I am sure there are many different ways we have all built a fire, but this was specifically asked for and this is how I build my camp fires...courtesy of Girl Scouts and family camping trips. Anyone else who has ideas, chime in please. Help our followers out. ~Cat How to build a fire: 1. Select your site with these in mind: sheltered from wind, no dry flammable vegetation, and ample supply of fire wood. 2. Prepare the ground by clearing all debris. Your fire should be built on solid ground, or shale rock. You can build a fire circle with large rocks that will not be too close to the fire…about 12-18 inches from the outer edge of your fire. A fire ring is not necessary if there is no rocks available. 3. Next gather as much useable firewood as you can find in various sizes. The goal is to start small and build your fire up as it progresses. You should have a bunch of twigs, branches that are 1” in diameter and work your way up to small log segments about 6-8” in diameter. The log segments should be no longer than 2-3 feet. 4. You can make your fire a pyramid or a cross stack. I personally like to start a cross stack and it may evolve to a pyramid. 5. Kindling is very important as it is the first part of your fire wood pile to be lit. It should be dry so that it takes only a spark to ignite. Various materials can be used as kindling such as dry grass, paper, leaves, straw, bark and resin (resin found in pine and spruce trees). 6. Using a lighter or match, ignite your kindling. If you have a flint striker, it may take a few strikes to get a spark to ignite the kindling, that is why dryer the better. If you have it available, cotton balls coated with Vaseline are great fire starters. If you don’t have that, a magnifying glass on a sunny day works well. {See below how to water proof matches} 7. Tinder is added to your fire after your kindling has caught fire. Kindling is fuel to expand your fire (the small twigs you collected). You will need a lot of tinder to maintain your fire in the early process. You can made tinder by shaving a branch (like whitling). Also the small dead branches on the underside of trees make good tinder. 8. As you tinder has ignited well you can add the larger branches and as your fire grows adding larger pieces of fuel (wood) until you have a log segment established burning. Once your first log segment is burning you can add more logs in a pyramid shape. The dryer your wood is, the better. Dead trees are a good source of fuel for fire.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 02:41:51 +0000