Tinderless fire

[Scythe13]

The other day, AlyBear and I made a fire using no tinder at all. We did so under ideal (indoor) conditions. However, we do plan to repeat the process a few times indoors, and then take it outdoors.

It wasn't anything special that we did. I was teaching AlyBear to split logs with a knife. I kept her splitting them until they were about match stick size. We kept splitting them until some of them were paper thin at one end. This is technically not tinder.

We used a lighter (but are going to try using fire-starter sparks) and lit a couple of the wafer thin ends of the split sticks. They burned pretty cleanly and as you would expect them to.

Since some of the sticks were wafer thin, then up to marker-pen thickness, they burned beautifully until they burned out. The idea was that we would be able to start a fire without that wad of cotton wool, or wire wool, or something like that.

It's an ongoing learning process, but I was very proud of AlyBear for learning to split wood AND working to make a fire not using paper or another tinder source to get it going.

Just thought it would be good to tell everyone about out progress.

Thanks for reading.

[bigpaul]

its all about getting down to the dry wood inside, the more you split it the drier it should be, try "feathering" it next time, may make it even easier to light.(watch one of Ray Mears video's for the right technique of feathering).

[Skean Dhude]

Congratulations. That is what it is all about. Finding out and putting them into practise is not always done and we need more of it.

[Kenneth Eames]

If you know a Carpenter you will be able to obtain shavings for tinder and small pieces of wood for kindling. I have a tea chest full in my workshop. It's now dry and ready for use. Kenneth Eames.

[Scythe13]

My girlfiends dad sells kindling at his hairdressers. He's as mad as toast, but one of the coolest guys around. We always have loads to practice with. That's a good idea though. Will get some sawdust next time we're working on something.

[Skean Dhude]

More stuff to keep. Yippee.

[Preacher]

There are combinations of easily (and legally) obtained, household chemicals which will, when mixed in the correct proportions, spontaneously combust, lighting even moist timber, in damp conditions, But I'm not going to publish details online where anyone can see it (just incase)

Two graphite pencils, connected to opposite poles of a car, or motorcycle battery can be used to creat an electrical arc hot enough to melt steel and can ignite a pile of small twigs in seconds.

[Skean Dhude]

Preacher,

If you know the correct combinations then let us know. The alternative is that we get the combination wrong and after TSHTF we can't get a fire started because we have the wrong ingredients. I'll be posting stuff like that on the Wiki when I get it up and running. eta April time.

[Scythe13]

I know you can mix potassium permanganate (some water purifier tablets are made of this) and petrol, and you get a fire. I know a guy that used to put it in the brown medicine bottles and then drop it in a car's petrol tank. The petrol disolved the brown bottle and then reacted with the potassium to make a 'hot rod'. Haha, look, an arson joke! I'm so clever. But seriously, this kid was nuts.

He used to read the Anarchists Cook book (originally The Jolly Roger Cook Book) in break time at school. He was totally off one. But he was always great with me, so I didn't care.

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But if you have the petrol to mix with the potassium permangante, you could just put a cloth in the petrol and use that I guess.

[uks]

household 9 volt battery and wire wool good fire starter