FIRE-MAKING HINTS
For Easy Firemaking Make Use of These Tricks


Learn to make your fire building as simple as possible. Here are tricks used by seasoned campuers to make their job easy:
  • Bring two sets of matches to camp: your usual supply and a reserve supply to be used in case of emergency only
  • Waterproof reserve matches with two coats of ordinary nail polish and keep them in waterproof container
  • Candle stemps are good fire starters for rainy days. So are one-inch quares of wall-board soaked in paraffin, wax paper, or a "Heatab"
  • Get into the true woodman's habit of putting our your match: Blow it out, break it in two between your finders, put it in your pocket. It it isn't out, you'll know it.
  • Pick dead down-wood that is off the ground. Even better is "squaw wood" -- dead branches still on the tree. "If you can't snap it, SCRAP IT" [NOTE: Many parks or forests no longer allow the practice of collecting downed wood.-- Follow their rules.]
  • Split wood burns easier than round sticks
  • Collect all wood you need for cooking the complete meal before starting fire. [see note above]
  • Put a supply of dry wood in your tent at night in case of rain or heavy dew.
  • It's against the law to leave a campfire unattended, even for a short time.
  • Before you put pots over the fire, smear the outside of them with a paste made from soap powder or soap flakes with a little water -- makes cleaning easire afterwards
  • Keep your camp kitchen clean "Make no mess and you have no mess"
  • When you've finished your fire, put it out COMPLETELY: "Always drown, before you go every spark with H2O!

    • FIRE-MAKING MATERIALS

    1. FIRE STARTERS

  • MATCHES - Kitchen size are best. Waterproof with paraffin, nail polish, or shellac cut 50-50 with alcohol.
  • FLINT AND STEEL - Any quartz containing stone is good. For Steel use back of knife blade or file with burr ground off.
  • FIRE BY FRICTION - Cottonwood, Cedar, Elm or Basswood for board and spindle
  • BURNING GLASS - Magnifying glass or lens or binoculars or camera


    2. TINDER

  • GRASS - fire, dry-up off the ground
  • WEEDTOPS - goldenrod, aster, etc.
  • DRY LEAVES - still on the tree
  • BARK - Cedar or Birch or Palmetto - picked from dead standing trees with your fingernails
  • BIRDS' NESTS - from last season
  • "FAT" PINE - full of pitch
  • FINE SHAVINGS of dry wood
  • PAPER
  • CANDLE PARAFFIN and paper or string
  • COMMERCIAL STARTERS - Sterno, Meta Tablets, Fire Flares, etc.


    3. KINDLING

  • TWIGS - dead, dry "squaw wood" from standing trees
  • WEED STEMS - medium and heavy stems
  • SPIT WOOD - always good as long as it is dry, split fine enough, more than you think you need
  • "SQUAW WOOD" - The fine twigs and branches that a squaw can get from a standing tree without using any tool other than her hands.


    4. FUEL

  • WOOD - any size, better split it if your log is more than 3 inches in diameter.
  • CHARCOAL - in "natural" sticks or pressed birquets
  • COAL - soft or hard
    PETROLEUM PRODUCTS are used only if you're very desperate or very dumb. Gasoline - NEVER!!!!



  • Birch bark is one of the best fire starters. Peal a small strip off an old, DEAD tree trunk.
  • the fuzz-stick fire starter is made by whittleing a dead stick, leaving all of the slivers attached.
  • "Squaw wood" is the camper's term for dead branches still on the tree. They should snap easily.
  • Collect wood for all your meals in advance, and stack it in a neat pile, according to use and size.


    HOW TO BUILD A FIRE


    There are four simple steps in building a good fire. Here they are. . .

    Clear a space 10 feet in diameter around fireplace, free of burnable material

    1. CLEAR a fire site. . . in a SAFE place away from trees, brush, overhanding branches

    2. GATHER all your materials, et plenty of tinder, kindling, fuel -- and lay 'em within easy reaching distance of your fireplace.

    3. LIGHT your fire from windward side. "Multiply your Match" by lighting a handfull of tinder. Use this "torch" to ignite fire.

    4. FEED your fire from the lee side. . . kindling first, larger fuel next . . . that's why you want your materials handy!


    TOOLS needed for your fire. . .
    For a small fire. . .
  • your hands
  • two matches

    For a medium fire. . .
  • your knife

    For a big fire. . .
  • your axe

    FOR ALL FIRES. . .
  • a bucket of water or some other water source to put it out


    THERE'S A RIGHT FIRE FOR EVERY PURPOSE!


    COOKING

    HIKE FIRE . . .use almost any kind of wood...keep it small.

    HUNTER'S FIRE. . .use logs for sides...line up with wind.

    ROCK FIRE. . . one of the gest types of fires - especially for semi-fixed camp [rock ring]

    TRENCH FIRE. . .fine for windy places or areas of fire danger...drawback...floods easily.


    WARMTH

    SCOUT FIRE. . .simple, quickly built and efficient, arrange as TEPEE, add fuel in criss-cross fashion.

    ROCK REFLECTOR - an excellent heating fire. Rock continues to radiate heat after fire dies down. ["U" shaped rock ring]

    LOG REFLECTOR - makes a good windbreak. Chink logs with mud so they will not burn to fast. [create a log wall and build small fire infront of it]


    FELLOWSHIP

    BACK-LOG FIRE . . .a good council fire for a small group. Also fine for cooking and heating. Use Big, Seasoned Log for Back-Log. Build small fire along the length of the side of the log.

    COUNCIL FIRE. . .the best type of fellowship fire. Build it solidly..not a hollow log cabin. [criss-crossed layers of up to 3" diameter logs]. Place tinder and kindling high. light this fire near top.


    When you're finished with any fire, drown it!

    Reprinted from Boys' Life

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