Hello, dear subscribers! You probably already know how much I love traveling and tourism, so I’m going to share the life hack that will be useful for people who also love staying outdoors. Our regular topic is Life Hacks for Survival, and this time, we are going to talk about making a fire in the wilderness. This topic may sound hackneyed, and I know that most of you had probably seen a “Castaway” starring Tom Hanks and I also agree that it is beautifully filmed. However, in the “Castaway,” you can see only one particular way to ignite a fire, while in some situations, you will need to go the other way. That’s why I decided that this blog will be useful and interesting for most of my followers here.
Let’s imagine a situation where you find yourself in the forest and do not own any special means to ignite a fire. Maybe your matches are wet, or you ran out of fuel, or perhaps you just forgot to take the lighter with you… In this case, it is ok if you are not far away from home, and you do not rely on this fire. But what if the fire is crucial for your health and survival? If you are a professional tourist, those skills are essential, and you may require them at any moment because life is pretty hard to predict. So, let’s do it!
1. Hand Drill
Yeah, that’s the life hack that Tom Hanks used in the Castaway movie. You got me. However, it is frequently regarded as one of the easiest ways to start a fire in the wild. Well, at least if you are determined to ignite this fire. The good thing about this method – it does not require too many materials and gear for the preparation. But the bad thing about it is that it may take quite a lot of time and rip off much skin from your hands before you succeed. So, let’s get to business:
- From the very beginning, you need to prepare some tinder. Collect small scraps of wood, dry leaves, parts of dry bark, etc. It is important to collect only dry materials because if the tinder is not completely dry, the mission will be close to impossible.
- Prepare your fireboard. You need to make a fireboard with a hole in the middle and a depression. Make it not too big, don’t forget that it is crucial to make parts of the firewood rub each other as you ignite.
- Place some bark under your fireboard, right under the place where the cut was made.
- Spin the stick. You will need a two-foot stick and, as I mentioned before, lots of patience and diligence. You need to roll the stick fast until you see the first sparks.
- When you see the fire rising, take your fireboard to the place where the tinder is. Place the fireboard over the tinder and wait. If needed, help the fire manually.
2. Fire Plow
This method works pretty much like the previous one but is known to be a little more effective.
- You will need to prepare a fireboard, tinder, and a stick for rubbing from the very beginning. You should make a groove about 6-8 inches long on the fireboard. If possible, make sure that your fireboard is made of a more solid tree than your stick.
- Start rubbing back and force. In this case, your major goal is to grind off the stick and the motherboard a little to get some wooden dust that will help you ignite a fire.
- Put the board on your knees, so the dust all falls to the end of the groove. You need to make this move when you see that enough dust is collected. After the change of fireboard position, you need to rub faster to fire up the wooden dust.
- Transfer the dust to the tinder and start a fire. Also, you can transfer the tinder into the fire. That does not make any difference.
3. Batteries and Steel Wool
This is one of the easiest ways to make a fire if, by chance, you have some batteries and some wool with you. So when you are going for a long trip, don’t forget to take several stitches of steel wool and several batteries because now I’ll teach you how to make a fire without tiresome rubbing. So, let’s go.
- Like in all the previous cases, you will need to collect some decent tinder for the fire. As I mentioned before, it has to be completely dry if you don’t want to screw the whole thing. In winter, do not collect any tinder from the ground even if it looks and feels like a dry one. Always look for old dry trees and bushes and collect pieces of bark and tree from there.
- Take a piece of steel wool – at least 1 X 6 inches.
- Start rubbing until you see it starts to blaze.
- Put the steel wool into the tinder and enjoy the fire.
