Survival Fire Kit, Fire Starter Kit and Fire Building
Learning how to build a survival fire can be as hard or as easy as you make it. The key is understanding what condition you might be in when the need for fire arises and you find yourself in desperate need of a survival fire kit. The need for fire usually becomes a dire need as soon as you find yourself caught up in life-threatening weather, you fall into a river fed by snowmelt and need to get warm quickly, you are forced to spend an incontinent night out in the wilderness in extreme conditions. No matter what the occasion it is a good idea to do the simple task of purchasing the right fire starting kit to ensure you will get the warmth you need to survive.
"Fire, the greatest of man's discoveries, enables man to live in many climates, use many kinds of foods, and compels the forces of nature to do his work."
One of the hardest things to do is convince people that it could be them. Meaning, they could be the ones in the outdoor survival situation and in immediate need for some serious fire building fast. This situation is amplified when combined with the portrayal of how to build a fire (with primitive fire starters) in the wilderness.
Flint and steel, as well as other primitive fire starting techniques, are still taught today which is complete nonsense!
Outdoor literature from the early 1900's all the way up to recent times contain's nonsense like striking flint, quartz, or pyrites combined with a blow with the back of a knife or piece of hard steel" to produce sparks. These techniques may be interesting and create a fun activity or challenge. However, they are not efficient and effective techniques for starting a survival fire.
Literature recommending the use of a camera, mirror, field glass or telescope as a burning glass to start a fire is simply NOT practical in a real-world, practical survival situation.
These authors who speak of these primitive techniques must be incredible woodsmen. If the same firestarter techniques that were taught 100 years ago are still taught today then surely there have been some advances in that one hundred-plus year. Too bad our smartphones are not smart enough to be able to start a fire on demand. Technology has advanced however things may need to be kept simple. It's a good idea to equip yourself with a fire starter that is an efficient and effective fire building tool.
If the need for fire arises in a survival situation and you have a kit that includes the items sufficient to get the three required items needed for a fire:
Oxygen, Fuel, and Heat
It's a good idea to understand the best way to not only gather fuel that is dry, but also how to arrange a survival fire to give you the best chance to succeed in building fire. A successful fire requires three key elements: Oxygen, fuel, and heat. The heat and fuel are vital pieces to get the fire started while a continuous flow of oxygen will ensure the fire will thrive.
Your heat source must pack enough punch to ignite the fuel while plenty of oxygen must be present around that fuel for it to really take. For this reason, cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly (included in your Endure Metal Match Kit) make the single best fire starter one can imagine. Especially in adverse conditions. The long fibers of the cotton balls create a perfect mix of fuel and oxygen when combined with petroleum jelly (Vasoline), pulled apart as if it were a wick on steroids. These long fibers allow the sparks to penetrate that area, catch the fuel with air pockets in between to create the perfect combination of oxygen, fuel, and heat to get your survival fire started. The cotton ball/petroleum jelly fire starter will burn for up to 12 minutes. This gives you ample time to build your fire up to a warm creating machine.
How to build a Survival Fire
Start with a square foot area of fuel (fuel can be any dry stick, log, branch or twig - remember its fuel because its not the wood that burns but rather the gases held within the wood) which creates a barrier from the ground to protect from the potentially wet ground that could make it hard to start your fire. Place a larger log at the end of the fuel platform that will later act as your brace-log and fire control to allow more oxygen to reach the fire. After your fuel platform and brace-log are in place, place a piece of tin foil (also included in your Endure Metal Match Kit) on top of the fuel platform laying flat. Vigourously spread out the cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly wick removing all lumps. Place this ultimate wick on top of the tinfoil. The tinfoil will be vital to maximizing your cotton balls vasoline wick's burn time. As the petroleum jelly burns it liquifies and the tinfoil will create the perfect catch-all to ensure it fully utilizes the fuel's potential.
Beforehand, arrange piles of dry fuel about 1 foot in length sorted in similar piles from the smallest diameter twigs you can find in one pile to bigger twigs in the next, to bigger sticks, eventually piles of the largest logs you can find. The key is that the fuel is completely dry. Hint: cut dead branches off trees so you will ensure they are dry. Hit the cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly wick with sparks from your Endure Metal Match. As the mixture burns add the smallest pile of twigs than the next in a perpendicular fashion across the burning cotton ball mixture with one side on the fuel platform and the other leaning on the brace-log. As it continues to burn keep adding piles perpendicular on top (adding them at a 90-degree angle will ensure maximum airflow. As the fire grows
DO NOT BLOW ON IT!
People exhaust themselves by exerting a lot of their energy on struggling fires. In a survival situation, this can be extremely detrimental to your survival potential as you will need to conserve every last drop of energy and expend it efficiently and effectively while you are also keeping your body temperature stable, and keeping yourself sheltered, hydrated and staying found. As your fire burns if it starts to dwindle simply lift up the brace-log to allow more oxygen to reach the fire similar to adjusting the air-flow on a charcoal grill.
No need to build your own survival fire kit, the Endure Metal Match Kit includes the most lightweight (entire kit weighs about 2 oz) yet most effective survival fire starting kit available on the market. It includes a ferrocerium metal match striker with African Padauk wood handle, a scraper with leather string to attach the two. Also, included is cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly packed into a waterproof container, a piece of tinfoil and in-field instructions on how to start a survival fire in severe conditions. When selecting a survival fire starting kit it is a good idea to keep in mind that when in a pinch little things like a wood handle can come in handy when met with the needs of a survival situation.
The wood handle can be scraped with a knife to create tinder that can be hit with a spark from the metal match to create fire.
A wood-handle is a must when choosing which survival metal match kit to purchase.
Starting a fire is a fundamental skill that anyone who wants to be a survivor can accomplish. Remember, the key elements of a fire are oxygen, heat, and fuel. The single most effective source for heat is a quality metal match, dry dead wood is the ideal wood while the Endure Survival Fire method of building a fire is the single most efficient and effective technique to build a fire and produce enough heat to help you ENDURE a potentially life-threatening incident.
Endure Survival Kits provides practical outdoor survival gear and knowledge aimed at the everyday hiker, camper, backpacker and outdoor lover. Even those who think their RV and their generator is their survival kit (and bic lighters are their firestarter!) should consider the implications of not committing to the simple task of investing in a good survival kit that covers the basic survival needs: fire, shelter, hydration, and signal. For those who travel across wide open spaces, or through forests or in backcountry areas where there happen to be roads. Don't always count on someone to be there to save you as you may very well be the one who finds yourself lost, stranded or in a car accident in the middle of nowhere with broken out windows, no shelter and no one to rescue you. If you have the right tools you will turn that potentially life-threatening situation into a minor inconvenience.