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bajalearner
Senior Nomad
Posts: 670
Registered: 8-24-2010
Location: Tijuana
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Mood: in search of more
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How do you start your fire?
No this isn't a marital question. Some years ago I figured out my favorite way of starting a campfire but wonder if someone else has a better way.
How do you get your fire on?
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monoloco
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6667
Registered: 7-13-2009
Location: Pescadero BCS
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A little diesel fuel gets it going quick.
"The future ain't what it used to be"
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Cliffy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 986
Registered: 12-19-2013
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The Boy Scout way- 1 match
and a cup of gasoline!!!!!!
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David K
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Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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A Presto (artificial) log... a little additional paper too.
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Martyman
Super Nomad
Posts: 1904
Registered: 9-10-2004
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The boy scout way-no gas. gather kindling.
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AKgringo
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Posts: 6025
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Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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My son and I ran our Zodiac out to an island in Prince William Sound (AK) to camp for a couple of days. There was nothing dry on that island,
including us!
I did have boat gasoline though, so I filled an empty beverage can with gasoline, and wedged it between the least damp pieces of drift wood that we
could find and lit it. If it is not knocked over, the can will produce a jet of flame like a Bunsen burner for 10 or 15 minutes.
We then kept adding progressively larger fuel until we had a fire hot enough to burn the damp and green wood we could gather.
By the way, even green spruce boughs burn with a hot blue flame.
NEVER throw uncontained gasoline on a fire! It is dangerous, and usually a waste of gasoline.
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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Bob H
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5867
Registered: 8-19-2003
Location: San Diego
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Do this.... All you need is toilet paper, isopropyl alcohol, and a soup can.
http://www.sun-gazing.com/diy-homemade-air-heater-emergency-...
The SAME boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of NOT the circumstance.
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shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13048
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
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Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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living in the pacific northwest for much of my life made me a fire starting expert. The trick is to start VERY small...I dig a small hole in the sand
then first place a few pieces of paper ripped up in strips followed by some very small twigs with progressively larger twigs and sticks at the ready
beside the fire pit. When the small twigs catch fire, I slowly add more till it is obviously burning then I start adding sticks till I can add actual
wood pieces...happy fire lighting!
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
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Those who don't understand the situation...........
Deserve the result.
Gasoline (or any other related-flammable) in a VERY limited quantity makes for a perfect fire-starter.
Labor-Saving, QUICK and efficient. No "woodsy" knowledge required.
Applied prior to ignition.
Those who fail the "Darwin" test and reverse that sequence are likely beyond any well-intentioned advice.
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El Jefe
Super Nomad
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Location: South East Cape
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OK, go ahead and use gasoline. But when you pour it on your big pile of sticks remember to be up wind and up hill before you throw the match on. Those
vapors are heaver than air and will run right down the slope of the beach to where you are standing in your flip flops. The old fireman in me hates to
see people use gasoline, but it does in fact work well if you are very careful and respectful of its potential. The usual problems arise when there is
alcohol inside the body that pours the gasoline on the fire.
My preference is to use the little bricks of the same stuff Presto Logs are made from. Light the little brick under your pile of kindling and away you
go. Works in wind too.
No b-tchin\' in the Baja.
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MitchMan
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Registered: 3-9-2009
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A great way to start a wood fire (mesquite, oak, alder, etc.) for a fireplace, outside bon fire, and wood barbecue is to use about 1 volumetric ounce
of waxed fire log molded in an oblong shape with a flat bottom and thinned edges at that flat bottomed base. Elevate the waxed mass about 1/4 to 1/2
inch with twigs or kindling to allow for air flow before igniting it at the edges. Build a chamber of kindling above and around the waxed starter.
As soon as some of the kindling catches fire, keep feeding the flame with more kindling aggressively, increasing the size of the kindling pieces as
the fire grows.
I try to avoid using paper as embers from the paper get airborne all too easily and can become a fire hazard beyond the location of your intended
fire. I think that using gasoline to start a wood fire is a bad idea; gasoline is explosively volatile - very dangerous.
Actually, I use specifically a fire starter type of waxed log. Those fire starter logs are smaller than the fireplace waxed logs. I buy them in the
USA and take them to Baja. It's a cheap, controlled and safe way to start fires. It's fun to make a game of it by limiting the use of only one match
to start the fire and using the smallest yet surest quantity of starter to get the job done.
I made a very decent barbecue with 27 cinder blocks, 10 red bricks and a metal grill from Home Depot.
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bajabuddha
Banned
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Location: Baja New Mexico
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Mood: Always cranky unless medicated
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Steel wool makes for great tinder even in wet conditions.
I don't have a BUCKET LIST, but I do have a F***- IT LIST a mile long!
86 - 45*
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TMW
Select Nomad
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Location: Bakersfield, CA
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Rub two sticks tegether, really really fast.
Here she goes
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AKgringo
Elite Nomad
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Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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Did you know that the re-fill packs of commercial hand sanitizer dispensers have an expiration date? I acquired some of those expired bags, they have
a dispenser valve, are heavy plastic in a cardboard box and travel well. A bit of that gell squeezed onto a pine cone or clump of tinder makes a
great fire starter!
Hang on to that toilet paper, I doubt that later on you will be wondering 'Just where did I put that pine cone?'
[Edited on 1-2-2015 by AKgringo]
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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mtgoat666
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Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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Wood and a single match (or bic lighter). Real Men and Real Women know how to start a fire without paper or petroleum.
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durrelllrobert
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Location: Punta Banda BC
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..and if you have lots of time
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DQwQJ-3pZfwc
Bob Durrell
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Barry A.
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I'm with Shari on this (see above in thread)-------------works great, and is fun.
I NEVER use gasoline, and NEVER have a "whiteman's fire" otherwise known as a "witch-burner"-------American Indian small fire produces intimacy in
those huddled over it. 
Also, in a pinch, PRESTO LOGS work great !!!
Barry
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MMc
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A fire is a fire, how you get it started is up to you, I have a friend the uses a road flare.
I most of my fires are started by using the charcoal that cooked my dinner. I also will use small pieces of cardboard that have been covered in wax
they will burn for a while and are great for starting small kindling.
So, bajalearner what do you use?
"Never teach a pig to sing it frustrates you and annoys the pig" - W.C.Fields
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freediverbrian
Senior Nomad
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Location: Papas Gonzaga Bay
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Propane torch works like a charm
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64837
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Quote: Originally posted by Barry A.  | I'm with Shari on this (see above in thread)-------------works great, and is fun.
I NEVER use gasoline, and NEVER have a "whiteman's fire" otherwise known as a "witch-burner"-------American Indian small fire produces intimacy in
those huddled over it.
Also, in a pinch, PRESTO LOGS work great !!!
Barry
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This!
Besides not my liking the giant 'white mad fires', I have also seen people toss an old VW case into a camp fire... and when the magnesium ignites, you
can see that thing from Mars, or perhaps Alpha Centauri?!
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