• Home

  A few notes from a lecture on fire building.
  
   Items for use as tinder (must be completely dry)
 Birch Bark
 Shredded inner bark from cedar, shestnut, red elm trees
 Fine wood shavings
 Dead grass, ferns, moss, fungi
 Straw
 Sawdust
 Very fine pitch wood scrapings
 Dead evergreen needles
 Punk (the completely rotted portion of dead logs or trees)
 Evergreen tree knots
 Bird down (fine feathers)
 Down seed heads (milkweed, dry cattails, bulrush, Cananda thistle, goldenrod,
dandelion)
 Fine dried vegtable fibers
 Spongy threads of dead puffball
 Dead palm leaves
 Skinlike membrane lining of bamboo
 Lint from pocket and seams
 Charred cloth
 Waxed paper
 Outer bamboo shavings
 Gunpowder
 Cotton
 Lint
   Items to be used as kindling (must be completely dry)
 Small twigs
 Small strips of wood
 Split wood
 Heavy cardboard
 Pieces of wood removed from the inside of larger peieces
 Wood that has been doused with highly flammable materials such as gasoline, 
oil, or wax.
   Items to be used as fuel
 Dry standing wood and dry dead branches
 Dry inside (heart) of fallen tree trunks and large branches
 Green wood that is finely split
 Dry grasses twisted into bunches
 Peat dry enough to burn (this may be found at the top of undercut banks)
 Dried animal dung
 Animals fats
 Coal, oil shale, or oil sand lying on the surface
     Characteristics of various woods
          Ease of    Cooking                        Imparted
 Species  Starting   Qualities  Sparks    Smoke     Flavors 
 Apple    Difficult  Excellent  Few       Little    Excellent
 Ash      Fair       Good       Few       Little    Good
 Aspen    Fair       Fair       Moderate  Little    Good
 Beech    Difficult  Good       Few       Little    Good
 Birch    Easy       Fair       Moderate  Moderate  Good
 Cedar    Easy       Poor       Many      Many      Bad
 Cherry   Difficult  Excellent  Few       Little    Excellent
 Elm      Fair       Poor       Few       Heavy     Bad
 Fir      Easy       Poor       Many      Heavy     Bad
 Hickory  Difficult  Excellent  Moderate  Little    Excellent
 Locust   Difficult  Excellent  Few       Little    Good
 Maple    Difficult  Excellent  Few       Little    Excellent
 Oak      Difficult  Excellent  Few       Little    Good
 Pine     Easy       Poor       Many      Heavy     Bad
 Spruce   Easy       Poor       Many      Heavy     Bad
 Sycamore Difficult  Poor       Moderate  Heavy     Bad