Extopian

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of those military trioxane bars that can be found in just about every military surplus catalog on the planet. I generally tuck a couple away in my backpack even when I don’t intend to start a campfire, just in case, but they are hardly enviromentally friendly and probably best reserved for special needs. Luckily, there is a very easy and low-impact alternative you can make in your own home with materials found, scrounged or bought cheaply, without resorting to exotic or dangerous chemicals.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

No matter what particular sport we call our own, we practice it to become the best we can be. However, when it comes to a skill that can possibly save our lives, we rarely practice it, because as we all know, a survival situation always happens to somebody else. It will never happen to me, even if I am kayaking a remote coastline, backpacking a distant wilderness, scaling a lonely crag, or driving home in a snowstorm. The ability to start a fire in the wilderness is one of the most basic survival skills, and probably the least practiced.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Fireplaces and wood stoves are more efficient with each new decade. Heatilators, inserts, blowers, and a host of heating bells and whistles have rekindled the desirability of wood heat. Today, the key for enjoyment of that wood heat is in discovering many hot firewood resources that balance best with the checkbook.

Department of Energy figures reveal that the average cost of delivered cordwood nearly doubled in the last 10 years. By contrast, in that same period, the cost of utilities in most of the nation stabilized. The stark difference in cost between firewood and utilities combined to create the greatest decline of wood heating in history.

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Popularity: 22% [?]

There are several reasons to consider owning a wood cookstove. In an emergency, they can provide a source of heat and a way to cook. You are not dependent on outside utilities, just your own ability to obtain wood or coal. Even more rewarding is the feeling you can get from them. I can look at my stove and wonder who has cooked on it, whose child bathed in front of it, and who used it to warm up chilly hands and faces on a cold day. I can also think of the memories we have made around it—the Thanksgiving turkeys and fragrant cakes and pies that have come out of it. I appreciate it for making me more self-reliant, but I love it for letting us share in its history and continue the warmth of its traditions.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

When you are first learning bow-drill fire-making, you must make conditions and your bow drill set such that the chance of getting a coal is the greatest. If you do not know the feeling of a coal beginning to be born then you will never be able to master the more difficult scenarios. For this it is best to choose the “easiest woods” and practice using the set in a sheltered location such as a garage or basement, etc. Remember to unplug your smoke alarms!

Wood Selection

Even if you have never gotten a coal before, it is best to get the wood from the forest yourself. Getting it from a lumber yard is easy but you learn very little. Also, getting wood from natural sources ensures you do not accidentally get pressure-treated wood which, when caused to smolder, is highly toxic.

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Popularity: 20% [?]

Firesteel is a piece of high-carbon steel used for striking a spark, usually kept in a tinderbox together with flint and tinder. From the Iron Age onwards, the use of flint and steel was the most common method of fire lighting prior to the invention of the friction match.

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More recently the term ‘firesteel’ has become synonymous with so called ‘artificial flints’ which are metal rods of varying size composed of ferrocerium, an alloy of iron and mischmetal (itself an alloy primarily of cerium that will generate sparks when struck). Iron is added to improve the strength of the rods. Small shavings are torn off the rod with either a supplied metal scraper, a piece of hacksaw blade, or, commonly, the back of a knife ground at a suitable angle. These shavings then ignite at high temperatures, and they are much more effective than their historical equivalent.

Popularity: 18% [?]