Forum Challenge...1 Month...FIRE!!!

[Scythe13]

Midnitemo, that's your prerogative. If you think you've prepped enough and don't think you need to learn the skill, more power to you.

[Midnitemo]

i'm not having a pop , i'm just way behind you lot and it's quite a challenge...maybe when i've gotten to a level where i feel secure in the level and quality of my preps i'll have a go...i am interested though and will be watching.

[Scythe13]

(2 September 2013, 15:11)Midnitemo Wrote: i'm not having a pop , i'm just way behind you lot and it's quite a challenge...maybe when i've gotten to a level where i feel secure in the level and quality of my preps i'll have a go...i am interested though and will be watching.

That's cool mate. I didn't think you were having a go. I just thought you couldn't be bothered with it, so figured I'd let you know I didn't mind and that it's okay not to take up a challenge, that's all mate.

If you decide you want to give it a go, we have a whole month to do it in.

[Tartar Horde]

If you want to try making fire this way and don't want to get your material from the woods, just buy the wood and dowels from a hardware store, simple. Check out a you tube vid how to do it and I guarantee with a little bit of application you will make fire. Guys when you coax that ember into flame all by yourself for the first time

[bigpaul]

I've got a small tin of flint in the back of the garage somewhere, I brought it back from near where OH used to live in East Devon, there is no flint around here, if I can find it i'll see what-if anything-I can do with it.

[Tartar Horde]

(2 September 2013, 18:29)bigpaul Wrote: I've got a small tin of flint in the back of the garage somewhere, I brought it back from near where OH used to live in East Devon, there is no flint around here, if I can find it i'll see what-if anything-I can do with it.

I've never made fire with flint BP, I've seen it on you tube etc but you can't beat being shown. Does anyone have experience of making fire this way as it would be excellent first hand advice.

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(2 September 2013, 14:08)Prepper1 Wrote: Does the fire bow have to be a certain size?

I mean by that, most of the videos you see featuring the fire bow are fairly largish, not really pocket size.

Has anybody on here made a smaller pocket size one?

Can you make it pocket size?

Or does the physics of the thing not work if its smaller?

By pocket size, I'm thinking of hand size, something you could hold in one hand with a small drill rod say hardwood dowel and say some sort of thimble holder for the top pushing down hard with your thumb and bowing with the other hand.

maybe there's not enough friction...

Hmm may try that...

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I ask because I dont really have a clue on that as I use a ferro rod to cheat, I have loads.
I have a tinder box with cotton wool, birch bark etc..

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Aha looks like you can make then pocket size physics aside, just found this.





I was curious because sometimes making things bigger or smaller sometimes doesn't work out too well, the fire bow in this video seems more handy that the normal huge ones, more convenient me thinks...

This vid is just showing how small a fire bow you can use and the skill of the user. Generally you carry the fire board, drill and string/cordage and find a bow in the field to use as they are very easy to find. To some extent the larger the bow the more revolutions of the drill you will get for each push/pull but a bow can be whatever length you are comfortable with, two foot is a benchmark, going up or down till you find the length that fits your bowing style. Given that most people who use a bow drill would carry well seasoned and used drills and boards, the scenario Scythe gives us is more tricky than meets the eye given that you would have to find the right wood etc and make string to even start making fire. The hardest thing would be to make the string from completely natural materials in the uk. If we are talking post SHTF then there would be plenty of string around. Are we allowed the materials from a collapsed civilisation scythe, or are you being totally ice age here.

[Highlander]

(2 September 2013, 14:08)Prepper1 Wrote: Does the fire bow have to be a certain size?

I guess the answer to this is no it doesn't matter as long as you make fire,.... but I was told that the best length is a length from your finger tips to your elbow,.. this gives you a reasonable length to generate heat

[BeardyMan]

(2 September 2013, 18:37)Tartar Horde Wrote: I've never made fire with flint BP, I've seen it on you tube etc but you can't beat being shown. Does anyone have experience of making fire this way as it would be excellent first hand advice.

Aye, flint and steel. Tricky until you get the hang of it (that's just getting a spark!) I'm all fingers and thumbs, so I normally end up with sore fingers and thumbs when flint, steel and flesh collide.
Very satisfying when you get some charcloth to take a spark.

[Mortblanc]

I suppose I have to be the exception here, since my journey has been very diverse. I belong to clubs that have fire making contests on a regular basis as part of what we refer too as a "woods walk" competition, which usually incorporates about a dozen primitive skills.

I do own fire steels I have made myself. Forged by my hands in the blacksmith shop.

I also use char-punk I made with no manufactured assistance, as well as char-cloth.

I have also sparked fires from the spine of my Openil knife onto a frayed strip torn from my cotton shirt.

I have a nicely crafted fire drill I use for demonstrations, made from materials I gathered myself. I had a student get a flame from that set in less than 30 seconds on one occasion.

I have also started fires with the fire plow, which can be done easily with only a knife.

But, the only real way one would wind up in the situation stated in the OP is if one fell naked from an airplane in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.

We must also remember that Neanderthal grew up with HIS state of technology, just as we do ours. He practiced these skills from birth and we are saying "go out and do them immediately, with no training".

And we do have evidence that the cave men used pyrites to spark fires! It was not all elbow grease and praying to the spirits.

My preps include normally having two or three methods of fire making available at all times. I have a ferro rod on my keychain, another tapped to a survival card in my wallet and lighters and magnesium bars scattered through the vehicles and the kits they contain, plus all the built-in fire making accessories the vehicle naturally contains.

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Picture #1 is my fire bow set

#2 is a fancy and plain steel I forged

#3 is a "giveaway kit" I make up for students. A chip of flint, a piece of broken file with the edge ground smooth, some char cloth and frayed rope fibers. The pen knife is 3" long as a size comparison. This is in a candy tin but I sometimes use old shoe polish containers or whatever is at hand.

The nice thing about a metal container is you can use it to produce your char.

#4 is a picture of char punk (No it is not charcoal). It is much less fragile than char cloth, burns longer and is available in nature.

[Skean Dhude]

(2 September 2013, 15:11)Midnitemo Wrote: i'm not having a pop , i'm just way behind you lot and it's quite a challenge...maybe when i've gotten to a level where i feel secure in the level and quality of my preps i'll have a go...i am interested though and will be watching.

Ironically, that is the exact opposite of what you need.

If you have no means to create fire then you;
a) Put aside something to do so.
b) Learn how to do it using nothing.

By saying that you will wait for a before you do b defeats the object. You don't know when an event will occur.

However, to temper your decision. Very few scenarios need you to create fire from nothing. There will be plenty of fire making stuff around for a while.

Scythes challenge is sound though. If I were you I would look at the basics quickly, water, fire, shelter, food. We can talk on the 21-Sep if we haven't had an event by then