Starting Fires Without Matches

The discovery of fire was one of the seminal moments in human history.   Fire gave man the ability to keep warm when he was cold, have light in the dark, cook food, and scare away predatory animals. Our long fascination with fire is carried over today in the tradition of campfires and fireplaces.  Most of the time we take fire pretty much for granted.  But it wasn't always so, and in fact, it isn't always so even today.  When fires are out of control or unavailable when needed we face significant danger.  Being able to avoid or escape a fire may save your life.  Likewise, being able to make a fire in a survival situation may be lifesaving too.

Being able to start a fire in a survival situation could literally mean the difference between life and death and certainly adds considerably to your comfort.  There is much folk lore and much is written about starting fires without matches.  Of course the easiest way to start a fire without matches is with a Bic-style lighter.  Many survivalists strongly recommend you include a lighter in your survival kit.  They are inexpensive, light weight, and easy to use.  Even after they run out of fuel the spark may be used to ignite tinder.

One of the most commonly promoted ways of starting a fire without matches is rubbing two sticks together.  I don't know about you, but the only way I want to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together is if one of them is a match!  Otherwise, rubbing two sticks together is a time-proven technique but is is very tedious and takes a lot of effort.   It has been said that when you cut your own wood it warms you twice.  The same might be said of starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together.  It takes a LOT of work!  The most efficient way is to make a bow drill.  For this you will need a a curved stick or a green stick that is flexible enough to be bent into a bow, a piece of string or other cordage long enough to string the bow, a dry stick about a foot and a half long for the "drill" (I'm told softwood works best), a wooden base plate, and a bearing block or hand piece.  The hand piece should fit comfortably in your hand and will serve as the upper pivot point for the drill.  It may be made of wood or stone or just about anything that will protect your hand from the top of the spinning drill.  The hand piece could be made of stone, bone, sea shell, or hardwood.  It needs be thick enough to protect your hand from heat as well as protecting you from direct abrasion. The base or hearth plate should be hardwood and you'll want to carve a small depression in the middle to hold the tip of the drill. Round the top of the spindle and lubricate it with oil (from your face, sometimes called "beak oil" off your nose, if you don't have anything else.  A drop of oil from a vehicle dipstick works really well if you have a vehicle nearby).  Sharpen the end that will drill into the hearth or base place.  Loop the bow string around the middle of the spindle (drill stick).  Place the bottom (sharp) end into the depression in the base plate and put some dry tinder near the point of contact.  Hold the hand piece in one hand (left hand if you're right handed, right hand if you're left handed) and put it on the top of the drill.  Then move the bow back in forth in a sawing motion to rotate the drill, using the hand guard to keep pressure on the drill so there is significant friction between the drill and the base plate.  When you start to generate smoke look for a glowing coal and be ready to put the tinder on the coal.  Blow gently to increase the temperature of the coal to ignite the tinder.  Take care not to blow so hard as to blow out the flames when the tinder begins to burn. If you don't have materials to make a bow, you can turn the drill by rubbing it between your hands.  Start with both hands at the top of the drill and rub them back and forth to rotate the drill, all the time pushing or pressing down to keep pressure on the drill.  This also helps reduce injuring your hands.   You can practice the "Isty Bitsy Spider" hand movement to get a feel for how your hands should work.  This "hand drill" technique an be really hard on your hands and can easily produce blisters.  Les Stroud (Survivorman) recommends slapping your hands together frequently hard enough so it hurts to stimulate blood flow and minimize blisters. Another way of starting a fire rubbing two sticks together is called a "fire plow".  In this case, instead of rotating a stick to generate friction, you simply push the point of one stick along a groove the base plate rapidly and repeatedly until you create enough heat to get your fire going. You might also use a vine or rope as if you were trying to saw through a piece of wood to create enough friction to light a fire.

Flint and steel is another age-old method for starting fires.  If you have flint and steel or can find stones that make sparks when struck together or against iron or steel, you can use the sparks to ignite your tinder.  I find this a LOT easier than rubbing two ticks together!   My first attempt at using flint and steel was very frustrating.  I didn't realize the brand new "flint" had a coating on it that I had to scrape away before I could get sparks.  But once it was gone, Wa-lah!  Nice big sparks -- once I learned the right angle and the right pressure. I like to use 100% cotton balls for tinder.  Add a little Vaseline if you have it to ignition and make the cotton ball burn longer, giving you more time to use it to get your fire going.  In the wild you can use punky wood, char cloth, or finely ground dry grass, pine needles, or bark for tinder.

The UST Sparkle Firestick is a very convenient flint an steel option.  Instead of striking the flint and steel together, they are combined in a  single hand held, spring-loaded, unit you can operate with one hand.  You just depress the plunger to create a spark 3 times as hot as a match.  You can find them on Amazon for about $10 and each one should last for at least 100 strikes.

Sunlight can be used to ignite tinder if you have a way to concentrate it.  The stereotypical tool is a magnifying glass, but you may be able to use spectacles or broken headlight lenses.  Sometimes the lens from a flashlight will work but many are flat.  If yours is completely flat don't waste you time.  I've even seen demonstrations of using a piece of ice, but most ice contains too many contaminates that cloud it so that it doesn't focus the sunlight as well as it needs to be.  An alternative is to polish the bottom of an aluminum can.  Soda and beer cans are often all too commonly found among the trash strewn in even surprisingly remote places.  Polish  the bottom of the can using some kind of rubbing compound (chocolate bars and tooth paste are two fairly common sources) until you can see your teeth or the whites of your eyes reflected in the parabolic surface of the bottom of the can.  When you aim the polished surface directly at the sun it will focus the suns rays at a point a few inches in front of the can.  Use a piece of wire or a stick to hold your tinder right at the focal point so you don' burn your fingers.  Here is a demonstration of how to do this.  Lacking chocolate or toothpaste your could use fine sand or even dirt to polish the can.

Steel wool and batteries can be used to start a fire.  Steel wool comes in different grades of coarseness.  You want 0000 steel wool.  Use clean steel wool.  Soap pads like Brillo and SOS are usually too coarse and the soap interferes with ignition.  6 and 12 volt car batteries, even when somewhat run down, can usually produce enough current to get steel wool going but even flashlight batteries can do the trick.  I've seen people start a fire by carefully breaking the bulb of a flashlight (take care not to damage the filament) and using the hot filament to light a fire.  Incandescent bulbs are about 10% efficient producing light and about 90% efficient making heat.  Another way to use batteries to start a fire is simply to create a spark by touching wires connected to the hot and ground sides of the battery together.  To get a good spark, strike one wire against the other rather than simply pressing them together.  Once they are connected they will no longer create a spark -- but the wires may get very hot and are likely to burn your fingers if they aren't protected.  If you have a vehicle battery, you might also have vehicle fuel that can be used as an accelerant to help get your fire going.  Always be careful working with flammable liquids.  Avoid spilling them on your hands or clothing.  Remember, it is the fumes that burn, not the liquid itself.  Tossing a matching into a gallon can filled to the top with gasoline will result in the match being doused by the gasoline.  Tossing one into a gallon can with a small amount of gasoline in the bottom (letting the remainder fill with fumes) will result in explosive ignition!  Acclerants tend to be very fluid.  In either liquid or even gaseous form, they can find their way into places you didn't expect, sometimes with dramatic and/or dangerous results.  I read about a fellow who poured a little gasoline on his fire, then, walked back to his van to get his matches.  He returned just in time to see his fire burst into flames as the fumes from the gasoline had slithered downhill to another camper's fire and then the flames had snaked back up the vapor trail to ignite his fire.  Very impressive and dramatic, but it could have been disasterous.  Think what might have happened if he'd spilled gas near his van!

The key to starting any fire, and especially to getting a fire going without matches or a lighter, is having the right tinder.  Tinder must be easily ignited.  For my personal fire starting kit I carry some 100% cotton balls. And no, although the synthetic "cosmetic puff" may look the same, they don't work the same.   You may see many folks recommend dryer lint for tinder.  If its cotton lint, from denim, towels or underwear, it will probably work well, but lint from synthetic fabrics like nylon, rayon, and polyester are more likely to be melted than ignited by sparks.  In the wild, you may have to make your own tinder.  Dry bark from tress like cedar and juniper, fluff from seed pots like milkweed or cattails, sagebrush bark, or even dry grass (rub it between your hands to grind it up and make it easier to light) can all be used as tinder.  Another option in the wild is "punky" wood.  This is the partially rotten wood you find in fallen logs, tree stumps, and hollow trees.  It is usually a redish brown color and has a kind of alligator skin pattern.  Pine needles are usually too course to be used as tinder unless you grind them down into small particles or dust.  The shavings from something called "fat wood" makes excellent tinder.  Fat wood is found at the core of rotted pine trees or logs.  It smells like turpentine and conatins concentrated resin that makes it nicely flammable.  A favorite of survivalists and outdoorsmen is "char cloth".   It is easily ignited by sparks.  Essentially it is just charred cotton cloth.   Any old cotton, like an old T-shirt or denim will do, but a favorite is something called "monks cloth".  You can buy it at a fabric store by the yard.  It isn't expensive and a yard of monks cloth will most likely give you a enough char cloth for a lifetime for you and your friends.  You can see how to make your own here. Magnesium shavings are an excellent tinder and will light even when they are wet, but unless you have some in your survival kit, you're not going to find them in the wild.  In the old days you could break open a flash bulb and use the magnesium filaments but most modern flash cameras use LEDs these days.  Some OHVs have magnesium components and in an emergency you might be able to scrape some shavings off them to use as a fire starter. 

After tinder, the next important step will be your kindling bundle or "birds nest".  Most likely you will want to use dry grass, pine needles, or loose, stringy bark for your birds nest.  You should have a bundle that is a good double handful, slightly larger than a softball.  Once you have your tinder started you insert it into the birds nest and soon you should have a pretty good ball of fire ready to start your campfire.  A real birds nest would work but will probably be soiled with excrement and may give off an unpleasant odor.  Because the tinder bundle will be on fire and will get very hot, it is a good idea to have something to protect your hands when you hold it.  Mountain men used a piece of heavy leather.  You might get away with cutting a piece of vinyl upholstery from a disabled vehicle but exercise caution as vinyl may melt or catch fire.  In a wilderness survival situation where you have only natural resources, you might be able use some heavy green (not dry) leaves.

Always prepare your campfire before you start trying to ignite your tinder.  The last thing you want to be doing is running around looking for wood after you get your tinder started.  You can choose a teepee or log cabin style fire, depending on the size and quantity of fuel you have.  Make sure you leave a place to push your fire bundle or birds nest inside to get your fire going.  Build the fuel pile up starting with small sticks, the size of a pencil or less, then keep adding progressively larger fuel -- thumb sized sticks, then 1"-2" sticks, etc.  All the wood should be dry and well seasoned (not green!).  About the only green wood that burns well is sagebrush.  Most other trees and shrubs need to dry out before they will burn well, so gather dead wood rather than breaking branches off living plants.  Don't make your initial fuel pile too big.  You can always add more fuel if you need more heat, but getting too much going at once just wastes fuel.  Be sure to have a stack of fuel ready to use as you need it.

Of course you always want to properly prepare your fire site to avoid losing control.  While having a fire could be essential to your survival, allowing one to get out of control could spell disaster!  In addition to normal precautions like clearing the ground and building a fire ring, make sure you don't have anything on our person that will ignite easier than your tinder!  If your clothing is contaminated by fuel or oils the fumes may flash into flames and light you up instead of your fire bundle!  You wouldn't want to be making sparks or creating open flames anywhere near fuel tanks or containers.  And be aware that some things you might not normally consider as flammable can be extremely so in the right concentration.  Flour dust, for example, is so volatile a one cup can generate an explosion nearly equivalent to a stick of dynamite.  With that in mind, NEVER try to use flour to extinguish a kitchen fire!  Keep in mind that both flour and sugar are made of flammable carbon and hydrogen, which are also the primary components of gasoline!

Practice! Practice! Practice!  Starting a fire without matches isn't always easy.  If it were, why did we invent matches?  If you find yourself in a survival situation, it is unlikely you'll have the time or inclination to spend hours trying to get a fire started.  You will want -- or need -- it NOW!  Even striking a spark with a flint and steel takes a little practice, so take advantage of your camping trips to try out and practice various methods of starting your campfire without matches.  You might even want to try finding natural materials that will create sparks in case you find yourself in a situation without ANY supplies whatsoever.

Many modern wilderness survivalists agree you should never go out into the woods without a good lighter.  A simple, inexpensive BIC style lighter can light hundreds of fires and the spark can even be used after it runs out of fuel.  They are very small and light and you can easily tuck on in just about any pocket, pouch, or pack.  However, even with that in mind, you might find yourself in a survival situation without any matches or lighters, in which case the skills described above might be critical to your very survival.

Light 'em up!