So you want to make fire, without using matches or magnifying glass or even a flint and steel? Here are a few tips to focus you on the most important aspects … get a drink and settle down to read this blog …
Ultimately, if you really want it bad enough, you will get it, you will master fire making … but don’t expect anyone else to do it for you … you have got to WANT to LEARN. You can read all the books and watch endless video clips … but in the end it comes down to how badly you want to do it. If you are in a real survival situation, freezing and dieing, it is a bit late to learn!
Think about your fire making to date – be it camp fires, bonfires, a stove, whatever. The basics are the same:
The Rate of Burn is controlled by you – regulating the amount of oxygen and the size of the fuel, and how much energy is available – how much is being diverted to evaporate off moisture (say from green logs), or radiating or convecting away before it does any use / work warming fuel. (Don’t waste precious heat with a fast burning flaming fire – it looks good but all that heat is warming the atmosphere – not your next fuel which will be cold and damp. Even ‘dry’ fuel contains water!)
Think of fires you have lit, or controlled. Think of the amount of air you let in, the fuel sizes and how you managed the fire. This is it – this is what you do – except, when making fire by friction you are doing it on a mini scale … with tiny fuel, a tiny amount of heat and some amount of water moisture. There is usually plenty of air about outdoors, maybe too much (wind) – so your job is to control this environment in which your tiny amount of heat and fuel is … look after it like it is a new life … protect it, feed it and help it grow.
OK – if you have got that – you are well on your way to making fire!
Practice safely – have water to hand, maybe an extinguisher and ensure the environment around cannot accidentally become fuel itself!!! Think of the wind direction and strength – think of the consequences and what might happen. Always be in control. Never leave a fire unattended until it is totally safe to do so – and if you don’t know that, do not start a fire!
Assess the risk – have you phone connection with the emergency services? Have you a safe exit? Who and what else is potentially in danger? Get it wrong, just once in your life, and you are an arsonist. Don’t!
Fire kills – never play with fire.
bowing technique with a guiding hand to keep spindle upright
bowing using the full length of the bow = good
Careful transfer of charred dust "ember" into centre of tinder
If you want to know more go to the Five Senses fire making courses
Now for some useful links and photos:
The best books on the subject from my library:
Mears, Ray - Outdoor Survival Handbook
Brown, Tom - Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Wilderness Survival
Kochanski, Mors - Bush craft: Outdoor Skills and wilderness survival
Akkermans, Anthonio - Bushcraft Skills and how to survive in the wild
Grylls, Bear - Born Survivor – Survival techniques from the most dangerous …
Montgomery, David - Mountainman Crafts and Skills
Wescott, David - Primitive Technology: A book of earth skills
That’s more than enough! Good luck – and don’t give up!
It was 8oC and it was hammering it down. Yet here I was, fully gortexed-up, barefoot on a beach on Orkney and heading for the sea. After a lifetime of stomping about the countryside in hiking boots, walking barefoot is a strange, but bizarrely enjoyable, experience. “Walking barefoot is a metaphor for how we should treat our environment,” explained our guide for the day, Malcolm Handoll from Five Senses, who had just persuaded us to throw off our socks and shoes and head down to the rocky, seaweed-covered beach in the rain. “It teaches you to tread carefully and engage with nature rather than trample all over it.” It also teaches you that that’s no stranger sensation than feeling bubbles of bladderwrack between your toes and, more conclusively, that when you’re at a latitude parallel with St Petersburg, the sea is painfully cold.
Back in the house, our numb feet began to thaw as we wrapped our hands around a mug of hot tea and watched as Malcolm demonstrated how the Neolithic people of Orkney made fire. After a quick lesson, which was interrupted when a hen harrier hovered inches from the window (wildlife always finds you when you’re least expecting it), it was our turn to create nature’s more basic yet elusive element.
First we constructed a tinder nest by tying a tight knot of dried grass, thumbing it out into a cup-shape and lining it with cotton grass. We then crouched over a long, flat piece of wood with an indentation and a notch, while Malcolm wound a wooden spindle into a primitive bow made from a branch and a rope. I clamped the wood with my newly-thawed foot, steadied the spindle with my left hand (using two limpet shells as a bearing) and held the bow with my right, while my friend Rachel grasped the other end of the bow. The idea was to push and pull the bow, thus spinning the spindle and creating enough friction to generate heat. It was trickier than it looked, but after a few wobbly attempts we saw smoke – lovely thick curls of smoke as the charred dust fell onto a piece of goat skin under the notch. After letting this smoke happily away to itself for a few minutes we gingerly tipped the embers into our tinder nests. Cupping our hands around our nests we then blew gently until the smoke grew thicker and a orange glow appeared. “This is it,” whispered Malcolm, “now take one deep breath and blow gently at first, then harder…” We did as we were told and within seconds were holding our very own flaming ball of fire in our hands. It was a truly a magical moment, exhilarating but a little bit scary. After much whooping we dropped the flaming nest and extinguished our handiwork in one quick step. Strangely satisfied, we were left babbling and smiley and smelling nicely of campfires.
Visit www.allfivesenses.com or wait for the August issue of the magazine to find read more…
Sat, 02/05/2009 – 23:42
Go to BBC Countryfile Blog for more of Joanna’s adventures in Orkney.
