Home Dads Camping 2020 | Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st June Fire Lighting
Pages 1-6: How To Build A Campfire: A Step-by-step Guide Pages 7-8: 6 Ways to Start a Fire Without Matches or a Lighter
We know you are all at your own homes, it goes without saying please have a parent with you supervise all fire lighting activities safely and responsibly and don’t forget your neighbours and any smoke free requirements.
How To Build A Campfire: A Step-by-step Guide
Building a campfire is one of the most essential aspects of camping. An effective campfire provides the campsite with light, warmth, and the ability to cook food. Campfires are often the centerpiece of any great camping night, as everyone spends the evening sitting around the fire laughing and enjoying themselves. So get out that acoustic guitar and get ready to start roasting some marshmallows. This step-by-step guide will teach you everything you need to know about building an awesome campfire from scratch. Impress your friends on your next camping trip, read along and learn! How to build a campfire in 7 easy steps: 1. Create a fire pit. 2. Gather the fire wood. 3. Lay your fire. 4. Light the campfire. 5. Build up and maintain the fire. 6. Extinguish the campfire. 7. Clean up the mess.
1. Create a Fire Pit The first step is to find a good place to start your campfire. Your camp grounds will either have a designated fire pit or you will need to create your own.
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Create Your Own Fire Pit There are a few different things that you should consider when choosing where to build your campfire..
1. Maintain a Safe Distance First, choose an area that is at least 10 feet (3 meters) away from your tent, chairs, nearby trees, or anything that can catch on fire. If possible, you want to find an area where the trees shelter you from the wind, but where you are still want a safe distance from anything flammable. This protects yourself, your fellow campers, the environment, and the campgrounds.
2. Choose a Suitable Spot Choose a spot that provides flat ground for your fire bed. Try to find an area that is exposed dirt and is not covered in grass or dead grass. If you can’t find a suitable dirt area, a good idea is to dig up the grass in a small area and create a dirt platform to build your fire pit on. Or don’t trash your best grass, place some soil on top of a sheet and it can all be removed later on If you are on a private campground, be sure to verify that this is okay first.
3. Add a Ring of Rocks To help contain the campfire, and prevent it from spreading, it’s a great idea to surround the fire bed with a ring of rocks. Place fist-sized rocks around the fire bed, leaving a bit of space between each one. The spaces between the rocks will allow the air to still circulate effectively into the fire.
2. Gather the Fire Wood In order to successfully build your campfire, you’ll need to gather three types of wood: • Tinder, Kindling, Fuel Wood all shown here
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If you are at a campsite in the woods, all three types of wood can be easily gathered from the ground in the areas surrounding the campsite. It is important to remember to never cut down trees or branches, because live materials will not burn quickly or effectively. Depending on your location, there may be even legal penalties for chopping down trees.
Tinder Common types of tinder that are used for campfires include dry leaves, dry grass, very small twigs, wood shavings, needles, dry bark. The purpose of tinder is to easily catch fire and burn quickly. Using tinder is the quickest and most efficient way to get a good campfire up and running. Some great examples of tinder are wood shavings, dry leaves, dry bark, and dry grass. However, many camping experts suggest bringing your own tinder substitute from home, usually in the form of dryer lint. Bringing your own tinder can prove to be extremely beneficial if the ground outside is unexpectedly wet, because wet leaves or wood shavings will not easily catch on fire.
Kindling Wood For kindling wood, gather small branches and twigs.
Small twigs are great for kindling wood.
Once the tinder catches on fire, you’re almost ready to get rolling. However, you can’t just throw big logs onto the fire at this point because they will put out your small flames. Instead, you want to add kindling wood to the fire. Kindling wood is an important inbetween step in the campfire process. Search the area and gather small branches and twigs, but make sure that they are completely dry.
Fuel Wood For fuel wood, gather medium-sized branches that are around 4 inches wide. When you think of a campfire, fuel wood is probably what you are imagining. This is the type of wood that keeps your fire burning bright and hot throughout the night. You don’t necessarily want huge logs though, especially not at first. Look for medium-sized tree branches that are up to about 4 inches thick. Logs that are larger than that will take a very long time to catch on fire, so if you use them before your campfire has gained some significant momentum, you will risk putting out the fire.
3. Lay Your Fire At this point, it’s time to lay your fire. You want to place the wood you’ve gathered into position to be lit. There are several different ways to lay your fire, but here are a few of the methods that are common methods avid campers:
Teepee Fire The teepee is the most common type of method for laying a fire. Essentially, the kindling sticks and fuel wood are arranged in the shape of a teepee or a cone. The sticks point upwards, meeting at the middle and leaning on each other for support.
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How to Build a Teepee Fire The make a teepee, pile the tinder in the the center of the fire bed. Next, arrange the smaller kindling sticks around the tinder. Place them in an upright fashion where they lean on each other in the middle, creating the teepee shape. Now take the larger kindling sticks and arrange them around the smaller ones, in the same teepee shape. When you are ready to light the fire, use a long lighter to light the tinder in the middle of the teepee. As the fire burns, the outside sticks and wood will fall into the flames and feed the fire.
Pros & Cons • Pros: The Teepee is the easiest method, especially for beginners. It’s simple to make and lights very quickly. • Cons: Although it’s easy to get started, keeping it lit will require a lot of attention and a lot of wood.
Log Cabin Fire Log cabin campfires are excellent for cooking food. The fire will burn for a long time and requires little attention to stay lit. Additionally, the frame of the log cabin provides great support for cookware, whereas cooking with other types of campfires often requires you to manually hold the cookware over the flames.
How to Build a Log Cabin Fire To create a log cabin fire, place a tinder pile in the center of the fire bed. Essentially, you are going to build a small log cabin. First, take two kindling sticks and place them parallel to each other, with one on each side of the tinder pile. Next, take two more kindling sticks and place them on the other two sides of the tinder (forming a square around the tinder pile). The ends of that pair of sticks should rest on top of the first pair of sticks that were placed. Repeat this process a few times, but use progressively thinner kindling sticks as you reach the top of your log cabin.
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Pros & Cons • Pros: Does not require much tending to, so it’s easy to keep the campfire burning. Burns for a long time. Great for cooking and the frame can hold cookware. • Cons: The log cabin method requires more wood. It also requires some skill and takes longer to build.
Lean-to Fire Unfortunately, we can’t control the weather. If the wind picks up during your camping trip, it can make building a fire a very difficult and frustrating task. The lean-to method is a great way to build a campfire in windy conditions.
How to Build a Lean-to Fire To build a lean-to fire, first place a large log flat on the fire bed. Next, determine the direction that the wind is blowing. Now place a mound of tinder on the ground right next to the long- side of the log, but make sure that the log is in between the tinder and the wind. Essentially, the large log is going to shield the fire from the wind. Next, place small kindling sticks over the tinder and position them so that they are leaning against the large log. Position larger kindling sticks in the same fashion, on top of the smaller sticks and also leaning against the log. When you are ready to light the fire, use a long lighter to light the tinder beneath the kindling sticks.
Pros & Cons • Pros: Good for windy weather because the wind is blocked by a large log. • Cons: Creates a smaller fire than with the other methods.
Best Campfire Method for Cooking If you are planning to use your campfire to cook food, we recommend that you build a log cabin fire. This fire is very low maintenance and slow burning, so you can focus on food preparation and cooking rather than maintaining the fire. The frame used to build a log cabin fire also provides great support for your cookware so you don’t have to manually hold your pot over the flames the entire time.
4. Light the Campfire When it comes to lighting a campfire, we recommend that you use long lighters. With a regular lighter or a match, it can be very difficult, even impossible, to reach the tinder
Most Importantly Have Fun, Stay Safe and Leave No Trace Home Dads Camping 2020 | Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st June beneath the kindling wood. A long lighter is great because you can slide the end through the sticks you’ve laid and easily reach the tinder. When you’re ready, carefully ignite the pile of tinder.
5. Build up and Maintain the Fire Once your fire is successfully lit, it’s time to build it up into a real campfire. It’s important to remember to build the fire slowly and steadily. First, begin by adding thin sticks to the fire. After a while, you should begin slowly increasing the thickness of the sticks, and eventually work your way up to the larger logs. Remember, it’s important not to rush this process or you will suffocate and extinguish the flames. Add the sticks slowly and steadily, and pace yourself.
6. Extinguish the Campfire When the party is over, it’s time to extinguish the campfire. This is a crucial step in the process. Allow yourself plenty of time to make sure that the fire is completely out before leaving the area or going to sleep. It is extremely important to not leave the campsite or go to sleep before the fire is completely extinguished. An unattended fire can quickly spread, injure you, injure animals, and destroy the campgrounds.
Stop Adding Wood Allow the campfire to die down for a while before you start the process of extinguishing it. To do this, simply stop adding wood or fuel to the flames, and let the size of the fire dwindle down naturally.
Use Water and Stir Once the fire is reduced to a manageable size, carefully begin dump some water onto the fire bed. Use a long stick to move the embers and ashes around. Repeat this process, carefully adding water and stirring with a stick until the fire goes out completely. This process will need to be repeated several times, so allow yourself between 20-30 minutes of time to extinguish the fire completely.
7. Clean Up the Mess Cleaning up the mess that you have left is another important part of camping.
If you created your own fire bed from scratch, your best course of action is to follow the “leave no trace” principle. Clean up and remove any debris, whether it’s inside or outside of the fire bed. Remove the rock ring, any unused wood, and any trash that is in the area. Regardless of whether your at a campsite or in the wilderness, it’s important to respect your environment, respect nature, and respect your fellow campers.
Conclusion That’s it, go build that awesome campfire! Take care with fire and never play with or near fire. Parents should always be around and supervising.
6 WAYS TO START A FIRE WITHOUT MATCHES OR A LIGHTER
Most Importantly Have Fun, Stay Safe and Leave No Trace Home Dads Camping 2020 | Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st June
Hopefully, you'll never be in the position where you won't have any matches or lighters to start a fire with when you're out camping--asking yourself, "How do I start a fire without matches?" However, no matter how cautious you are about taking fire-making instruments with you, it's good to know more than one way to start a fire when you spend a lot of time in the great outdoors. For example, if you're caught in an unexpected thunderstorm, your matches might get wet, despite your best efforts to keep them in a waterproof container. Since anything can happen, be prepared for anything. Here are six ways you can start a fire without a match.
1. ALWAYS CARRY TINDER WITH YOU, REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU START YOUR FIRE. Starting a fire from scratch is difficult enough even with matches. Without matches, it's even harder. To give yourself a head-start on starting a fire, bring a tinder kit with you. A tinder kit should consist of material that is dry and easy to use in the creation of a fire. You can tease apart rope fiber into soft, thin threads; cotton balls soaked in vaseline work especially well; and you can always buy tinder kits. If you're caught without any tinder material on you, or if what you have has gotten wet, look for cedar trees or birch trees. The bark of these trees can be shredded to create some quick tinder. Cattails also work as natural tinder material.
2. START A FIRE WITHOUT MATCHES USING FLINT AND STEEL. One of the easiest match-free ways to start a fire is to use flint and steel. Flint and steel kits can be purchased relatively inexpensively and are easy to start a fire with if you have a tinder kit, especially if your tinder kit includes charcloth. Making a fire with flint and steel has three essential steps: First, you need to create a spark. Second, you need to catch that spark. Third, you need to turn the spark into a flame. To complete the first two steps, take a small bit of charcloth and lay it flat against the flint. Next, strike the flint with the metal striker. You should see sparks immediately if you strike the flint at the right angle. One of these sparks should eventually land on the charcloth, giving it a tiny orange glow. That tiny glow is enough to start a fire with; you should transfer the charcloth to the tinder nest when the glow appears, gently wrapping the charcloth into the tinder nest and then blowing on it. The tinder nest should smoke and produce a flame almost right away. You can feed the flame with small kindling, such as dried grass, pinestraw, or twigs, and then use the more stable flame to light your logs on fire.
3. START A FIRE WITHOUT MATCHES USING A GLASS LENS.
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Some of us discovered this method quite on accident as children when we melted toys with a magnifying glass or accidentally caught bugs on fire. Hopefully, you won't be using your magnifying glass to torture bugs when you're on your next hiking trip, but if you have an unobstructed view of the sun, you can easily use the magnifying glass method to start a fire. A magnifying glass that rotates in and out of a vinyl case, as opposed to a magnifying glass with a handle, is ideal for traveling with. This method is very simple. Put your tinder nest on the ground or with your kindling, then aim the beam of the sun at the tinder nest until it begins to smoke. When it starts smoking, gently blow on the tinder nest until you produce a flame. Using a magnifying glass to start a fire is easy, but it depends upon having a decent amount of sunlight. Since you can't always depend on the sun being out, it's good to have more methods on-hand than just the magnifying glass.
4. USE AN ALTERNATIVE TO A GLASS LENS. Besides using a glass lens to capture the rays of the sun and produce a fire, you can also use a water-filled balloon or a mirror to achieve the same effect. When using water inside a balloon, try to make the shape into a sphere. The more spherical the container is, the more effective it will be at focusing the rays of the sun. If you don't have a mirror on hand, you can polish the botton of a soda/beer can with toothpaste or chocolate and turn it into a mirror. By the way, if you use this last method, don't eat the chocolate after you've polished your aluminum can with it; the chocolate may contain toxic residue.
5. USE FRICTION. One of the most famous ways to start a fire without a match is also one of the most difficult: using friction. To use this method, make a v-shaped notch in a board or log, and choose a spindle that will create the friction. Rub the spindle between your hands as fast as you can, moving your hands up and down the spindle rapidly. When the board or log begins to smoke, use your tinder nest to catch the glowing spark you've produced. You can also create a bow drill instead. The bow drill is easier than the primitive method described above, but it requires you to make a proper bow first, which is harder.
6. CREATING A FIRE WITHOUT A MATCH WHEN IT'S WET OUTSIDE. What if you're in a worst-case scenario type of situation? Your matches and your lighter have both gotten wet and won't work. You have a tinder kit, along with some flint and steel, but your tinder kit has gotten wet, too. The downpour has also made the forest around you wet, so there is virtually no dry kindling or logs anywhere to be found. Are you stuck at this point? No. If you're resourceful, you can still start a fire. Start by finding some dry tinder. The aforementioned birch or cedar bark works well in this scenario, but you'll have to peel a few layers of bark off to get to the dry bark. As for finding dry wood, look for a standing dead tree. Unlike a dead tree that's lying on the forest floor, a standing dead tree will usually be dry inside. Peel away the rotted, wet, outer section of the tree to get to the dry wood on the inside. You can use this dry wood as your kindling. Once you have a decent blaze going, you can use even damp limbs and twigs in your fire, because the heat of the fire will be strong enough to catch damp wood at that point.
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