Campfire
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Teacher here. I've never made a campfire before, and I'm going to have to for an outing with a team of teenagers.
It may rain. What I have so far is a spot with stones around embers.
Teach my ass real hard.
>ITT: fires, cooking outdoors, tricks, etc.
here you go
>>791661
I know this is just a reference picture, but don't use aspen unless it is very dead and completely dry. Aspen does not burn well.
If it rains collect tinder from under fallen trees for example
>>791658
>It may rain.
Then cheat with a homemade firestarter. Smear a bunch of vaseline on some cotton balls. Transport in an altoids tin. Put at the bottom of your tinder pile and otherwise build the fire as normal.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Cotton-Ball-Fire-Starter/
If you are going for primitive invest in a magnifying glass and some stuff soaked in pine sap. A friction bow too of you have the fore arms for it.
If you are going to use a lighter just build your fire and light it up.
This guy has tons of videos on different methods of fire starting:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Bgood2ppl/videos
Make sure you gather all your materials ahead of time. You don't want to be scrambling around looking for kindling while your tinder bundle is burning down. That, and don't have kindling that's too large in diameter. Those are the two big mistakes most people make.
But honestly this isn't rocket science. Even primitive proto-humans could make fire.
>>791661
instructions unclear, chopped off arm.
>>791658
> teach my ass real hard
Boner commencing...
>>791661
do this but stuff some crumpled (loosely) newspaper in the tinder tent and dont be afraid to throw a couple kindling size pieces into your starting tent/teepee. light and enjoy, im assuming your packing a bic.
>>791658
Alfie did a lot on making fire, so you might want to check his videos out
https://www.youtube.com/user/AlfieAesthetics/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=2
Thanks, guys. Cool board, I'll come back.
>>791661
>>792266
Why are teepee fires always suggested? When I was a kid camping, I always saw people doing this method, and most of the time the teepee would fall over and it'd be a bitch to start. I use a big log, lay the kindling and smaller stuff against it, and light it in the space below. Never used more than one match per fire this method.
>>792751
Lean-to master race.
My go to for fires, also use log cabin method quite a bit
>>791658
start collecting birch bark as soon as you get settled shit is filled with oils and is great for lighting tinder and even smaller kindling
i don't understand the whole design your fire before its lit thing. i normally will normally build my fire up as the fire builds. obiviously you don't want to start too small or it will burn out but get a little something going before you start really kicking. that being said to not smother that is the number one mistake is smothering it out.
if you are with teenagers you should absolutely cheat. go the science professor and ask him for some magnesium ribbon and also do the >>792120 tip.
if its dry rain and you are car camping or not straying see if the camp site is ok with you bringing your own wood or if there is a place close-by to buy dry wood.
>>792120
>homemade firestarter
might as well get store bought firelighters, i like the cubes that you break off and put into the fire, you can crumble them too.
Here in Scotland it's always wet. Generally I use a firelighter plus >>791661 basic design, if it's really wet I'll section my bigger logs into quarters to expose the dry inner.
Also if it's raining, or your wood is wet, you're going to want a bigger fire than you would otherwise to compensate for the fact the fire won't burn so well (well, more of the energy will go towards heating the water)
Get the kids to collect DRY firewood, instruct to separate into piles of sizes. Break branches down by hand (or by tool if you feel confident), and split or section any logs to appropriate size.
>>792751
teepee sucks, you're better off with perpendicular hand bundles of twigs, a sort of v, it allows access to the middle for ignition, and then you can lay additional bundles on top, it won't collapse like a teepee and much quicker to set.
>>791658
define "outing"....like to go pass around the sticky icky icky out behind the school during an intergalactic kegger? or an overnight romp through the woods to actually try to teach something about the outdoors?
pack at least a decent knife and waterproof matches/bic/magnesium starter...maybe a folding saw
if stuff ends up being wet, use the knife to shave into the wood till you hit a dry part, then keep whitl'n till you have a good pile....you're going to want to find some needles/leaves/dry grass to get the small twigs and or shavings going
pile it up nice and slowly start adding larger stuff once the small things start burning....you're going to want to make sure there is enough air getting into the bottom or it will just smolder; a good way to make sure there is ample air flow is to stack the sticks kind of like a jenga tower, one level on top of each other, alternating directions
>>791658
>Teach my ass real hard.
I prefer this method, as it is really comfortable and sufficient
>bring some newspaper or a tea candle and matches/lighter
>gather some dry branches of all sizes. max lenght 1meter
>start a fire with the smaller ones by building a small pile
>as it starts to burn add thicker branches
>no need to shorten them, as the fire will do it for you
>keep a branch or two to adjust the position of burning branches
>wa la
>>792757
> setting log cabins on fire
I'll shoot you in the dick if you come close to my log cabin!