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Three Essential Campfires

dprogram

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http://artofmanliness.com/2009/09/22/three-essential-campfires-snack-fire-cooking-fire-and-comfort-fire/
Three Essential Campfires: Snack Fire, Cooking Fire, and Comfort Fire
by BRETT & KATE MCKAY on SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 · 21 COMMENTS
in MANLY SKILLS
800px-Pancho_Villa_Expedition_-_Around_the_Campfire_HD-SN-99-02005.JPEG.jpg

You can tell a lot about a camper’s experience by the type of fires they build. Inexperienced campers usually build the same, heaped together bonfire for all their campfire needs. Sure, building huge ass fires is fun, but it’s extremely inefficient. The typical bonfire campfire burns a lot of wood, wastes heat, and isn’t very good for cooking food.
Experienced campers, on the other hand, build different campfires depending on their needs. These campers understand that when you build the right fire for the right time, you get the most efficiency out of it, the most comfort, and the most pleasure.
Below we’ve outlined how to build three different campfires for three different purposes. First, we’ll show you how to build the small snack fire. Next, we’ll discuss how to create the perfect fire lay for cooking. And finally, we’ll take a look at how to build a campfire for warmth and comfort after a long day spent hiking.
Snack Fire
tepeefire.png
Sometimes you just need a fire big enough to warm a pot of coffee or fry the afternoon’s catch. Or perhaps you’re not setting up permanent camp at a stop. You don’t want a fire that’s so big that cleaning it up when you leave consumes too much time. Enter the snack fire. The snack fire is just a basic tepee fire lay. It’s small, but very efficient.
To build it, simply start by placing small twigs up against each other until you form a mini tepee. Leave an open space in the center where you can place the tinder. Newspaper balls, dry leaves, and dry pine needles work best. With practice, you can start a small fire in seconds. To keep the fire going, keep adding small twigs to the lay.
To use it to boil some water for your coffee or broil some bacon, wait until the tepee falls and then put your frying pan or kettle right in the center. Keep adding little twigs around the pot to increase the heat.
That’s it! While this fire won’t keep you very warm and it isn’t large enough to cook much, it’s a good fire to use when you need one quickly or just want a little warm comfort on your travels.
Cooking Fire
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You should implement the cooking fire when you plan on staying in a location for more than a day and you want to do some serious campfire cooking. Campers often try to cook by placing their pots and pans directly into the fire. But this typically achieves less than satisfactory results, burning both pans and food. This leads some to tote along a camping stove. But you can make an effective campfire cooking range out of all natural materials.
Start off by building a tepee fire. Make it a bit larger than you would for a snack fire. When you get a good fire going, lay two green logs side-by-side about 7 inches apart at one end, and 4 inches at the other. The two logs serve as a stove range where you can place pots and pans. You can put your smaller vessels like a coffee pot on the narrower end, and your larger pots on the wider end. This enables you to cook several dishes at the same time. Spread or pile the coals to create hotter or cooler cooking areas.
If you want to make it a bit more elaborate, you can rig up a pole over the fire as seen in the picture. Then you can then hang your pots a couple of inches above the fire for care-free simmering.
Comfort Fire

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What if you could bring the comfort and warmth of a fireplace with you on your camping trip? Well, with the reflecting fire you can. On a cold night you need more than just a simple tepee to keep you warm. You need something that will focus the heat directly at you. The problem with most campfires is that it throws heat off in all directions. A reflector fire lay solves this problem by replicating how a fireplace works. Fireplaces have a backdrop that reflects heat back towards the house. The reflector fire does the exact same thing.
You can use any fire lay to make a reflector fire- tepee, log cabin, star fire, whatever. We’re just going to place the fire in front of a backdrop to reflect heat.
Try to find a natural reflector to build your fire in front of. A cliff, larger boulder, or earthen bank will work. If you can’t find a natural reflector, build your own by driving two hearty stakes into the ground at an angle in front of your fire. Against these slanted poles, stack up a row of logs from largest to smallest to form a backstop that will serve as the reflector. Use only green wood so it won’t burn.
Now you can sit on your tree stump, eat s’mores, and enjoy the warmth and comfort of a fireplace out in Mother Nature.
Source:Woodcraft by George W. Sears


 

dprogram

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Good idea! I had never heard of portable gasification stoves until someone posted one that changes some of the energy into electrical energy so you can charge small devices.
 

Psi em

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That stove costs about a $100. In a bind or when around people you can't flash shiny objects around, you can make a wood gas stove out of three soup cans. This design works best for me.



You don't need the fan at the bottom if you're not in a hurry. But this isn't anywhere close to as warm as an actual camp fire.
 

rick smith

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4. EXCALIBUR FIRE:
-Oil Drum
-Garbage
-Axe spray
1. Insert desired garbage of choice into yon' oil drum
2. spray thine axe atwixt yon' garbage
3. spray thine axe upon self watch the dames frolic to your scent like sharks to chum
4. light fire
5. enjoy thine barrel fire sex
6. next morning extinguish fire thoroughly
7. mount thine noble war steed
8. Fastball two gold pieces into the barrel wenches face for train fare
 
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Psi em

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I'm just a bit confused about boiling water. Is it better to put the pot over the fire or wait to put the pot of water on the embers? And do you get less soot on the pot if you put it over the embers?
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Edit: Boiling water is a non-issue with my wood gas stove, but those things don't cooperate well when the weather is really cold. I've gotten into the habit of digging fire pits that are about 3 feet deep and reflecting heat around the camp.
 

the wizard

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where im from we just start a cross fire right in the front yard of the neighbors house. they get all weird and move out though.
 

cport420

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I also use a wood gas stove aka rocket stove. Mines made out of soup cans and coffee can. It's awesome.
 

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