Mastering the primitive ways to make a fire without matches improves your chances of survival in the wilderness. There are plenty of reasons you’d like to make a fire, isn’t it? Your reasons may range from ensuring warmth to cooking & clean water to making light or signal.
Ideally, when you have to build a fire, you’d like to be with a box of matches (preferably waterproof), some dry grass & nice dry wood — that’s all a fire takes, no? However…
The wild is not a place to expect the best. It is as they say: “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” You may not be without these necessary fire-making tools, plus you could be in a damp environment, say a snow-filled field or the jungle floor? That means wet wood & whatever, and that can indeed be disastrous.
Now, my dear, this is what brings us to…
3 Primitive Ways to Make a Fire Without Matches
Before we look at the primitive means through which you can get orange tongues licking the oxygen & heating your tent, let us look at the basic elements required to start a fire; they are fuel, heat & oxygen.
In the absence of these three essentials, you can’t get a fire regardless of how hard you try. First, fuel is tinder, which can be from bark, tampon cotton, tree fungus & dry tree shavings. Second, heat can be produced with a match or lighter, a fire steel (ferrocerium rod) & by friction or combining specific chemicals like potassium permanganate with glycerol. Third, oxygen is available all around you; else, you’d be dead. Note, though, that the inadequacy of oxygen causes a fire to give off more smoke.
Now, that’s that. Here are the fire building alternatives to matches in the wild:
Flint & Steel
Flint is related to stone. A flintstone is either agate, chert, jasper, obsidian, quartz & other less common types. For fire making, you want a harder-than-steel kind of stone. These stones are very prevalent in upper Canada, so you are lucky if you live there. They should not be too difficult to find in other places, though. If you are not sure of these rocks, my suggestion is to grab all variations that you believe will work & experiment.
Here are the steps to follow when using flint & steel to build a fire:
- Move the rock against the steel as if you were shaving — expect sparks, which are the tiny steel splinters getting “shaved off.” Having a dry fabric to wrap around the rock will cause the fire to start easily as it quickly catches the spark, much like rotten wood does.
- Ensure the falling sparks are being shaved into a dry fabric, rotten wood, or any type of tinder.
- Add wool or wood to your tinder & start blowing until a sustainable flame comes alive.
- If there’s a kindling tee-pee nearby, place the nest in it & your fire is all done.
Fire Plow: Starting a Fire With Sticks
Fire plow may be a manually hard task but is honestly a simple, thorough method of starting a fire. In this way, two pieces of wood are rubbed against each other, leading to fire from the friction. The main thing with a fire plow is dry wood. Without it, you may have a tough time getting your fire to start.
Below are the steps to follow to start your fire with mere sticks:
- Find a large wood to use as the plow board. The ideal log should be split longways down its middle. If your environment is damp, a fresh bit of wood split down the middle can be used, too, as it will be dry.
- Create a divot down the plow from the middle of the wood, which will serve as the route for your stick to run on.
- Find a strong stick & run it quickly & forcefully through the divot created down the middle. This stick to use should have a blunt end. You can make this by hitting the tip of the stick with a rock.
- When you have run this stick enough, tilt the board such that the wooden dust collects at the end of the divot. The friction caused by running the stick along the divot will spark an ember.
- As soon as you take note of a little ember, blow gently, so the dust settles, and then place tinder on the ember.
- With time, a sustainable flame will form.
Using a Bow & Drill to Make a Fire
This means is quite similar to the fire plow, but it involves more bush engineering. In fact, it is technically a cut above the fire plow, as it comprises a twine, piece of string, or any naturally occurring rope, although shoelaces would be the job too — same as paracord.
The steps to follow are:
- Create a semi-bow that’s about 30” long. This tool should be a little bit flexible, but it shouldn’t be so flexible that it can be pulled like a bow. Instead, it should have just a slight flex. Tie your string to the bow in a loose manner that’ll allow you to wrap the leftover rope around the middle.
- Get the drill, which will be attached to the middle. This is ideally a softwood that’s about a thumb thick. Of course, your drill should be dry & about 8” long. One end of the drill should be pointed while the other is round.
- Get a log to serve as your fire plank — like we did with the fire plow. Make a notch that’s v-shaped in the middle of the log, and drill a small hole at the tip of the V. The pointy end of your drill should be within the hole & not through it to the other side. This is where it will be caught by wood dust.
- Place a rock on the drill. This rock should have a cup-like section that will hold the drill in place. If you can’t find a rock like this, you can use the knot of its bone or branch to do the holding in place.
- Place the nest of tinder underneath the plank. This will catch embers when they form.
- Wrap your cord around the drill & start pulling the bow left & right. Apply some pressure on the top of the bow while at this, and it will only be a matter of time before you see a cloud of smoke.
- When the sawdust starts smoking, lift the drill gently out of its position & add some tinder to the dust and blow until the flame is sustainable. After this, put it in a bird’s nest.
Concluding The Primitive Ways to Make a Fire Without Matches
The primitive ways to make a fire without matches involve some stress, but it’s what you can get used to & become much better at. Regardless of the difficulty involved, everyone knows it is better to make this fire rather than freezing to death. Let’s hear from you: which of these alternatives have you tried out before now?