Whittle; How To Split A Stick With A Knife -- Bonfires And Council Fires -- Camp Meeting Torch Fires -- Exploding Stones -- Character In Fire -- Slow Fires, Signal Fires And Smudges. Excerpt from the "Book of Camp-Lore & Woodcraft" By Dan Beard Chapter II, 1920

Camp Housekeeping: Building fires. Fires without matches. Woods and their properties. Useful plants and trees. Camp cookery. Camp furnishings. Making beds. Handy hints to campers. Excerpt from the: "Book of Camping" By A. Hyatt Verrill, 1917; Chapter Three

Firestarting Blog - Survivaltek is the creation of Ken Youngquist, a guy who from his youth was captivated by primitive living skills, and in his adulthood, was intrigued by the television Series MacGyver. The result has been the study and practice of survival skills, and the desire to pass on the mantle of preparedness to others.

Movies on different ways to light the fire. They are in what appear to be Italian but the text doesn't really matter...

At Home In The Wilderness Part III: Fire by Tom Brown Jr., from Mother Earth News, Issue #73

Fire-making by the Indians of Canada: This text was originally published in 1907 by the Bureau of American Ethnology as part of its Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico . It was later reproduced, in 1913, by the Geographic Board of Canada. The work done by the American Bureau was monumental, well informed and incorporated the most advanced scholarship available at the time. 

Blowing Blowing Embers - The woodscraft of fire making: [PDF] Participants learn how to safely build three types of campfires and how to get them started in any weather. They also learn how to make a firepack and how to start a fire without matches.

Björn Corander - Fire without matches Primitive fire-making by the American Indian manner is very practically. I have made it several hundred times even in rainy weather and in the winter. It works without special trick or mystery...

Survival firebuilding skills by Corcceigh Green Issue #97When learning to build a fire, it helps to know something of a fire’s anatomy. A fire has working parts and components that work together to perform like any other engine. In the case of fire, we are building an engine that produces heat. Heat which our lives could depend on...

Lighters 

Recorded Zippo Lighter Data This data is based upon the use of a 1 ½ pack a day smoker (30 lights per day). To a lesser extent the data collected is also based upon occasional lighter use for the lighting of campfires and burn barrels. Conclusion- The data presented clearly indicates that the Zippo lighter is an excellent choice for a fire starter to be used in an emergency preparedness kit. Extreme weather and adverse conditions may affect the usage time and periods predicted for each category, however, since an individual is unlikely to use a Zippo lighter to ignite more than 3 fires per day (in comparison to lighting 30 cigarettes) the usage periods should remain relatively accurate. It should be noted, however, that the duration of a Zippo Wick's lifetime may be reduced by approximately ¼ (1-2 months) with continued use in windy conditions or in cases of unusually extended flame life.

Lighters as survival tools - Use lighters instead of matches.

Fires with Lighters: A flick of your thumb and you have instant fire - can't get much easier than that. Cigarette lighters work well for starting campfires. But, keep in mind some of the cautions and shortcomings of liquid fuel lighters...

Matches 

the correct way to light a fire with matches Even if you possess matches, lighting a fire in the bush may not be easy. The wood may be damp, it may be raining heavily, or there may be none of the usual aids, such as paper or kerosene. Therefore it is a good thing to learn how to light your fire with certainty under any condition.

A cheap alternative to expensive waterproof matches! If you have ever priced out waterproof matches you realize that the price you pay for 50 is usually more than you pay for 500 regular matches. By following these two easy ways to waterproof matches you can guarantee that if you ever need them they will be handy...

How to Waterproof Matches Coupled with a cheap fire starter, waterproof matches can almost guarantee you fire in many situations. There are numerous ways of waterproofing matches, the simplest way is just buying waterproof matches to begin with. But in a pinch, waterproof matches aren't always available where as any old book of matches can be found in virtually any convenience store.

Chemicals 

Fire by Chemical Reaction by Bob Gillis and Dino Labiste: Although this fire making technique is not primitive technology, it is worth mentioning in terms of survival skills. Fire can be produced by chemical reaction using potassium permanganate mixed with antifreeze from a car radiator or glycerin. Potassium permanganate used to be found in first aid kits and was utilized as a mild antiseptic. See also: Making Fire Using a Balloon

Wad Tinders by Allan "bow" Beauchamp. Uses tinder bundle with gunpowder from a shotshell.

Making Fire - Fire Without Matches - Magic Fire One of the classical tricks in chemistry roadshows is making fire without matches. There is a huge range of reactions available for this and it is just a matter of taste and preference which ones to choose. These demonstrations are mainly based on the reactions of strong oxidizers with flammable organic substances...

Promethean matches, 1828. Firemaking device patented by Samuel Jones (Strand, London) 1828. Individual glass vesicles with a single drop of vitriol are sealed and wrapped in slips of paper which are coated with a mixture of chlorate of potash, finely-pounded sugar and gum arabic...

Lenses 

Starting Fire With an Ice Lens by Bob Gillis: Use clear lake or pond ice. To practice, boil water for 10 minutes to remove gas. Create a foil container 2" deep and freeze slowly. Or buy a clear block of ice. To make fire, the ice must be clear.

Challenge - To make heat on the glacier - enough to set kindling alight. An ice lens is a lens, made out of ice, which is meant to focus light onto one point. The idea is to focus sunlight onto dry bits of wood, straw, or paper and start a fire...

Fire-Starting Using a Burning Glass Fire-starting using a rock crystal lens, as with any type of burning glass, relies upon the light of the sun. Lenses which are thicker at the center than at the border, such as these Viking Age rock crystal lenses, have the property of concentrating solar light to a very small, hot point...

Fire From the Sun There are a few ways to concentrate the sun's rays into a single point to generate enough heat to ignite tinder. All of these methods alter the path of the parallel sun rays so they all converge at a common spot. By placing tinder at that spot and not accidentally blocking the sunrays, the heat is compounded enough to burn. 

General "Friction" 

Types of wood you can use
There is a whole range of woods you can use. One of the best combinations is the use hard wood for the drill and softer wood for the fire-block. Hand drill spindles have one advantage in that they are gripped between the palms, not held by the hand socket. Hand sockets grind away the tops of soft spindles. Hand drilling permits the use of certain weed stalks as spindles which are stiff but pithy in their centers.

Survival Info: Fire
Firemaking is an essential skill for anyone who ventures into the outdoors. Find more information here: fire by friction

Fire Starting Equipment We chose to research firestarting tools, and how to use these to start fires using both manmade and natural tinder...

Fire-By-Friction- Materials of the San Francisco Bay Region The objective of this report is to list and describe the fire-by-friction materials that are found near San Francisco Bay, California. This is to fill a gap which is found in almost all the outdoor survival and primitive living skills books which I have read. They mention their favorite fire-by-friction material or materials, none of which are native to the area where I live. My hope is that other "abos" in different parts of the world would also write similar articles describing the fire-by-friction materials of their home territory. This article is not intended to be a reference for plant identification, although several reference books have relied on my own experiences with using these materials.

The Fire Drill- Notch Construction Many authors have described the selection of natural materials. In this article, I assume the reader is acquainted with the general technique of fire making with a hand drill or bow drill. I will focus on material preparation, a topic that is seldom considered in sufficient detail...

Medieval firestarting techniques. This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme collected from various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

Different Firestarting Methods A Shu-Shu-Gah Lodge (like scouts) webpage listing various methods.

Fire-by-Friction Methods of the Australian Aborigines by Dick Baugh (January 23, 2000) There are at least two different methods used by the Aboriginal people of Australia to start fires. This article describes them. Australian Aborigines are one of the few remaining cultural groups which are still familiar with their traditional subsistence methods. See also, recovered page "The Miracle of Fire By Friction"

Fire by Friction - Resources: Just a collection of tips I've found...

Fire Bow 

Traditional Firemaking Traditional firemaking with a bow and drill remained a mystery to me until I was shown a few secrets...

Bow drill fire making - by Lisa and G.T. Sanford, First published at Big Oak Wilderness School: NOTE: Although most of this information is basic for bow drill fire making, there is a good deal of advanced information as well. It is suggested that you spend a lot of time experimenting on your own before consulting this page.

The Two-Stick Hearthboard by Dick Baugh (May 21, 2000) Many practitioners of stone age technology are interested in fire-by friction methods which require a minimum amount of knife work, the reasons being that 10,000 years ago cutting that notch wasn't as easy as it is today with your fancy Swiss Army knife...

Aussie Fire Bow: Fire Lighting Using a Fire Bow Drill by Dave Little (Brisbane, Australia) This was the method used by the American Indians & also by the ancient Egyptians & others. Stone age surgeons used this system as a skull bone drill. Article also has a section on overcoming common problems with fire bow drills, as well as a very short article on cordage.

Bandicoot Bills Bush Matches A description of how to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together using the bow drill method. The instructions have been extracted from the instruction manual included with a fire lighting kit produced called "Bandicoot Bills Bush Matches". It lacks some of the diagrams but is all you need to know to become proficient. It takes about 40 seconds to produce flames, although it has been done in as little as 20 seconds.

The Egyptian Bow Drill As soon as I think I know all there is to know abut a subject something happens which reminds me that I should never boast about my all-encompassing knowledge. In February I was teaching people the secrets of making fire by friction at the 2001Winter Count when John Olsen strode up and showed me a cute little friction fire set. It completely eliminated a couple of the problems inherent in teaching the bow drill friction fire method.

I was pretty sure I would succeed tomorrow... Extremely funny, but enlightening, tale of one man's quest for fire.

Bow and Drill Fire Starter: Experience techniques used by native Americans for lighting a fire before steel was introduced. These methods can be used in survival situations today.

Basic Bow-Drill, by Peter Moc: When you are first learning bow-drill fire-making, you must make conditions and your bow drill set such that the chance of getting a coal is the greatest. If you do not know the feeling of a coal beginning to be born then you will never be able to master the more difficult scenarios. For this it is best to choose the “easiest woods” and practice using the set in a sheltered location such as a garage or basement, etc. Remember to unplug your smoke alarms! See also: Advanced Bow-Drill and Primitive Survival Bow-Drill 

Bow Drill Pictures & Movies: Techniques, tips, photos, and general information

Bow-drills from scratch in the wild This report shows bow drills being made and used from scratch in the wild - adapted from the Wildwood Trackers meeting report (Nov 2001)

Fast Bow Drill Strings - by Barry Keegan. Using a bow drill to make fire is more reliable than a hand drill. Because of this climate, damp wood may be all that I have to work with. The problem, though, is finding a good bow drill string that won't take long to make or find! This was a lot of work and lead me to rediscover what can be used...

Bow Boards - by Allan "Bow" Beauchamp: This article is on a topic with which we are all familiar -- fire by friction, or "Fire Boards. " But are we really "familiar" with this concept? Many articles have been written on this topic, but I am still amazed at how little we really know about it. See also: Bow's Blindfolded Fireboard

Hand Drill 

The Hand-Drill Challenge by Alan Halcon Walking along the trail, I started to pay particular attention to the types of woods that could be used for the hand-drill. To my left was mulefat, my longtime favorite wood for spindles. To my right was mugwort, whose straight stalks make very usable spindles as well. Ahead of me on the trail, was a beautiful ash tree, whose wood I revered as my absolute favorite for a hearth.

Hand-Drill Fire Making: {Link recovered 3/16/11} By Steven Edholm, © 1992, revised 1994: Hand-drill fire making was practiced by variously primitive people worldwide. While it may not be quite as reliable as the bow and drill method, with which more people are familiar, it is still quite effective in the hands of a proficient individual. It is also lighter in weight, easier to construct, and does not require the use of a string or cord as does the bow and drill. However, like the bow and drill, a hand-drill kit will usually provide many fires once a good combination is found. People who relied on this technology undoubtedly prized good kits and under everyday circumstances did not count on being able to construct one on the spot when a fire was needed.

Making Fire with a Hand Drill by Dino Labiste: The spindle was Mare's Tail (Conyza canadensis) and the hearthboard was Incense Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens). Other alternatives for the spindle are Mule Fat (Baccharis salicifolia), Blue Elderberry (Sambuca mexicana), or California Buckeye (Aesculus californica). Willow (Salix sp.) root and Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) are also good for hearthboards...

Hand Drill Fire It finally happened after months of frustration--I finally got a fire with the hand drill! It was a great moment. I had plenty of practice using bark from Western Red Cedar (*Thuja plicata*) as a tinder bundle but was still pretty clueless about hand drill materials. A session with some other primitives got me steered in the right direction...

Stalking the Wild- The Hand Drill - Fire By Friction In this article we will concern ourselves with what I consider the ultimate in low-tech fire making, the hand drill. While it is the simplest of all fire-making techniques in its lack of complicated materials, it is also the most beautiful in action and the most difficult to learn for many people. Only a handful of enthusiasts around the United States have mastered the art of the hand drill, and this alone makes it worth the challenge...

Fire Plow 

Fire Plow When they were making the movie Castaway, with Tom Hanks, there was a problem with getting a fire started without matches. Finally, the local natives introduced them to the fire plow. The website below gives a good account, with pictures. This is a text-only document. You might better go to the website and print it, the results being pretty good. http://www.hollowtop.com/spt_html/fireplow.htm 

The Samoan Fire Plow by Cpl. Geoffrey Angle, USMC The subject changed to fire making, and we talked about Native American Indian techniques, such as the bow drill and hand drill. Ula had seen it done, but did not have much of an interest in trying it himself. He explained: "Samoans almost exclusively use the fire plow" (I never learned the Samoan term for it). "Unless," he chuckled, "they've got a lighter, of course!"

The Fire Plow This article focuses on the fire plow method, but whatever way you choose to make your Friction fire, you will need tinder and kindling. The coal you make with your fire set needs to be put into a tinder nest and blown into a flame. So gather your tinder and kindling first. File recovered from now defunct AboTech website and converted to Onsite PDF.

Fire Plow Pictures & Movies: A fireplow is a fire-making method used on Pacific islands. There, hibiscus wood is used with great effect to work up a coal that is then used to ignite the tinder bundle.See also: Firesaw 

Sparks 

Primitive Fire Starting Techniques: Chapter One - Fire from Steel: There is something magical about making fire from materials other than the standard Bic lighter or Ohio Blue-Tips. Moreover, it is often a better method than matches for reasons you will see later in this article.

Making Fire With Flint and Steel Until the second quarter of the 19th century, then, more primitive means of striking fire were necessary, and the most common of those was with flint and steel. Little detailed description of the methods used by our forebears has come to light, although it was surely a common skill. Skills similar to, if not identical with those used then have been learned by modern man, and are widely employed in the reenacting community. 

Survival Info: Fire spark-based firemaking

Flint & Steel - Setting things on fire: This article is intended as a beginners guide to reliable fire production using flint and steel. It is based on practical experience experimenting with the techniques as part of our living history display.

How to Start a Fire without Matches If you've ever been camping or in a situation where you needed a fire, but had no matches, then you will want to take note of the simple steps listed here for starting a fire without matches.

Fire making with Flint and Steel Get rid of that disposable lighter! Strike a spark, and breathe it into life in period style. With a bit of practice, fire making with flint and steel is quick and reliable. When you strike a spark, you are shaving tiny pieces off the steel with the sharp edge of the flint. The sparks come from the steel, not the flint...

Fire from Flint & Steel Sometimes it seems that the subject of starting a fire with flint and steel has been hashed and rehashed in every living history publication or buckskinning book I've ever picked up. The vast majority of these articles have been well written by folks who know what they are talking about. Why is it, then, that I've never had the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment of starting a fire by this method even after many attempts? Could it be that I was missing something? Or that my particular way of thinking was not putting the pieces together properly? Or, perhaps, is it much simpler than I was trying to make it? The answer is "Yes" to all of the above...

Fire Piston

The Firepiston I was but a young lad when my father, who'd always taken a keen interest in primitive technology, first told me of the firepiston. He had seen it in a documentary about stone-age natives from jungle islands somewhere in the Pacific. What he described sounded amazing - a tube of wood that could instantly create a hot coal with just a quick push of a plunger-and it had been used for ages...

The amazing Fire-Piston: [SALES SITE, but with cool animation!] The Fire Piston is a primitive fire starting device. In the mid 1850's, English explorers found it widely used by primitive tribes in the jungles of SE Asia- Borneo, Malaysia, Burma, Philipines. Unlike friction fire methods such as the bow drill, hand drill, fire saw, fire thong, or flint and steel, the Fire Piston operates by compression, like a diesel engine.

The Fire Piston: [Cool animation] The fire piston was developed in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines. A fire piston consists of a hollowed tube (originally this would have been made out of wood, horn or bone) that is sealed at one end and lubricated inside (pig or dog fat was popular with early fire piston developers). The second component is a plunger device, typically with a small compartment to hold dry tinder...

Tinder: The purpose of tinder is to get the spark to hold. Tinder is made from dry bark which is light and fluffy and can be made from shredded grass, moss, bird’s nests, and various plant fibers. Good tinder is essential to a successful fire start. Preparation of tinder requires special attention. It should always be finely shredded (but not powdered) so that the bundle is a soft, fluffy, fibrous mass which will not fall apart. Rubbing the bundle between the hands is perhaps the best way to make tinder light and fluffy. The following list contains the more common tinder’s available in nature. Others may be found by experimentation in different geographical areas. 

Barks:
Cliffrose: Shrub – outer bark from trunk and larger limbs.
Cottonwood Tree – inner cambium layer on old dead trees
Sagebrush – other bark from trunk of larger plants
Juniper – outer bark from trunk of mature trees.

Plant Fibers and Silks:
Yucca: Fibers from pounded dead leaves or ready made at the base of the dead plants
Nettle: Fibers from pounded dead stalks
Milkweed: Fibers from pounded dead stalks; also silk from pods. 
Dogbane: Fibers from pounded dead stalks
Thistle: Down from Tops
Cattail: Down from seed heads
Various grasses: Dead leaf blades, partially decomposed, lying of base of plants. 
Oakum: Is made of fibers from the jute plant.

Tinder Bundles Absolutely essential to starting fire for most primitive methods

Coal Extenders To carry fire or to keep a coal going for an extended period of time

Troubled Times- Natural Kindling submitted by various TT visitors

Cloth/Char Cloth 

Making "Char" by Rob Bicevskis. Often in primitive skills, or survival situations, one is faced with trying to catch a small spark in order to turn it into a larger coal and ultimately into a fire. There are precious few substances that will easily catch sparks thrown from flint and steel. Char is one substance that does work well.

Creating Char Cloth: Char cloth is cloth (linen or cotton) that has been combusted in the absence of oxygen. It is easily ignited by even the weakest of sparks. It has been used as tinder, often in conjunction with flint and steel, for firelighting for thousands of years.

Re: MtMan-List: Char Cloth: I have tried just about everything over the years for char cloth. The absolute best I have ever found is lamp wicking...

Grass/Leaves/Needles 

Wad Tinders by Allan "bow" Beauchamp 

Anemone vitifolia The whole plant is slightly poisonous, the toxic principle is destroyed by heat or by drying. Woolly hairs from the achenes are used as a tinder

Artemisia vulgaris (Mugwort) The down on the leaves makes a good tinder for starting fires

Betula papyrifera (Paper birch) Outer layer of bark are an excellent tinder.

Cassiope tetragona (White Arctic mountain heather) The plant makes a good tinder

Cirsium arvense (Creeping thistle) The seed fluff is used as a tinder

Clematis columbiana (Rock clematis) The seed floss makes an excellent tinder for starting fires, a spark from a flint will quickly ignite it. See also: Clematis douglasii (Hairy clematis), and Clematis ligusticifolia (White clematis)

Epilobium angustifolium (Willow herb) The 'cottony' seed hairs are used as a stuffing material or as a tinder.

Eriophorum angustifolium (Cotton grass) The cottony seed hairs are used to make candle wicks. They are also used for stuffing pillows, paper making etc and as a tinder. See also: Eriophorum gracile

Galium aparine (Goosegrass) The dried plant is used as a tinder.

Gerbera lanuginosa A 'cotton' from the leaves is used as a tinder and occasionally made into coarse cloth or bags.

Gnaphalium luteoalbum The leaves are used as a tinder

Pteridium aquilinum (Bracken) The fibrous remnants from edible roots make a good tinder. See also: Pteridium aquilinum esculentum

Rumex mexicanus (Mexican dock) The dried, crushed roots have been used as a tinder.

Tussilago farfara (Coltsfoot) The soft down on the underside of the leaves is used as a stuffing material. When wrapped in a rag, dipped in saltpetre and dried in the sun it makes an excellent tinder.

Typha angustifolia (Small reed mace) The female flowers make an excellent tinder and can be lit from the spark of a flint. The pollen is highly inflammable and is used in making fireworks. See also: Typha bungeana and Typha latifolia

Barks/Pitchwood ...Once I have gathered all my tinder and small wood to start my fire, I find that the inner bark from a popple (or aspen) tree makes the best fire starter. All you have to do is find a down tree, strip the outer bark off and the paper-thin inner bark will catch fire very easily and quickly....

Camping in 1876 ~ Setting Up Camp, Campfires, Bush Fires. Excerpt from: "At Home In The Wilderness" By John Keast Lord, 1876; Chapter 13

Cedar-bark-tinder-igniting Nice close-up photo illustrates how the bark should be shredded.

Thuja plicata (Western red cedar): The inner bark can be used as a tinder.

Artemisia tridentata (Sage brush): The shredded bark is a fine tinder for starting fires. The stems make good friction sticks for making fires.

Artemisia tripartita (Threetip sage brush) The bark is used as a tinder when making fires

Betula nana (Dwarf birch) The plant has been used as a tinder, even when wet, and for cooking fires when there is a lack of larger wood. It is likely that the bark was used for tinder.

Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (Nootka cypress) The finely shredded inner bark can be used as a tinder. See also: Cirsium eriophorum (Wooly thistle), Cirsium oleraceum (Cabbage thistle), Cirsium palustre (Marsh thistle), and Cirsium tuberosum (Tuberous thistle)

Cirsium vulgare (Common thistle) The down makes an excellent tinder that is easily lit by a spark from a flint.

Cowania mexicana (Cliffrose) The fine, soft bark has been used as a tinder when starting fires with a fire drill.

Juniperus communis (Juniper) The bark is used as cordage and as a tinder. See also: Juniperus communis nana (Juniper), 

Juniperus monosperma (One-seed juniper) The bark is employed as a tinder and is also made into a slow match or can be shredded, bound into bundles and used as a torch to give light in the house. The crushed bark was twisted into a rope, tied at intervals with yucca (Yucca species), and wrapped into a coil. The free end was set on fire and kept smoldering by blowing on it at intervals. Fire could be carried in this fashion for several hours. See also: Juniperus osteosperma (Desert juniper), and Juniperus occidentalis (Western juniper) The bark can also be wound around a stick and used as a torch to provide light and carry fire to a new campsite. 

Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper) The bark is employed as a tinder and is also made into a slow match.

Juniperus virginiana (Pencil cedar) The bark of the tree is useful as tinder in starting fires Boy Scout style.

Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa pine) The cones make a quick fire, whilst the scales from the trunk bark burn easily, give off no smoke and cool quickly.

Potentilla fruticosa (Shrubby cinquefoil) The dry, flaky bark is used as a tinder for friction fires.

Ulmus rubra (Slippery elm) The weathered bark has been used as kindling for starting a fire.

Verbascum thapsus (Great mullein) The flowering stems can be dipped in wax and used as torches. The down on the leaves and stems makes an excellent tinder when quite dry.

Punk/Pith/Termite Dusts

Ferula communis (Giant fennel) The dried pith is used as a tinder, it burns very slowly inside the stem and can thus be carried from one place to another

Sambucus caerulea (Blue elder) The pith of the stems has been used as a tinder for lighting fires

Art of Travel. Many kinds of pith are remarkable as tinders ; that whence the well-known pith hats are made, is used as tinder in India...

A Piece of Fibre Could Save Your Life The agave stalk has a hard outer rind, but the inside is soft and pithy. I advised everyone to take a little of the pith to add to their tinder boxes, since this was a nearly ideal tinder...

BLUE ELDERBERRY The pith of the stems was used as tinder, and the stem itself was employed as a twirling stick for starting the fire.

Common Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) The pith of the stems was used as tinder and the hollowed stems to blow the fire. (AKA: Elder or Elderberry, Black Elder, Bourtree and Pipe Tree)

Paper/Waxpaper

Nests/Down

Fungus/Mosses ...Just about the best tinder I have found is good ol' spanish moss. You can make a nice nest of it and it produces intense heat. It's also nice and light so it won't weigh down your bag. If you gather it yourself, boil and dry it or zap it in your microwave to kill those pesky redbugs...

The hair cap moss can be used for many things. Some sources claim it "burns like tinder."

Sphagnum Moss Dried moss catches fire easily and is therefore an excellent tinder material. However, because moss grows in wet, swampy areas, dried moss is hard to find in abundance, and it does not burn as long as some other more readily available tinder materials.

Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for December 2001: This month's fungus is Fomes fomentarius, the tinder polypore, also known as touchwood, punk, hoof fungus, amadou, or Amadouvier. 

"True" Tinder Fungus Identification and uses of this very handy material

False Tinder Fungus A close second, but not quite as good as the "true" tinder fungus.

Uses of Tinder Fungus Some uses for this material

Amadou a soft absorbent material made from tinder fungus

The Usefulness of Polypore Fungi in Primitive Fire Making: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 by Storm

Bush Fungus Stove by Allan "bow" Beauchamp

Fungus Fireboard by Allan "bow" Beauchamp

Kingsley-Hughes.Com | Tinder Fungus In this article we will look at the tinder fungus which grows on dead, dying or otherwise injured birch trees. There are, in fact, many different types of tinder fungus that grows on birch, ash and beech trees in the UK. The true tinder fungus is Fomes fomentarius, but there are many others (such as Innonotus obliquus or Phellinus igniarius)...

"reindeer moss" FUEL/TINDER Belcher Island Eskimo; Area: Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay, Canada; Notes: "Lichens ("reindeer moss") are also gathered and burn with an intense though short-lived flame."

Cetrariellaa delisei FUEL/TINDER Inuit; Area: mouth of Black River, Northwest Territories, Canada; Notes: (Cetraria delisei) gathered for cooking fuel. Burned with a resinous flame. (Personal observation, 1959); Thomson, JW. 1984. American Arctic Lichens 1. The Macrolichens. Columbia University Press, New York. Page 78.

Masonhalea richardsonii FUEL/TINDER Eskimo; Area: Alaska; Notes: (Cetraria richardsonii) used for priming wood fires.; Llano, G.A.. 1956. Utilization of lichens in the arctic and subarctic. Econ. Bot. 10(4): 367-392. Page 386.

Usnea sp. FUEL/TINDER Kutchin Athabaskan Indians; Area: Fort Yukon, Alaska; Notes: Usnea sp. "(Grandma's-hair)" collected from spruce trees and occasionally used as tinder. [note: Alectoria??]; Holloway, P.S.; Alexander, G.. 1990. Ethnobotany of the Fort Yukon Region, Alaska. Econ. Bot. 44(2): 214-225. Page 223.

lichens FUEL/TINDER inland Eskimo; Area: Great Fish River (now Back River), Northwest Territories, Canada; Notes: lichens used with mosses and a kind of heather in cooking and heating.; Moffatt, E., jr.. 1962. The Eskimos. Archon Books, Hamden, CT. Page 104.

Fuzz Sticks/Wood Shavings

 

Steel Wool 

Steel Wool Fire Starter Using a 9-volt battery and some fine steel wool. Nice video. See also: Batteries and Steel Wool Make Fire

Other/Miscellaneous

Survival Firemaking Primitive firemaking, such as with a hand drill, bow drill, and flint and steel, is fun to know and worthwhile skills to practice. But these techniques require materials which are "just right", and you can spend significant time collecting those materials...

Miracle of Fire-by-Friction and Fire-by-Friction with Damp Materials by Dick Baugh: Starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together. Why do I always get a thrill out of doing it? Is it because there are probably less than 500 people in the United States who can consistently start a fire with a hand drill? Is it the entertainer in me? I don't know. I assure you that the thrill is not diminished by knowing more about the scientific events that go on during the process. See also: Making Fire with a Bow Drill (Dino Labiste) and Making Fire with a Hand Drill 

HOW TO MAKE WATERPROOF SELF-IGNITING FIRESTARTERS by Richard W. Shultz: In a survival situation, your well-being and, quite possibly, your life may depend on being able to get a campfire going in a hurry. There are classic methods of making fire such as flint and steel, fire by friction, etc., but these are difficult methods to learn and perfect. It is definitely worth the time and effort to learn them, but there may come a time when your safety depends on getting a fire going quickly, and you will simply not have time for the classic methods. 

Fuel:

Fuel and Fire There are long distances on some of the routes to California where no other fuel is found but the dried dung of buffalo, called by the mountain men "chips" and by the French "bois de vache". It burns well when perfectly dry, and some prefer it to wood. As it will not burn when wet, a supply was often collected and carried in the wagons. When dry, the chips were easily lighted...

Survival tips: Combustibles - How to improvise combustibles outdoors.

Collecting 

Finding Fuel By: Peter McMahon: Though not as labour-intensive as starting the fire, this step is arguably the most critical. You can always work away at your bow drill a little harder if the flame doesn't ignite. You can always re-light the fire if it goes out before it catches. But if you don't build up a hefty foundation of the right kinds of fuel, your fire may never start...

Use common sense while looking for wood - Wilderness tips and advice: use your common sense while looking for wood around your camp.

Form wood reserves at your camp - Leave some wood for later use at every single camping place of yours.

Leave some wood guarded - Hiking tips and advice: leave some dry wood as a reserve.

Burn Characteristics 

Wood

Survival Info: Fire
Firemaking is an essential skill for anyone who ventures into the outdoors. Find more information here: Using fatwood

Alder:  Poor in heat and does not last, to be seen growing beside ponds

Apple:  Splendid - It burns slowly and steadily when dry, with little flame, but good heat. The scent is pleasing.

Ash:  Best burning wood; has both flame and heat, and will bum when green, though naturally not as well as when dry.

Beech:  A rival to ash, though not a close one, and only fair when green. If it has a fault, it is apt to shoot embers a long way.

Birch:  The heat is good but it burns quickly. The smell is pleasant.

Cedar:  Good when dry. Full of crackle and snap. It gives little flame but much heat, and the scent is beautiful.

Cherry:  Burns slowly, with good heat. Another wood with the advantage of scent Chestnut. Mediocre. Apt to shoot embers. Small flame and heating power. Douglas Fir. Poor. Little flame and heat.

Chestnut:  Mediocre. Apt to shoot embers. Small flame and heating power.

Douglas Fir:  Poor. Little flame or heat.

Elder:   Mediocre. Very smoky. Quick burner, with not much heat.

Elm:  Commonly offered for sale. To bum well it needs to be kept for two years. Even then it will smoke. Vary variable fuel.

Hazel:  Good.

Holly:  Good, will burn when green, but best when kept a season.

Hornbeam:  Almost as good as beech.

Laburnum:  Totally poisonous tree, acrid smoke, taints food and best never used.

Larch:  Crackly, scented, and fairly good for heat.

Laurel:  Has brilliant flame.

Lime:  Poor. Burns with dull flame.

Maple:  Good.

Oak:  The novelist's 'blazing fire of oaken logs' is fanciful, Oak is sparse in flame and the smoke is acrid, but dry old oak is excellent for heat, burning slowly and steadily until whole log collapses into cigar-like ash.

Pear:  A good heat and a good scent.

Pine:  Bums with a splendid flame, but apt to spit. The resinous Weymouth pine has a lovely scent and a cheerful blue flame.

Plane:  Burns pleasantly, but is apt to throw sparks if very dry. Plum. Good heat and scent.

Plum:  Good heat and aromatic.

Poplar:  Truly awful.

Rhododendron:  The thick old stems, being very tough, burn well.

Robinia (Acacia):  Burns slowly, with good heat, but with acrid smoke.

Spruce:  Burns too quickly and with too many sparks.

Sycamore:  Burns with a good flame, with moderate heat. Useless green.

Thorn:  Quite one of the best woods. Burns slowly, with great heat and little smoke. Walnut. Good, so is the scent.

Walnut:  Good, and so is the scent. Aromatic wood.

Willow:  Poor. It must be dry to use, and then it burns slowly, with little flame. Apt to spark.

Yew:  Last but among the best. Burns slowly, with fierce heat, and the scent is pleasant.

Brush & Grass 




Sod/Peat 

Burning Peat by T. Neil Davis: One estimate of Alaska's peat resource indicates that the state has enough peat to supply its total energy needs for well over 1,000 years, at the present rate of energy usage. However, as one might guess, there are a few practical problems to overcome, some of which may be so severe that the actual use of peat in the years ahead might be minor compared to other fuels...

Falkland Islands Info Portal - History Articles Once cut and scattered on the bank and left to partially dry it then had to be 'rickled', arranged in heaps so the air can circulated and finish the drying process. At this point the whole family got to work and many an enjoyable weekend was spent rickling and picnicking. The next stage was to cart it home and store it in the peat shed before it could be burned to produce heat for the home. Once delivered to the peat shed door Stanley's youngsters were again hard at work. There was a competitive edge involved in spotting a load being tipped to contact the house owner and offer to 'throw it in' for a small fee...

Peat Factbites: Huge page of links to all sorts of peat files, pages and articles.

Animal Droppings

Cow chips ~ ‘Reminiscing Not Too Far Back’ by Mrs. Harry Yost, Maxwell: Cow chips had to be picked off the prairies, where they “grew”. The improvident settler picked them as he needed them. A sackfull, or possibly a light wagon load, at a time. When a long, rainy spell or a snow storm befell this fellow, he was very apt to be caught with his (unpicked) chips wet. There is nothing better calculated to bring a sinner to repentance than trying to start a fire with soggy wet cow chips.

Fireplace:

Camp Stoves & Fireplaces: On the great majority of campgrounds and picnic areas fires are essential for cooking, for campfires, and for warming fires. To fully protect the forest growth, on and surrounding these recreational areas, it is necessary that these fires be confined within camp stoves, fireplaces and campfire circles. The importance of appropriate design for these features has prompted the Forest Service to make a careful and extensive study of this subject in order to determine the types of camp stoves and fireplaces best adapted to use under varying conditions.

Making the fire a home By: Peter McMahon: In order to keep your fire burning through the night and give you the best possible warmth, construct a dish-shaped pit a half foot to a foot deep for the fire to live and grow in. Make sure it's not near any underground roots or you could start a root fire...

Fire Building Written by Roger Perron and David R. Reed. Lots of good ideas in this medium length article. Could use some graphics, but what the heck.

How to Build a Proper Campfire. Most people can build a campfire and roast marshmallows. But not everyone can build a respectable fire in the midst of a rainstorm, nor can they build one with "artistic flair". I am going to teach you how to accomplish this. My methods are guaranteed to work in a down pour, provided that wind velocities, accompanying the rain, do not exceed about 20 mph.

Primitive Cooking Various methods

Having a Hot Time Tonight © Gary L. Benton: All of us who hunt, fish, backpack or hike, will one day need a fire. Most of the time we just stop, clear an area and start a fire without much thought. While that is all right most of the time, do you know how to really make a fire? Oh, I am not talking about the method you use to ignite the fire, I mean the components needed for a good fire, some of the types of fires, and even heat reflectors. They are pretty simple to make and all serve different needs in the woods.

Campfires! By Tom Watson: I have to believe that one of the first things a critter did once it climbed out of the primordial ooze was to seek warmth. I can certainly relate to that quest at the end of a long paddling day. Despite the fact that proper clothing should provide its wearer with adequate warmth, there is still something about the glow and radiant heat of a good campfire that all the right garments can never provide.

Circle /Ring

  

Pit 

 

Build/Maintain a Safe Campfire

Trench 

    

Keyhole 

  

Dakota Firehole 



DAKOTA PIT FIRE - A Dakota Pit Fire is another way to make an efficient fire that uses very little fuel, and can warm you or food easily. Whereas it is contained in a hole, it is easy to hunch over it for warmth, or to place food or water over it for cooking. The second hole is to allow oxygen to get to the fire, thus preventing it from being easily smothered. It is scalable depending solely on the size of the pits you dig. 

Survival - FIRECRAFT - Chapter 7 - Page 2 In some situations, you may find that an underground fireplace will best meet your needs. It conceals the fire and serves well for cooking food. To make an underground fireplace or Dakota fire hole... See also: FIRE

Smoke Control A Dakota Fire Hole is laborious to build but burns hot with little fuel and produces less smoke than open fires. It is also easier to camouflage when done. The flame is out of sight too for night use.

Star Fire



Altar Fire

 

Teepee



Making a Tepee Fire: In a survival situation, four things are necessary: shelter, water, fire and food - in that order. The most efficient fire in such a situation is a tepee fire. Such fires are named after their shape, which is in the form of a cone. 

Firebed

The Firebed "I Burned My Buns": An article from the Backwoodsman Magazine by Ron Hood on how to build a firebed and stay cozy through the long cold night. Excellent info.

DIY Firestarters 

Paraffin firestarters will burn long and hot enough to ignite even wet wood. So if you have to start a fire in the rain, they are perfect. If you make the style in this short guide, they will also be waterproof and are shelf stable.

Fire Starters Thanks very much to Theresa Rose, who shared all these ideas with the Guiding Mailing List...

Make a sure fire starter - Fire starters and campfires.

Fire Starters: Here is our summary of various types of home-made Fire Starters.

How to Make Fire Starters - eHow.com Though the foundation of a fire ' and the wood used ' is very important, so is your choice of fire starter. And instead of buying the waxy blocks sold in stores, you can make your own. A fire starter assures that you can get a fire going quickly in any type of conditions.

Improvised Lamps 

Making a Primitive Lamp from Sandstone by Tony Nester Sandstone is soft when moistened, and can be shaped into a nice lamp through pecking in about two hours depending on how large you want it to be...

Conquering the Darkness by Benjamin Pressley. How did ancient people light up the night or how did they conquer the rule of darkness in the cavernous depths of the earth? It is evident that indeed they did, for on cave walls all around the world they have left a legacy of artwork still spectacular even to this day to even the most hard-core of art critics. Magnificent frescoes depict a world gone by, yet never have seen the light of day.

In Difficult Conditions 

Firemaking As Rain Starts. First of all in damp situations, you need a natural tinder that will catch a spark and produce a flame. That was simple - I used cedar bark off living trees. I used more than one tree getting the driest bark. What isn't seen here is what it looks like when properly shredded.

Tips on Emergency Fire Starting. This is a true test of ones ability to improvise "survival" shelters and we have experimented with quite a few styles, some much less successful than others ...

Survival Info: Fire
Firemaking is an essential skill for anyone who ventures into the outdoors. Find more information here: firemaking in winter

Miscellaneous

Fire Part 1: Introduction; By: Peter McMahon - See Les' firemaking odyssey unfold After getting a roof over your head, building and maintaining a fire is the most important thing you can do to survive unaided in the bush. Even if it's a balmy summer night as the sun sets on your impromptu campsite, there are still many reasons to have a fire going - heat to cook over, light to see by, a comforting glow to huddle around, smoke to keep bugs away and insurance against unanticipated cold snaps. 

Wilderness advice: Making a fire  - Tips and techniques for making camp fires. See also: Fire Making QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Here is a list of fire-starting products and tips that I have learned. Some of these ideas are mine, but some I probably got from miscellaneous works of "survival" literature over the years.

Fire Starting Techniques by Tom Russo and Mike Dugger. Cibola SAR requires every member to carry some sort of fire making materials in his or her pack, and we don't specify what type. Sure, most of us carry some matches, maybe some kind of tinder, and probably one of those magnesium blocks with a flint-and-steel. But when was the last time you tried using your fire starting tools other than matches?

Minds and fires - Something to think about the best mind and little fires.

Fire Lighting Skills. Some pretty good tips – especially on fire safety and building techniques. Couldn’t get the illustrations to load, but that should be remedied soon.

Fire at Will! Just about the best firestarting page on the net – but it won’t fit my viewer, which kind of takes the "spark" (groan) out of it – you know? A Note of Caution From an Observant Viewer: " Dear Sir.  I was reading through your "Fire Starting" section and I noticed, in the section "Fire at Will," (in one of the graphics) it instructs the reader to build a pit fire next to a tree to deflect the smoke.  I read once that you should never build any kind of fire underground near a tree - because there is always risks of igniting an underground fire (in the roots of the tree) which can spread on to others, causing a forest fire. 

Some hot tips for building a campfire.

Campfires 101: Where there’s camping, there’s fire. It’s inevitable. Unfortunately, just about everyone feels qualified to build a fire, regardless of how much experience or fire safety education they’ve received. There are definitely right and wrong ways to build, maintain and extinguish campfires. While this article can’t cover every detail or contingency, it can certainly help people think twice about casually starting a fire—and about keeping a close eye towards safety and enjoyment.

Gadgets

Thermite Fire Starter - Manufacturer: BAR Industries - SKU: BARIND-TFS, Price around $9 Actual size is 2 inches tall by 1 1/2 wide:  These small wonders will light a fire in three feet of snow or pouring rain. Each container is the shape of a Kodak film canister with a snap-on lid. They contain just 3 ounces of cast Thermite and to ignite them you simply lay out some firewood, place one of these on top of the wood, pull out the Visco fuse inside and then add a little more wood on top of it, and ignite the fuse. Voila! Stand back and it will burn at 4500 degrees for 30 seconds producing 2 ounces of white hot molten iron that remains red hot for several minutes after it is lit. This melted iron will enable you to get even wet wood burning. See the 3oz TFS in action!

Woodsmaster Videos Produced and hosted by Ron Hood

Swedish Fire Steel There are a lot of these "strikers" on the market, they come in various forms and wildly differing quality standards. For survival we NEED quality and we need our equipment to be simple yet utterly reliable... the Swedish Fire Steel is one such item! We've used it during dry weather fire starting and in wet weather. When you stroke the attached steel striker down the main shaft, it showers a LOT of VERY hot sparks!...

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