Rediscovering the flame...

Week Twenty-Eight:Start a Fire Without Matches

Hiking is one of my all-time favorite activities. I just love being out in the wilderness enjoying nature, getting some exercise and of course being with friends. However, despite this passion for hiking, I’ve never been terribly ambitious, usually limiting my treks to several hours or less. While someday I’d like to attempt a longer trip, perhaps the Appalachian Trail or some other expanse of wilderness, I want to make sure I’m prepared with all the crucial survival skills necessary for the long haul.

Now, I’m no expert but I’ve watched enough episodes of Man vs. Wild to know that the ability to make a fire is among the most important of these skills. Additionally, creating fire without the aid of matches or flint is a critical ability in case you find yourself in such and undesirable position. Also, to really drive the point home, it would just be super cool to start a fire with nothing more than a few sticks.

Therefore, with my task laid out before me, I started scouring the Internet for tips and information about starting a fire without matches. Despite seeing it done countless times on television, I wanted to ensure I gathered the appropriate techniques and materials for doing it correctly. Naturally, the materials needed were as sticks and some dry kindling. However, there was a bit of variation when it came to the process.

While the bow method seemed quick and effective, I decided to bypass it because of the additional material needed – string. Sure, I’ll most likely have shoelaces available for this purpose but I’d like to keep the process a little more basic. Thus, I decided on the technique of spinning a stick into a notch on a larger piece of wood to create a spark, which ignites the kindling (it’s not the most clever name but it gets the point across).

After finally stringing together a few dry days I gathered the necessary materials to start my fire, including directions and the knife I usually take along on hiking trips. To observe and provide any needed assistance, Jackie and my brother Pat decided to join the adventure (along with several curious nieces and nephews).

Setting up shop in the middle of the driveway I started by cutting a notch into the larger piece of wood (to be used as a base) and whittled the end of the stick to a dull point. I then started spinning the stick between my hands to create friction at the connecting point on the base piece. It was immediately evident that I would have trouble building up a rhythm since my hands were quickly sliding down towards the base. Therefore, each time I got to the bottom I had to stop spinning to move my hands back to the top.

Pat and I took turns with this method for about ten minutes before realizing it was useless. Thankfully, however, my brother is a devoted follower of the TV show “Survivor” and therefore suggested a similar technique we could try. By cutting an angled notch on one end of the base piece we could build the friction much faster by moving the stick back and forth very quickly. This way, we would have a much better grip on the stick while keeping a more consistent pace.

Within minutes we surpassed our previous progress and really started to notice the results. The initial evidence of our improvement was the distinct smell of burning wood – not necessarily a campfire but similar to the scent of wood shop in high school. Needless to say we were pumped!

(Now, if you have a mind even remotely similar to mine, you are noticing the ridiculous level of sexual innuendo involved in this process. Giggles followed nearly every motion and sentence as we discussed rhythm, pace, wood, grip, strokes, etc, etc. Perhaps when I turn thirty at the end of this long adventure, I’ll finally grow up and not find such things so funny. Hopefully not.)

After continuing at this pace for several minutes we noticed some smoke rising from the contact point and made sure our kindling was in position to catch any sparks. Unfortunately, after much more enthusiastic pumping, this is where our progress began to stall. Even though we could still smell the burning wood and the base was hot to the touch we were unable to create the spark necessary to ignite the kindling.

Overall, we spent nearly an hour trying to start a fire with sticks but all we had to show for it was a pile of sweat and our raw, carpal-tunneled hands - it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort. In fact, we were still toying with ideas as we packed away the materials but were just physically unable to continue. With a little more research, experimentation and shear force of will, I’m confident this experience will be revisited very soon with much more successful results. Stay tuned.

CULTURAL UPDATE:

Watching: Eastbound & Down

Listening: Johnny Cash: American IV

Reading: John Adams, Party of One by John Grant