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western mountain fieldcraft traditional skill based solutions for outdoor living skip to content western mountain fieldcraft about us contact information blog re thinking emergency fire starting for fieldcraft it s a common refrain in outdoors circles that some sort of backup fire starting method is the most essential survival item a person can carry into the field i don t disagree with that it s also a common refrain that a person should carry two or three fire starting methods so they have a backup in case their primary fire starting system fails them while i don t disagree with that either in my experience and observation this is where the problems start to arise typically in bushcraft and survival circles some self professed expert will espouse something like a bic lighter and some petroleum rubbed cotton balls as their primary means of starting fires in the field followed by something like hurricane matches and then they ll have a ferro rod or a traditional flint and steel kit as their tertiary plan the idea behind this is that the bic lighter and cotton balls is the easiest simplest fastest and most reliable means of starting a fire in the field under trying conditions that s not inaccurate sometimes in some places but just given the last sentence i bet you can see the problem with that approach can t you let s say you re bushcraft bob you don t have a lot of actual hands on experience in the field but by gosh you ve read all the books and watched all the youtube influencers and you know what is what so you go to the woods it s a little short 10 mile day hike but you re bushcraft bob so you ve got your three different types of fire starters with you and you re ready for catastrophe to strike well if you re in the western mountains like we are there s a pretty good chance that your catastrophe is going to involve cold weather conditions did you know that a butane lighter won t work reliably at temperatures below freezing that s right the temperature at which butane turns from a gas to a liquid is a mere 31 5 degrees fahrenheit fortunately if you keep your lighter in your trouser pocket there s a fair chance that under normal conditions your body heat will keep it functionally warm even when the mercury drops close to 0 outside of an emergency situation then say you fell through the ice on the creek or you slipped and fell on the ice and got rolled down the hill through the snow it will probably be adequate in reality in wintertime when an emergency situation is most likely to actually require the use of a warming fire to keep you alive versus the psychological crutch of a fire for companionship in warmer weather chances are significant that your bic lighter is not going to work when you need it whether that s because it s simply too cold or because the thing got drenched in water when you fell in oh you didn t know they don t work when they re wet the drink is irrelevant your primary emergency fire starting method doesn t work when you actually need it that s okay though because you re bushcraft bob so you ve got a secondary ignition source in the form of hurricane matches kept reliably dry in a waterproof matchsafe fantastic as long as you re not so cold that you ve lost finger dexterity and you can unscrew the cap of the safe and assuming you don t break the matches in your frozen ham handed attempts to strike them alight which is far more common than most infrequent outdoorsmen realize assuming you can reliably start a fire with your hurricane matches they re a much more reliable cold weather solution than a bic lighter is they don t care how cold it is as long as you re not so cold you cannot light them successfully but for the sake of argument let s say for whatever reason you can t seem to manage to get a fire going with them so bushcraft bob whips out his trusty ferro rod scraper it s a fine choice actually i hate ferro rods but that s an irrational hatred on my part and i own that it doesn t require fine motor skills to use so your fingers being borderline frostbit is a non issue it doesn t matter if it s wet because a quick flick of the wrist to get the water off will clear that problem and they create sparks in excess of 5000 degrees f any kind of fine tinder will usually catch the sparks and leap into flame and they re easy to carry and next to impossible to break it s a great choice for an emergency fire starter so here s the question if you have an option that is an ideal fire starting tool under the most adverse conditions why would you relegate it to your tertiary choice doesn t it make more sense to use it as your primary choice it s really not any less convenient than that bic lighter is even under the most ideal conditions you can imagine and under anything less than the ideal it s far superior matches have long been the choice of outdoorsmen since they became reliable in the post civil war era but the ferro rod beats them hands down too the heat is hotter they re harder to break and they don t have to be protected in a waterproof matchsafe get rid of the bic lighter get rid of the matches and just carry a damned ferro rod already full disclosure i don t carry a ferro rod in my personal gear i carry a traditional flint and steel kit i ve used my f s to build fires under the worst conditions the mountains have been able to throw at me including torrential summer thunderstorms and wintertime blizzards with 70mph winds i trust my f s kit and my abilities with it i don t even bother carrying a backup fire starting method anymore i do carry a ferro rod in my sar pack it is my backup there only because my primary means of starting a fire when providing care for a patient in need of a fire for medical reasons is a road flare any reasonable pile of kindling and firewood no matter how wet will burn reliably when ignited with a highway flare in my experience i also keep a f s in my sar pack but only because we re doctrinally mandated to keep three fire starting systems in our gear february 24 2025 test fire function check function check function check february 24 2025 the art of connection welcome to wordpress this is a sample post edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey to add more content here click the small plus icon at the top left corner there you will find an existing selection of wordpress blocks and patterns something to suit your every need for content creation and don t forget to check out the list view click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you ll get a tidy easy to view list of the blocks and patterns in your post february 3 2025 beyond the obstacle welcome to wordpress this is a sample post edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey to add more content here click the small plus icon at the top left corner there you will find an existing selection of wordpress blocks and patterns something to suit your every need for content creation and don t forget to check out the list view click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you ll get a tidy easy to view list of the blocks and patterns in your post february 3 2025 growth unlocked welcome to wordpress this is a sample post edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey to add more content here click the small plus icon at the top left corner there you will find an existing selection of wordpress blocks and patterns something to suit your every need for content creation and don t forget to check out the list view click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you ll get a tidy easy to view list of the blocks and patterns in your post february 3 2025 western mountain fieldcraft traditional skill based solutions for outdoor living blog about faqs authors events shop patterns themes twenty twenty five blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed western mountain fieldcraft sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy western 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