Bro EXACTLY what I was thinking 😂😂😂😂 Anybody who has built a brush fire from wood they sourced in the woods near their camp knows damn well its typically NEVER as easy as this. By no means am I a fire expert or anything, but I have built hundreds of brush fires and its tricky as hell. I've had my share of cold ass nights hunting during the rainy season in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the unforgiving b!tch of the Louisiana bayou 😅 because I wasn't able to source any dry wood and ran out of daylight. I always bring a propane heater with me now just in case because I learned my lesson the hard way. You become smart from making dumbass decisions that you HAVE to fix. This dude is great and he means well. This video is great if you are camping by your home and have pre cut and dried wood. But this, unfortunately, will not work in many situations. Although 🤔, I will say that how he stacked his wood like a little brush cabin was awesome. When I saw how it directed the flames into a point like that, I immediately thought that I could use my cast iron cooking rack over that to cook much better. When I go on a big hunt, I always go heavy and bring my Dutch oven setup and I think this may be perfect for it. So even though as we kinda figured out this video is pretty much pointless 😅 BUT I did get that cool idea from it that's definitely going in my hunting toolbox 😂😂
well in most of the nashinal parks here in aus tell you to bring your own wood in as not to take it from the bush. not that most people follow that (my self included)
Where can I buy this dry as hell wood? I cannot find such dry wood nowhere :D seems like that wood was dried for 10 years before this video took place.
Just collect dry deadfall and tinder. Pine needles. Birch bark. If its wet outside check under the dry spots. Under thick canopy spots preferably. But he does present the cabin and small tinder vs large fuel theory 😊
I always take about 25 pieces of fire wood with me to get the fire started. Since you can never be sure you'll find enough dry wood for burning once you get to the camp site and use it to dry out the wood you collect. But gather twigs and dry grasses as fire starter pine cones and brown pine needles work well as starters too as long as they are dry.
As a knife-nut: not every knife can take "batoning", a good rule of thumb is to take a carbon steel knife and have the blade at least be 3mm thick, you should be golden if you follow those rules!
I learned my knife skills in the late 70's and back then batoning was a big no no unless it was a life and death situation, and you certainly NEVER batoned if you had an axe with you. Knife reviewers on YT started this whole batoning craze as a way to prove a knife was strong and now everyone just accepts it as being the correct way to do things... crazy!
Yep that works. So does walking over to a couple pine trees snapping off some of the lower dead limbs where they've got lots of sap and perhaps some pine cones those make good starters too and I don't have to f*** around.
Learned that trick about dead pine branches when I was a little kid. He called it "squaw wood". I don't think you're supposed to say that anymore, Oh well.
Always have a back up. If u bring a bic, use ur nails or a tool to pry the two prongs near where the flame comes out, and remove the safety thing. So now if your lighters flint gets wet, you can now just roll the thingy on said lighter and dry it out wayyyyy easier compared to if it had the push lock on the spinner. Hope that made sense lol
A friend told me about camp fires. White men build them large and hot so they have to move back from the heat. Indians build small fires get in close to stay warm. Uses less fuel too.
Note all the air space between the bits of wood. It's absolutely necessary. Smaller chips = Smaller spaces, yet still they MUST be there. Airflow brings in oxygen. More oxygen = hotter fire = bigger wood will burn. Blowing GENTLY on an "almost" fire adds that extra bit of oxygen & helps that spark ignite.
As a boy scout who builds fires all the time, this is absolutely the way to do it. However there are challenges such as finding your own wood to chop because you don't always have access to readily cut wood. Look for something that's not rotten wood, but something that is dead. You can test by breaking a small branch, if it snaps easily, it's dead. If it bends, it's still alive and wet and will not light. Look for something off the ground, sometimes a downed tree leaning up against another tree will work, so long as once again, it's not too rotten or wet. Hope this helps!
50 years ago as a teen backpacker…back when we commonly built fires at campsites…I would always keep my eyes open for birch bark while hiking during the day. Is the perfect hot-burning fire-lighting fuel…even when damp. Birch bark with small dry sticks over and you can get almost anything started. Never struggled with this issue.
Yeah butch bark is the best I knew an old timer that would keep some in his wallet at all times just in case. This natural oils just keep it going no matter how wet it is
Make sure and separate the area out . Respectfully please as a former US Girl Scout before they ruined them. forest fires 🔥 can happen if your not really cautious. Rocks or shovel dirt hole then rocks. But Thank You for Your hack
Appreciate that you said, "back when we commonly built fires at campsites." Modern backpackers keep their footprint as small as possible and don't make campfires. If you want to enjoy nature you need to go the extra distance to keep it pristine for others to enjoy.
Speaking of pine, an important tip you left out , your wood that was used is pine. Excellent for starting a fire because it contains resin and turpentine that ignite quickly and burn hot.
Hair just to get the fire started..... not the fire itself. Funny to watch people trying like mad to get a fire started whern all they gotta do is cut off a little hair and they have the perfect fire starter material. @@bartsimpson8616
@@mattschmitt9924If one were to smoke a whole lot of weed they could keep the tinder in their mouth, undoubtedly the driest place their body has at the time
So grateful for the knowledge I was given while in Boy Scouts. I know it may have a tarnished reputation that makes me so angry at the people who target children, or groups for our youth, so that they can have access to them. It makes parents want to keep their children away from scouting, which teach valuable life lessons far beyond how to start a fire or make shelter. But I can’t blame them. It takes a few bad apples to ruin the bunch.
Depending on your situation, this might be needed info. Whenever you put fuel on top of your fire, it will create smoke. Whenever the fuel is below the fire and it burns down, there is not noticeable smoke produced.
Good example. As an Army Infantry soldier, this was a good how-to video. Your set-up was perfect. An Army GO! What amazes me are all the couch potatoes that weigh in & critisize "the man in the arena". "It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust & sweat......" (Teddy Roosevelt)
So you packed in precut fire wood instead of gathering kindling like boy scouts are taught to do it? I thought the department of defense had you pack survival gear not dura flame logs
@@toasteee252 How he did it was exactly how we were taught in the scouts. They did not teach us to bring lighter fluid or pre-soaked this or that. They taught us to start with tinder and 1 match, build up with kindling, then add fuel, while making sure the fire can breathe. All he's doing is showing how to make the tinder and kindling if you don't have any. I've been to many state parks where they don't want you scrummaging around for fire wood, so you buy firewood to bring with you. I've also brought firewood I've cut myself from trees I've downed in my back yard, that look exactly like his cut logs look. I would say the point is, whether you buy the precut logs at the gas station prior to going into the woods, or find dead trees and branches in the woods, the methods he is showing are applicable.
Some of us older guys have shown eight and 12 year olds, how to make a fire with dryer, lint, an old piece of candle wax, and Pineknot, when everything was soaking wet and And soon we had a roaring fire
@@trevorpote3442 I carry it on an index card laminated along with 30 other laminated cards: my Oath, my Ranger creed, the Rifleman creed, INVICTUS poem, Rendezvous W Death poem, Declaration of Independence, etcetera. If they find my body on the battlefield, they'll find my Ranger cards & know what I fought for & what I stood for.
If you are in an Arctic environment where the cold takes the energy out of the fire or in a windy area I would suggest making the "Log Cabin style fire" first. But that base is must in wet or cold areas. Everyone is an expert till you have to build a fire at -30F in a blizzard.
I do a flat stack alternating directions with a tiny teepee on top. Stole it from some survivalist guy, it’s great to cook on and it burns for many hours cause it’s dense
Teepee top doesn't work as well in the Arctic as a Flat cabin top. I can't tell you the science behind it, I just have tried both at -40F and found the flat top cabin held the heat better to get the wood started. Believe it or not super cold wood doesn't like to catch :(
You could do a one-hour video on this topic and still not cover all aspects but for a one-minute presentation this was great. If the viewer can make a couple simple extrapolations, he can reason out that he needs a range of small sizes from shavings to dry twigs, and can see that he can substitute a match or lighter for flint and steel. Kudos!
Also, dig a small pit, that way you can completely cover up your fire when you’re done camping and leave no trace. I’d rather somebody do this and use lighter fluid to light a fire, then to not dig a pit.
Make fire eggs, take the cardboard egg crates, melt down Vaseline, make a paste using saw dust, fill you crates with the paste, optionally line with foil or wax paper to prevent soaking through, now just pack that, a knife and a ferro-rod, it sounds more complicated than it is, plus it stores FOREVER
If you’re building a fire in a wood stove or fireplace use the top down method. It allows you to build a nice bed of coals for cooking as well as keeping a fire going with minimal effort. It woks well in a campfire to
It's amazing how many people don't know this. Thanks for telling the masses... I hope to start a camp one day to teach kids and parents country living skills.
The fluff also burns quicker too, and most of the time it isn’t even lit long enough to catch the rest of the wood. It’s also more time consuming to create fluff than shavings. Shavings are more efficient even if they take 3 more seconds to catch.
the majority of my life...building a fire meant we cut down or cut up a fallen pine tree and sectioned it to 3-4 ft lengths, then tossed it all into a huge bonfire, added a gallon of gasoline and then tossed in a road flare. It worked.
Bring dryer lint if you are going to bring something. Put it in a ziplock. That stuff starts almost immediately. Boy Scouts actually taught me something when I was younger. We used it to make fires for the nights we stayed in the cold in Igloos in the middle of winter.
The most important part that you used but didn't highlight is the large wood base. Always start on a wood platform. This keeps the fire off the cold ground, allows the base to radiate back on the kindling, and allows for good airflow to the base of the fire where it matters most.
I enjoyed the instruction. Shows the value in not only bringing a small hatchet but wearing a fire starting necklace even down to the fire wood prep to the layout and structure of fire. We'll done.
If you dont have a hatchet or knife, you get very small kindling from the tips of dead branches, preferably dead still attached to the tree. Pine is best. Twigs and kindling should easily snap - flexible twigs = green/live and wet. Also at the base of dead pine branches, or stumps of pine, they contain alot of pine sap that ignites and burns long enough to start a fire. This is called lighterknot or fatwood. They sell it in stores too. Smaller pieces, like 1/4in slivers, work best to ignite your tiny twigs. A pack at the store should last for many fires unless, it is wet out and you have to burn a whole piece. Then once caught quickly step up to bigger twigs, let those catch, then small sticks, then big sticks, and finally, thick branches or large pieces you can carefully lay over the fire to catch, then settle it down into the rest of the fire. (dont dump it and smother the fire)..also make a bed of branches to build on like he did with firewood, then use another piece layed on top so you can lean your small twigs up against it and be able to hold or put the fatwood under and build up the kindling. Or his birdcage method works too. Remember, when starting a fire, too much kindling will smother it; must have good air flow. Fire burns from the base up, so you cant just stick a lighter in a pile and expect it to burn. After your fire gets going big with dry wood, green wood will burn but it HAS to be on a hot fire and you cant leave it..sometimes you have to adjust, add more dry or reposition the green wood so it gets more air/fire and catches too.
Always ensure that your wood is entirely bone dry as well! Campers: There is NOTHING wrong with using a dollar store firestarter brick. But yes, to avoid wastage and save time, you should cut your purchased wood into smaller pieces -- leave the bigger wet pieces for the bottom and sides.
You don't need bone dry wood, just not soaked wood and the important part is dried tinder. An easy way to dry damp to wet tinder is tucking it under your armpit while you build a shelter or travel.
This information used to be passed around by very young kids to each other while camping or hunting in the bush with their elders. Now its novel for a 25yo to be able to do it 😮. Myself & everyone I grew up with knew how to establish a fire for as far as I can remember. Even in this video the clean dressed gentlemen with no dirt under his nails appears to have brought clean perfectly cut to length, seasoned processed wood with him for the video. So he wasnt confident in himself being able to start a fire with native surrounding tinder & wood 😅 The Indian style ax isn't something a seasoned bushman would recommend either. Will glance off wood at speed with ease.
I currently live on a 5 acre property in Puerto Rico, the back half is nothing but woods. Every once in a while my uncle and his friends come around and camp out in the wooded area. First time, they came when I was here my uncle tried to build a fire using 3 foot logs and just dousing everything in gasoline. I told him I didn't think that was going to work, remembering stuff I learned when I was a boy scout. He didn't listen and lit the fire. It burned for maybe 5 minutes before going out and the logs were barely scorched.
I've been building fires since I was 12. My stepson uses lighter fluid because his dad did. I use wood. UNLESS ITS WET, then I use my own homemade fire starter.
You can get good twigs to start a fire by looking for dead, fallen wood that is sticking up in the air after the branch has fallen from the tree. THe wood gets a lot of air circulation and is more likely to be dry, even during light rains sometimes.
All good. Here’s another tip…keep several lighters in separate ziplock bags in different compartments of your gear. My old man said if something happens to all of them…you might have bigger issues.
I will say, be careful when seating the axe onto the wood. There have been quite a few incidents where the axe didn't stick but instead, bounced up and off and back onto the hand holding it. This is less of an issue if the axe is sharp but if it doesn't bite this can happen.
Here's another quick tip: don't cut towards your hand. If you're ever in survival mode, where you're exhausted and emotionally compromised, you'll end up slicing off a finger. Practice doing things the right way when things are nice so you don't do the wrong thing like this guy when it really matters.
You don't need the knife for the mid splits. Lay the pieces on their side with the hatchet handle parallel to the piece to split. Swing both together. Then you can get shavings with the hatchet head. You can use a sharper knife for other reasons. The knife stays sharper, the hatchet works faster, and both are better suited for the tasks you use them for.
The proper way is to gather some small combustibles first, like twigs, and leaves. This stuff is easy to light. Once you have the small stuff going, you can add progressively larger wood. This way, you can often avoid splitting wood altogether. I personally have never even taken a hatchet or ax into the woods. I never have needed one. The only time you should need to split wood is if all the smaller combustible material around you is wet.
So amazing all these commenters saying don't use your knife like that, it will dull it. You keep your knives wrapped up and safe and the rest of us will use ours. And the trash talk about him using pre cut dry wood, he's simply showing the basic concept, not a detailed guide on surviving in the wild. Too many complainers who apparently do everything perfectly.
When breaking fire wood down hold the wood out and use your hatchet to split the other end. This will save you from cutting yourself and have better control.
Tighter space between the logs will reflect back and forth more intensely... just a narrow slit between the logs with only eniugh space to encourage the flame... the flame will tell you how tight is too tight of a space.
Family was on our wooded beach property. My mom wanted me to build a small camp fire. I had never ever tried that before but some Boy Scout training kicked in. I built her a fire. I had never been so proud.
Trick for y’all (from an Eagle Scout): Take three sticks about as big as your thumb and make a triangle. You want a point facing you and a flat side opposite. Place the first stick on one side, then the back, finally the other side (so you can lift the end of the first stick and the third hinges on the back). Place your tinder in the middle of this triangle. Lay the finest sticks you have (up to a little bigger than a pencil) parallel to the back side of the triangle (so you can lift the end of the triangle along with all of the sticks). Don’t worry about adding too many sticks. Lift the end of the triangle and light your tinder. Let the sticks hover low enough to the tinder that they light on fire but not so low that the fire gets smothered (the beauty of this technique is you can really overload on twigs to catch stubborn kindling up to wrist size without running out of twigs because you can just plop a whole armload on it.
Get a knee high or so round log, split it into 4 , stand it up right. Brace bottom with stone rocks, leave open a gap in middle, drop dry twigs down the center. Light it and have an all night warm fire.
I took the survival fire challenge in the very wet mountain forests of North Idaho after a week of rain. Quick tip. Bring a lighter or four and bring your fire starter with you. It takes a few minutes to dry damp wood before it will light. And no there was no fat wood near me and the protected moss wouldn't light with a ferro rod and magnesium shavings.
I’m all for survivor teachings and bushcraft teaching…but most adults can’t even split wood and for them I wish them good luck in the dirty times ahead
So guys, when you're making a youtube video make sure the audio is drowned out by you banging wood together, this really makes it seem like you know what you are doing.
Pretty good tutorial I imagine How would you make a good fire that only burns for a few hours and doesn’t have to be efficient? The occasional for fun camp fires often end up being a chore to make sure they get put out.
It always cracks me up that these fire starting videos have the most dry seasoned wood you can ever find anywhere. Yeah show me some with some what does been rained on for a couple of days. A kindergarten could start a fire with the word you have.
As a canoe rental owner, I encourage people to leave their hatchets at home. I've seen too many missing toes and scalped shins to suggest that anyone should be using a hatchet. Just bring some girl scout juice, that'll get it started.
You don’t find dry wood like that in the woods all the time pretty simple to make a fire blood from your local gas station not trying to be disrespectful, but if you’re in the woods, you need to locate wood first
The main thing is also to gather enough material .. a generous amount of small and medium wood as well as tinder .. I usually let that burn to a nice bed of coals and then stack my bigs on it throwing in some more smalls to get it going in the middle .. I just like having that bed of coals to start my fire on 👍
The principle he's showing is valid and can be executed with wood gathered from any woodland area. The wood won't be as pretty but the principle is the same. So I'll cut him some slack for using cut firewood. Also it's a really good video for your backyerd firepit.
Bottom line: You need more surface area on wood fuel to start a fire than the average log has. That's what he was creating with every split and shaving he did.
Good fire starting starts with know trees in you area that give everything you need. For me it's cedar and poplar. Both of these trees give me tinder kindling and larger wood that is easily gathered with no need for tools just time.
And make sure you bring a lot of pre cut dry wood lol
Bro EXACTLY what I was thinking 😂😂😂😂 Anybody who has built a brush fire from wood they sourced in the woods near their camp knows damn well its typically NEVER as easy as this. By no means am I a fire expert or anything, but I have built hundreds of brush fires and its tricky as hell. I've had my share of cold ass nights hunting during the rainy season in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the unforgiving b!tch of the Louisiana bayou 😅 because I wasn't able to source any dry wood and ran out of daylight. I always bring a propane heater with me now just in case because I learned my lesson the hard way. You become smart from making dumbass decisions that you HAVE to fix.
This dude is great and he means well. This video is great if you are camping by your home and have pre cut and dried wood. But this, unfortunately, will not work in many situations. Although 🤔, I will say that how he stacked his wood like a little brush cabin was awesome. When I saw how it directed the flames into a point like that, I immediately thought that I could use my cast iron cooking rack over that to cook much better. When I go on a big hunt, I always go heavy and bring my Dutch oven setup and I think this may be perfect for it. So even though as we kinda figured out this video is pretty much pointless 😅 BUT I did get that cool idea from it that's definitely going in my hunting toolbox 😂😂
First thing I noticed too 😂
lol
well in most of the nashinal parks here in aus tell you to bring your own wood in as not to take it from the bush. not that most people follow that (my self included)
i do have to say that i have not hurd or seen aneyone call then brush fires @@-Thunderforge-
Be sure you bring that preseasoned firewood with you. Works every time!
Look for dead standing trees or branches and logs caught in the trees and then no need
Came here to say this
kiln dried too
lol, sarcasm is lost on you.
Where can I buy this dry as hell wood? I cannot find such dry wood nowhere :D seems like that wood was dried for 10 years before this video took place.
Also, make sure to tell the wind to stop blowing.
Politely ❤
It's better to have wind once the fire is somewhat lit, then it helps blow the flames hotter
Why would you do that? The wind will help feed the flames fresh oxygen so it doesn't choke itself out.
@@jakemccoy Well that's your fault then for being untrained. Look up Lean-to Fire.
The fire setup in the video is not getting started in a strong wind. I hope the keyboard commandos learned something today.
Just collect dry deadfall and tinder. Pine needles. Birch bark. If its wet outside check under the dry spots. Under thick canopy spots preferably. But he does present the cabin and small tinder vs large fuel theory 😊
Packing in precut firewood always makes it really easy.
Definitely is pre prepared, but it takes like five minutes to get that amount of firewood basically anywhere there are trees.
Agree as it looks like he found really dry, dry wood or :)
I always take about 25 pieces of fire wood with me to get the fire started. Since you can never be sure you'll find enough dry wood for burning once you get to the camp site and use it to dry out the wood you collect. But gather twigs and dry grasses as fire starter pine cones and brown pine needles work well as starters too as long as they are dry.
As a knife-nut: not every knife can take "batoning", a good rule of thumb is to take a carbon steel knife and have the blade at least be 3mm thick, you should be golden if you follow those rules!
Good advice for sure
I learned my knife skills in the late 70's and back then batoning was a big no no unless it was a life and death situation, and you certainly NEVER batoned if you had an axe with you.
Knife reviewers on YT started this whole batoning craze as a way to prove a knife was strong and now everyone just accepts it as being the correct way to do things... crazy!
As far I'm aware it's also best if the knife is full tang, so it doesn't break out from the handle
@@JohnSmith-ki2eq Ka-Bar Becker BK2. Looks like something from Warhammer 40k and actually hatchets better than my little Gerber hatchet. YMMV.
Gotta be full tang too
Yep that works. So does walking over to a couple pine trees snapping off some of the lower dead limbs where they've got lots of sap and perhaps some pine cones those make good starters too and I don't have to f*** around.
Hey don't forget dry pine needles
Learned that trick about dead pine branches when I was a little kid. He called it "squaw wood". I don't think you're supposed to say that anymore, Oh well.
@@thomsbooth4906fat wood
Birch bark is one of the best natural materials for fire starting
An old Green Beret taught me his best technigue for starting a fire in the woods. He always carried a small bic lighter. Work smarter, not harder.
Always have a back up. If u bring a bic, use ur nails or a tool to pry the two prongs near where the flame comes out, and remove the safety thing. So now if your lighters flint gets wet, you can now just roll the thingy on said lighter and dry it out wayyyyy easier compared to if it had the push lock on the spinner.
Hope that made sense lol
@@Mrlongboarding4lif3 good info.
I just posted that. I never understood carrying around a flint when a lighter would last for weeks.
A friend told me about camp fires. White men build them large and hot so they have to move back from the heat. Indians build small fires get in close to stay warm. Uses less fuel too.
A friend told you about camp fires? You didn't know about them?
Note all the air space between the bits of wood. It's absolutely necessary. Smaller chips = Smaller spaces, yet still they MUST be there.
Airflow brings in oxygen. More oxygen = hotter fire = bigger wood will burn. Blowing GENTLY on an "almost" fire adds that extra bit of oxygen & helps that spark ignite.
As a boy scout who builds fires all the time, this is absolutely the way to do it. However there are challenges such as finding your own wood to chop because you don't always have access to readily cut wood.
Look for something that's not rotten wood, but something that is dead. You can test by breaking a small branch, if it snaps easily, it's dead. If it bends, it's still alive and wet and will not light. Look for something off the ground, sometimes a downed tree leaning up against another tree will work, so long as once again, it's not too rotten or wet. Hope this helps!
50 years ago as a teen backpacker…back when we commonly built fires at campsites…I would always keep my eyes open for birch bark while hiking during the day. Is the perfect hot-burning fire-lighting fuel…even when damp. Birch bark with small dry sticks over and you can get almost anything started. Never struggled with this issue.
Yeah butch bark is the best I knew an old timer that would keep some in his wallet at all times just in case. This natural oils just keep it going no matter how wet it is
Make sure and separate the area out . Respectfully please as a former US Girl Scout before they ruined them. forest fires 🔥 can happen if your not really cautious. Rocks or shovel dirt hole then rocks. But Thank You for Your hack
Yeaaa... Birch doesn't grow everywhere....
Birch bark, fat wood, and a feather stick
Appreciate that you said, "back when we commonly built fires at campsites." Modern backpackers keep their footprint as small as possible and don't make campfires. If you want to enjoy nature you need to go the extra distance to keep it pristine for others to enjoy.
Pine needles work great too and less work...if you are surrounded by lots of pine trees 😊
His hair man. Instant fire....
@@artkyger3425 that wont gonna burn more then 2 sec, for that its needed Jamaican hair . cut it only 5cm and thats it,
Speaking of pine, an important tip you left out , your wood that was used is pine. Excellent for starting a fire because it contains resin and turpentine that ignite quickly and burn hot.
Hair just to get the fire started..... not the fire itself. Funny to watch people trying like mad to get a fire started whern all they gotta do is cut off a little hair and they have the perfect fire starter material. @@bartsimpson8616
@@edwinschwartz2472 but no coals left to cook with.
how to start a fire using perfectly dry wood. bollocks
You can dry wet tinder out by putting it under your armpits while you work or travel. If you have enough it will dry the wood out you are lighting.
@@ak_downrange_threat7251when I am working, my armpit isn't the dryest place I can come up with.
@@mattschmitt9924If one were to smoke a whole lot of weed they could keep the tinder in their mouth, undoubtedly the driest place their body has at the time
Nothing wrong with the advice though. Just harder with wetter wood is all
And you need the tinder to be the least wet and more of it
So grateful for the knowledge I was given while in Boy Scouts. I know it may have a tarnished reputation that makes me so angry at the people who target children, or groups for our youth, so that they can have access to them. It makes parents want to keep their children away from scouting, which teach valuable life lessons far beyond how to start a fire or make shelter. But I can’t blame them. It takes a few bad apples to ruin the bunch.
Depending on your situation, this might be needed info. Whenever you put fuel on top of your fire, it will create smoke. Whenever the fuel is below the fire and it burns down, there is not noticeable smoke produced.
Those log cabin fires make the best cooking coals, love those
*Johnny Fairplay? Is your face alright?*
Good example. As an Army Infantry soldier, this was a good how-to video. Your set-up was perfect. An Army GO! What amazes me are all the couch potatoes that weigh in & critisize "the man in the arena".
"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust & sweat......" (Teddy Roosevelt)
So you packed in precut fire wood instead of gathering kindling like boy scouts are taught to do it?
I thought the department of defense had you pack survival gear not dura flame logs
@@toasteee252 How he did it was exactly how we were taught in the scouts. They did not teach us to bring lighter fluid or pre-soaked this or that. They taught us to start with tinder and 1 match, build up with kindling, then add fuel, while making sure the fire can breathe. All he's doing is showing how to make the tinder and kindling if you don't have any.
I've been to many state parks where they don't want you scrummaging around for fire wood, so you buy firewood to bring with you. I've also brought firewood I've cut myself from trees I've downed in my back yard, that look exactly like his cut logs look.
I would say the point is, whether you buy the precut logs at the gas station prior to going into the woods, or find dead trees and branches in the woods, the methods he is showing are applicable.
That's my favorite presidential speach of all time ... lol today's tiktok dancers won't understand .....
Some of us older guys have shown eight and 12 year olds, how to make a fire with dryer, lint, an old piece of candle wax, and Pineknot, when everything was soaking wet and And soon we had a roaring fire
@@trevorpote3442 I carry it on an index card laminated along with 30 other laminated cards: my Oath, my Ranger creed, the Rifleman creed, INVICTUS poem, Rendezvous W Death poem, Declaration of Independence, etcetera. If they find my body on the battlefield, they'll find my Ranger cards & know what I fought for & what I stood for.
Nothing more satisfying than building a fire
This is the best example of exactly how I've always been made A fire taught to me by my father.watched from Nova Scotia Canada
If you are in an Arctic environment where the cold takes the energy out of the fire or in a windy area I would suggest making the "Log Cabin style fire" first. But that base is must in wet or cold areas.
Everyone is an expert till you have to build a fire at -30F in a blizzard.
you don`t try that. you get sheltered one way or another
@@hotdog9262 Try that......I have lived it for 33 years!
I do a flat stack alternating directions with a tiny teepee on top. Stole it from some survivalist guy, it’s great to cook on and it burns for many hours cause it’s dense
Teepee top doesn't work as well in the Arctic as a Flat cabin top. I can't tell you the science behind it, I just have tried both at -40F and found the flat top cabin held the heat better to get the wood started. Believe it or not super cold wood doesn't like to catch :(
If they can't build a fire, I don't want them around me.
You could do a one-hour video on this topic and still not cover all aspects but for a one-minute presentation this was great. If the viewer can make a couple simple extrapolations, he can reason out that he needs a range of small sizes from shavings to dry twigs, and can see that he can substitute a match or lighter for flint and steel. Kudos!
Alot of people dont realise how important these skills are to know. This is life saving stuff cheers brother 👍🤟
Also, dig a small pit, that way you can completely cover up your fire when you’re done camping and leave no trace. I’d rather somebody do this and use lighter fluid to light a fire, then to not dig a pit.
Make fire eggs, take the cardboard egg crates, melt down Vaseline, make a paste using saw dust, fill you crates with the paste, optionally line with foil or wax paper to prevent soaking through, now just pack that, a knife and a ferro-rod, it sounds more complicated than it is, plus it stores FOREVER
If you’re building a fire in a wood stove or fireplace use the top down method. It allows you to build a nice bed of coals for cooking as well as keeping a fire going with minimal effort. It woks well in a campfire to
It's amazing how many people don't know this. Thanks for telling the masses... I hope to start a camp one day to teach kids and parents country living skills.
A few cups of bacon grease soaked into paper towels works like a charm every time.
don't shave the kindling, scrape it. you'll get much finer fluff that lights easier.
Easiest if the spine of your knife is square instead of chamfered.
The fluff also burns quicker too, and most of the time it isn’t even lit long enough to catch the rest of the wood. It’s also more time consuming to create fluff than shavings. Shavings are more efficient even if they take 3 more seconds to catch.
the majority of my life...building a fire meant we cut down or cut up a fallen pine tree and sectioned it to 3-4 ft lengths, then tossed it all into a huge bonfire, added a gallon of gasoline and then tossed in a road flare.
It worked.
Bring dryer lint if you are going to bring something. Put it in a ziplock. That stuff starts almost immediately.
Boy Scouts actually taught me something when I was younger. We used it to make fires for the nights we stayed in the cold in Igloos in the middle of winter.
The most important part that you used but didn't highlight is the large wood base. Always start on a wood platform. This keeps the fire off the cold ground, allows the base to radiate back on the kindling, and allows for good airflow to the base of the fire where it matters most.
Carry a dull hatchet with you, lightly swing to make kindling. If it skips off and hits you hand it just pushes it aside.
I enjoyed the instruction. Shows the value in not only bringing a small hatchet but wearing a fire starting necklace even down to the fire wood prep to the layout and structure of fire. We'll done.
If you dont have a hatchet or knife, you get very small kindling from the tips of dead branches, preferably dead still attached to the tree. Pine is best. Twigs and kindling should easily snap - flexible twigs = green/live and wet. Also at the base of dead pine branches, or stumps of pine, they contain alot of pine sap that ignites and burns long enough to start a fire. This is called lighterknot or fatwood. They sell it in stores too. Smaller pieces, like 1/4in slivers, work best to ignite your tiny twigs. A pack at the store should last for many fires unless, it is wet out and you have to burn a whole piece. Then once caught quickly step up to bigger twigs, let those catch, then small sticks, then big sticks, and finally, thick branches or large pieces you can carefully lay over the fire to catch, then settle it down into the rest of the fire. (dont dump it and smother the fire)..also make a bed of branches to build on like he did with firewood, then use another piece layed on top so you can lean your small twigs up against it and be able to hold or put the fatwood under and build up the kindling. Or his birdcage method works too. Remember, when starting a fire, too much kindling will smother it; must have good air flow. Fire burns from the base up, so you cant just stick a lighter in a pile and expect it to burn. After your fire gets going big with dry wood, green wood will burn but it HAS to be on a hot fire and you cant leave it..sometimes you have to adjust, add more dry or reposition the green wood so it gets more air/fire and catches too.
how to start a fire: bring pretreated wood and a ferro necklace
Always ensure that your wood is entirely bone dry as well!
Campers: There is NOTHING wrong with using a dollar store firestarter brick. But yes, to avoid wastage and save time, you should cut your purchased wood into smaller pieces -- leave the bigger wet pieces for the bottom and sides.
You don't need bone dry wood, just not soaked wood and the important part is dried tinder. An easy way to dry damp to wet tinder is tucking it under your armpit while you build a shelter or travel.
Speaking as a pampered urbanite, I wish I had your survival skills. Side note: you should entitle this vid, Tales of the Bloody Hand 😂
When using flint and steel, keep the steel in place and pull the flint. Its more directed and you wont accidentally hit your tender pile.
I’m glad to see TJ Miller is getting work again.
This information used to be passed around by very young kids to each other while camping or hunting in the bush with their elders. Now its novel for a 25yo to be able to do it 😮. Myself & everyone I grew up with knew how to establish a fire for as far as I can remember. Even in this video the clean dressed gentlemen with no dirt under his nails appears to have brought clean perfectly cut to length, seasoned processed wood with him for the video. So he wasnt confident in himself being able to start a fire with native surrounding tinder & wood 😅 The Indian style ax isn't something a seasoned bushman would recommend either. Will glance off wood at speed with ease.
This is what a short should be. A quick effective informational clip.
Whoooo buddy!
I currently live on a 5 acre property in Puerto Rico, the back half is nothing but woods. Every once in a while my uncle and his friends come around and camp out in the wooded area. First time, they came when I was here my uncle tried to build a fire using 3 foot logs and just dousing everything in gasoline. I told him I didn't think that was going to work, remembering stuff I learned when I was a boy scout. He didn't listen and lit the fire. It burned for maybe 5 minutes before going out and the logs were barely scorched.
I've been building fires since I was 12. My stepson uses lighter fluid because his dad did. I use wood. UNLESS ITS WET, then I use my own homemade fire starter.
You can get good twigs to start a fire by looking for dead, fallen wood that is sticking up in the air after the branch has fallen from the tree. THe wood gets a lot of air circulation and is more likely to be dry, even during light rains sometimes.
Harvest kindling from standing trees. Thin small dead/dry twigs. A handful will be enough to start your fire.
All good. Here’s another tip…keep several lighters in separate ziplock bags in different compartments of your gear. My old man said if something happens to all of them…you might have bigger issues.
Excellent tutorial. This is something everyone should know. After all, Prometheus's sacrifice shouldn't be in vain.
Well done. Thank you. And yes, some of us do bring in bundles of dry wood for the weekends. What a cool way to practice.
I will say, be careful when seating the axe onto the wood. There have been quite a few incidents where the axe didn't stick but instead, bounced up and off and back onto the hand holding it. This is less of an issue if the axe is sharp but if it doesn't bite this can happen.
Here's another quick tip: don't cut towards your hand. If you're ever in survival mode, where you're exhausted and emotionally compromised, you'll end up slicing off a finger. Practice doing things the right way when things are nice so you don't do the wrong thing like this guy when it really matters.
You don't need the knife for the mid splits. Lay the pieces on their side with the hatchet handle parallel to the piece to split. Swing both together. Then you can get shavings with the hatchet head.
You can use a sharper knife for other reasons. The knife stays sharper, the hatchet works faster, and both are better suited for the tasks you use them for.
Use a pine stump (is fueled with resin), a knife and a ferro rod.
The proper way is to gather some small combustibles first, like twigs, and leaves. This stuff is easy to light. Once you have the small stuff going, you can add progressively larger wood. This way, you can often avoid splitting wood altogether. I personally have never even taken a hatchet or ax into the woods. I never have needed one. The only time you should need to split wood is if all the smaller combustible material around you is wet.
So amazing all these commenters saying don't use your knife like that, it will dull it. You keep your knives wrapped up and safe and the rest of us will use ours. And the trash talk about him using pre cut dry wood, he's simply showing the basic concept, not a detailed guide on surviving in the wild. Too many complainers who apparently do everything perfectly.
Boss this is a badass video. Definitely doing this! Good job big dog!
When breaking fire wood down hold the wood out and use your hatchet to split the other end. This will save you from cutting yourself and have better control.
Tighter space between the logs will reflect back and forth more intensely... just a narrow slit between the logs with only eniugh space to encourage the flame... the flame will tell you how tight is too tight of a space.
Family was on our wooded beach property. My mom wanted me to build a small camp fire. I had never ever tried that before but some Boy Scout training kicked in. I built her a fire. I had never been so proud.
Building a fire without any artificial starter or fuel, will teach you how to build a fire. You’ll quickly learn what works and what doesn’t.
Trick for y’all (from an Eagle Scout):
Take three sticks about as big as your thumb and make a triangle. You want a point facing you and a flat side opposite. Place the first stick on one side, then the back, finally the other side (so you can lift the end of the first stick and the third hinges on the back). Place your tinder in the middle of this triangle. Lay the finest sticks you have (up to a little bigger than a pencil) parallel to the back side of the triangle (so you can lift the end of the triangle along with all of the sticks). Don’t worry about adding too many sticks. Lift the end of the triangle and light your tinder. Let the sticks hover low enough to the tinder that they light on fire but not so low that the fire gets smothered (the beauty of this technique is you can really overload on twigs to catch stubborn kindling up to wrist size without running out of twigs because you can just plop a whole armload on it.
You're one of those people that always try to tell someone "you're doing it wrong, let me show you," when everything is working out just fine.
And don't forget your light fluid/ magnesium/fire starter that catches on fire. You'll need it to start a fire easily with wet wood.
Good advice on axe use... but most places require building fires no less than 200' from a body of water.
Get a knee high or so round log, split it into 4 , stand it up right. Brace bottom with stone rocks, leave open a gap in middle, drop dry twigs down the center. Light it and have an all night warm fire.
I took the survival fire challenge in the very wet mountain forests of North Idaho after a week of rain. Quick tip. Bring a lighter or four and bring your fire starter with you. It takes a few minutes to dry damp wood before it will light. And no there was no fat wood near me and the protected moss wouldn't light with a ferro rod and magnesium shavings.
Great Video! Any chance on doing a product review of our Firestarter?
You can also use a sacrificial piece of wood to hold to log you're splitting, instead of your hand
I’m all for survivor teachings and bushcraft teaching…but most adults can’t even split wood and for them I wish them good luck in the dirty times ahead
So guys, when you're making a youtube video make sure the audio is drowned out by you banging wood together, this really makes it seem like you know what you are doing.
That’s the Tik Tac Toe method works great. Every time. Allows O2 in everywhere.
Pretty good tutorial I imagine
How would you make a good fire that only burns for a few hours and doesn’t have to be efficient?
The occasional for fun camp fires often end up being a chore to make sure they get put out.
that works and all butyou can also just pick up small sticks and crush up some dry leaves as well if you don't take an axe
Good helping us out thank you 😊😊😊
It always cracks me up that these fire starting videos have the most dry seasoned wood you can ever find anywhere. Yeah show me some with some what does been rained on for a couple of days. A kindergarten could start a fire with the word you have.
Wedge of firewood underneath also provides airflow!
As a canoe rental owner, I encourage people to leave their hatchets at home. I've seen too many missing toes and scalped shins to suggest that anyone should be using a hatchet. Just bring some girl scout juice, that'll get it started.
Propane torch will light things up very well.
I would use a medium sized knife to baton, which is safer that using a hatchet on the small firewood
You don’t find dry wood like that in the woods all the time pretty simple to make a fire blood from your local gas station not trying to be disrespectful, but if you’re in the woods, you need to locate wood first
The main thing is also to gather enough material .. a generous amount of small and medium wood as well as tinder .. I usually let that burn to a nice bed of coals and then stack my bigs on it throwing in some more smalls to get it going in the middle .. I just like having that bed of coals to start my fire on 👍
I've always picked up twigs and leaves to get it started.
You city boys got it made.
The principle he's showing is valid and can be executed with wood gathered from any woodland area. The wood won't be as pretty but the principle is the same. So I'll cut him some slack for using cut firewood. Also it's a really good video for your backyerd firepit.
Be sure to bring pre-cut, dry fire wood, as well as a fire starter necklace in any survival situation. Lol
It’s good to store dryer lint in a dry container to cart wherever you please
you have no issue bringing perfectly dry, cut and chopped firewood, but when it comes to a lighter, nope - got to rough it with a flint rod!
Deadpool's bartender, serving up survival techniques.
Bottom line: You need more surface area on wood fuel to start a fire than the average log has.
That's what he was creating with every split and shaving he did.
Good fire starting starts with know trees in you area that give everything you need. For me it's cedar and poplar. Both of these trees give me tinder kindling and larger wood that is easily gathered with no need for tools just time.
Step 1. Buy cut dry wood from the store.
Step 2. Split dry wood with an axe
Super safe hand placement 😂 definitely didn't end your video with a cut on your hand, lol.
This knowledge can save your life important to know 😮
Drier lint, or, just about any dried up plant flower, or Tree Cotton (Cottonwoods, Silver Maple) work very well for flint starter.
The biggest fire i ever started was in a dumpster that was 30' × 8' trash dumpster 🔥🔥🔥🔥 It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw😢
The store bought, precut, seasoned, dry hardwood helps a lot when you're trapped in the wilderness and need a fire for survival.
I find using a folding saw helps with gathering wood for free
Sick. TJ Miller is going to teach me how to survive in the woods
If you're gonna swing a hatchet over head it's a good idea to do it from your knees so that if you miss you hit the dirt before your leg.
So that’s what he does when he isn’t bartending in Deadpool 😂
Just saying that a hunting knife being hit on the back with a branch will also split wood with a bit of practice.