I carry around a nickel sized magnifying glass I got fron a kids science set. Never used it but it's been in my fire kit for nearly a decade I'd quess.
Hand drill failure yet again. Im seeing that the proper materials might make the difference. Ive got my eye on some horse weed and mullein but itll be awhile before its dry enough. Good news is that failures build up callouses.
Most primative I've done is a fire steel. Usually when I'm doing fires I have too many hungry tummies waiting to eat.. Got a new scraper this week though and had a chance to try it out on our camping trip. I would definitely recommend one of these as it throws globe of molten metal like I've never seen before! Also Birch bark is the most forgiving firestarter ever. I was trying to light my featherstick when I missed and the bark almost immediately burst into flame haha
Still a failure but im getting a smell of smoke and im pretty sure it isnt my hands. Ive got my eye on several roadside plants im going to harvest here soon and dry. Should have better luck then. We hope.
Been traveling most of the moth sonhave only been able to use one of these. No that I am back at home I’m gonna do more.
I worked a fresnel lens yesterday to no avail. Material was jute twine made into a birds nest. I got it to burn but never really produce a flame. If the clouds clear I will give it another try today maybe with some dried leaves.
Found a couple decent pieces of wood yesterday, so I think I'm going to give a fire plow a try. Not expecting success, but I figure at least I'll be able to skip my shoulder workout at the gym.
This will be my first real effort towards a friction fire, so right now I'm looking forward to it. Check with me again on Sunday lol
Well I decided to take it back to old school, or maybe more like elementary school... I always keep a fresnel lens in my PSK and a larger one in my fire kit. They take up practically zero space and can be handy for first aid situations and as I proved today firebuilding. I’ll admit I’ve had this one forever and only tried this today. So here’s the set up... Said lens First I tried birch bark I brought back from Maine. It smoked but didn’t seem to want to take. Then I tried some dried grass since it was handy. More smoke but no ignition. Then I added a good hat full of cedar shavings. Also, here’s the set up using a log and some pieces of slate to prop up the lens and a little split stick that was holding the lens. Success! It only took a minute or so for a good ignition. I played with both the distance and the angle and it was easy to see when it was about to go. I’m not saying this is the best option I’m just saying it’s an option.
I am striking out on the hand drill. A few days left. I do have some horse weed in the garage drying out. Hope to be good at this skill with better materials.
Similar result for me with the plow. I gave it about 40 minutes of rubbing sticks together on Saturday and I'm still a little sore.
It's too hot to build fires (106f was the reading today) but not too hot to do prep to build fires, right?
So i got a fire piston coal and a flint and steel coal but the hand drill still escapes me... Which will change once this horse weed is dry... pretty sure.
