by Les Stroud
I’ve seen some adventurers make fires by concentrating the rays of the sun through the concave depression of a teaspoon, and others, by concentrating the sun’s rays through an ice cube. Ingenious methods, to be sure, though I wouldn’t want to stake my life on them. That’s why it’s important to be practiced at several ways of making fire (see “Survival Kits,” Chapter 2).
As with all survival tasks, there are primary and last-ditch tools for making fire. Primary methods are relatively simple, and will make your wilderness ordeal easier to survive. Last-ditch implements are well proven in the field, but they are difficult and finicky, subject to a host of variables that may not necessarily be in your control.
Here are the primary tools for making fire:
lighter
strike-anywhere matches
magnesium flint striker
fire piston
Here are some last-ditch tools for making fire:
friction: fire bow, fire plow, and hand drill
sparks: rock and steel, flint and steel, battery
chemicals
the sun’s rays
I used one of the craziest last-ditch methods ever to make a fire in the Kalahari Desert. I polished the bottom of a pop can with chocolate (which has waxy properties) and sand to reflect the sun’s rays onto the tinder I’d gathered.
Primary Fire-Starting Tools
Is it cool to know how to make fire using a hand drill or fire bow? Yes, and these are skills that dedicated outdoors people should know. But survival is not about proving that you’re some kind of earth-skills guru; it’s about dedicating your energies to getting home safely or getting rescued. That’s why, for making fire, nothing compares with a lighter, some solid strike-anywhere matches, a flint striker, or a fire piston. Even with those items, building a fire can be a challenge; without those, all bets are off.
Butane Lighter
Nothing compares with a good ’ol butane lighter for starting a fire. As simple as it may be to make a fire this way, however, there are still a few considerations.
First of all, make sure that whatever lighter you have is in good working order, and either waterproof or in a waterproof container. If you fall in the lake or river with a traditional lighter in your pocket, it won’t function when you come out. I prefer a fluorescent orange one. Ugly, I know, but a lot easier to find in a pile of dried leaves than that cool camouflage one from the outdoors store.
My favorite kinds are the butane lighters that act like little torches and can’t be extinguished by a gust of wind or a few drops of rain, as can traditional lighters with other types of fuel. These butane lighters shoot out a hot jet of blue flame that stands up to the toughest conditions. Note that over time, lighter fluid will evaporate, and all lighters have a finite life span: make sure yours has plenty of fuel and use it only when you absolutely have to. You never know how long you’re going to need it!
Matches
Matches have been starting fires successfully for a long time, so they should be at least one component of your fire-making strategy. My preference is the solid, strike-anywhere type found in any local hardware store; make sure you store them in a watertight container. Even though these matches do, essentially, strike anywhere, provide yourself with a backup by tearing the striker edge off the side of the box and including it in the container with your matches.
In outdoors stores you may come across boxes of matches that claim to be waterproof. Don’t buy these; they’re the biggest rip-off going! These matches are tiny and flimsy and come in a little cardboard box with a striker on the outside edge. If the box gets wet, the striker edge also gets wet, and now you’ve got nowhere to strike your dainty little waterproof matches.
Magnesium Flint Strikers
Wonderful devices, magnesium flint strikers can be struck anywhere, come with their own emergency fuel source (the magnesium shavings themselves), and—best of all—you can get them soaking wet and they still work like a charm.
But the real beauty of the magnesium flint striker is that it produces a powerful spray of sparks. If you don’t have any other tinder material available, you can scrape magnesium shavings off the flint stick itself and light these with a spark.
Fire Piston
A relatively new addition to my collection of fire-starting devices, the fire piston gives me the ability to start a fire quickly and easily. In a nutshell, the fire piston works because heat is generated when air is compressed.
The fire piston is made up of three components: an outer barrel, a plunger with a hollow tip, and a gasket. Insert a small piece of tinder (usually a dry, punky wood bit) into the hollow tip of the plunger, which fits into the barrel. Then thrust the plunger down one (or more) times and the tinder should ignite. The compression of the air inside creates the heat that ignites the tinder.
Fire pistons are not without their drawbacks: they are a little bigger and bulkier than other primary fire-starting methods, and their success relies heavily on a gasket, which can get worn out or lost. And although all fire-starting methods require the right selection of tinder, the fire piston seems dependent on it. You need the right type, and it has to be very dry. But if your other option is a last-ditch fire-starting method, opt for the fire piston.
Lighting a Fire with a Magnesium Flint Striker
1. Use a knife or similar hard object to shave a pile of magnesium off the striker. The pile should be about the size of a nickel, and 1/4 of an inch (0.5 cm) high.
2. Strike a spark into the filings for a fast, hot flame.
Last-Ditch Fire-Starting Tools
Once you’ve exhausted the primary tools of starting a fire, you now have to turn to what I call the last-ditch efforts. Other books and survival instructors call these primitive tools: they were used by our ancestors thousands of years ago. If you have no choice but to make a fire by one of these methods, rest assured that they do work, although you may pay for your flame in blood, sweat, and tears.
Charred Cloth
One of my favorite ways to make fire is to char cloth. Making charred cloth is a bit of a chicken-and-egg exercise, because you actually need fire first. But once you have created charred cloth, it will go a long way toward saving your matches or lighter fluid, as you need only a single spark to reignite it.
As the name indicates, you need cloth to make charred cloth. Linen is the traditional fabric of choice, but I use 100-percent cotton and it works well. Punky wood or bark can be used instead of cloth. Either way, your fabric must be natural; synthetics won’t work. Your piece should be a few inches square.
Take a can with a tight-fitting lid and punch a small hole in each end. Put the cloth inside the can and place the can in the coals of a fire. Make sure the cloth inside does not ignite, or you’ll be left with nothing in the can but a small pile of ashes. As the cloth begins to heat up, it emits gases that fill the interior of the can, driving out the air. These gases are vented through the holes, appearing as small jets of flame. This will be followed, eventually, by smoke.
When the smoke subsides, turn the can over to ensure even charring of the cloth (this momentarily increases the amount of smoke coming out of the holes in the can). When the smoke again dies down, the process is finished and the can should be removed from the fire. At this point, plug the holes with twigs to create a tight-fitting seal. If air gets into the can while it is still hot, your cloth will ignite and burn.
After the can has cooled (wait at least 10 minutes), open it and remove the charred cloth. If properly charred, it should be uniformly black.
Making a Charred Cloth
1. You will need a can, a punctured lid, and a fire.
2. Place the closed can on the fire. Once you see flame coming out of the can’s holes, you’re nearing the end of the process. Smoke will soon follow, signaling that you should remove the can from the coals.
3. Allow the can to cool, then open it up. It doesn’t look like much, but this charred cloth is ready to take a new spark…and re-ignite easi
ly the next time you want to start a fire.
The magic of charred cloth is that when a spark hits it, a tiny red ember on the cloth slowly grows larger. The ember is virtually impossible to blow out and will increase in intensity if oxygen is introduced. It’s relatively easy to start a fire with charred cloth, and it allows you to save your primary fire-starting tools for circumstances when you need them most.
While surviving beside a downed plane in northern Ontario, I made a small container from some thin metal I had found inside the plane. I then ripped canvas from the body of the plane, placed it in the metal container, and charred the cloth by putting the container in a fire. Later, when I needed to make a new fire, I struck a rock I had found in a creek bed against the back of my axe to throw a spark into the charred cloth. It gave me the ember I needed to build a new fire.
If you don’t have a metal container, you can also char cloth by partially burning small strips of cotton and quickly smothering them in dry sand or soil.
Flint and Steel
There are many ways of generating sparks. One way is to strike a flint rock (such as I found in the creek bed) or other hard, sharp-edged rock with a piece of high-carbon steel.
Friction
Of the last-ditch efforts, the most common are the three methods of making a friction fire, or “rubbing two sticks together.” These are the fire bow, the hand drill, and the fire plow. The hand drill and fire plow are advanced skills, so I do not cover them here. The fire bow is a method you can employ effectively, though not easily, if caught in a survival ordeal.
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STROUD’S TIP
What type of fire warms twice? The friction fire. It not only keeps you warm once you get it going, but also warms you while you’re trying to make it, even in the winter. But try to sweat as little as possible while building your fire. Anticipate the fact that you’ll be working hard for the next little while, and remove layers of clothing as necessary before you start sweating.
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Fire Bow
The fire bow is an effective last-ditch fire-starting method, but it depends very much on the availability of the necessary materials.
Components: The fire bow is made up of four components: the baseboard, the spindle, the bearing block, and the bow.
The baseboard is the part of your fire bow that eventually produces the smoldering mound of wood dust that will (hopefully) start your fire. You can use various types of wood depending on your geographic location, but in my home location in north-central Canada, I prefer semi-soft woods such as cedar, poplar, aspen, or basswood.
Choosing the proper wood for the baseboard is critical because the spindle, a long stick that rubs against the baseboard, will grind the baseboard away as you spin. Some instructors prefer a hardwood spindle because they feel it’s more effective at grinding the baseboard. Personally, I prefer semi-soft wood for both pieces, because then you’re grinding not only the baseboard but also the spindle, possibly producing double the wood dust for your effort. Choosing a wood for a friction fire mostly comes down to what works for you. To test if a wood is semi-soft, jam your thumbnail into the wood. If it makes an impression, it’s semi-soft or soft.
After practice, the most important aspect of making a proper friction fire is finding the right kind of wood. This is where a little local knowledge goes a long way. How else would you know that the dry saguaro cactus makes a great friction-fire fuel, or that if you’re in the boreal forest of northern Ontario you’re better off using poplar, cedar, aspen, or birch than pine, which is so full of resin that it polishes instead of burns?
Your spindle should be as straight as possible. The spindle will turn rapidly as you move your bow, creating friction on the baseboard. The size of the spindle is up to you, but I typically shoot for one 8 inches (20 cm) in length and as thick as my thumb. Make sure the wood you use is dead and dry.
Most people use branches because these are naturally the right size and shape. In fact, the molecules inside a tree branch are tighter together than those throughout the rest of the tree, making the wood a bit harder. By comparison, the heartwood of the tree—the wood right in the middle of the trunk—is softer. Therefore, you’re better off finding a downed tree, breaking off a piece, and carving it into a spindle. Basswood branches (dead and dry ones) are superb spindles.
The bearing block is the part of your fire bow that you use to apply weight and pressure to the top of your spindle. Many things can be used for this purpose, but I like a piece of rock with a small indentation knocked into it, where the spindle can sit.
You might also consider using a piece of bone; the knee-knuckle bones of a deer or other ungulate work well. Travelers often use a piece of wood as the bearing block, but if you do so, lubricate the point where the spindle contacts the bearing block so that it doesn’t grab. Beeswax, ear wax, pine pitch, or oil from your skin or hair can all serve as lubricants in a pinch.
My friend and fellow survival instructor Doug Getgood was once using a piece of wood as his bearing block and accidentally got the ember forming in the bearing block instead of the baseboard, likely because the bearing block was softer than the baseboard. Accepting the circumstances, he turned the whole set upside down and got his fire going that way.
The bow ties your entire fire bow drill together. It can be any kind of wood, as long as it’s strong and has a slight bend to it. Hopefully you’ve got some kind of parachute cord or other strong rope, shoelace, or string on hand. If you don’t, you may have to resort to making your own, which is an extremely slow and laborious process (see “Essential Survival Skills,” Chapter 14).
The Fire Bow
Fire Bow Components
Various baseboards, each of which successfully resulted in fire with the fire bow.
An alternative two-stick method for the baseboard (courtesy of Allan “Bow” Beau champ): instead of making a notch in the base, simply place the spindle in the groove of the two branches, and the dust will fall through.
A bearing block can be made from almost anything, as long as the material is heavy and allows you to bear down on the spindle.
Fire bows, with some handmade cord made from basswood bark.
They’re different shapes, sizes, and types of wood, but these spindles all worked.
The Process: As with any fire-making method, preparation is the key to success in making a fire bow. Once you have your four components ready, make sure your tinder bundle is as big as possible, at least the size of a five-pin bowling ball. Fibrous materials like scraped cedar bark tend to work best.
Then get comfortable and settle in for what may be a long process: it can take from minutes to hours. You don’t want to get halfway through—just to the point where you’re getting wisps of smoke—and realize you’re kneeling on a rock and can’t take the pain any longer. Also, ensure that nothing will inhibit the motion of the bow.
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STROUD’S TIP
There are two schools of thought on where to put your tinder pile with the fire bow. One says that you should have a small piece of leaf or bark under the baseboard to catch your ember, which you then transfer to your tinder pile. I feel this just adds an extra step to the process, as well as the risk that you’ll drop the ember, or that it will go out, or be blown by the wind.
I prefer to put my tinder directly under the notched-out hole in the baseboard, so that the ember falls right where it’s intended to go. Put the finest tinder in the center, just below the notch. Make sure that you pat down the tinder bundle enough that it doesn’t sneak up and get caught in the spindle during the spinning process.
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Rest the baseboard on the tinder bundle to flatten it out (make sure the ground isn’t damp!). Your body should be positioned such that if you drove a steel rod straight down through the top of your shoulder blade, it would go through the back of your hand, through the spindle, and right down to the baseboard.
Place one foot—the one opposite the bowing arm—on the
baseboard and start slowly with a fluid back-and-forth motion, applying gentle pressure to the bearing block. Don’t forget to breathe! Focus on your breathing and establish an even rhythm.
I find that placing a bare foot on the baseboard gives me a better feel and more control than a pair of boots. By wearing boots you also run the risk of accidentally kicking the baseboard when you decide it’s time to transfer your ember to your tinder pile. But comfort is important here, so wear what feels right.
Once you have achieved a slow, fluid motion (it’s all about the feel), and as you get comfortable with the process, gradually build up your speed, pushing down a little harder on the bearing block. Eventually, you will find that you’re spinning as fast and pushing as hard as you can, without the spindle binding or popping out on you.
At this point, three of your senses play a critical role: touch, hearing, and sight. You want to feel a grinding going on between the spindle and the baseboard. You should also be listening carefully to the sound you’re producing. You don’t want to hear chirping, squawking, or squeaking, which indicate that you’re polishing the wood, not grinding it. If that occurs, stop and roughen (or chip) the hole and the end of the spindle to increase the friction between them. If the noise continues, this may mean that you have chosen the wrong type of wood for one of your components.
