How do you start a fire in a survival situation?

Answer 1

Well most people say rock + rock = fire. Well it does not equal fire it equals very frustrated human with two rocks. What you would want if you have modern fire making technology (matches and lighter) is wood and dry leaves. If you don't have matches or a lighter buy you have a pocketknife is wood, dry leaves, a stick and a plank. What you do is cut an indent into the plank then you sharpen the stick and be very careful then rub the pointed end next to your nose for body oil. Then you put the stick in the notch and put dry leaves within a reachable distance. Then you spin the stick in one direction as fast as possible until you see smoke. Once you see smoke put the ash in the notch on the dry leaves then blow on the ash gently till a fire comes. Then you put wood on the fire but keep the blank and stick because you may need it again.

Answer

The best thing to have to start a fire is a Swiss army firesteel. It is relatively easy to use to create large sparks. It works better than a magnesium bar. It doesn't involve the strenuous work involved in fire by friction methods. They are relatively cheap, and a genuine Swiss army firesteel is good for up to twelve thousand sparks of 3000 degrees. If you are into camping invest in a firesteel and attach to a long landyard to wear around your neck. Before you use a firesteel you need to scrape the protective coating off of it. You can use your striker to scrape it off.

Before you use the firesteel you need to gather bundles of tinder, kindling, and progressively bigger fuel wood. Certain tree barks make good tinder when it is crushed up. So do dead grass, cotton balls mixed with candle wax or petroleum jelly, paper, dead leaves, etc. Build your fire in a tepee fashion, at the bottom the tinder, surrounded by a tepee of kindling, surrounded by a tepee of bigger fuel wood. The tepees should have openenings in both the kindling and the bigger fuel wood

Use the firesteel to send sparks into the tinder, which is laid in the tepee openings. Build your fire in a depression or build a wall of rocks around it. This is to keep it out of too much wind.

If you are in a wet environment, pick broken branches buried on the ground under leaves up and whittle into them to see if they have dry wood deeper down. Break dead branches from the bottom of dead trees that have toppled over onto other trees to lean there.