More Fire-Lighting Tips

With practice fire-lighting becomes second-nature; the problem lies when it has been raining or snowing, in which case everything is wet. In this case here are a few more tips -

Place 1 inch sticks on the wet ground and put the tinder on top of the sticks; this helps to insulate from the ground and the logs burn from underneath as well as on top. The dried pine-needles on the right light well and can be put on top of the tinder in a bundle. It is then advisable to have bundles of larger different sized woods to place on top as you go.

Tip - Put larger twigs on, then another layer of smaller twigs at the same time; this tends to burn a lot quicker. 

Tip - Always gather enough starter-wood to keep the fire going otherwise the fire may burn down quickly and go out again. Make sure you collect various different sizes and put them in some sort of order (like the above - sort of). 

Tinder - The bundle here has mainly Rose-Bay Willow Herb (Fireweed) mixed with slivers of Birch Bark. A tip here is to collect some of this on a warm, dry day and keep keep it dry for later use. Always think ahead to a time when it may be wet and no dry tinder can be found. Be Prepared!

A Fire-Shield or Fire-Reflector can be placed behind the fire; this one has been done by using upright sticks about 6 inch apart, bound at the top by bungees. Some say that these do not reflect heat, but whatever the case it keeps the wind from coming from the back. I have experimented in the past with a reflective survival blanket placed over the reflector and held tightly, and this does seem to have more reflective properties. 

Here a light metal grill is placed over two logs and a small Kelly-Kettle base lit underneath the grill. One important point, use wet logs or soak the logs if they are as close as the above. A small metal grill can actually be carried with you, perhaps smaller than the above. 

Tip - If you can get hold of a small metal dish of some kind, small enough to carry in your kit, then use this since it would be a little bigger and take a larger fire. This would be more efficient, and get larger logs to hold the grill a little higher from the flames. Given such a set up you could cook burgers or steak on such a small fire. 

The Criss-Cross Fire burns very well and is quite easy to set up and start; it has a base-layer on which is placed the tinder, and this is fired up and a bundle of kindling placed on top. As this burns place larger and larger sticks one going oine way and the next row the other way.