All Things Survival: Show 6: To Build A Fire...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4ba07808fc03.jpg[/atsimg]


Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 8:00PM EST

illustrial.net

The gathered a panel of hosts, include Military Veterans, Mountain Men and just plain old Hillbillies, with a combined experience in Survival of over 100 years!!!!!

Your Panel

JacKatMtn
Semperfortis
Ahabstar
12m8keall2c
and
Asktheanimals


This weeks show will be about fire. The ability to make fire is exactly what separates us from the animals. And having that universal tool will often make animals separate from us. Listen in as we talk all about fire.

So TUNE IN THURSDAY @ 8:00PM EASTERN via illustrial.net and give us some listeners while you learn and expand your knowledge along the way. And if you have not checked out our YouTube Channel, stop by and watch the videos we have up. And be sure to leave comments, hit the like button or subscribe as you feel is appropriate.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Now there's a good program...
I've been thinking we old timers forget to cover the very basics...
Ass/u/me/ing that younger folks know all this stuff already...

Feel free to use my posts on DIY drier lint firestarter and my other DIY Smoker pit... I quickly touch on how-too build a fire for a smoker

OooH! A hot topic!
Made an ash of myself again

This is going to be a very in depth discussion about methods of starting fires, how to build them, which woods burn best, fire as a tool and much more. I'm really going to enjoy this!
Sorry for missing last week's show everyone, my apologies.
Here's the missing plant of the week, Plantain - www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have reconsidered posting the plant of the week in the show announcement thread, reason being I spent 5 hours putting together a post on Oak/acorns that got zero attention, So, I will post them separately and link the show thread to them (and vice versa).
Here's my Plant of the Week #3 Oak/acorns - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Hope y'all can tune in!
thanks everyone for all your support

How about a quick thread on building a simple penny stove. I keep 3 stoves spread around different bags as another form of cooking heat if conditions are not suitable for an open fire. ie. concealment, e&e, or possible closed quarter use.

Simple, hot, burn clean and effective. As long as you have Heet or denatured alcohol handy. Maybe I'll get around to creating the thread plenty of videos on the subject floating around in cyber world. I made my first stove when I was a kid as taught to me by a scouting buddy.

ETA
Never mind. Here is a good thread from last year on Penny Stoves. I must of missed this. This is solid info and these stoves make superb backups and alternatives to open fires.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Bow drill? fire plow? tinder collection & production?

Sounds mighty fine to me - 5 stars

Reply to post by Ahabstar

Thats the edge humans hold over over all animals out there.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Hope that you will join us... and if you have some knowledge to lend, fire up skype and give semperfortisats a text asking to come on the show

Going live in about 30 minutes

New video up on the "SurvivalRadioShow YouTube Channel...

Come watch me break a Chinese knife..

Thanks for listening...


and if you have some ideas on some topics for the show to tackle.. let us know! In thread, via PM, or even through the chat window...

We appreciate the feedback

dont forget a piece of steel wool and a 9 volt battery

Originally posted by HomerinNC
dont forget a piece of steel wool and a 9 volt battery [/quote

I was amazed the first time I saw how well that worked...

...dont forget the fritos chips either...they burn pretty well as LEs Stroud has shown on national TV.]

There was quite a lot of information discussed on the show, and being radio not all things can be explained well. So I thought I would do a little summary of things discussed and break it down a little bit for people to do a little more research. One of the most important things to realize about fire building is that it is indeed a skill that takes practice.

Fire by friction: As a child, I heard the old "rub two sticks together" that is not a literal statement. But being a child of 6 or 7, I had to try it. Picking two sticks up off the ground and rubbing them as fast as I could until I was tired and then handing them to a friend only resulted in worn bark and a couple of fairly warm sticks. The correct methods to use from hardest to easiest is:

Fire plow
fire saw
hand drill
bow drill

What you are aiming for in this process is a buildup of charred sawdust that will become a small glowing coal or ember (depending on your terminology). It is a combination of speed and pressure that makes this process work.The friction of wood on wood will eventually smolder. That coal is placed into a tender bundle and breathed into fire by correctly blowing on it.

By spark:

Flint and Steel (or any other rock that will spark by striking it against steel like quartz)
Dead lighter
Magnesium block
Fire Steel

Usually with these methods, the goal is to catch the spark on a piece of charcloth to form an ember (or coal--again terminology). In the case of the last two methods, the magnesium shavings are the target. And with the fire steel, the sparks are actually tiny molten chunks of metal that can catch light tinder directly on fire.

Chemical and Etc (but in no order of efficiency):

Matches
Lighter
Various Commercial fire starters like Hexamine, Wet Fire, etc.
Magnifying glass
9V battery and steel wool
alcohol, lighter fluid, oil, gasoline (use with caution)
car cigarette lighter or other sufficiently heated metal

As you can see there are so many ways of obtaining a fire that we barely touched the uses for fire. Such as:

signaling, cooking, boiling water to purify, fire hardening stick points for spears, straighting or bending sticks and branches, heating clay into ceramics, making charcloth, warmth, light, protection from animals, the list goes on and on...

But for me, one of the most important aspects of fire is morale. A survival situation is the worst time for a defeatist mental attitude. Just a simple campfire can be relaxing, comforting and confidence building all at the same time. It gives strength and unity to small groups. It can be a focus or goal to keep going for a group member that feels they have little to add to the group. Even the most rattled person can be calmed by given the simple task of gathering wood for the fire or just "sitting and watching" the fire if they are stressed to absolute panic.

I just stumbled upon a good "hand drill" video that goes along with what was discussed during the show...




Fortunately we have an abundance of both Eastern Red cedar, and Mullein in my local area.. so I hope to try this method in the near future.

For those who might not have mullein, I have heard that the "spanish bayonet" stalk is good for this as well..

The Hearth board seems also to be important, if anyone has some expertise or links to help it would be appreciated..