Wilderness Survival Training: Practicing Resourcefulness
Pause to calm down and organize your thoughts. This will be time well spent.
You are your greatest resource in a survival situation
When traveling into the backcountry we should all be as prepared as possible. This includes carrying a decent survival kit. At a minimum this should include more than one way to start a fire, a means for purifying and holding water, and some form of protective cover such as a trash bag, emergency wrap, or bivvy bag.
What if you don’t have these things or if you need something beyond what you thought to bring? This is where thinking creatively can serve you well, perhaps even save your life.
Establish survival priorities
In all likelihood, you will be concerned with more than one thing. Do you need to make a shelter, find water, or signal for help? You can only do one thing at a time and chances are good that one thing is more important than the others.
Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and calm yourself. This will go a long way toward using your resources effectively. Decide what your most important action will be, then focus your efforts on that thing.
Next, consider that the nature of the questions you ask yourself will have a huge impact on the number and quality of solutions that present themselves. Ask yourself questions — out loud, if necessary — to generate ideas. Don’t judge these ideas harshly. Try to come up with as many ideas as you can that address the priority you have set.
Take inventory what you have and consider all of the ways it might be used
What do you need to do to survive?
Let’s say you have determined that you need to start a fire. Certain options will surely come to mind first: lighter, matches, or a ferro rod. These are good options, but there are many more ways to start a fire.
If you don’t have the most obvious means for starting a fire make a list of all of the methods you know of. This could jog your memory and open up additional viable options. Perhaps you’ve made a bow drill fire before? If so, you have an additional avenue to explore.
What do you have on you to help you survive?
Creating a bow drill fire requires some type of rope or cord. Others things will work, however. Take an inventory of what is in your survival kit, car, pack, your pockets, purse, wallet, and your clothes themselves, looking for options. For a bow drill cord I have used a belt, a bandana, clothing, cattail cordage, cedar roots, a rifle sling, and a plastic grocery bag. There are plenty of other things that would work as well.
What resources might you be able to scavenge from the things around you?
Pro tip: Play with alternative uses for things when you aren’t in an emergency situation. This can be a fun exercise. A car key can be used as a crude saw, chapstick can lubricate a bearing block, and a purse strap might work as a bow drill cord. Get good at using alternate types of gear.
What can you find to survive?
Sadly, human garbage is almost everywhere. Many human-made materials have properties that are difficult to find in nature. Search the area for signs of human activity: old foundations, fence lines, roadsides, logged areas, junked cards, and anywhere that humans might have been. You may find something.
Depending on your needs, even a small piece of something might make a huge difference. Finding a few feet of sturdy cordage suddenly makes a bow drill fire much more feasible.
Pro tip: In addition to practicing well-known survival techniques, look into survival hacks that make creative use of the items around you to survive.
Consider not only the object, but also its parts and contents. You need to weigh the value of the intact object against the value it might provide if compromised.
How can you use an item or its parts?
The best use of the things you have at hand, may require you to ruin those objects. Perhaps you need to break your eyeglasses to put the lenses together back-to-back to focus the sunlight for a solar ignition. Perhaps there is a battery inside an electronic device that could be used to make a spark. You need to weigh the value of the intact object against the value it might provide if compromised. Remember, most things can be replaced.
I have torn the hem off of my t-shirt, soaked it in water, and twisted it to create a strong cord for a bow drill fire. Yes, that t-shirt was ruined, but in a bad situation, this would be a worthwhile sacrifice.
What can you do instead?
Don’t be too set in your ways. Keep your eyes and your mind open to things that might work. Don’t be too quick to abandon ideas.
As an example, I was once using a bow drill set with a pine spindle and hearth. I had a hard piece of oak for the bearing-block. As I struggled to get an ember, I noticed that the oak bearing-block was smoking more than the hearth. While I couldn’t account for this unusual phenomenon, I could exploit it. I flipped the whole set over, using the bearing-block as the hearth and the hearth as the bearing block. I was able to get a glowing ember using the new configuration.
You have more resources to survive than you realize
We all tend to see and use things in limited ways. Looking beyond those limits could save your life in a wilderness survival situation. I hope this article has helped you see that you probably have more resources — both mental and physical — than you realize.
Until next time, keep learning!
-Dug North
EXERCISE: Practicing resourcefulness with the bow drill friction fire
Here’s a video of me practicing resourcefulness. I create a glowing bow drill ember with some items that you don’t normally use for a friction fire. Please note: this is NOT a survival technique! I am definitely not proposing that you carry a coat hanger, beer bottle, and plastic bag into the woods with you. Rather, this is an example of using resources in unconventional ways.
Resources
Surviving the Wild by Joshua Enyart
Survival Hacks: Over 200 Ways to Use Everyday Items for Wilderness Survival by Creek Stewart
Creative Thinking: A Field Guide to Building Your Strategic Core by Angus Fletcher
The Bow Drill Bible by Leigh Robinson
How to make a friction fire with bamboo - Fire SAw Method
The bamboo fire saw is a fascinating friction fire technique requiring only a dry piece of bamboo and a knife.
The bamboo fire saw is one of my favorite friction fire techniques. There is something magical about the fact that the process requires only a piece of bamboo and a knife. This method closely matches the popular notion about friction fire as “rubbing two sticks together”.
What do you need for the bamboo fire saw method?
To create a bamboo fire saw set you will need only a few things:
A sturdy fixed blade knife
A length of dry bamboo pole at least 1-1/2 inches in diameter and 24 inches long. A 2 or 3 inch diameter pole would be even better. I used the bottom of a citronella bug repellant torch
A place outdoors with soft ground and/or a large tree
Why use bamboo to start a friction fire?
Bamboo is a remarkable material. First, it is very strong and hard. This allows us to apply a lot of force without breaking the bamboo. Second, the ignition temperature of 265 degrees is fairly low. This makes it suitable for friction fire techniques.
Scrape off a bunch of tinder shavings from the outside of the bamboo
As with any friction fire, we will need to have a tinder bundle prepared for the glowing ember created by the process. Use the blade of a knife to scrape the outside of bamboo to produce thin, curly shavings. You will need to make one large bundle about the size of a baseball. You will also need two smaller bundles, each about the size of a golf ball.
Split the bamboo lengthwise
You will need two long pieces of bamboo. These are made by splitting the bamboo stick two down its length. Use a fixed blade knife and a hefty chunk of wood to baton the from one end. Bamboo splits easily, so once you get it started, you may be able to pull the two pieces apart. It’s best if the two pieces are close to the same size.
Prepare the bamboo hearth board
Choose the larger of your two bamboo pieces and designate this as the hearth board. In use, this will be oriented with the concave side down, leaving the two outer edges point up. Choose one of these edges and shave it down to make a long section that is about as has thin as a butter knife. This will be the edge upon which you saw.
Fashion the bamboo saw
Use the other piece of bamboo to make the saw. Locate the middle of the piece and begin to drill a hole with the tip of your knife from the inside out. Stop drilling when the tip of the knife just barely begins to show on the outside surface of the bamboo. Next, locate the point on the outside where the knife started to come through. Use a knife to make a small groove directly above the hole. This groove should run perpendicular to the length of the piece of bamboo. Bamboo is quite hard, so a triangular metal file can also be used to create this groove.
With the carving complete, place the two golf ball sized tinder bundles into the concavity of the saw. These are placed on either side of the drilled hole. Use your thumbs or a long strip of bamboo to hold the bundles in place. These bundles will catch and hold the hot dust formed when you begin sawing.
Create an ember with the bamboo fire saw
First, place one end of the hearth on or near your belt buckle and the other end against a tree or in the ground. In either case, you must secure the hearth firmly by using your body weight to hold it in place. You will need both hands to operate the saw.
Place the small groove you carved in the saw on the thinned edge of the hearth piece. Using both hands, press the saw downward as you move it back and forth along the hearth. With moderately vigorous action, you should start to smell a somewhat sweet burning smell. Keep sawing. Watch the top edge of the hearth. It should start to turn brown. At this point you may also see a small wisp of smoke. Again, keep sawing.
Next, focus on the spot on the hearth that seems to be the darkest brown and concentrate the sawing motion over this spot. Increase both speed and downward pressure. There should be quite a bit of smoke now. The sawing action over the dark area on the hearth is creates hot dust that gets pushed up into the hole in the saw. The small tinder bundles keep this dust from dispersing.
Now it is time to make the final push. Saw as vigorously as you can, while remaining in control. Keep it up for as long as you can — which won’t be very long. When you’ve stopped, turn the saw over and tap the saw near the groove to help dislodge any ember that might be there. Carefully lift the saw from the two small tinder bundles. If things have gone well, you should see a dark pile of dust on top of the bundles that is smoking on its own. Congratulations, you have made an ember!
Bring the ember in the tinder bundle to flame
Bringing the ember to flame is like any other friction fire method. Carefully place the small smoking ember in the middle of the baseball size tinder bundle. Gently close some of the tinder around the sides of the ember, being careful not to crush or smother it. Now hold the bundle up to allow the heat from the ember to reach more fuel above it. Finally, blow softly and steadily on the ember. As the smoke increases and grows thicker, you can blow harder. After a bit of blowing, the bundle should burst into flame. Of course, you can also drop the ember into any natural tinder source to create flame. Fatwood shavings are a particular favorite of mine.
Resources
* Some of the links on this page go to Amazon and some go to the website of my friend, Josh Enyart, The Gray Bearded Green Beret. I make a small commission on these referrals. I appreciate your support!
Troubleshooting campfire Problems Using the Fire Triangle
Sometimes a match alone won’t start a fire
In Part 1 of this series, we learned about the fire triangle and how heat, oxygen, and fuel are all needed for a fire. Next, let’s take a look at how we can use this knowledge to troubleshoot problems we might encounter when starting an outdoor fire. So, how do you start a campfire and keep a fire going?
Fire problems Associated with Heat
Problems with heat almost always have to do with not having enough of it. This prevents the pyrolysis process from happening. Without those gasses, there is nothing to react with oxygen, and thus prevents combustion.
The fire triangle: heat fuel and oxygen
Fire built on damp ground
A tinder bundle that is lit on damp ground -- or worse, on snow and ice -- will lose much of its heat in attempting to warm and dry the surface below. This may prevent adequate heat from getting to the next largest size of tinder or fuel
Solution: move the fire to a drier location.
Solution 2: build your initial fire on top of some aluminum foil which creates a barrier between the fire and the wet ground.
Solution 3: build up a structure of sticks or tree bark to get the fire off the ground. Dry materials are best.
Sparks can sometimes be too brief
Sparks from ferro rod are too brief
The spark scraped from a ferrocerium rod may be too brief to warm up and ignite your tinder.
Solution: If using a ferrocerium rod, try incorporating some flash tinder. Flash tinders are extremely fine tinders that accept the smallest spark and then burn very hot and fast. This can help spread the initial flame to more of your tinder bundle. Common flash tinders include such as cattail fluff, milkweed fluff, and magnesium shavings.
Pro tip: the ferro rod itself can be used as a type of flash tinder. Slowly and carefully scrape unburned shavings from the rod into your tinder bundle. This requires some patience and care. These ferro rod shavings will ignite within the bundle when you later use the ferro rod to shower the tinder bundle with sparks.
A regular match may not provide enough heat
Flame is too brief
The flame from a match may not last long enough to light small kindling directly.
Solution 1: use finer tinder to allow the match flame to catch hold.
Solution 2: use a bigger match! There are several brands of large matches that burn longer and hotter. Consider the UCO Titan Stormproof Matches, which burn for 25 seconds.
Solution 3: use a flame extender. The flame from a match can be transferred to a small candle, a long sliver of fatwood, or strips of birch bark. This will give you a longer flame that can help you light less-than-perfect tinder.
Pro tip: some conifer tree resins are very flammable. A glob of pine pitch on the end of a stick can make a great flame extender.
Fire problems associated with Oxygen
Problems with oxygen most often take to form of an inadequate access
The Fuel is Limiting Airflow
It can be tempting to put a lot of fuel on a small fire but this can be a problem if it prevents enough air from reaching the system. A fire that isn’t getting enough oxygen will have diminishing flames and often a lot of smoke.
A fire needs good access to oxygen in the air
Solution 1 : Blowing and fanning a fire are well known solutions, but somewhat labor-intensive. Blowing can be made much easier and more efficient by using a small tube such as a pocket bellows directed at the base of the fire.
Solution 2: Consider learning to build a fire lay. A fire lay is an arrangement of fuel into a structure that helps to ensure that adequate air can reach the fire. Common fire lays included the tipi and the log cabin.
Solution 3: If there is a prevailing wind, create a gap in the fuel out on that side of the fire. This creates an opening into which the wind can enter, effectively blowing on the fire for you.
Solution 4: Finally, recall that hot air rises. This means you can dig a trench below the fire to provide air from underneath.
Pro tip: there is a fire lay designed to allow you to adjust the amount of oxygen available to a fire. My friend, The Gray Bearded Green Beret, has a great video demonstrating the elevator fire lay.
Fire problems Associated with Fuel
Damp Wood
The moisture in damp wood robs heat from the fire triangle. The heat energy is wasted in turning water into water vapor. This will delay or prevent the wood from reaching the point of pyrolysis.
A flame source with its own integrated tinder
Solution 1: Look for dry wood. The lower dead limbs of conifers are often dryer than what is on the ground. Look under logs, bark, or trees with a thick canopy. If you have a saw or axe, seek the inner portions of standing dead wood, which is often dryer.
Solution 2: Use a lot more tinder. A very large tinder bundle -- especially one made of birch bark or fatwood, which will burn when wet -- can dry out your kindling and get your fire going.
Solution 3: Use an accelerant to help things along. This could be a natural resource such as pine pitch or a commercial fire starting tinder which typically burn longer and hotter than most natural tinders.
Solution 4: use a flame source that integrates a long-burning tinder. Examples include UCO Sweetfire Fire Starters and UCO Sweetfire Behemoth Fire Starters, both of which burn for many minutes.
Pro tip: once you have a fire going, be sure to use it to dry out any damp or wet firewood.
Fuel Added Too Quickly
Adding too much wood too quickly can stifle a fire that is still being built. This is a combination of problems: not enough air reaching the fire and not enough heat to ignite the excessive amount of fuel.
Solution: only add more fuel, when you see flames extending well above the fuel that is already in the fire.
A dense mix of kindling sizes often works best
The Wood Pieces are Too Large
If the wood is very large, it will be able to absorb a great deal of heat before it breaks down and starts to volitilize gas. This problem may show up as a weak or diminishing flame with the kindling or firewood failing to ignite.
Solution 1: make sure you have a range of kindling sizes mixed together. This mix should include matchstick, pencil, and then magic marker size pieces.
Solution 2: use and axe or knife and baton to split the wood. Dividing in this way the fuel reduces the mass of each piece while also increasing its surface area relative to its volume. This will help any applied heat to start the pyrolysis process.
Fuel is Too Spread Out
It’s a very common mistake to have the tinder or kindling arranged loosely and too spread out. The problem here is that one burning piece of wood isn’t able to effectively heat any adjacent pieces. Said another way, each individual piece of kindling may burn in isolation, failing to support the larger chain reaction of combustion.
Solution: Bringing the pieces of fuel closer together. This allows all of the burning pieces to heat each other, reinforcing the combustion chain reaction.
Fuel Located in the Wrong Spot
Both heat and flames rise. Fuel placed too far to the side of a tinder bundle is unlikely to receive enough heat to ignite.
Solution: place your smallest and most dry tinder directly above your tinder bundle. This may require making some quick adjustments on-the-fly so be ready to act once the tinder bundle is lit.
Resources
UCO Sweetfire Fire Starters
UCO Sweetfire Behemoth Fire Starters
Fatwood
* Some of the links on this page go to Amazon and some go to the website of my friend, Josh Enyart, The Gray Bearded Green Beret. I make a small commission on these referrals, and I appreciate your support!
Understanding the Fire Triangle and learning to use it when starting a fire
Understanding the Fire Triangle
Whether it is for camping, bushcraft practice, a survival situation, or just backyard socializing, lighting a fire can be difficult. As simple as fire starting may appear to be, there are many variables at play. With a better understanding of these variables, the process of starting a fire becomes less mysterious. One model that’s often used to understand the process is called the fire triangle.
This is the first in a two part article on the fire triangle and how we can use it to better understand what is happening when we attempt to light an open fire.
What is the Fire Triangle?
The fire triangle is a model used to represent the three main components that must be present to make and sustain a fire. These elements are heat, oxygen, and fuel. Why a triangle? There’s no real reason other than the fact that there are three elements and that can be represented graphically with a three-sided shape -- the triangle.
Heat: Spark, Ember, and Flame
Let’s say you have some dry wood sitting on the ground and exposed to the air. Why doesn’t it burst into flames spontaneously? The reason is we still need the third side of the fire triangle, heat, to jump-start the process we call fire.
Heat can be introduced into the triangle in a number of ways. It may be the ember from a bow drill, the spark from a ferrocerium rod, light from a magnifying glass, or the flame from a lighter or match.
Oxygen: The Gas Needed for Combustion
The next part of the triangle is oxygen. The air around us is made up of about 21% oxygen -- exactly what we need to create fire. At times we may encourage more air to enter the system by blowing on the fire, fanning it, or creating physical structures that promote air flow.
Technically, there are other gasses that can be used to sustain fire, but in the context of an outdoor fire, we can ignore these for the most part.
Fuel: Tinder, Kindling, and Firewood
The final element in the fire triangle is fuel. For an outdoor fire, this means tinder, kindling, and firewood.
Our initial fuel is known as tinder. Tinder is a fine, often fluffy material capable of taking a small amount of heat and turning it into flame. Some tinder materials contain flammable compounds while others have very small fibers that are easy to heat up. Tinders may be natural or some form of human-made tinder.
After the tinder, we make use of kindling — matchstick to marker sized sticks — and then work our way up to pieces that are larger still: firewood.
The Chain Reaction of Combustion
When heat is applied externally to a fuel such as wood, the cellulose in the wood begins to undergo a type of thermal decomposition called pyrolysis. As the chemical structure of the wood decomposes, certain gasses are released or volatilized.
These gasses react vigorously with the oxygen in the air in a process called combustion. This is another way of saying that we have lit the fuel on fire.
Combustion is an exothermic reaction, which means it gives off heat. Because it does so, it reinforces the continuation of the process. Provided that adequate fuel and oxygen continue to be provided, we have started a chain reaction.
The cycle repeats: preheating of the fuel, gasses being released, and those gasses reacting with oxygen. If everything goes according to plan, the chain reaction continues with larger and larger pieces of fuel putting off more and more heat. Eventually, we have a fire large enough to heat up and ignite fairly large pieces of wood.
With a hot bed of coals established, we can add fuel of almost any size. Why? Because the coals are putting off a tremendous amount of heat and will be capable of starting the process of pyrolysis, which sets the stage for more combustion.
How to Make use of The Fire Triangle
In part 2 of this series, we’ll take a look at how the fire triangle can be used to troubleshoot problems we often encounter when lighting a fire outdoors.
Resources
| Spark Sources | Flame Sources | Other Sources |
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| Natural Tinder | Human-made Tinder | Improvised Tinder |
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* Some of the links on this page go to Amazon and some go to the website of my friend The Gray Bearded Green Beret. I make a small commission on all referrals.