Well, before you go out into the wilderness, you need to make sure you have the necessary materials to make a fire.
Without them, you may not be able to stay warm.
You go out hiking one day, and a few hours in, you realize that you accidentally spilled water on your matches or that butane for your lighter leaked!
As you read, you will find out how to make fire without matches or lighter.
4 Methods of Fire Building without Matches or Lighter
*Using a filled water bottle or a magnifying glass to compress sunlight
*Using a bow drill or a hand drill to create embers otherwise known as the drill method
*Using flint and steel or just a piece of flint and a piece of rock to light cotton balls, a piece of char cloth, dryer lint, and cattail fluff even works too
*You can use 9-Volt batteries and a piece of aluminum foil or a metal gum wrapper
Finding Fuel
First, look for dry material, called tinder, such as a dry piece of bark.
Take a knife and scrape off some dry bark, preferably off of a dead tree.
Next, find dry sticks to make a fire teepee, preferably thin twigs. You could also use a piece of wood when your fire gets bigger.
Find a stick with a y-shape. Then, put a stick up against it to hold up the y.
Then, take two more sticks to help hold up the other two, and add more sticks on each side to maintain balance.
When you add sticks, make sure the there is a spot where there aren’t any sticks so you can put the tinder that is alight.
Also make sure that the gaps between the sticks look very thin, but make sure there are a lot of spaces so that the fire can get oxygen.
After building your fire teepee, make sure you have extra sticks to add to the fire later when it’s going.
Once you make your fire teepee, put some of the tinder inside it. Next, you need to make an ember.
4 Easy Ways to Get an Ember when Starting a Fire without Matches or Lighter
Flint and Steel Method
Get your cotton, charcloth, cattail fluff, or dryer lint, and hold it up against the flint.
Strike a sharp piece of the flint with your steel to make a spark.
Make sure you strike in a downward motion to create an upward-moving spark to hit the cloth.
Repeat until you get to the point where it starts to burn.
Water or Magnifying Glass Method
This method will work for a water bottle and a magnifying glass.
First, if you’re using a water bottle, fill it up at least halfway.
Then, rotate your water bottle or magnifying glass or water bottle until the light that passes through it compresses into a small dot on your tinder nest.
Drill Method
For the drill method, you’re going to need a fireboard, a bow drill or hand drill, and a moist leaf, preferably from a tree that’s alive.
This way, when you create the ember, the ember won’t burn through the leaf.
Here is 2 videos explaining this.
Carefully slide the ember into a tinder nest and blow at a steady pace until it lights.
Battery Method
Be careful using this method because the tinfoil or gum wrapper will get very hot!
Touch the two ends of the metal to the two ends of the battery, and touch the metal to your tinder and blow softly until flame.
Starting the Fire
You’ll know you have an ember when the cloth starts burning.
Get a ball of dry tinder, or a tinder nest and put the ember inside it.
Then, you blow at a steady pace to supply oxygen to the ember to keep it burning.
When it starts smoking, you’ll know that it’s about to light.
When it starts, put it inside the fire teepee. Then, it can light the rest of the tinder.
The sticks for the fire teepee will catch fire, making the fire bigger, warmer, and brighter.
FAQs
Q: How do I use a flint and steel safely without scratching up my hands?
A: Make sure you’re correctly placing your knuckles so that it will strike straight down, not on you knuckles!
Q: Why does my fire keep going out?
A: Probably because you don’t have enough oxygen, heat, or fuel; those are the three main things that could happen.
Q: How do I start a fire when it’s raining?
A: Find a dry spot out of the rain, or put a plastic tarp a few feet above the fire, then make your fire on something so that it’s not touching the moist ground.
Wrapping Up
As the fire goes on, add more tinder and more sticks to keep it going.
If you want to use that spot again, put it out by putting dirt over it, then the spot where you make the fire won’t be moist.
Then, it’s easier to use again. You build the fire teepee because heat rises, so when the flames start to burn, the fire will have another thing to catch onto, to give the fire strength and brightness.
Soon, you won’t care about having a lighter or matches! You’ll be able to make fire without a lighter or matches. Happy camping!