To Make Your Fire Go

Tinder:
Some kind of flammable material that will flare up when touched with the flame of a burning match--or, preferably, you remembered to carry a mini-torch in you personal survival kit. The tinder can be bark from cedar, birch, basswood, elm or willow trees, most any such dry material. Weed tops from aster, thistle, goldenrod,  milk weed, or cattail are also excellent. Fuzz sticks whittled from dry wood, leaving the shavings attached are good fire starters. Fluffed bark of juniper, birch bark, dry dung, dry grass could be used as tinder. Tinder is any kind of material that takes a  minimum of heat to catch fire.

Kindling:
This is the thin branches of split wood that will catch the flame from the tinder and in turn  ignite the heavier fuel. Kindling is mainly procured from trees, evergreen twigs, squaw wood,  which is the dead wood still on trees, that can be collected by simply breaking it off. Willow, alder, and aspen are also excellent. Again, remember the saying: "if you can't snap it, scrap it. Gather a couple of handfuls of this kindling, pencil thin or thinner.

Fuel:
For doing a real job of providing heat or light. This, FUEL, can range from THUMB THICK BRANCHES for cooking a simple meal; to heavy logs, for keeping a fire going through a long, Canadian, winter, night. use whatever wood you can get from a fallen limb or a dead tree branch from a tree. Break, or chop, if you are lucky enough to have an axe or hatchet in your available survival gear, into pieces of suitable length for your fire.--about a foot or so long. Some woods burn burn more easily than others--but,most any wood is usable for a quick meal. Fuel from such trees as hickory, oak, beech, birch, maple, and ash are excellent long burning woods. Make sure you have more than enough fuel wood. It burns more quickly than you think and you don't want to leave your fire, or your cooking while looking around for more more. wood..

Teepee Fire Lay:
Is one of the oldest known fire-lays and was used by primitive and tribal peoples world wide.  This ancient method got it's North American name from  the way it somewhat resembles a native shelter. You will find that it is still one of the easiest and quickest to build and that it is especially good if you intend to do any boiling or frying.

1. Place a large handful of tinder on your prepared fire place.
2. Push a stick into the ground on a slant over the tinder.
3. Now lean a circle of kindling sticks across the slanting stick with their tips together and with an opening towards the wind.
4. Crouch don in front of the prepared fire, set your back to the wine. Strike the match, let it burn into a real flame, then touch it to the tinder, close to the ground.
5. Let the kindling get a good start; then feed the fire, first with thin pieces of fuel wood; then, gradually, with thicker pieces. 
6. Continue feeding until the fire has reached the size you need.

Criss Cross Fire Lay:

This is one of the best methods, when you need a bed of coals for broiling (roasting) or baking.

1. Place two pieces of wood ,about as thick as your wrist, and about a foot long on the ground parallel to one another, about a foot length apart.
2. Place a good handful of tinder on the ground between them.
3. Lay a number of thin kindling sticks crosswise on top of this base  leaving spaced between each stick. Continue building up the cross layers, increasing the thickness of the wood from layer to layer. but always placing the pieces a distance apart This allows the flames and the draft to move upward.
4. About eight layers is enough.
5. Follow instructions 4-6 for teepee fire lay. When properly laid, the criss cross fire sill flare up with a blaze, then quickly turn into a bed of glowing embers suitable for most cooking

©Al (Alex-Alexander) D Girvan. All rights reserved..