Building your own fire kit

Fire is one of the most essential needs in the wilderness. It is used for purifying water, cooking food, drying your clothes, signalling for help and keeping you warm, to name a few. There is also the fact that sitting around a campfire at night is one of the most mind and soul calming things I can do. There are a ton of fire kits available commercially and most of them are more than suitable for any use. Being budget minded, I tend to make my own gear and kits, with my fire kit being the one that evolves and changes constantly.

A good friend of mine makes fire kits called The Texas Mini Heat Kit. The kit includes everything you need to get a fire going and the amazing part is that it all fits inside an Altoids tin. I have a couple of these kits and they are awesome little kits and would be a great gift for anyone new to fire building. If you would like more information, look up Ted Hilden on Facebook or give me a shout and I will get you in touch with him. Pictured below is his kit. The flint and steel do not come in his kits, I added those.

As I mentioned before, I am very budget minded when it comes to my outdoor gear. I don't spend a lot of money on my gear, I prefer to make as much as possible on my own. I get a lot of satisfaction from putting together my own little kits and testing them out in different situations. I'd like to share what I tend to use in my kits with you. Like I said, my fire kit is constantly changing as I find new options and techniques, but I feel there are a few things that all kits should contain.

There is a rule of thumb in the bushcrafting and outdoor community, "two is one and one is none". In essence, this means that only having one option for any tool or kit, is almost like having none. If you only take one knife with you and that knife gets broken or lost, you now have nothing. Fire building is just as critical in my opinion. I take a bare minimum of three methods for starting a fire, usually more. My standard fire kit contains the following items at it's minimum:

• Small ferro rod

• Flint and steel

• Mini Bic lighter

• Plenty of char cloth

• Fatwood chunks and shavings

• A piece of steel wool

• Some form of tinder fungus

• Cotton makeup pads dipped in wax

• Jute twine

This is the absolute minimum of my regular fire kit and the best thing is that it will all fit into an Altoids tin! I have my tin sealed with a wrap of duct tape which serves 2 purposes. One, it seals the kit to keep the contents dry and two, the duct tape can be ignited with just a few sparks from the ferro rod.

While this kit is really all I need, I generally never need to even open it. I carry a large ferro rod in my pack along with a medium sized one attached to my knife sheath. I almost always have 3 ferro rods of varying size with me. I am a smoker, so I always have a lighter with me as well, which normally will start a fire with no problems, unless it gets wet, then it is useless. I will also take a hearth board, spindle and socket with me for building a fire with friction methods. While the ferro rods are obviously the easiest method for starting a fire, I really believe you should learn at least a couple of primitive methods for fire building, just in case. My bow drill kit is simply the hearth, spindle and bearing block along with a length of paracord or bank line. I can always find a stick to make the bow with so there is no sense carrying it around with me. Friction fire can be tricky in really humid locations or if it's raining, so the ferro rod and fire kit server as a backup for that.

I'd like to list a few items that really work well for fire kits both due to size and reliability.

• Fatwood - Whether you harvest your own or buy it commercially, fatwood is one of the best resources for firestarting. It comes from pine trees, usually around the knots and the stump. Pine resin is very flammable and it tends to really build up in the knots. It can be shaved with a knife or busted into small chunks and will normally ignite immediately with a good spark.

• Jute twine - I keep a small piece of twine in my fire kit for a couple of reasons. One, jute can be frayed apart and ignited with a ferro rod. Secondly, it can be used for the bow drill if I need it.

• Char Cloth - This is the fire builders best friend. It is made by cooking natural cloth, rope or punk wood in a tin until it turns black inside of a tin. I normally use old t-shirts or cotton rope to make it. One spark will create a glowing ember that can be placed in a tinder bundle and blown into flame. Of all my items, I make sure I have plenty of this whenever I go out.

• Cotton makeup pads - these I dip in either paraffin wax or beeswax. If you take a knife and fray an edge of it, it will ignite almost instantly with a ferro rod. They burn hot and are great tinder for starting a fire.

• Steel Wool - I normally have a large piece of steel wool with me for cleaning pots and pans, but it is also a pretty good fire starter. If you strike a spark from a ferro rod into it, it will start burning pretty intensely. You can also take a battery from your flashlight and connect the two terminals with the steel wool and it will get hot enough to ignite tinder. Use caution, it is very easy to burn yourself.

• Tinder fungus - Whether it is Horse Hoof fungus, Cracked Cap Polyspore or any other similar fungus, it can be shaved into a fine dust or just really thin shavings and with just a little spark, it will create an ember for your tinder bundle. It can also be lit with a magnifying glass in the sun.

These are only a few of the endless list of items that are great for fire kits. One thing worth mentioning is dryer lint. Any house that has an electric dryer will have a steady supply of this stuff. There are multiple ways to use it and it's worth a quick Google search to see some of them.

Whatever you decide to have in your kit, the main ingredient is knowledge. Practice lighting fire with every method before you get in a situation where you HAVE to. This is especially true with primitive methods. Regardless of what you might see on TV, it is not as simple as rubbing two sticks together. Primitive fire methods require a lot of practice to learn and do proficiently.

No matter what you have, keep in mind that you should have backups for your backups. One quick dunk in a creek can eliminate a lot of fire making tools. So get out there, and make some fire!!