. . . to make it hot!
No, this isn’t about love or war… Not this time. Rather, I’ve been enjoying a tour of
fire-making gear via the latest online survivalist tutorials. Odd interest for an insurance agent! Though
like most civilized folk, I take for granted ready availability of heat and
fire without resorting to sticks or boy scouts, or however one produces friction and sparks.
Need for this basic survival skill will prove obvious –like finding
water and making shelter—when urban power, gas and water deliveries are
interrupted, even for just a couple days.
Else wherefrom warmth, cooking of food, sanitizing water for drinking,
cleansing wounds, bathing? That’s why my household maintains a patio gas grill
and two extra 20 lb cans of propane. I also
keep an inline propane water heater for camping or emergency use, this model
requiring only 2 psi water pressure:
All this device really needs is gravity of water draining
from a bucket elevated high enough (about 4 feet), providing 2 psi pressure to
trigger the burner and fill another bucket below with piping hot bath
water.
What happens, however, when my propane supply fails? I have attempted to employ a simple copper
coil placed right amidst campfire coals, connecting to two water buckets… which
worked, though prone to damage equipment. Otherwise I’m back to the rustic steel
kettle on a wood stove or grill.
And what when matches run out, or gas click-lighter
quits? A magnifying lens requires direct
sunlight. Hardly anyone of my
generation, even a wilderness proven Eagle Scout, will be adept at building a
fire from foraged fuel and materials in cold and wet conditions:
More than half the battle is nursing a spark into live
fire. So I would suggest that one
practice first the making of a tinder nest or bundle to shelter magnesium
flakes and spark from steel and ferro rod; then blow or fan it into flame… this
without scorching your manicure or eyebrow weave, of course.
Graduate to using char cloth, charcoaled shavings of punk
(rotted wood), fungus, pitch or fatwood (sap-infused knots).
Then try other oily or vegetable volubles ignited by
friction of wood or stone. Dried citrus
skins and grass seed heads make good tinder because of their oil content. If
you press seeds to extract natural oil as accelerant, choose those with a
lower-temperature flash point –flax, rape (canola), safflower, sunflower,
olive.
Next explore various campfire construction models:
My favorite so far is the Dakota fire hole, aka rocket stove (see below).
Now for methods of producing a tiny coal sufficient to
ignite kindling scraped from obscure locations.
Practice scouting for right materials. Likewise sources of tinder and serious
fuel. But every fire requires first the spark. And one of the easiest and sure-fire of techniques
needs only (brace yourself) two sticks and one scout, boy or girl… though the fire saw or fire plow may produce faster results than drill and board, and with
less huff and puff, especially where two scouts are made to cooperate. Good luck with that!
Bamboo fire saw:
Yucca fire saw:
Fire plow:
Search further instructions and videos for the making of
drills and thongs as more durable equipment.
Better yet, find an article with clear pictures to print and save for
the day it may be needed. A most elegant solution –beside your stash of
waterproofed matches and petroleum-soaked dryer lint—is the fire piston, an ancient tool based on
the same principle as a modern diesel engine.
A simpler answer to problems of equipment wear, blisters and
wasted time is the safe caching of live embers from tonight’s fire to readily
start tomorrow’s. Enter the ember carrier.
Any old metal can slung by a cord will work; else fashion a wallet from bark
filled with fungus or punk wood embers and insulated with peat moss or lichens:
Introducing the Rocket Stove (aka woodgas, avan [earth] or mass heater)
They say this simple invention would have revolutionized
wilderness pioneering –minimizes smoke and fumes and requires only light sticks
as fuel; can even be self-feeding. Basically, you deliberately engineer a chimney
fire over a forge furnace, with extra venting at bottom and top enabling two
stages of ignition: first the wood fuel and second the wood gas. Result is a
super-efficient column of flame that roars like a rocket.
Primary elements of the rocket or woodgas stove:
Insulated
fire box and chimney (stack bricks or cinder blocks; earth, clay,
concrete double-walled shell filled with ash, pumice or straw)
Side hole
to feed larger fuel
Vent hole
(may be directly under fuel hole)
Optional enhancements:
Fuel hole
at 45-degree angle for gravity feed
Heat-conductive
framing on top (iron or rock), dual function
–griddle or
grate to hold cook pot or kettle
–extra air vents to aid secondary ignition of
wood gas
Funnel exhaust at one side through
a sealed chamber to a remote chimney,
used to heat an oven, bench or bed;
may be constructed below ground to heat a
cabin or tent
Simplest rendition is the Dakota fire hole:
Experiment digging two
side tunnels, one for air flow and a second angled to gravity-feed sticks into
the burn chamber.
Internet is full of pre-fab rocket stoves for purchase:
Easy DIY designs:
Modern tech fire equipment:
Plasma igniter
Solar igniter
Thermo-electric generators
Solar cookers
Tent heaters
