How do you light a camp fire?

A question that occurs to me, having dismally failed last weekend, is HOW THE F*CK do you light a good camp fire?

I'm in Australia at the moment, and there are loads of really cool campgrounds. These campgrounds often provide a smallish (3 ft diameter) concrete barbecue pit and firewood. The idea is that you make a fire in the pit and then swing the metal barbecue hotplate over the fire and cook on that.

Now last weekend we thought that the wood was dry enough for an easy fire, but it turns out that it wasn't, so we had to resort to the camping gas stove.

Next time we'll be taking firelighters & some of our own dry wood, but does anyone have any good tips for lighting one up? Paper and twigs at the bottom? Pyramid shape?

Thanks.

P.

Try this.

;-)

Never was into Scouting......it didn't appeal at all!

Thanks Paschall.

P.

It's a well-known fact—you can never get a spark out of a soggy scout!

a wad of newspaper in somewhat of a cone shap, covered with kindling, then surrounded by two parralel logs, topped by two more parrelel logs (perpendicular tot he first) and so on.

:hi:

P.

My family has always built fires this way and only rarely in wet conditions have we had to resort to using the "girl scout juice" which in my neck of the woods is lighter fluid for starting a charcoal fire in grills.

The trick is to keep all your kindling dry. It doesn't matter so much if the other wood gets rained on but the kindling has to be dry and don't be bashful about using paper. If you use too little and it doesn't light the kindling, you have to start over. With hot kindling it's not fun.

:evilgrin:

P.

The B52s with the napalm will be right over!

And yes, I'm partial to the teepee shape.

gasoline, scout firewater.

do not apply twice unless you are absolutely sure that the first attempt is completely extinguished.

then there's the much slower, lots of kindling theory of fire starting.

also like the naplam idea cited above.

She's a former girl scout, and easily the BEST fire builder I've ever seen in my life.

She took me on an overnight hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina onced. Everything was SOAKING wet from days of continuous rain, and it was still raining lightly. She managed to get a roaring fire going using only gathered materials and one small piece of cardboard she had brought along, and ONE match.

Girl scouts in that area pride themselves on their fire-building abilities and make fun of how the boys often cheat.

You would start with tinder (very small dry twigs, fluffy weeds, or paper),
kindling (larger twigs and wood up to wrist size around),
logs (the supplied wood) and an
ignition source (your lighter or matches).

First, you should prepare your materials. Split the supplied wood with a hatchet, prepare your tinder and build a teepee of kindling.
You want the logs to be split because it is hard to light the smooth outside surface of a log.
My favorite tinder is a paperback book, it's easy to carry and contains a couple weeks worth of tinder.Twigs used for tinder should be peeled with a pocketknife with the peeling left hanging on the twig These peelings will act like wicks that will light easily
The teepee shape always works, even in the rain!
Build it with an opening you can get your hand into. Start with a small teepee of kindling, then continue adding progressively larger kindling to the outside, keeping the teepee shape as you build. Keep it under two feet tall and three feet wide but build it quite dense.
Fill the inside cavity of this kindling teepee with tinder. Use as much tinder as you can fit inside.
Light the tinder and when it looks like it's going to catch, add an outer layer to the teepee consisting of larger logs. Then you just keep feeding it. The fire is always hungry. One last hint, when gathering firewood in the woods, look up. The dead branches caught overhead will be dry enough to light even when rained upon.

works every time!
:D

http://firestart.net/

You can buy this stuff at camping supply stores. Sometimes is looks like a huge, thick match. Kinda of like a miniature manufactured fire log. Sometimes it looks like a small cup of parafin.

Oh, yes, and the teepee thing works well. But don't try to get by with just a lighter or book of regular matches. Especially if your a novice.

first, you can do the Baden-Powell approved method of building a teepee of wood over a colleciton of shavings, kindling and paper.

second, you can use commercial firestarters under "house" shape of parallel logs.

third, and most impressive, you can use the napalm method, either by calling Messers. Asscroft and Dumsfeld, or should you not wish to reveal your location to the oppressive central government, you can make your own using a simple mixture of three parts gasoline to one part soap. I prefer shredding the soap, and heating the gasoline to facilitate dissolving. Do not use laundry detergent, as it will not stick...also, if you use a plastic milk carton it will be completly burned up and the residue will be untraceable.

please note the above post was for educational and entertainment purposes only. Kids, don't actually be stupid enough to try this at home, YOU WILL GET MAIMED, BURNED, SHUNNED and MOCKED for being such a fucking bonehead. How do you ever expect to get a girl when you look like the ugly side of Mel Gibson in the man without a face? Before beggining this process, I reccomend a trip to the local burn unit to see what your face will look like after napalming.

also note that I have altered the recipie above to make your life more difficult.

A camp fire is nothing but heat, and until it generates enough heat on it's own, it needs a little help. Tepee shape is good to start and keep it small to begin (say double handful). I can easily work with one match in dry conditions but will use a candle, with the burning wax as an accelerant, in wet conditions. Drip, Drip, Drip...Fire, Fire, Fire...Heat, Heat, Heat...

1. Shred newspaper and crunch it together loosely so there is air space. Make a 6" diameter ball.

2. Place it next to a log.

3. Place pencil-sized kindling on top of the newspaper, resting on the ground and the log.

4. Light a match, hold it on the newspaper, and gently blow while the newpaper ignites.

5. Continue to blow on the burning newspaper, increasing in force as the newspaper catches fire.

6. As the kindling ignites, add more kindling and progressively larger wood until you can start putting split wood and logs on it. Keep blowing after the newspaper burns away and while you are still burning kindling. You can use a pot lid for a fan to get air in.

Many of these fire rings are built like a pit with no way for natural convection to bring fresh air into the pit. Sometimes I pick up the edge of the ring and put a rock on under the edge to create a draft hole.

Pile on lots and lots of little sticks.
Then some medium sticks.
Finally a couple of logs.
Light the paper in a whole bunch of places.

The secret is to use different sized wood. Start with small twigs. Walking through the forest, you should be able to find dead small twigs on the end of branches of living trees. They should be around the diameter of a round toothpick, and should crisply break when bent (that's how you know it's dead, and therefore dry). Normally,, about 2 handfuls should do it. In a bit of old sexist terminology, this used to be called "Squaw wood". I don't know if they've changed the term to something less offensive now.

I prefer the "lean-to" style of fire. either drive a stake into the ground at an angle, or prop one against rocks, or something similar. Start with the small twigs at the very bottom, and then build up the thickness of sticks, propped against the ""lean-to bar". The biggest sticks should be around the size of your wrist. Light the little sticks, and let the flames run up through the other wood. Add bigger sized sticks and logs once the fire is well involved.

work well and make the food taste better.

self-lighting charcoal briquettes contain a petroleum-based accellerant. When I light charcoal for cooking, I use one of these:



all it takes is a couple of pieces of paper, and absolutely no lighter fluid or the taste of it either.

.

Get an artfical fireplace log (made of parafin and saw dust). Cut it into pieces about the size of ice cubes. Place a few of these cubes throughout your kindling pieces. Light each piece. Add more wood as the fire grows.

1 part diesel, 1 part powdered laundry detergent. Burns at a low temperature forever!

FIRST, it does help to have dry newspaper. Not magazines.

Wad up several sheets in LOOSE balls. Have a couple more at the ready. Do NOT mash them into hard little nodules. Leave em nice and loose.

Put say 3 of them in a group, and loosely lay dry fluffy tinder, leaves and twigs on top, and light em up with a match or lighter. Have on hand slightly larger pieces of tinder to start out with, and lay them on on as the tinder catches and spreads. The pyramid shape IS the ideal, and the point is not to smother the fire as it progresses larger. Increase the size of your fuel as the fire quickly grows.

The key element is AIR. The fire must be able to breathe, hence, blowing on it, or fanning it evenly to encourage it along is essential. Be patient, be prepared, and have all your necessities on hand before you get started.

I've had grown men get real real mad at me for my firestarting abilities. I'm a ONE MATCH GAL.

Why don't American women listen?

I never use the grills at the campsite because I don't know what's been on 'em.

After dinner, you dump the remainder of your glowing coals in the fire ring, throw a few twigs and progressively
larger wood on top, then kick back. The fire will flame up when combustion tempuratures have been reached.
This will also dry any wet wood.

If you are impatient, fan the coals and it'll fire up sooner.

How often do I get to say that???
When I go camping I rairly if ever use a fire, I prefer using camp stoves (I prefer the MSR Shaker) I hate having everything smell like smoke.

As many of you said it just takes time an preperation to make a fire. I never used the "boy scout method" of pre-building a fire. I use a split log, put dry tinder next to it, light the tinder and lean dry twigs aginst the log for them to catch fire, slowly building up the size. I do not recall the last time I needed more than one match.

cut shavings from small trigs. branches(dry of course) and pile in the heart of the fire pit, cover with larger shavings and trigs, leaves, then larger pieces of dry wood. Soon the water boils and the food is cooked.

Come, we go find the marshmellows

Keep lots of dry newspapers in the back of your vehicle. You never know when the mood for a fire may strike. I also keep a bundle of dry twigs or buy a small bundle of kindling. I also have a hatchet and large axe.

Tear up a couple of pages of newspaper really tiny and make a ball out of it. This needs to be very tight. This is your starter coal. Also have about another page worth of newspaper torn up into strips. Place the newspaper ball in the centre and pile torn newspaper strips around it. Use this as a support for a pyramid of dry twigs, the more the merrier. This is your secondary coals.

Now make another pyramid of small kindling (ie. 1" 2.5 cm.) over top of this. LEAVE AT LEAST 1" 2.5 cm space between the bottom of each piece so there's room for the fire to breathe. This is your starter fire.

Put three or four big pieces of wood as a pyramid over this. Leave at least 2" 5 cm. between pieces so the underlying fire can breathe. This is your cooking fire.

Light one piece of newspaper and stand back. The fire will light itself without further intervention. It will take about five minutes to get to full strength unless you have a strong breeze.

Some marvellous advice and much amusement from your comments! I'll try to follow them and let you know how I get on.

However....I did buy some firelighters yesterday, the pre-soaked brick type, to get things going in an emergency.

Give it 2 months and I won't even be allowed to light a fire, as they have a nasty habit of taking 3000 sq miles of forest / town with them over here.

Thanks again.

P.

but careful with this technique...it can work too well....rainforests are disappearing :evilgrin:

Sorry, not sure that the joke works in the US....or anywhere else....

:evilgrin:

P.