Properly laying a campfire - in a campground, never out in the open is a basic camp craft skill. It is also a woods man skill, which gets the test from time to time. On a normal evening this goes well and you can do it easily using the "teepee" method. But what do you do when it is wet?
They say a discarded smoke cam start a forest fire, but why can you use a whole box of matches and never get the thing to start burning?
There is a solution. A magnesium block fire starter with a flint edge. Set your teepee like usual, and leave a hole with a pocket below that. Now scrape off enough of the block to fill the hole. Once you have the pile of magnesium then flip the block over and with the back of your Vic MT, scrape the flint side and produce sparks. In a few the pile will go up and trust me it will be both bright, and HOT. This will get the fire going in about 15 minutes, wet wood. pouring rain, or driving snow. I have done this for the scouts for years and it works well.
I always have both on the fire chain - the match safe full of strike anywhere matches and the mag block. So what ever method is needed, I have the means at hand.
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