FIRES IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST HOW TO

The thinner the wood, the quicker it'll dry out and take a flame.

You're looking for the thinnest diameter wood available to you on the landscape. That's why the tinder bundle is one of the first things that I'm trying to acquire in a survival situation, so that I can most efficiently use the body heat that I'm generating from completing all of the other bow drill fire tasks.ДЇIRST LEVEL KINDLING: By first level kindling, I mean the the first layer of wood that will be exposed to the flame generated by your tinder bundle. In doing so I use my body heat to remove whatever moisture is still present in the tinder. Often times IвЂ™ll grab multiple tinder sources, break them apart as much as possible to create a lot of surface area (which speeds up the drying process), and I put them close to my body (without actually touching the skin). Essentially, youвЂ™re looking for whatever dry/semi-dry material that's available to you on the landscape (cottonwood bark, cedar bark, dried grasses, mosses etc.). Let me tell you, there's nothing worse than spending a tremendous amount of energy on getting your coal and then not being able to blow it into flame because the tinder is either too moist, dense or both. TINDER BUNDLE: When I first got started with wild bow drill fire kits during the winter months, I'd focus all of my energy on the fire kit itself (fire board and spindle) and focus very little on my tinder bundle. I'll go over all three as well as the process of getting a coal. You'll need to collect 3 items: a tinder bundle, the fire kit (spindle and fire board which are usually taken from the same piece of wood) and first level kindling.

With all of that behind us, let's get started.

FIRES IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST HOW TO

I'll also assume that you are familiar with how to make a bow drill fire (if not, refer to ) and have some cordage and a knife with you so that you can easily put together your bow and carve out your kit.

Throughout this article, I'll only be talking about using the bow drill fire method, due to it being the most efficient means of getting a coal when you're using damp wood. But fear not, I'll walk you through the process that I use which I've found to be rather dependable. Winters here are extremely wet, making finding and prepping material for a friction fire an incredibly difficult task. They say that if you can succeed with a bow drill fire in the winter months in the Pacific Northwest, then you can succeed at it almost anywhere else in the world.

Fires in pacific northwest