Fire is essential to Bushcraft. It cooks your meals, it warms you, it make's your water safe to drink and it can also be a signal beacon in a survival situation although we won't go into that here.

There a variety of ways of making fire and we hope to go through as many as possible. More and more techniques will be described as time passes by but we will start with some of the most simple ways first.

Lighting a fire for the first time takes perserverance. Do not take shortcuts or skip stages, you will only end up even more frustrated when it doesn't work. Be patient and do not give up; ensure you are doing everything correctly and I guarentee you will be successful. Below are some basic fire lighting methods.

On wet soil or snowbuild a platform to light the fire on. A layer of thick sticks should suffice in most cases. Also note that you should avoid using porous or wet rocks, heating these could cause them to explode. You should also avoid slate and soft rocks.

Firesteel:

One of my favourite methods of firelighting is with a Firesteel. A Firesteel is one of the most versatile pieces of fire starting equipment you can have in Bushcraft. It strikes when wet, their virtually indestructible and the Army model lasts for around 1200 strikes.
The sparks it makes when you strike it can make a variety of tinder's catch alight.

To create fire with a Firesteel first you must collect a handful of tinder such as birch bark or very thin wood offcuts. Then you must have ready some kindling in bundles from matchstick size, pencil thick size, thumb thick size, then wrist size which will be the biggest you need for a small brew fire. Depending on the size of your fire you can go from anything up to thigh thickness.

Once you have all the materials you need at hand take a sharp knife and begin to scrape onto the back of a piece of birch bark or red cedar so that fine scrapings will gather. Birch is good because it is rich in oils which aid in combustibility and will burn strong. Once you reach the size of about a golf ball take your firesteel and point it towards the pile then draw it back across the spine of your knife so that it emits a shower of sparks. It should catch alight immediately but if not carry on until it does.

The reason why you should draw it back across your knife rather than pushing the knife down the steel is to prevent you going to far and launching the dust pile all over the place. When you have flame hold the tinder collected earlier above it so that it can catch light then place it on top. Don’t put it on top too soon or you will smother the flame and it will go out. Now, when you see smoke coming through the top place the first kindling bundle on top and hold until smoke rises through then you can release it. Don’t let the fire burn out before adding the larger kindling. Once you have a strong fire going use woods such as Ash & Oak to cook/brew over, these give plenty of heat and burn slowly.

When you have finished with you fire it is important to clear it away properly and to leave the site as you found it. Separate to the edge of the hearth any embers which are still burning. Using a shovel or stick probe down into the ground in a circle around the hearth so you create a sort of moat. Then fill this with water. Douse your embers and then scatter them by hand over a large area. By doing this you drastically reduce the chance of a forest fire to virtually 0%. Make sure your fire area is clear and then finally replace the humus layer and leaf litter so it looks as you found it.

Traditional Flint And Steel:

This method involves striking a piece of flint with a high carbon specially tempered piece of steel. The sparks it produces land on the fibrous tinder which can then be transferred to a bundle of plant down or other tinder and blown into flames. The best tinder for this method is char cloth which is a piece of 100% cotton that has been burned without Oxygen. For a tutorial on making Char cloth visit http://www.bushcraftliving.com/charcloth This takes a spark easily from the flint & steel method.

Feather Sticks:

When the weather is poor a good technique to use to get a fire going is making feather sticks. You can make these by shaving the dry inside of dead, standing wood. Start at the top and with a straight arm push your knife down creating curls. When you have 4 or 5 sticks arrange them so the curls are all close together and take a match or a tinder bundle to the curls.

Match Fire:

 

To begin with a match fire is much the same as any other method. You must collect your tinder and kindling and arrange in piles close to hand at the fire site. What I tend to do is place a large bunch of tinder (usually birch peelings) in the centre of my hearth and then cross two fistfuls of 30cm long matchstick thick twigs on top. Now simply strike a match and take it to your tinder which will in turn light your kindling. Make sure you have plenty of tinder or the kindling will not catch alight. To strike a match properly hold it between your thumb and index finger, place your middle finger on the head and at an angle of 20 degrees bring it across the striking surface. Remove your middle finger from the head and bring the match up into cupped hands to prevent it from being extinguished by the wind. Take it to your tinder and hold it below so the flames will rise and ignite the bundle.