Fire Building Lesson 3

Topic Progress:

The “Lean To” fire

The Lean To fire is half of a TeePee fire that built up against the edge of the fire pit. The edge of the fire pit can be made of stone or metal as being part of a metal fire ring found in most state and national parks.

You start building this fire by placing the tinder next to the edge of the fire pit. Next you form and Lean To with the kindling over the tinder using the edge of the fire pit to support the kindling.

The larger pieces of wood are then added using the edge of the fire pit for support. In the end you should have everything leaning on the edge of the fire pit in a triangular fashion where you can reach in and light the tinder with a match from one end.

Lighting a Fire Without Matches

The skill of lighting a fire without the usage of matches or a lighter is an essential part of being able to take care of yourself. There are many ways you can accomplish this. In early civilization rubbing two sticks together would cause heat to build up and eventually produce smoke and flames. This is a very long process but it can be done today.

Another method it to tie a string or rope to a stick with enough slack so that the sting can be wrapped around another stick with this second stick held vertically. The stick you wrap the sting around should have a pointed end. The pointed end of this stick should sit snuggly in a larger dry log. The step up is such that moving the stick with the string on it back and forth causes the other stick to spin. The spinning creates heat at the point when it is resting in the log. Placing tinder on the log and around the stick while the stick spins transfers the heat to the tinder and eventually this starts to burn. The spinning stick needs to be supported at both ends with wood as two surfaces rubbing together creates heat through friction.

Today we have products that produce sparks that when these sparks are captured on tinder it will cause the tinder to burn. These products are flint based products and come with the flint and the striker. These products like anything mentioned above need to be practiced with before you need to use them.

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