How Long Does it Take to Master the Art of Making a Fire?

A Second Question from Vicki Smith, Cumbria, UK…

The art of creating a tipi fire that can be started with a single match, every time without fail, can be mastered in 30 minutes to an hour, that how long it seems to take my students…

It’s not always easy to find the perfect materials to do this, but 30 min to and hour and you’ll know exactly what you want to accomplish your aim…

The one match fire is basically a pile of sticks of very defines diameter, stacked in a very precise way, a way that allows the flame of the match to climb up through ever increasing levels of flamable material, the flame starts small so you give it small stuff that will heat and burst into flames very easily…

As the flame strength builds the material can be larger, it will need more flame to get it alight but the flame is stronger so it can easily do it…

When you build a fire right you can have a raging fire in less than a minute…

I think your question could have been about making a fire with primitive methods like a bow drill so I will answer that question too…

But let me share a story with you about making a fire right…

I was helping out a fellow instructor once at a class he was running, the class was sat listening, it was getting dark and I know the class would enjoy a fire when the lecture was over, so they could sit and talk and just chill out…

So I built a fire in the very specific way I teach my students, I got it to be about 3 feet high with small logs the diameter of my leg on the outside, just as the lecture was ending, I lit the tine tinder bundle at the centre and the fire instantly began to roar, it took about a minute for that fire to get to such an intensity that the students had to sit away from it untill it died down…

Most assumed I had rekindled some embers or used a blow torch or something, because the heat got so intense so quickly…

The key is to give your flame the right fuel it needs to grow, and the sevceret is the tinder, get that right and the rest is easy…

Now onto the bow drill, a primitive fire making technique…

I run workshops where I get about half of my students getting a coal and then a flame from a bow drill set in about 4 hours. I’ve perfected a new teaching technique that should shorten that time a little more…

But really the main thing is technique, once you have the right technique it’s easy to keep inspired with it as you can always see how close you got to getting a coal even if it dies as they often do, the first few time…

Once you have a bow drill set that works well, you can have a coal within a minute of starting…

The thing that takes the longest time to prepare is the tinder bundle, because you need a new one every time, and it is so key to get it just right, it needs to be very dry and very fine materials…

As far as mastery of fire in concerned, there are many elements to get right…

There is first mastery of carving a set that can be worked easily, then there is mastery of the technique. Then mastery of making cordage from natural materials, then mastery of using less perfect woods if your choice is not avalible, then there is making your set with a stone blade, then getting it right in the wet…

There are levels of mastery as with many many things, but 4 hours will have your technique near perfect, and from then it is a mater of playing with less perfect resources…

Hope this helps…

How do I start a fire…

Here is how I teach my coaching students to begin their skill of lighting a fire…

I call it the single match fire…

I have them imagine that on of their group has fallen into a river, and is beginning to show signs of hypothermia and it is their job to get a fire going in the next 20 minutes to save the life of their group member…

They have a box of wet matches that was being carried by the group memebr who fell in the river, they have layed them out to dry but it is likely they will get more than one that will light…

When they find a match that lights it may be their only chance to get a fire going…

So the first thing they must do it prepare the fire…

So i send them out for 5 minutes to look for twigs that are the diameter as a pencil lead, a few mm across. Any twigs that look whispy, between them all they need are two handfulls, and they must be as long as they can get them, more than 10cm is long enough…

Next I send them out to gather twigs the diameter of your little finger, this time a few handfulls will be enough…

The another 5 minutes to gather sticks the diameter of your thumb…

All this wood must be dry, so look in trees, fro branches that have fallen but got caught int a tree before they got to the ground…

Hazel always has a lot of dead wood that has not fallen tot he ground yet and can be snapped off and used…

Quite often dvbranches of living trees near the ground are dead, maybe they have not had enought light, but these can be gathered and used…

Now while one member of the group builds the fire, the others can spend another 5 minutes gathering tinder material…

Tinder is the material which will start to burn the instant the flame from the match touches it, dry leaves will do it, sometimes the fluffy white fibres in thistle flowers will do it, dry grasses will often light from a match flame…

This is when playing with different things before you need them is the best thing to do…

To build the fire, hold all the pencil lead diameter twigs together, one bundle in each hand and intermingle the tops of the bundles, and splay the bottoms of the bundles so their will be enough room for the tinder material to be placed there…

Next lay the little finger diameter twigs around the pencil lead twigs in a pyramid or upsidedown ice cream cone pattern..

You should end up with a structure that is pointed at the top and wide at the bottom, that will stand up without you needing to hold it up…

Next come the thumb diameter sticks, again placed around in a pyramid or unsidedown ice cream cone shape…

You need to leave a small openin at the bottom, where you will push in the tinder once it it on fire…

So now you are ready, and it really is simple, you get the tinder bundle as close to the opening in the base of the sticks as you can, you light it witht he match, blocking the wind from the match as best you can…

As soon as the tinder bundle has caught and is turning to a flame bundle, push it deep into the base of the prepared sticj pyramind and with practice your structure will be a raging fire in less than a minute…

The key here is that the flames and the heat in the flames always goes up, so the pyramind structure is designed to have as much material above the flames as possible, in theory a well made fire can be stood in an inch of water or on damp ground, and as long as the tinder stays dry and their is dry wod above the flames it will light…

The tinder flames touch the pencil diameter twigs which light, then the flames moves to the little finger diameter twigs, and then to the thumb diamter twigs, at each stage the flames is getting stronger and stronger…

The most flamable items are on the inside of the structure and the the items harder to light are on the outside…

The most important thing is to have easy to light twigs first and very dry tinder…

Once these are alight you can gather other twigs and sticks to burn as you need them…

This is known sometimes as a tipi or teepee ire…

Always light fires where you have permisiiona nd always light them where there is zero risk of starting a fire in the forest meadow where you are…

And it is good to note that fire can burn underground in some areas, in tree root, in some soils…

I hope this helps…

Please ask questions as they come up on the ask questions page…

Walk in Awareness