Timeline for Given limited space and weight what should I carry to get a fire going with damp wood?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
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| Jun 29, 2022 at 14:25 | history | edited | fgysin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 14, 2019 at 7:50 | comment | added | fgysin | @csk Thanks for the suggestion, I added your ideas above. | |
| Oct 14, 2019 at 7:49 | history | edited | fgysin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Oct 11, 2019 at 18:30 | comment | added | csk | One technique that's missing from this answer is removing wet bark, at least from the twigs you use to start your fire. Bark can hold a lot of moisture, which dampens and smothers your fire when you're trying to get it going. Use your knife to peel the bark off the twig like a carrot. If the surface of the wood is damp, peel off the wet layer or make a featherstick by carving off long curls of wood, but leaving them attached to the stick. The end result looks a bit like a Christmas tree. | |
| Dec 4, 2018 at 16:04 | comment | added | Chris H | I was torn between accepting this and @smeato's answer, but in the end the extra detail on the lighting kit in this answer just gave it the edge. | |
| Dec 4, 2018 at 16:03 | vote | accept | Chris H | ||
| Dec 4, 2018 at 6:56 | history | edited | fgysin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 3, 2018 at 17:17 | comment | added | cr0 | @Baldrickk some of the best wood I find in stormy conditions is the low, dead branches on evergreen trees that hadn't fallen off yet. They're under their parent-tree's canopy/umbrella, off the wet ground, and tend to break off relatively easily as I walk by. | |
| Dec 3, 2018 at 17:13 | comment | added | Baldrickk | to add to what @cr0 says about dry wood - my favourite was finding dead wood that had not yet fallen from trees - while dead, it tends to be dry, and can be removed from the tree without harming it. Good for kindling and intermediate stages of the fire - what you use to dry the first decent chunks of wood out. | |
| Dec 3, 2018 at 16:54 | comment | added | cr0 | I'd answer much like this one, but @fgysin to make it complete I'd add some redundant reliable ignition sources too: lighter (kept dry in sealed container, or a 'storm proof lighter' designed to light in any condition), stormproof matches, magnesium/flint stick, a knife to baton wood and create sparks, and perhaps duplicates of some of these for good measure (e.g. two lighters). That stuff (minus knife), plus the fire starters you linked to, form my lightweight fire kit. That kit + skills & calm, I've been able to get fires going in all kinds of wet, cold, and windy conditions. | |
| Dec 3, 2018 at 16:51 | comment | added | cr0 | @JPhi yes, such as knowing to look under dense evergreen canopies for drier wood, batoning to get to drier inner wood in otherwise damp debris, and excellent fire-building skills since making a fire with wet material leaves much less wiggle room for error (e.g. knowing when to add more wood, give the fire more air, drying each larger tier of wood before you feed it in, etc.) | |
| Dec 3, 2018 at 16:11 | comment | added | JPhi | Is there a specific skill for "lighting wet wood with nothing other than a lighter"? Seems like even if you have skill, it's not going to be a fast process without some additional materials. | |
| Dec 3, 2018 at 15:20 | history | answered | fgysin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |