Five Minute Fire
One moment I had flames licking a foot high; seconds later there was nothing but cold ash on my stump hearth.
Happy Free Money Day!
And a warm welcome from the beach at the end of a week of metaphors in the woods.
For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society.
In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me understand the world (and ourselves) a little better.
Sometimes I light a fire.
Five Minute Fire
On Friday afternoon, I lit a fire.
A spark to catch tinder. Tinder to catch kindling. Kindling to catch fuel.
There was something a little special about this fire — it was one of 91 competencies assessed for my Certificate in Advanced Wilderness Therapeutic Approaches. (Forty-one down, fifty to go…)
As this was an assessment under pressure, I was given a strict time limit: twenty minutes.
It took me less than five.
Kinda.
I actually got that fire going during my second shot at assessment that afternoon.
I spent the whole of my first twenty minutes going around in circles: a spark to catch tinder, tinder to catch kindling, kindling to catch — nada.
One moment I had flames licking a foot high and was all ready to celebrate; seconds later there was nothing but cold ash on my stump hearth.
Try as a I might, five times round, I could never make the next step. My fuel simply wouldn’t light. My fire wouldn’t burn bright.
Twenty minutes up.
Despite an arm around the shoulder — ‘It happens. All of us struggle sometimes’ — I felt downcast by my failure. Especially when everyone else’s fires seemed to ignite in effortless and spontaneous combustion.
I trudged back to my friends (A Tribe Called West) and they brightened me up: ‘Have another go, we can film you.’
So another go I had.
The lesson from round one was simple: preparation.
Second time around, I used a fist-sized ball of resinous fatwood as tinder. I prepared a whole bowlful of hazel shavings and a thick bundle of cinder-dry bracken stems for kindling. Lolly-pop splinters of hazel were my starter fuel.
Second time around, with the right preparation, my spark caught, fire flames high, a steady burn I could leave untended. All in less than five minutes.
As you might have noticed, this is more than a fire. This is a metaphor.
Prepare yourself for success.
Also — it’s Free Money Day!
Free Money Day is a social experiment that is meant to explore people's attachment to money and remind people that it must freely circulate in a successful economy.
Ahem. I’ll just pop that there…
Three Tiny Big Things
1. Fatwood is AMAZING
I can’t believe you actually get white hot firework sparks off the innards of a dead branch.
2. One Thing I Knew, One Thing I Didn’t: Both Blow My Mind
Horse’s Hoof fungus, often found on Birch, takes an ember real nice.
Fire pistons are an ancient Malay device that suddenly compress air to generate temperatures of 260 degrees and they are freaking awesome.
See them both in action here:
3. And This Is Just Silly
A man making fire from a few reedy twigs of Dogbane and a couple of flat rocks. In the comments, he says that Stinging Nettle works even better.
Shocking audio — mute if you’re sensitive.
Thank You
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As always, thank you for your eyeballs and thanks for your support.
Big love,
dc:
The Rudiger Roll takes friction fire starting to a whole new level... mind blown. 🤯