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First, lets dispel a common myth: Rock fire rings do absolutely nothing to contain, corral, or control a fire. That being said, a fire needs 3 things: air, fuel, and heat. An overabundance of one will create an uncontrollable fire. Thus, keep the following in mind: Consult the local fire conditions. Public lands agencies will rate the fire conditions. ...

It's difficult to tell exactly how long wood you've gathered will last you, unless as an expert you can gauge an accurate estimate due to the type of wood, weather conditions and other contributing factors (theoretically possible, but above my ability level.) However, there are different ways of constructing a fire, and one in particular is designed to burn ...

It depends on what you are cooking Make sure you know your wood. Some woods produce toxic fumes. Others will produce a very unpleasant taste. What woods to use is a topic of it's own. If you are just roasting on a stick, that's all you need to know. Just get a flame and roast. However if you have other things... If you have space and a camp ...

To get a long lasting fire, you have to limit the cumbustion somehow. Think embers as apposed to much flame. Wood stoves are specifically engineered to allow you to control the rate of combustion. This is done by controlling the air intake to the fire, which limits oxygen, which limits the combustion rate. A wood stove can be built nicely sealed, so the ...

I learned how to build a cooking fire in Boy Scouts. Build the fire, and then let it burn down. The bright dancing flames are more fun for recreation, but are not helpful for cooking. When you have a bed of hot embers, that is a good cooking fire. Little or no flame, just a good source of heat. Embers are hotter than flame, too.

This sounds like an "escape fire" (Wikipedia); see also the Mann Gulch Fire for a real life example. One of the The Gods Must Be Crazy movies had this technique used in a wildfire in the African savannah.

Yes, some does burn toxic, notably: Oleander Rhododendron Poison Ivy (smoke can cause lung damage in some cases) I'm not sure of a comprehensive list, but be weary of any poisonous wood / shrub, it's probably more likely to burn toxic. As pointed out in the comment, unless you can identify vines well then it may be a good idea to stay away from all of ...

To avoid starting fire inside your shelter, you can do it outside and use a screen (sorry for my drawing): This is view from aside. On the upper picture there is a widely used method for sleeping under a screen (a piece of fabric). Screen is set above your sleeping place at 45 degrees and the heat is reflected from the screen towards you, so you are warm ...

If you are in extremely cold climes, setting a fire inside your shelter may be essential. Key issues are around getting enough oxygen in to it, and getting the smoke out. Taking these in reverse order: You can keep smoke levels low by using dry wood or smokeless fuels, but if using a survival shelter these may not be an option, so you may be collecting ...

Just got around to trying out some experiments, and so far it seems to be pretty robust. In most of the things I've tried, it lit immediately and was consumed entirely, no need to re-light (except for the wet test, I'll mention below). I used a lighter, so I can't be certain other methods (flint, bow, etc.) will ignite it as well, but given how quickly it ...

Is this a real risk? Yes. However, I would have thought it's a much higher risk with soft rock, such as sandstone, which could easily crack and break apart due to heat. I'd imagine the risk would be lower with something like granite, but I'm still not sure I'd risk it unless the cave was very large and well ventilated.

Many pine woods will leave your food tasting of turpentine. Depending on the wood, it won't be enough to be toxic, but will still (imo) be a very unpleasant flavor. Generally, due to my experience (in the southeast) this has developed into "don't use evergreens." Avoid woods with much rot. Avoid wood with mosses, fungus, etc. Burn larger diameter wood ...

I haven't used a wigwam, but I expect you'd have the same issues as with any shelter. You have to expect there to be some smoke, but you want the amount of smoke to be as low as possible. Perhaps the hole at the peak is not large enough, or perhaps you're not letting enough air in to feed the fire. Make sure you have a large enough crack at ground level to ...

A really simple, but effective fire is the 'Hunters Fire'. Basically you make a 'V' shape with two logs with the point in the same direction as the prevailing wind. The V shape allows you to support pots of varying diameter down the length of the fire. Light the fire in the middle. Sit a pot at the point of the V (wind blows flames under and around ...

I use alcohol based napkins (aka wet-naps/handy-wipes). They are individually packaged, light in a cinch, come free with a lot of fast food (fried chicken, ribs, etc.) and the packaging is usually pretty robust a protecting the contents from being compromised. I also use them for cleaning my hands, face and pits in the field.

If you have a single smallish fireplace and you can't move coals from a bigger, main fire to a special cooking spot, you can run into the problem of the fire/embers/coals burning down and getting cold. You can solve this by adding small pieces of wood - about 1" to 1.5" around - which will add heat without adding too much flame. You need to keep a close ...

There's no safe wood I've found that's made food taste really bad - generally if it does taste absolutely foul I'd be wary that something else was up. In the grand scheme of things though, it depends what you class as "bad". Different people prefer different flavours, and in that sense using different types of wood can definitely make foods taste different. ...

The general rule is that the rock can't get hot. When you heat the rock, the water inside evaporates and can crack the rock. If you're just making fire to warm yourself or cook something (a steak, not the whole beef) it will be OK. When the fire is moderate, the rock shouldn't even get warm. You shouldn't also throw bigger stones into fire. They can ...

There is another problem with making a fire in a natural cave: the smoke propagating through the cave can severely affect various cave-dwelling species, particularly bats. That is especially bad during winter, when smoke and warm air from the fire can wake up the bats and drive them out of the cave, causing them to freeze or starve to death.

In one of the series of Survivorman the Les Stroud has put into fire the whole fallen pine. A very thick trunk will burn for a long time. Generally, the thicker the wood the longer it will burn. A thin branch will last a few hours, the fire will not be big, but it will nevertheless give heat. Unfortunately I never recorded it, but as far as I remember a ...

At first, I was going to down-vote the question, because "I have heard..." struck me as relying on urban myth. But I realized I didn't have the Rep yet on this site to do so... Then coincidentally, I came across this sad story from 2009: A 16-year-old boy was crushed to death by falling stones in a cave which had probably been unsettled by the heat ...

Flint is your best bet and it sparks much better with steel than with a rock like iron pyrite. The better rocks you find, the less the tinder matters, but you will need something like a cotton ball or similar fine material that is very dry in most cases when you don't have actual steel and pure flint. Any old tinder will do - fungus, grass, wood splinters or ...