Fire requires three things: oxygen, fuel, and a spark or flame. If any one of these is lacking, you’re not going to be successful. On the surface, oxygen seems like it would be the least likely to pose a problem. I mean, if there’s a significant drop in oxygen levels where you are, you likely have bigger issues than getting a fire started. However, suffocating the fire is one of the most common mistakes I see people make. Those new to the art of fire making have a tendency to rush things and add too much fuel too quickly, smothering the fire. A little patience goes a long way.

The time to gather your fire-making supplies is before you strike your first spark. Make three piles for tinder, kindling, and fuel. Tinder is the first level of a fire and consists of dry, fluffy material that will easily catch a spark or flame. Natural sources include cattail fluff, seed pods, and dry grass. Next is kindling. This category is made up of sticks and twigs that are small and thin. Think the size of a pencil or thinner. The drier they are, the better, of course.

Finally, the fuel segment is made up of larger sticks and eventually logs. The fuel should be stacked near your fire, both for convenience and so it can dry out if it happens to be wet. If you build a large stack of firewood, then sit between it and your fire; you’ll benefit from the fire’s heat reflecting back from the stacked wood.

All of these components should be gathered and piled up near your campfire location before you get started. The last thing you want is to have a newly lit fire starve and go out because you ran out of kindling. Gather and pile up way more kindling and fuel than you think you’ll need to get the fire going. For kindling, gather a full armload or two and double that for the fuel.

When gathering kindling and fuel, look for low-hanging, dead branches still attached to trees. They are likely to be much drier than what you’ll find on the ground. If everything is damp because of the weather, you can baton branches to get to the dry wood inside (see page 61).

TEEPEE FIRE

Perhaps the easiest fire lay for new folks is the teepee. Start by leaning several pieces of kindling together in a teepee shape. Leave one side a bit more open and place your tinder inside. If you’re using a fire starter as well, place it into the teepee and cover it a bit with the tinder. Light the fire starter or tinder, and as it burns it will (hopefully) light the kindling. As the kindling begins to burn, carefully lean larger pieces of wood around the kindling, again following the teepee shape. As the wood is consumed, the teepee will eventually collapse down on itself. Continue adding fuel one or two pieces at a time as needed to keep the fire burning.

Fire making requires practice, ideally under a variety of different weather conditions. Learn how to do it well now, before you truly need it to survive the night.

MELTING WAX

Several of the projects in this book involve melting wax at some point or another. Rather than repeating the instructions for each of those projects, I’ve referred you back here as needed.

You don’t need to go out and purchase blocks of wax. The best sources for wax to be used in these projects is old candles and/or crayons. Most parents have boxes and boxes of broken crayons. All you need to do is remove the paper wrappers from them. In my experience, though, it is best to stick with brand names, as the wax is of higher quality. As for candles, scented or unscented matters not for our purposes.

If you don’t have candles or crayons, pick them up for pennies at thrift stores or rummage sales.

MATERIALS

Small pot

Soup can (empty, clean)

Wax (crayons, candles, or both)

Oven mitt

Thin stick

#1Get a pot of water heating on your stove. You’ll only need 2 inches of water in the pot. As that heats up, fill about 3 inches of the soup can with broken crayons and candles. The smaller the chunks, the faster it will all melt.

#2Once the water is just below boiling, put the can in the pot. If need be, add a little more wax to keep the can from floating up. Keep the water at a steady simmer. While you won’t “burn” the wax by having the heat too high, a rolling boil will bounce the can around.

#3As the wax begins to melt, use a thin stick or twig to stir it and break up chunks. While you could use one of your kitchen utensils for this purpose, you’ll obviously end up with wax all over it. You may find it necessary to hold the can while you stir.

#4If needed, you can add more wax chunks as you go along, but I’ve found it easiest to melt small batches at a time.

#5You don’t have to use the improvised double-boiler approached outlined above, either. That’s just the best way I’ve found to melt wax indoors without damaging any kitchenware. We often have campfires in the backyard and frequently melt wax and make fire starters while we’re having s’mores and such. We just place the can of wax on an old grill grate propped up over the campfire.

THE ORIGINAL DIY FIRE STARTER

Okay, I’ll confess that this one probably wasn’t the very first DIY fire starter ever conceived, but it for darn sure is probably the most common today. The reasons are that it is very easy to assemble and it works very well. Even if you’ve used them before, read on because you might learn a new trick or two.

MATERIALS

Cotton balls

Petroleum jelly

Plastic sandwich bag

#1Put a handful of cotton balls into a plastic bag and add a dollop of petroleum jelly. Close the bag and mash the cotton and jelly together, really working the jelly into the fibers of the cotton balls.

#2That’s it, you’re done. I said it was easy, didn’t I?

#3When using one of these fire starters, unroll the cotton a bit, creating more surface area to catch sparks from your chosen fire lighting device. The larger the surface area, the larger the flame, thus a better chance of getting your tinder lit.

#4For storing these in your pack or kit, I recommend using either an old 35mm film canister or a waterproof match case, such as what I’m using here. The cotton balls can be difficult to scoop out, though. What I do is tie a piece of string to one cotton ball and jam that one down to the bottom of the container.

#5Keep the free end of the string outside the container then fill the container with the rest of the cotton balls. Loop the string into the container on to the top cotton ball, then close the container. When you need to pull out a cotton ball, grab the string and gently pull. It will raise the whole stack of cotton balls, allowing you to grab the one you need very easily.

EGG CARTON FIRE STARTERS

This fire starter is familiar to just about any Boy Scout. The reason for that is simple. Egg Carton Fire Starters are incredibly easy to make and to use. Plus, everything you need for them is likely at home already.