How to make fire starter sticks survival
Many people believe that it is difficult to get lost in the forest. Even if you think so, you need to know what to do in a situation where there is only a forest and no one else. How to find your way back? What are fire starter sticks survival? How to pull yourself together and keep calm?
Just to keep in mind some rules: fire starter sticks survival
Before making a fire, it is necessary to choose a place for it carefully – it is better to be sheltered from the wind and rain by some natural shelter, for example, a rock. It is also desirable that this place is near water. The primary condition is compliance with fire safety rules. Remember that in peat bogs, fire quickly spreads deep into, remaining there for a long time in a smoldering state, and it is challenging to extinguish it later. It would help if you located the fire in an open place on the leeward side of the tents and no closer than three to five meters from them so that flying sparks do not burn through the fabric.
Clear the area with a meter and a half diameter from fallen leaves, dry grass, branches, and other flammable debris. It is also advisable to remove the top layer of turf and overlay the selected area with stones. It is essential when arranging a hearth. In open windy areas, you should make the fire deep and build a protective wall on the windward side. In winter, it is necessary to completely clear the snow to the earth’s surface or use metal sheets or nets suspended on stretch marks for a fire.
Fire starter sticks camping
Its correct selection is vital for a fire. Dry hardwood firewood produces virtually no smoke, while damp or rotten wood emits little heat but smokes a lot. Live birch wood is usually too wet. Therefore, if there is no choice, it is better to chop it with an ax on logs. Small dry brushwood gives an intense flame, completely burning out in a few minutes. Coniferous dead wood burns well and forms a lot of coals, but it produces a lot of smoke soot and scatters a large number of sparks and small coals. Dry needles give a lot of sparks, and fresh spruce branches of coniferous trees, which emit a lot of black smoke when burned, and fresh grass and green leaves should be used only for signal fires.
We advise hardwood with heavy, dense wood such as oak, hornbeam gives a good heat, a small flame and can burn up to two hours, so it is well suited for cooking. Such a fire should not be too large otherwise the high temperature will not allow you to get closer to the kettle or pot. In places with sparse woody vegetation, dry peat and dried animal droppings can serve as fuel, and along the banks of rivers and near the coast of the seas, washed ashore and dried wood.
How to avoid risk of poisoning
These are flammable materials used to start a fire quickly. For kindling, birch bark, dry moss, grass rolled into a tourniquet, reeds, twigs, and you can use small resinous chips and bark of coniferous trees. We advise irch bark, especially in rainy weather, as the best kindling. It always remains almost dry, even on damp and rotting tree trunks. Kindling, folded in a pyramid, you can ignite it directly with a match or with a previously lit piece of birch bark, tinder, or a “firestick”, which gives many sparks.
Keep in mind: in no case should gasoline be used for ignition! And you can’t kindle firewood because it burns out very quickly, and you run the risk of poisoning: many people forget about this, but gasoline is a very poisonous.
How to start the fire without matches
What if there were no matches with you? Find our fire starter sticks survival advices. Does everyone remember how to make a fire without matches in sunny weather? Let’s remind you: with the help of a magnifying glass, a lens from glasses, a removable camera lens, other glass or transparent plastics. You can also remove the glass from the watch and pour water into it, or polish a piece of ice in winter, bringing it to a lenticular shape.
With the help of the sun, tinder is set on fire, prepared from finely ground foliage and resinous bark, birch bark, moss, cotton wool, bird fluff, and so on. If the firewood does not flare up well, sprinkle it with a pinch of salt.
If necessary, to save and transfer the fire to a new place, place the coals in improvised containers – empty cans or birch bark rolled up by a tube – sprinkled with earth, small pebbles, and ash.
How to find your way back
Going into the forest, always have three things with you: a knife, matches and a watch. The clock will replace your compass. Point the hour hand at the sun, and bisect the angle formed by it and the number 1 on the dial. This dividing line will always point south.
The hardest thing in the forest is not to succumb to fear. Neither age, experience, nor strong nerves save you from stress. The release of adrenaline into the blood is so great that a person rushes somewhere headlong, losing a precious energy supply.
How to stay calm and follow landmarks
Know that fear can very quickly break your psyche. On the second day in the forest, a lost person cannot explain his actions. Streams and rivers are always suitable landmarks. If, of course, you know where they flow. But even without understanding it, it is best to stick to them. If you managed to get on any road or power line, do not leave them under any circumstances. It’s your chance for salvation.
Don’t panic if you find yourself starting to walk in circles. No matter how hard you try to go straight, you will go to the side. In the mountains, the loop will be shorter, on the plain – longer. Best of all, having made one circle, do not try to outwit fate and make a second third. Light a large and smoky fire and wait for help.
If you don’t have matches, use a watch glass. (Don’t try exotic methods of making fire, such as rubbing wood against wood. Perhaps in Africa, where the dry, hot climate and hardwoods, this method will help you, but here it is a waste of time). If you want to find out how to make fire starter sticks in wet weather when in wild, read here
