lighting a fire in the WET!! | Squat the Planet

lighting a fire in the WET!!

catingeorgia

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i gotta a seemingly fuckin simple ass question. what is the best way to light a fire in the wet of the woods? to be more specific...how do you light a fire in the dew of the morning while in the woods or after/during a rainstorm? its really no big deal when your starting it off of the coals from the dry night before, but what if you camp in a fresh spot after a long night of hiking only to wake up in the morning with everything wet from the dew...any tips will help
thanks:confused:
 
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bob freaky

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you should store some wood under your tarp or in a dry place the night before. If your real shitty and don't have a tarp or dry place then try and carve off the wet wood on the outside down to the dry wood. Always carry those little sawdust brick fire starters or if you can't afford them carry some char cloth( you can make it by putting a bit of cotton t-shirt in a can and put it on the fire to char it so you can use it for fire start later) a bit of alcohol would work also. Once you get in going it should burn even slightly wet wood.
 

Dameon

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You can dry off some kindling using body heat if you have to, just keep it inside your shirt for a while until it's dry enough to catch. Then just keep other wood near enough to your fire to dry off from the heat.
 
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cranberrydavid

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Yeah, without dry tinder you're going to have problems, so it's worth keeping a stash in a ziplock. Also, humidity makes a big difference. Here in the northwest you have to worry not only about the water in the wood, but also in the air and in the ground. You always want to scrape down to dry soil, or build on a flat stone, tin foil, dry side of a small board or something. Otherwise you'll see the steam come up from the ground and put your fire out before it gets started.

Also don't be afraid to get creative about tinder. Although it's not PC, adding small pieces of plastic, styrofoam, dried orange peel etc. to get a flash of heat can make all the difference. Same with spreading a little oil or grease on the wood. Another thing that works great for tinder is those little bags of snack chips. They're greasy and they're always dry. Alcohol, diesel, wax, kerosene are all good, but be careful of gas and gunpowder. The guys in the tropics use little squares of innertube. Don't breathe the smoke, but your fire WILL start! This is probably more than you'll need for a dewy morning, but hey, it's always good have options, right?

Once your fire is started, keep the damp wood on the side to warm and add it just a little at a time, or the steam can quench your fire as it heats up.
 

Diagaro

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I often find candles in dumpsters and keep em around as batterys for flashlights that don't get lost are rare.
In a pinch stack reed, grass, dry and dead twigs and shit around as small as a tea candle and the wax will soak into all your tinder and get the damn thang going - similarly any tree sap you can rind will act the same hobo napalm FTW!
 

Dmac

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keep a packet of tinder with your gear and as mentioned earlier try to cover/store your firewood in a dry place, like under a corner of a tarp.. but a real good way to find dry tinder is to try and find a birds nest. they make great tinder anytime, but the inside layers will be dry if it's been rained on.
 

LeeevinKansas

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yea always store wood. shit if u have to put soem dry wood down u rpant legs or something the night before. its better to be uncomfortable then to be freezing in the rain starving cuz u cant cook ur food. if u cant find any dry wood, find some cedar trees. red cedar wood and branches work great to get fires going.
 
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catingeorgia

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yeah that paperlike bark on the birch is awesome and i store up whenever i find some but it just seems so hard to find. thanks for the answers everybody and alot of useful shit i have tried and it works well. i found that the easiest way for me so far is to try and plan better and watch the forecast...keeping a small amount of good wood on me for emergencies
 
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Wolfeyes

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Yet another reason to worship the cattail plant. The brown tops will light right up even after a hard rain, and they burn pretty hot. Even better is to stock up whenever you find them. Dip one or two in candle wax or pine sap to make a real jiffy of a fire starter.

If you're in the south, dried palm fronds will go up real quick and hot unless they're soaked through and through(days and days of constant rain) and they're everywhere down here.

Even when it's dry out, any time I'm walking through the woods knowing I'll be camping out, I collect whatever wood I can carry and when I find my flop site, I try to find some way to keep it dry. Generally I'll stash it off the ground, like up in a tree, especially if I don't want to keep it in the shelter with me (FUCK SPIDERS!)
 

catingeorgia

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pine sap is another thing that has been mentioned and ive read about but i dont know what the fuck it looks like. can someone give me a description of what it looks like and where to look for it ie... which trees and its location on thee tree. thanks
 
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Alyssa

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there are these 50 cent logs you buy to make fires with in the camping section of walmart, use 1/4th of one of those (they are the size of a small brick) and you can get any fire started. Also they are very light weight.
 
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Wolfeyes

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pine sap is another thing that has been mentioned and ive read about but i dont know what the fuck it looks like. can someone give me a description of what it looks like and where to look for it ie... which trees and its location on thee tree. thanks

It oozes from openings in the bark of living pine trees. The best quality sap looks like honey, though after it dries a bit it can start to look like beeswax, and if it's particularly hot out it can take on a brownish tinge like caramel. It's incredibly sticky with a wonderful pine scent. The best time to collect it is during the hottest part of the summer, it will run from every single tiny hole in the tree, but trees will release sap from mid spring to mid fall or any time the bark is injured. Although I don't condone it, if you're desperate you can get modest amounts of sap by gouging off the bark or snapping off larger branches.

To collect it, find a knot in the trunk of a tree that you can reach, and either use a stick to scrape and push the fresh sap into a container, or break off pieces of the dried sap. To use dry sap, make a simple double boiler and place over a low heat with a bit of water mixed in.
 
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Diagaro

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catingeorgia you sure do ask alot of questions to elicit all thease nagative replys that most of your threads get but ill be a nicea gy and not flame just cause I'm in a good mood today
here is a picture of someone putting time into sap harvesting - I,E,. how you do it
sap harvesting

heres one of a perfect globule of semihard sap - this shit burns like jet fuel - sap glob

and this almost everything green on this page will burn like its soaked with gasoline particularly take nope of the bubbles or "blisters" on the first pictured tree trunk, thease are filled with highly flammable sap, keep an eye out for firs as they are super flamable - fir trees

Source: I have lived all/most my life in the rainforrest like regions of the northwest.
 
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dharma bum

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i've always kept/used the cotton ball in vaseline, fritos burn for a couple of minutes per chip, often times my lighter will get wet, so keep some matches dipped in wax or carry flint and steel (having some little birthday candles have saved my ass on the AT many times). the lint from dryers lights up like magnesium! i always have a little in a freezerbag in my pack. some logs have holes in them made by worms and insects. if you have a lot of matches (wooden, not paper) and the wood isn't just drenched, strike the match and stick the lit end inside the holes. these little holes often are connected my little tunnels (for the insect to travel to and from) so of course the match will go out, but if you do this alll over your log, eventually the smoke from the matches will somewhat dry the wood out. just takes forever!
but seriously.. DRYER LINT!
 

streetlight

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there are these 50 cent logs you buy to make fires with in the camping section of walmart, use 1/4th of one of those (they are the size of a small brick) and you can get any fire started. Also they are very light weight.


Definitely my favorite method of getting fires started in wet conditions. The little bricks are cheap, burn like hell...and for a long time.
 
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steelcitybrew

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Number one is to collect it while your on the go and keep your stock up.

There is no reason you cant ever find dry tinder hiding under somewhere. I like to take my fixed blade and cut right into wet dead fall and get dry wood from the middle, then cut that into toothpick thin 4 - 8 inch slices , and your golden.
 

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