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Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of artificially starting a fire. It requires completing the fire triangle, usually by heating tinder above its autoignition temperature.
Fire is an essential tool for human survival and the use of fire was important in prehistory cultural history since the Lower Paleolithic. Today, it is a key component of Scouting, woodcraft and bushcraft.
/ref> Ötzi, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived in the Ötztal Alps between 3400 and 3100 BCE, carried material to make a fire (tinder fungus along with flint and pyrite for creating sparks).
Many forms of tinder are available – charcloth is preferred by many; tinder fungus and other species such as Phellinus igniarius have been used Amadou; most friction methods using wood generate their own fine tinder; today a pile of magnesium or ferrocerium shavings is common; and a moisture-resistant DIY tinder features cotton balls impregnated with petroleum jelly. A feather stick can be made from available or with a knife.
Autoignition temperatures of common tinder:
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Tinder is preserved within a tinderbox, which today is often a plastic bag.
Tinder, when formed into a tight bundle, can also be used to preserve/carry an ember. Often in the form of a cigar and made of compacted tinder materials held within a tinderbox, a smouldering ember could safely be saved inside.
The hand drill is the most widespread among indigenous cultures, characterized by the use of a thin, straightened wooden shaft or reed to be spun with the hands, grinding within a notch against the soft wooden base of a fire board (a wooden board with a carved notch in which to catch heated wood fibers created by friction). This repeated spinning and downward pressure causes black dust to form in the notch of the fireboard, eventually creating a hot, glowing coal. The coal is then carefully placed among dense, fine tinder, which is pressed against it as one blows directly onto the coal until the tinder begins burning and eventually catches into flame. The advantage of the hand drill technique is that it requires no rope.
The bow drill uses the same principle as the hand drill (friction by rotation of wood on wood) but the spindle is shorter, wider (about the size of a human thumb) and driven by a bow, which allows longer, easier strokes and protects the palms. Additional downward pressure is generated by the handhold.
A pump drill is a variant of the bow drill that uses a coiled rope around a cross-section of wooden stake spin the shaft by pumping up and down a cross-member."The Iroquois are unique in America and perhaps in the world in making fire with the pump drill." Fire-making Apparatus in the United States National Museum; Walter Hough, 1890. Primitive Technology: Cord drill and Pump drill | You Tube | Jan 22, 2016
The fire plough or fireplow consists of a stick cut to a dull point, and a long piece of wood with a groove cut down its length. The stake is pressed down hard and rubbed quickly against the groove of the second piece in a "plowing" motion, to produce hot dust which creates an ember. A split is often made down the length of the grooved piece, so that oxygen can flow freely to the coal/ember.
A fire-saw is a method by which a piece of wood is sawed through a notch in a second piece or pieces to generate friction. The tinder may be placed between two slats of wood with the third piece or "saw" drawn over them above the tinder so as to catch a coal, but there is more than one configuration.
A Fire thong uses a non-melting cord, ratan, or flexible strip of wood to 'saw' the wood creating friction. On the board, opposite side the cord, is a well with a hole through the board to gather the charred, soon-to-smoke, wood dust.
The Rudiger roll friction fire method, also known as the "fire roll" method, is believed to have been invented by World War 2 . A German Survival skills expert named Rüdiger Nehberg wrote about this method in one of his books. A small amount of wood ash is rolled up in a piece of cotton like a cigar. The cotton is then placed between two boards and rolled back and forth. Pressure and speed are both gradually increased. With proper technique ignition can occur in seconds.
The use of flint in particular became the most common method of producing flames in pre-industrial societies (see also fire striker). Travelers up to the late 19th century would often use self-contained kits known as tinderboxes to start fires.Walter Hough. Fire-Making Apparatus in the United States National Museum. Government Printing Office, 1890
Some fire-starting systems use a ferrocerium rod and a hard scraper to create hot sparks by manually scratching the ferro rod with a knife or sharp object to ignite man-made or natural tinder. Fire starters based upon ferrocerium are popular with Woodcraft practitioners, bushcraft hobbyists and survivalists. Similar sparking devices have a built-in striking blade which provides an easy method for sparking with one hand. Another common type has the ferro rod attached to a magnesium bar that can be scraped with a knife to make a powdered tinder that will burn for a few seconds.
Hiking stores sell both magnesium starters, firelighter blocks, and other specialist tinder.
Other reactions that can be used to start fires include:
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