Welcome to the AppalachianTrailCafe.net!
Take a moment and register and then join the conversation

Making Fire

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Do you have white birch trees where you are? If so peel the bark off of deadfall logs, it's one of nature's greatest firestarters.

      If not, take a cardboard egg carton at home, fill it with sawdust, then fill that with melted wax. Break into 12 sections. Each section should be all the tinder you need to get a fire going.
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • Also, hand sanitizer is part water and part alcohol which burns at a very low temperature. I would be surprised if I could reliably get a fire goi with that. In an emergency I would use my neosporin or chapstick wrapped in my gauze pads or TP. A bag of fritos will actually burn for a while in a pinch, though it's not the best or hottest option. I will also admit that I have in the past dumped several ounces of oil based bug spray on wet kindling to get it to light. It worked like a charm. I think it was either Avon Skin-so-soft or off skintastic spray.
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • birch bark is great, so is pine resin.spruce and fir boughs will burn hot even wet, even green, although you should never take branches from a live tree.
      you need three types of fuel, tinder ,small twigs and larger branches all ready to go.i usually use a loose wad of tp as tinder. dry leaves will work if you have enough small twigs. make a cone from the twigs and after they ignite start adding larger fuel . if the fire starts to die before it takes firm hold, fan it with a map or guidebook.add more twigs.maybe a coupla fritos.
      its all good

    • Black moss for tinder, Really, really small twigs, toothpick size or less. Have the little sticks ready to throw on your tinder when it is burning. The tiny twigs will catch easily, but have plenty of them. As they catch and really burn, carefully add slightly smaller twigs and as they catch add a little bit bigger sticks and when you have some finger size twigs burning pretty good start adding your bigger wood that you have already to put on. Don't smother the fire with fire wood. It only takes less than 5 minutes to start a good fire.

    • Dried palm fronds work great. You can take the leaf part and almost crumple them into dust. Tear them into small pieces on top of that. Use whole ones on top of that. Break the main stalk into little bits, then bigger pieces, then whole pieces, then add what ever you got after that. Pine, oak, whatever. Palm fronds light up better than paper. :)
      Changes Daily→ ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫ ♪♫♪♫♪♫ ← Don't blame me. It's That Lonesome Guitar.

    • It goes agains most pak rules but, "High wood is dry wood", Those dead dry limbs on pines also called squaw wood are for getting a fire going & keeping it hot.

      Let me back up a bit

      To have a decent fire you need three thing

      Tinder: Something you can put a match or lighter flame to & it will light. Paper serves this purpose great. Good time to used past pages of your trail guide or paperback you have. In nature you can just grab a dry branch & slice some shavings off.

      Kindling: Small twigs. From toothpick size to pencil. this is what you neeed to build you fire. Look for dead dried wood. Lowerer branches of most everegreens are great because you can tell if it's dead. If you get a nice sharp snap when you break the branch it's dead.

      Fuel: this is wht you use to keep your fire burning. Larger in size. as a rule softwood(evergreens) burn hot & fast & hardwoods (deciduous) burn slower & longer.

      To start a fire gather your dry tinder in a bunch. Stack some kindling around it & light it. Gradually add bigger kindling. In bad weather firestarters can be mad from vasaline coated cooton balls stuffed in a straw. bend the ends over & heat them with a lighter briefly to seal & keep mess out of you pack. About as light as any alternative I I found. I have taken turns leaning over a would be fire trying to get it going blocking rain. It's rewarding in inclimate weather.

      I almost alway cary a light weight fixed blade knife. When it's wet I can split wood with it with the aid of another spiece of wood as a baton. Many may say it's needlees weight, but I also slice cheese with it so it's multi funtion. On my thru I carried a huge bowie style blade & was happy I had it in the Smokies where it was part axe for the wood left around. Not what I would take for every hike, but it helped there.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Mountain-Mike: Spelling ().

    • milkman wrote:

      Dried palm fronds work great. You can tale the leaf part and almost crumple them into dust. Tear them into small pieces on top of that. Use whole ones on top of that. Break the main stalk into little bits, then bigger pieces, then whole pieces, then add what ever you got after that. Pine, oak, whatever. Palm fronds light up better than paper. :)
      Good to know. As a side note , if you see palm treees on the AT your navigation skills need more work! :) :D

    • TrafficJam wrote:

      I stink at fire making. I can do it if conditions are perfect, i.e. dry and no wind. Otherwise, I can't do it.

      Any tips or tricks? I've tried hand sanitizer and shredded TP.
      Carry a pill bottle stuffed full of cotton balls covered in vaseline to get your initial fire started. add twigs that you've broken into palm sized pieces to that then add larger sticks as you build coals and flames. Don't be afraid to add small, broken (key is broken, surface area aids in flame) twigs on top of the larger sticks as this will draw flame around and over the sticks.

      If you see a scar on a pine that looks like this....

      [IMG:http://www.walterreeves.com/uploads/JPGs/pinepitchcanker2.JPG]

      grab a handfull of it. Get your twigs burning with your cotton balls, add larger sticks and then plop this down of top. Once the resin starts flowing and burning you can add whatever you want to your fire, it ain't going out.

      You see something laying on the ground that looks like this....

      [IMG:http://www.survivalcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MVI_1957-001.jpg]

      Grab it, it'll burn for an hour or more. ESPECIALLY helpful if your available wood is wet...... It's a pine knot, add it to the sticks that follow your twigs. It will sit there and not burn for a bit, don't fret. What's happening is the knot is heating up and when it gets hot enough to liquefy the resin inside the resin will flow out and begin burning. Now you're set.

      You don't need a big fire so try and build it against a large rock as this aids in the draft effect. Likewise, if you're at a site with a fire ring, be it rocks or metal, build your fire against the edge, not in the middle.

      If the ground is wet start your fire on a flat rock if you can find one. If you can't then lay a bed of larger sticks on the wet ground and build your fire on them.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • Mountain-Mike wrote:

      milkman wrote:

      Dried palm fronds work great. You can tale the leaf part and almost crumple them into dust. Tear them into small pieces on top of that. Use whole ones on top of that. Break the main stalk into little bits, then bigger pieces, then whole pieces, then add what ever you got after that. Pine, oak, whatever. Palm fronds light up better than paper. :)
      Good to know. As a side note , if you see palm treees on the AT your navigation skills need more work! :) :D
      MM, you beat me too it, I was about to say there are lot of them where I grew up in South FL, and probably all along the Florida Trail, but I doubt you find very many in TJ's neck of the woods.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • it doesnt have to be stacked like a tipi, but you do need to have air distribution from the bottom. i'll usually prop a small branch from the ground against one of the stones of the firepit(for me, no firepit, no fire, unless its an emergency)place the tinder beneath it, then lay your kindling in a neat little row against the branch.light tinder, add fuel as the fire grows.
      its all good

    • Anything will burn if you have enough air surrounding it, try lighting a piece of steel wool and you'll see. Start with small stuff and supply as much air as possible, the wind blowing is in your favor. A pile of pine needles works great for starters, then put the smallest pieces of twigs on that you can find, gradually add bigger and bigger pieces. I use my foam seat pad to fan the flames...more air = more heat. If you have not already, read the short story by Jack London, "To Build a Fire", London is kind of grim in a lot of his writing, but realistic.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Great ideas y'all. I should have asked this question a long time ago.

      Does the kindling have to be stacked like a tee pee? I try to do that but it always ends up falling down and I get frustrated.
      I remember the teepee from the Scout handbook with x-hats full of three different types of wood. But the specifics elude me know. Maybe some Eagle Scout around here remembers.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • If you're having trouble getting started in the wind, you probably don't have good tinder. TP and hand sanitizer is not actually that great. I often find that perfectly usable TP is still carrying a bit of damp and won't flame; it'll just carry little sparks and char. A good wind actually makes for a fast fire start once you have a little flame going, but you have to be ready to feed the small stuff fast.

      I carry a tinderbox (Altoids tin with firesteel and striker, cotton balls and Vaseline) so I have good tinder always with me. I usually also have a piece of amadou mushroom in there, so I have a good bed to catch a spark or even carry a coal. Amadou mushroom will smoulder for a very long time, and with a bit of tinder can get blown into a flame.

      In wet weather, look on the underside of a big blowdown for branches that are off the ground. At least around here, there's lots and lots of blowdown because all the stuff from Hurricanes Irene, Lee and Sandy hasn't all degraded yet. If you have any eye for the wildlife, look for a hole in a bank, and raid a mouse's nest for dry tinder if you must.

      The suggestions of birchbark and pine resin are good. And the technique of getting the tiny stuff burning and then going up in size gradually is good. Don't bother with anything you can't break over a knee, unless you want to be up all night tending a fire.

      If you're at a shelter or permanent campsite, it's good manners to gather more wood than you need, and leave it under cover for the next camper. There have been a few times I've used someone else's stash gratefully and replenished it in the morning.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • TrafficJam wrote:

      CoachLou wrote:

      I do not build a fire when backpacking. But, build a small twig fire, shedded bark, seed pod fur, think small. Gather all your size stuff before you strike a match, or flic your bic. Build a windscreen before you start. Use coleman fuel or a drop or 2 of your alcy stuff.
      ideas?
      Large blow down, loose flat rocks, your pack. Broad base of a big tree. Hillside. You still don't need a large fire to start
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:

    • Astro wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      Great ideas y'all. I should have asked this question a long time ago.

      Does the kindling have to be stacked like a tee pee? I try to do that but it always ends up falling down and I get frustrated.
      I remember the teepee from the Scout handbook with x-hats full of three different types of wood. But the specifics elude me know. Maybe some Eagle Scout around here remembers.
      after you get the twig fire and tinder going, as you add larger pieces, the teepee lay allows the fire to breath and catch better.
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:

    • Having all your stuff ready to go is key, varying sizes, no scrambling around for it. The fire triangle is pretty straight forward, Fuel, ignition, oxygen...more times than not it's the fuel that is damp, the other two are no brainers.

      you must become one with the fire.

    • When I worked at a BSA camp for the summer I built several top burn campfires a week. We needed two low maintenace fires to last about 1 1/2 hours. I did get to cheat and use kerosene to start them. & the lighting ceremony at most were lit by the torches each consiting of 1/2 rolls of TP on poles that came from the lakes in canoes.My basic fire was large logs in a log cabin paramid with kindling stuffed in the middle & a tepee on top. I left the bottom open to stuff torches under & help light since we used kerosene for a fast bright light.

    • It has now been scientifically proven that you are all doing it wrong.

      The link in graphic is wrong. Try these:

      pratt.duke.edu/news/fire
      mems.duke.edu/faculty/adrian-bejan


      Here is the published journal article.
      nature.com/srep/2015/150608/srep11270/full/srep11270.html

      Or you can save time and just use this equation:

      Together, the two extremes covered by the preceding analysis are represented by the two asymptotes sketched in Fig. 1. The actual curve that relates T to the aspect ratio H/D is a bell-shaped curve that fits under the intersection of the two asymptotes. Most useful is the design that offers the hottest fire. This design is easy to identify by finding the H/D location of the intersection of the two asymptotes, Eqs. (5) and (7) which is

      [IMG:http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150608/srep11270/images/srep11270-m17.gif]

      [IMG:http://www.sciencealert.com/images/92948_web.jpg]

    • odd man out wrote:

      It has now been scientifically proven that you are all doing it wrong.

      The link in graphic is wrong. Try these:

      pratt.duke.edu/news/fire
      mems.duke.edu/faculty/adrian-bejan


      Here is the published journal article.
      nature.com/srep/2015/150608/srep11270/full/srep11270.html

      Or you can save time and just use this equation:

      Together, the two extremes covered by the preceding analysis are represented by the two asymptotes sketched in Fig. 1. The actual curve that relates T to the aspect ratio H/D is a bell-shaped curve that fits under the intersection of the two asymptotes. Most useful is the design that offers the hottest fire. This design is easy to identify by finding the H/D location of the intersection of the two asymptotes, Eqs. (5) and (7) which is

      [IMG:http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150608/srep11270/images/srep11270-m17.gif]

      [IMG:http://www.sciencealert.com/images/92948_web.jpg]
      WTF... KillMe
      1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish...

    • Ok, rather than solving the fire equation above, I tried something different last night when camping up north. The day had been rather breezy and when we got back to our camp, the site was littered with pine cones (White Pine). Each bract was covered with a thick layer of sticky white sap. I collected a pile about the size of a volleyball and covered them with sticks and firewood. I touched it once with one match and in 30 seconds I had this roaring inferno.
      Images

      • IMG_6068.JPG

        150.94 kB, 399×600, viewed 288 times

    • I carry the cardboard egg crate with dryer lint covered in paraffin wax. It's very light and burns for atleast 15 minutes with a 12" or higher flame. No need for tinder. And I usually only use kindling when the wood is wet from rain all day. If the wood is dry, just start putting one inch or bigger pieces over the flame.