Ways to start a fire

Magnifying Glass
Hold the magnifying glass between the sun and the tinder. You’ll notice that a
small, bright dot appears on the newspaper. Tilt the magnifying glass back and forth as
needed to change the dot’s size. In order to create enough heat to start a flame, the
circle must be as small as possible.[5]
 Aim to focus the circle until it’s only about 1⁄4 inch (0.64 cm) across

Focus the dot in one place for 20-30 seconds. Hold the magnifying glass still until the
tinder begins smoking. Lighting a fire with a magnifying glass takes much more time
than using a lighter or a match. Keep the circle of concentrated sunlight as still as
possible in order to build up heat on the tinder. If you move the circle around on the
tinder, the heat will not start a fire.
 If you’re creating a fire on a day without strong, direct sunlight, it may take more than 5
minutes for the tinder to catch on fire.

Ferrocerium Rod
Here’s What You’ll Need: First you’ll need some REALLY DRY tinder (this is
the fine stuff)... because this is ONE of the MAJOR keys to SUCCESS...
dead grass or weeds, fine, dry wood shavings, twine pulled apart, dryer lint
or cotton balls... all make good tinder.  Next you’ll need a campfire all set up
and ready to go - I recommend a tee pee fire for beginners - we’ll talk more
about this in a minute.  You’ll need some comfortable leather gloves and a
ferrocerium fire steel rod such and last but not least, you’ll need a fixed blade
knife.  
Set Up Your Tee Pee Fire - Now... set up your Tee Pee Fire with your dry
tinder on a dry surface like sticks or a rock, and add kindling. Then top it off
with some larger sticks for fuel.  

Your Survival Knife - Next we’ll need our knife. Just about any sturdy fixed
blade knife with a 90 degree / squared-off AND UNCOATED spine. (You
*can* file off a squared section of a coated knife's spine and then treat it with
gun bluing to help protect the steel.)
Ferro Rod  - Now... If you are using a new ferro rod, you’ll need to remove
the dark rust-inhibiting coating from the portion of the rod you are going to
strike.  To do this, angle the spine of your blade and scrape off a good bit of
the coating. It should look like this once you’re done...and throw a nice
shower of sparks...

Bonus Tip: Most beginners make the mistake of striking the ferro rod by
pushing the knife over the rod and toward the fire... This often results in TOO
MANY sparks falling short of the tinder, AND by pushing your knife out
toward the fire you run the risk of knocking your fire over as your hand
travels forward... which is really frustrating.

So Here’s the Right Way to Do It - With gloves on, hold the knife firmly with
your strong hand, spine side facing down and the edge facing up.  Brace
your hand on the ground close to your tinder for support. This hand will be
stationary during the process.  Now grip the ferro rod with your other hand
and bring it under your knife spine tilting it at about a 45 degree angle to the
blade.  To generate sparks, pull the ferro rod toward you while it rubs against
the edge of the knife spine.

BONUS Tip - Individual streams of sparks may not be enough to easily start
your blaze...... especially if your tinder is even just a little moist. So here’s a
technique by experts... Make sure you wear leather gloves and rub your ferro
rod back and forth on the knife spine. When done right, this technique
produces vital heat to quickly dry your tinder and bring its temperature to the
point of combustion.  

ONE Last thing... Since practice makes perfect... Here’s a simple way to

practice using your ferro rod and knife without starting an entire camp fire.

Grab a cotton ball  and add a small dab of petroleum jelly...This will allow the
cotton ball to burn much longer.  To prepare your cotton ball tinder... Simply
pull it apart a bit, expanding it to two or 3 times its original size, so it literally
catches the sparks. Then follow the steps we talked about earlier... AND with
a strike or two... You should have a nice little practice fire in no time.
 Bow drill
First off, Selecting the right wood that is suitable for friction fire. It is crucial that you select the wood
that is in the perfect decomposition state. If it is green and still living, it will never work. If it is dead
standing and dry, it might work. If it is on the verge of decomposing but has not gone “punky” yet. It
is perfect. If it is too “punky” it also won’t work. There is a very fine line between bone dry and on the
verge of decomposing, and too far gone to work. I find that if you look for a softwood tree, about
wrist thick, dead standing with no bark left on the tree. This will be your best bet. It can be hard to
identify the tree when it is like this, but you can certainly tell if it is a soft wood tree if you can make
an indent into the wood with your fingernail. I have found in my experience that Balsam Fir works the
best and is the most reliable, but any tree will work if found in the right state. The thicker the tree the
less likely it will work.

Now that you have found the perfect wood for a friction fire it is time to gather all your firewood and
tinder bundle. There is no point in getting an ember if you can’t turn it into fire. Make sure to grab as
much tinder material as possible so that you have enough to keep that ember going even if you can’t
get flames right away. Some great tinder materials include Poplar tree inner bark, dead grasses, fine
pieces of birch bark, old mans beard, wood shavings from dead and dry wood also known as
feathersticks. If the material is damp you can place it in a chest pocket and your body heat will dry it
out, or on a dry breezy day you can place the tinder up high and in the wind to dry it out.

Now it is time to harvest the other tools you will need. You will need to find a lightweight sturdy and
straight branch that is the length from your finger tips to the centre of your chest and no thicker than
your index and middle finger together. You want it to be light weight to conserve energy. This length
will allow you to draw the bow in full arm lengths, giving your spindle more turns per pull, creating
more friction, faster. Then you will need cordage for the bow itself. I preferably use paracord, but in a
survival situation you can use your shoelaces or even braided Spruce tree roots.

You will also need a bearing block. Preferably hardwood or greenwood so that you don’t burn
through it too quickly. The bearin block will need to be roughly the length of your forearm and wide
enough to get a good grip on, usually about 3/4 the thickness of your wrist or whatever feels best for
you. You want the bearing block to be longer so that you can tuck it against your shin to keep the
spindle spinning straight with even downward pressure.

Make the spindle and board from the same tree, and don’t be afraid to move on and burn another
hole or simply move on to the next set if the first one isn’t working. You will want the spindle to be
about over an inch thick, shaving the spindle thinner and thinner as you go until you find the sweet
spot. The length of the spindle should be as long as your shin if possible. You will want this length
for a couple of reasons.

A) It’s easier on your back and bearing block arm.

B) It allows you to tuck your bearing block elbow over your knee, keeping the spindle more stable.

C) it simply allows you more spindle to burn through until you get your ember.
There is nothing more frustrating than getting some good friction going and having to start all over
because you burned through your whole spindle.

Your spindle should start wide on the burning end and taper down to pencil thickness on the bearing
end. This will create more friction on the burning end and the thinner end will use less energy to
spin. Every 5-10 minutes you should shave the bearing end thinner to keep less friction on the
bearing block, again, saving precious energy and creating more friction on the burning end.

Now you will want to prepare your hearth board. The sweet spot on the hearth board will be about a
2-3 inch radius of the centre of the log. This is known as the heart wood.

A lot of people will instinctually split the log down the centre to get to the heartwood, but doing this
will create an uneven board and will likely waste a good portion of the heartwood. I like to chop into
the side of the full log until I reach the heartwood. This way it is nice and straight and you can use all
of the heartwood.

Once you have removed the wood and have a flat surface, you will want to pick a spot on the centre
of the board that does not have any knots in it. Then you will make a divot in the board that is a
fraction smaller than the spindle. This divot does not have to be perfect it just has to keep the spindle
spinning in the same spot. You can roughly make a divot with the tip of your knife, or a sharp rock.
Then you can make another much smaller divot in your bearing block.

Now it is time to “burn in” the spindle into the board. We do this not to achieve an ember but to burn
a hole deep enough that we can have a reference when cutting the notch into the board. When you
are burning the hole keep an eye on the spindle to make sure it is spinning in one spot and not
rocking side to side. If it is rocking side to side it will not create enough friction to get an ember. You
can fix this problem simply by cutting a deeper divot.

The notch is cut either with a saw, knife or sharp rock even to collect the charred wood dust that is
created from the friction on the spindle and board. If you cut the notch too big it will require a lot of
bowing and wasted energy filling up the larger space with the dust. If the notch is too small it might
not get enough oxygen to produce the ember.

Now you wrap the spindle around the bowstring. Having the right amount of tension on the string is
very important. The perfect tension roughly will flip your spindle away at a steady speed when you
let go of it.

Place the spindle back in the burn whole. Find any body position the feels comfortable, as long as
your inner elbow is pivoted against your outer kneecap. You may have to change multiple positions
depending your surroundings.

Start bowing at medium speed, concentrating on getting the perfect downward force and making
sure you are drawing the bow the full length of your arm. You will want to stay at this speed until you
can see that your notch is full of your light brown charred wood dust.

Then only now you will go as fast as you can, giving it all your might, all your worth!
You will reach a point where you just physically cannot keep spinning that spindle anymore! At that
point all you can do is just hope that when the smoke clears, there is an ember sitting in the wood
dust pile!

To help your odds you will want to immediately take your spindle and gently tap the dust out of the
board giving your potential ember enough oxygen to take off and burn.

Ok so now we have the ember! This is the time where you actually need to stop, breath and refocus
your head and clear the adrenaline. That wood dust pile will actually burn for a couple minutes or so
depending on the amount you have created. I’m not saying, go for a hike or anything, just take a
second to breathe, maybe get a drink of water if it’s handy. This will be one of the proudest moments
of your life!

Now you will want to drop your wood dust pile and ember into the centre of your tinder bundle.
Gently close in the sides of the bundle into the wood dust pile, being extremely careful not to
extinguish your ember. Lift the tinder bundle above your head so that you are blowing upward (heat
rises). Now you want to blow on your ember as gentle as can be. Right now you aren’t after flames,
you just want to spread the ember as large as you can. Once you feel that you have a decent sized
glowing ember, it’s time to blow the ember faster. Do not squeeze the tinder bundle too hard
together, you want to keep it light and airy. After a few lungfuls you will be able to tell that you are on
the verge of flames. When you blow on the ember it will start to sound like a rocket. Then poof like
magic flames appear in front of your eyes.

Place the burning tinder bundle on your wood pile, adding in Birch bark or any other flammable
materials you may have. Then add in your kindling once you have a strong flame formed and build
your fire from there.