Badge Request? Firemaking

BPRoberts · **on:** December 31, 2022, 05:10:19 AM

My wife and I spent a couple days doing some glamping, and I decided to do a fire this afternoon. In hindsight, I'm not sure this technically qualifies for the badge. If not, I figure it's still some fun pics, and I can always do it again later.

When we arrived, the cabin owner informed us that they had everything we needed for fire on a rack behind the cabin.

"Kindling" according to him:

And some crappy fake fire starter that barely smoldered when I held my Zippo right up to it:

Fortunately, we never go anywhere without (for my money) the best firestarter: dryer lint.

It's hard to beat free, and it works damn well.

Fortunately, there was plenty of dead wood and brush around the property, so we easily gathered some real kindling and I got to work.

BPRoberts · **Reply #1 on:** December 31, 2022, 05:20:05 AM

I usually default to a lean to for my starting fire. It's nice and stable, and usually gets good air flow. They tend to morph into teepees over time though.

This was my first time using a firesteel in a decade or so, and I think my first time actually using it successfully. I decided having 550 cord around my neck wasn't the safest thing, so I repurposed the neck cord to a wrist lanyard and hung the steel off it. The Eldris is a great little knife. Firesteel was much easier than I expected to use.

After about ten minutes of slowly adding wood and blowing, I had a decent flame going for us to sit and read by.

BPRoberts · **Reply #2 on:** December 31, 2022, 05:26:10 AM

After doing this whole series, I remembered I do have this pic which should definitely qualify: used my Huntsman to help restart a fire that went down to coals over the summer.

Also, bonus sheep from the neighboring farm! And two pics of using the steel last night after we were in the hot tub.

Farmer X · **Reply #3 on:** December 31, 2022, 06:05:56 AM

I agree on the dryer lint...though I probably saved a little too much of it. And the sheep are pretty cool. Good luck with the badge!

BPRoberts · **Reply #4 on:** December 31, 2022, 06:13:35 AM

Yeah, I realized when I was packing for the trip I need to stop saving for a bit. We have a whole bag in the "main" camp bag, a back up bag, and a bunch of it just loose in a box. It's honestly probably a little unsafe. We'll burn through it eventually.