Making a fire with flint and steel

[Frothgar]

here is the text of my flint and steel tutorial. i cant seem to get the pictures to upload. if i figure it out later ill update the thread. enjoy.

Making Fire with Flint and Steel
Ryan “Frothgar" Gerbehy

Fire is a wonderful thing. It keeps us warm, gives us light, cooks our food, and lifts our spirits. It is one of the first things that humankind was able to control and used to alter our surroundings. It is a powerful but dangerous tool. Respect and caution must be used when making or using fire.

It's impractical to carry all the things needed for a fire so you should gather from the woods what you need. But you must be careful not to over harvest or harm your surroundings in your quest for fire. And never (except in a real emergency) take wood from standing trees, living or dead.

1. Gather a kit

In my primitive kit I keep lengths of jute twine, char cloth, a piece of quartz, and my steel striker.
Tinder- Jute twine can be found in any Home Depot or hardware store. I got 200 feet of it for about 2 dollars. It frays well, is compact, and bursts into flame quite readily.
Char cloth- this is 100% cotton canvas that has been burned without oxygen. a simple cloth burner can be built from an Altoids tin. Just put a ¼ inch hole in the top and loosely lay in a bunch of small sections of canvas. (note: it has to be 100% cotton. Any bit of synthetic fibers and the cloth will burn up.) Canvas works best, but cotton t-shirts work as well. Put the tin on a bed of coals, smoke and possibly flame will jet out of the hole. When the smoke dies down remove the tin and plug the hole with a small bit of foil or a twig then wait for the tin to cool. When you open it the cloth should be jet black and semi rigid, it should not crumble at a touch. Store this in a safe dry place.
Flint- Flint can be bought in a store, found online, or found outside (gasp) if you know what you are looking for. True flint is shiny black on the inside and is very hard. There are many other rocks that will work though. In my kit I use a piece of quartz.
Striker- My striker was store bought, any high carbon mild steel chunk of metal should work. Blacksmiths can churn these things out in minutes. You can find kits that contain both flint and a striker online for around 20 dollars. I have had little luck striking sparks with the back of my knife, but I would recommend getting a dedicated striker.

I keep the lengths of jute and char cloth in a small leather bag to keep it dry. The char cloth goes into a little leather case to keep it all in one place.

2. Find a location
You must have a safe location for any fire. If you are camping at an established campsite there should already be a fire ring prepared for you. If it's a survival situation or you are in the backcountry do your best to minimize your impact but do what you must to survive. There must be no overhanging branches, no roots near the surface, no natural tinderboxes near by.

3. Gather wood
Fire wood falls into three categories, Tinder, Kindling, and Fuel.
-Tinder is the light fuzzy stuff that will light at the touch of a match or even a spark. Ideally you can gather all the things you'll need from your surrounding area and won't have to dip into stored tinder supplies (jute). Ripe cattails, pulverized bark, dry rotten “punky" wood from downed logs, and pine needles are all good tinder. Gather enough for three double handfuls.
-Kindling is small bits of wood, dry twigs and such that help to keep a flame. You should have kindling of various thicknesses, from thin bits not much thicker than a piece of string, to pencil and finder width pieces. Birch bark makes great kindling, it will burn fairly vigorously for a short while. Gather enough kindling to build your fire lay and then get twice that amount.
-Fuel wood is what you will be feeding your fire once it's going. It's the large branches and split logs that we are all familiar with. You'll do less harm to your surroundings and your fire will burn more completely if you use sticks wrist size or smaller.

If it is raining search under pine trees with low hanging branches for kindling and tinder. Also you can split open a fallen wet log and the inside should be dry. Also birch bark, burns even when damp.

4. The fire lay
This is largely a matter of personal preference, surroundings, needs, etc. I like a simple teepee setup. Just stand up some thin dry pieces of kindling around a pile of tinder in a rough teepee shape. This setup allows for good airflow and gives of plenty of light and heat. Be sure to allow a gap in the kindling to put the flame once you've got it.

5. Prep your birds nest

To turn your coal into a flame you'll need a birds nest. A birds nest is just what it sounds like, a bunch of tinder materials is molded into a basic bowl shape. I use one ~2ft length of jute twine to make mine, but you should use more if you are learning or if conditions are bad. As mentioned tinder for a birds nest does not need to be made from the stuff you brought along. Ideally you'll be able to scavenge in or near your camp for the necessary supplies. Further, a nest does not need to be only of one material, weave some birch bark, pine needle or cattail fluff in there if you have it.

The birds nest must be fairly closely packed but not so much that it keeps air from getting to the coal.

6. Get a coal

This is the tricky part. Hold the flint in your off hand and grip the striker in your dominant hand. Bring the striker against the flint in quick stroking motions. Practice a bit without cloth or tinder to try and get sparks. Hold the edge of the charcloth near the edge of the flint so it will be in a good position to catch sparks. Once a spark lands on your cloth it will quickly start to burn, it will not flame.

Once you're ready take your char cloth and hold it in place with a finger on top of the flint. (some people say its easier to try shooting sparks into the char cloth when its on the ground, but I have never gotten that to work.)



7. Turn the coal into a flame.

Quickly transfer the burning cloth into your bird's nest and fold it over the cloth. You'll see smoke almost as soon as you cover the char cloth. Hold it up a bit above eye level (the smoke will drift up and won't get in your eyes this way, also you might get a little help from a breeze.) and blow into the bundle. (If your nest was too thin under the charcloth it may burn its way through the nest before you get a full flame). A few seconds of blowing and you should get a flame, this part takes practice though so don't be discouraged if you don't get a flame the first few times. Soon you'll be able to gauge just how much to blow and where based on the smoke and heat coming from the bundle.

Once you've got the flame place the bundle into your prepared fire lay and gently blow at the base of your fire to coax it along. If this part fails its back to step 4, though you may be able fish out a still burning piece of tinder instead of using up more char cloth.



8. Feed the fire
Slowly add pieces of kindling and eventually fuel to the blaze. Don't add too much at one time or you'll starve the fire of oxygen and it won't burn.

9. Cleanup
Never leave a fire unattended or leave a fire burning or smoldering. Drown it with water, throw dirt on it, wait for it, do whatever you need to do make sure a fire is completely out before you move on. Test a fire by holding the palm of your hand over the coals. Don't let anyone tell you it's good enough. If the fire is out you should be able to put your hands directly on the coals and not burn yourself.

[Elegost]

Since I am just a beginner Ranger, This is very useful, thanks for posting

[Greg]

I second Elegost; well written. Don't know how I missed this before.

[Mirimaran]

I second Elegost; well written. Don't know how I missed this before.

Because Frothgar is quick and deadly, like any good barbarian A running man, with a sharp knife, may slit one hundred throats, in the night...

Good tutorial!

[Jon]

As i'm sort of new to primitive methods, this was really helpful. Thanks.

[kaelln]

Welcome Dirhael!

[Jon]

Thanks. Such a nice atmosphere on this website!

[Dinendir.]

Here's a warm welcome, Dirhael!

[Peter Remling]

Welcome Dirhael!



Edited - mixed two posts

[Elleth]

For what it's worth, I just saw a gentleman do this last summer with a little twist that gave me a great big d'oh!! Why didn't I think of that?

... he put the hole in his tin in the rim, under where the lid would cover were it in full-closed position. Thus, when he closed it up to make charcloth, he canted the lid a touch to expose the hole. When he wanted to close off the hole, or just make sure everything inside was nice an (mostly) watertight - he just closed it all the way.

Right clever, that man....

[Dailir]

Thats great, thanks! I just made some more charcloth so I could try it with flint and steel but couldn't for the life of me find a striker. So instead I used a lighter to get the char cloth going and tried it, which ended up probably among my most successful attempts without matches.

[Dailir]

How do you keep your charcloth dry? Currently I have it in a small glass bottle with a metal screw on lid; Not very rangerlike if you ask me.

[Mirimaran]

http://artofmanliness.com/2011/01/30/22 ... toids-tin/

[markp]

Thank you for posting this. It can be really useful for the beginners like me to know this in those nights.

Still feels great to try and check out primitive methods. Keeps the old methods in bound to recent applications.

I could not imagine how I could see past through this post!

[Le-Loup]

When you have mastered making fire using charred cloth, it is time to move up a stage in your skills learning & practice. May I respectfully suggest you view the following videos:
Regards, Keith.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f9CjH7plps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC_TE9OS_ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5WGTxDS1AE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dJDCWobUDQ