Video presentation on How Starting a Fire

Objective
Learn about starting fires without the use of matches or lighters.
Materials Needed:

  handful of pine needles or dried brown grasses

 A stick about 1 foot long with a pointed end
 A log about 2 or three feet long
 A fire pit
 Small sticks
 Medium sized sticks and logs
 A cloth
 A sharp rock (not as sharp as a knife, but it helps if it has a wedge on one side)

Procedure:

1. Make a loose tee-pee like structure out of small sticks in a fire pit. You will use
this later.
2. Using the rock and the log, create a grove in the top of the log about 6 inches
long and one inch deep. Continue scraping the surface of the log until there is a
groove.
3. Place the sharp end of the stick into the grove and apply firm pressure, rubbing
the stick back and forth in the grove.
4. When the stick moves easily without slipping, you are ready to start a fire.
5. Hold the pine needles over a cloth with one end of the needles in one hand and
the other end in your other hand.
6. Twist the needles or grasses back and forth a few times, like you are wringing
out a towel.
7. Collect the dust that falls off of the needles and place it on one side of the
groove in the log.
8. Sit so that the side of the groove with the dust in it is away from you.
9. Hold the stick with the sharp side in the groove.
10.Press down firmly and quickly rub the stick back and forth, towards and away
from the dust in the groove.
11.When the dust begins to smoke, stop rubbing and blow gently on the dust.
12.Hold the pine needles or grasses with one hand, near the dust.
13.Eventually you will see a spark. Try to catch the spark with the pine needles or
grasses.
14.If the smoking stops, go back to step 9 and start over from there.
15.If the grasses catch, quickly slide them under the tee-pee of small sticks in the
fire pit.
 16.Pile larger sticks and logs up around the small sticks, making sure that there is
enough empty space around the fire so that it gets enough oxygen.
17.If the fire dies before the logs catch, go back to step 9.
18.If you run out of dust, go back to step 5.
19.This is not an easy way to start a fire. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t able to
get it to work the first time, it takes practice to get a fire to start out of the heat
of friction.

Questions:

1. How are fires started now?--It isbecause of the friction that supply heat into the
two objects that has a dry grass inside.
2. What does a fire need in order to survive? --At first it needs the dry grass or dry
leaves to produce fire and be patient.
3. How hot does a piece of wood need to get in order to burn? –Around 160-to-
240-degree Celsius.
4. What are the benefits to a society that knows how to start a fire?

1. Warmth - a fire can give you heat long enough to survive until
help arrives.
2. Visible Light - A fire will allow you to continue important tasks that affect
your survival situation whether it is preparing your shelter and bedding,
eating food, rigging an animal trap, weapon or so on.
3. Signaling - If people are searching for you and they see fire or smoke, they
will come. If people are not looking for you and they see fire and smoke in a
strange place, they will come.
4. Ward off predators, insects and most things that want to bite or eat
you - Defend yourself from predators and insects.
5. Cooking Food - You should almost never eat raw foods, even though most
of the time it would probably be safe. The risk is too severe if you get it
wrong, and cooking it over a fire is often simple enough. 
6. Morale Boost - Starting a fire makes you feel good and it should. It gives
you all those great benefits which significantly increases your chance of
survival. It makes you comfortable and helps you feel safe and secure. So
don't resort to suicide yet.