Make fire using sticks. Fire

There are several ways to start a fire: friction, drilling, carving, focusing sun rays, but each of them has varieties. The ability to start a fire in the wild often determines the issue of survival, so read carefully, maybe it will come in handy.

1. Lens from a bag, condom, bottle

Fill the transparent bag or plastic bottle water and try to focus the sun's rays. Plant in a windless place; it is better to strengthen the “lens” and leave it. It will light up, it will definitely light up.

2. Mirror from a tin can

The bottom of a beer can is a concave mirror that can focus the sun's rays; if polished, it can be used to make fire.

3. Lens made of ice

In one of the seasons of “MythBusters,” the presenters produced fire using a lens made of ice, made in the shape of a ball. So from ready ice You can cut out the lens and make fire. To create such a lens yourself, you can pour water into a bag and shape it into a ball, covering it with snow or soil. When it freezes, it becomes a lens.

4. Blacksmith method

If you hit a nail with a hammer and turn it for 3 minutes, you can light a cigarette from the nail, and accordingly, you can set the tinder on fire.

5. Flint carving

A piece of steel, preferably hardened, is suitable as a chair. But with flint it’s harder, even though this flint is lying on the road. Soft rocks will not give a spark; you need to find a very hard stone.

Usually such stones resemble cloudy glass, or even transparent appearance. It is impossible to knock a spark out of a rounded stone; the pebbles must be split and a spark must be struck from the sharp edge. Test several stones for sparks and take the sparkliest one.

The tinder must be very dry, it must be collected from thin wood fibers, cotton socks will do, the cotton-like fluff of plants lights up at the slightest spark, carve it in a windless place, it is recommended to hold the tinder over a flint.

6. Rubbing the rope on a dry stick

A pine stick, there is a split in it, rub into it, place it so that there is space under the stick. A rope is needed, preferably from natural fibers, attach pieces of wood at the ends, like chain saw. And, accordingly, cut, Shura. You need to saw with a lot of pressure and with quick, short movements. Literally at the count of ten it starts smoking. All that remains is to fan the fire.

7. Cotton ball friction

Between two dry boards, place a piece of cotton wool from a padded jacket, for example, and iron it back and forth until it begins to smolder. According to the stories of old people, fire is very easy to make.

8. Rubbing a stick against another stick

In a dry and soft wooden plank, make a groove into which you need to insert a hard one at an angle of 45 degrees. wooden stick. Pressing the stick from above, move it along the groove of the bottom board, at the extreme point the abraded material will collect, after a while the hard stick will collect desired temperature. Initially, clouds of smoke will appear. You can then watch the wood powder begin to accumulate chocolate color. Individual particles of this powder, carried away by rapid movement, are thrown out further. You can clearly see them falling, smoking, although no sparks are visible.

The source of combustion occurs where hot powder accumulates in a heap, where air flows freely and supports combustion.

9. Drilling

In soft, dry wood, make a recess and a groove for air to enter, take a hard, dry stick and insert it into the recess, covering it with a stone on top.
Place kindling material, tinder or wick, moss, lint, etc. around the hole. Move the dry, hard stick with the bow, which is overlapped onto the stick.

Drilling pine with beech gives the best results in terms of time. It is not recommended to use linden and aspen for these purposes.

10. Potato lighter

In order to light a fire, you first need to make, so to speak, an “electric generator”.
To create a generator you will need:

• Potato
• 2 toothpicks
• Knife and teaspoon (Optional)
• 2 wires
• , nth quantity

The wires must be stripped! Cut the potatoes into two halves using. Pass the wires through half of the potatoes. Using a spoon, make a hole in the other half of the potato - the size of the hole equal to size spoons. Mix toothpaste with salt and fill the cavity in half of the potatoes.

Connect the 2 halves (the wires on the inside should be bent, but so that they are dipped in toothpaste). Connect potato halves using toothpicks

To start a fire, wrap a piece of cotton wool around one of the wires. Wait a couple of minutes (the battery should charge). Then you should bring the wires close to each other until a spark occurs.

There are many ways to make fire without matches or a lighter. Some of these methods are very labor-intensive and difficult to implement, but there are also those with which starting a fire will be a little more difficult than using the same box of matches.

In particular, in addition to matches, there are other special means For . For example, you can light a fire without matches or a lighter using a flint or a fire piston. However, if you have these means at hand, you cannot talk about an emergency, since starting a fire with them is no more difficult than using matches. Therefore, next we will consider non-standard methods, when even these tools were not available.

Starting a fire using a lens is the easiest and fastest alternative to matches and a lighter.

These methods include lighting a fire without matches:

• Kresal and flint;
• Empty silicon lighter without gas;
• Lens;
• Concave mirror;
• Friction of wood on wood;
• By friction of tinder fungus on wood;
• Friction of wire on wood;
• Using a nail and hammer;
• Rolling cotton wool;
• Electricity;
• Using chemical reagents;
• Shot from a gun.

Some of these methods of making fire were used thousands of years ago, when ancient people did not yet have special equipment. Let's look at all these methods of making fire in more detail.

Starting a fire with firewood and flint

IN this method The tinder is ignited by a spark struck by a sharp high-carbon steel flint (kresal). So, when a sharp edge of flint or other durable stone collides with a smooth steel surface, small particles are scraped off from the steel and, heated by the impact, ignite in air, forming sparks.

Kresal and flint can be found almost everywhere, even in wildlife.

In the wild, finding flint or other durable stone is usually not a problem. Many people use cutlasses, knives and other steel tools as cutting tools.

This method requires first-class tinder, capable of igniting at the slightest spark. Pharmaceutical cotton wool, paper and many other options suitable for other methods will not work here, because a spark cut from steel is much colder than sparks cut, for example, from modern flints.

I know of five options for preparing first-class tinder suitable for this method:

1. The first tinder is made from two tinder fungi. The tinder fungus is torn from the birch, the tubular part is cut off, and the “velvet” is left. Chaga (a type of tinder fungus that grows on birch) is found and its brown part is ground into dust. The “velvet” is rubbed with chaga dust - the tinder is ready. Such tinder is quickly prepared, but does not immediately catch a spark.
2. The second tinder is made from the tinder fungus by boiling it down. To do this, the “velvet” is cut off from the tinder fungus and placed in an ash solution (1 part ash from the fire, 2 parts water). The tinder is boiled in the ash for 2 hours, after which it is removed and beaten with a smooth stick until it becomes a rag. After this, the tinder is thoroughly dried and kneaded. To ignite such tinder, part of it is torn off and a spark is struck on the fibrous surface from the side of the break. This option can be used in cases where it is necessary to save on other means of ignition: having once spent one match on preparing tinder over a fire, you can save a full box in the long run.
3. The third tinder is made from birch. For this purpose, there is a birch tree lying on the ground: it is these trunks that rot faster with the formation of the so-called rotten wood (rotten wood). The rot is removed and, if necessary, dried in the sun. Such rotten wood, although not easy, catches a spark and begins to smolder. The method is convenient because preparing this tinder requires almost no time and effort, as well as preliminary lighting of the fire.
4. The fourth tinder can be obtained by burning cotton fabric without access to oxygen. This is the so-called zhzhenka. The fabric is rolled up and tucked into, for example, tin can. The jar is closed and placed in the fire. When smoke and flames stop appearing from the cracks of the jar, the jar along with the tinder is removed from the fire and left to cool in the air. The resulting tinder catches a spark very easily, but to prepare it you need a cloth and a fire made in a different way, as is the case with boiling down tinder.
5. The fifth tinder represents the recently extinguished coals of a fire. Only those that still have a layer of white ash on them are suitable. Having caught a spark, such a coal begins to smolder, a second coal is brought to it and the fire is fanned, from which the kindling is ignited. Such coals easily catch a spark, but require preliminary preparation. However, like the other options, this one is quite suitable for saving other ignition products.

Any of these tinder should be kept away from moisture. It is ideal to place it in an airtight container, such as a plastic vitamin jar or PET bottle with a wide neck for easy removal.

The tinder fungus, or tinder fungus, actually got its name because good tinder has long been made from it.

Now that you have suitable tinder available, you can start starting a fire with flint and wood. For this:

1. By striking flint against flint, a sharp chip is made on one of the stones. A sharp edge will allow you to create more sparks and increase the chances of quick success.
2. The chipped flint with tinder is clamped in one hand, the chair is taken in the other. The tinder is placed on top of the chip (this is where sparks will fly) and pressed with your thumb.
3. By striking the flint with a hammer, sparks are struck, which should ignite the tinder. If a charred log is lit, then the chair rests against it, and sparks are struck by striking the flint from top to bottom.
4. The tinder that catches the spark is placed in the kindling and fanned until a fire appears.

In the acclaimed 2016 film The Revenant, based on real events, main character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, puts tinder under the flint instead of using correct option with tinder over flint. In this way, of course, you can try to set fire to the tinder, but why complicate your life, which is already not sugar?

This method is quite whimsical, as it requires specially prepared tinder, which should be protected from moisture. However, if such tinder is still available, then starting a fire using this method will be easy and quick: it is not for nothing that in the old days, when matches and lighters had not yet appeared, it replaced other more complex methods and became the main method for making fire.

Starting a fire with a silicon lighter without gas

This method is similar in principle to the method of starting a fire with a modern flint: a spark ignites the prepared flammable powder, scraped onto tinder from the mischmetal that is part of the lighter. The ignited powder ignites the tinder.

It is clear that this method requires a silicon lighter.

If you have the tinder described in the previous method, or cotton wool (usually found in a tourist first aid kit), or fluff from old cattail growing along freshwater bodies, then a spark from a lighter will be enough to ignite them. But we will consider two options when such flammable tinder is not available.

In the first method, toilet paper will be used as tinder. On hikes, we use it both for its intended purpose and for wiping dishes when it is necessary to save water and there is no suitable grass nearby. It is also good as kindling, especially if you moisten it with oil (even hygienic lipstick can help) or other flammable liquid or wrap a piece of paraffin from a candle in it.

So, to start a fire, the first way is to do the following:

1. Remove the protective cover from the lighter.
2. Toilet paper folds several times and tears. All pieces are stacked with the torn part to one side.
3. The resulting stack is pressed against the lighter in a place where sparks fly out when the wheel rotates. The torn loose parts should be directed towards the sparks.
4. Rolling the palm of the hand on the lighter wheel onto the stack toilet paper sparks are struck. The striking of sparks is repeated until the paper begins to smolder.
5. The paper inflates until a fire appears.

For this method you need good dry toilet paper (preferably soft and loose, not thick like Whatman paper). I can say that not all toilet paper is equally suitable for igniting in this way: paper that has been in a trouser pocket and has become damp does not ignite well.

Even without fuel, a silicon lighter produces enough sparks to ignite dry tinder.

Many people recommend putting kindling in your pocket to dry, but from my own experience I was convinced that paper lying in my pants pocket does not dry out, but gets moistened. This most likely occurs due to sweating and high humidity air between the body and clothing.

The second method is less capricious and can ignite not only toilet paper, but also ordinary paper, for example, torn from a notebook. It is more universal: for example, I was able to get the tinder fungus (its tubular part) torn from a tree to start smoldering using this method without any problems. It’s not hard to guess that in the wild, the same birch bark (its upper, thinnest part) can be used instead of paper.

So, to implement the second method, you must follow the following instructions:

1. The lid is removed from the lighter.
2. The center of the paper sheet is loosened by rubbing or any other method suitable for these purposes and bent so that a funnel is formed in the center of the sheet. If you don't do this, you can still get a fire, but you will need more powder scraped off the mischmetal of the lighter stem.
3. The lighter is initially positioned horizontally above the paper so that sparks cannot ignite the paper.
4. The lighter wheel is turned slowly until the paper is assembled required quantity powder scraped from the lighter rod. When rotating the wheel, you should try to avoid sparks.
5. The powder collects in the center of the paper, in the place where it is loosened.
6. Rotating the wheel produces a spark on the powder from the lighter - the flash ignites the paper.

This method is good if you have an empty lighter. But, as my experience has shown, if the lighter is used until there is no gas left in it, it will be of little use: already at the stage of scraping off mischmetal shavings, the rod can fly out and get lost, depriving a person of the opportunity to complete the job.

On the other hand, although such a lighter allows you to create a fire even without gas, I would still dare to recommend carrying a piezo lighter with you: it is more convenient to use, especially when you have to use it in the cold with frozen hands.

Attention!

In cold weather, many cheap lighters work very poorly due to cooling and a decrease in the gas pressure inside them. Therefore, it is recommended to carry them in your inner pocket and take them out immediately before use. It is also useful to have at least two lighters and a match or flint in case one of them breaks.

If your finances allow you to spend money on something more “powerful,” then it’s better to buy a turbo lighter: it won’t go out in the wind, and it’s easier to light a fire with it, although it also runs out of fuel faster.

Starting a fire with a sun lens

This method is based on the properties of a lens to concentrate all the sun's rays passing through its surface at one point. This is where the temperature will be sufficient to ignite the tinder.

During a hike, the lens can be removed from glasses, a camera, binoculars and other devices that may contain it. Sometimes on a hike they take a small magnifying glass to look at the map. A magnifying glass is available on some tablet compass models.

If ready-made options was not found, the lens can be made from improvised means, for example, carved out of ice, made from bottoms found along the road among other garbage glass bottles(it is not recommended to carry glass containers with you on a hike due to their fragility). A condom or PET bottle filled with water also works well as a lens for starting a fire.

Video: Starting a fire with a condom

These and other methods of starting a fire using the sun were discussed in more detail in a separate article, so now we will focus on an option that can be used in a city or village, namely creating a lens from an electric light bulb.

To do this, you will need an incandescent lamp, which can be found either at home or in the entrance, or among the garbage.

The larger the lamp, the better. The shape of the lamp should be round.

1. A hard object breaks the ceramic insulator. It is more convenient to do this with a nail.
2. The inner part is carefully knocked out through the resulting hole.
3. All “insides” are removed from the flask.
4. It is poured into the flask pure water- the lens is ready.

Such a lens, compared to many others made from improvised means, is very effective means for starting a fire.

The method of starting a fire from a lens and the sun is simple and effective, especially when a ready-made lens is available. I use it myself and recommend it to others as the main method for starting a fire in sunny weather, which saves matches and fuel in lighters.

There is an opinion that this method is good only in the warm season, however, as practice has shown, it can be used to start a fire even in winter time years at sub-zero temperature, but in clear weather. The main thing is that there is sun.

This method has one drawback - it is impossible for them to start a fire in cloudy weather or at night.

Starting a fire with a concave mirror

This method is based on the same principle as the previous one, only in this case the sun’s rays are collected into a beam not by curved glass, but by a concave mirror, and the kindling is located between the mirror and the sun.

On a hike, you can get some semblance of a concave mirror by removing the reflector from a flashlight or car headlight. It's also good to start a fire. gas cylinder, or rather its concave shiny bottom (such cylinders are taken on hikes for cooking on gas and multi-fuel burners).

In urban environments, you can buy a concave mirror in a store that sells all sorts of small things.

For example, for these purposes I used a mirror taken from an old microscope: despite its small size, it did an excellent job of starting a fire from the sun.

An interesting and very unusual option is to start a fire using a tablespoon. Of course, in order to simplify the task of starting a fire in the future, the scoop of this very spoon must be deformed to the shape of a concave mirror. However, even without deformation, such a spoon on a hot summer day is capable of igniting sensitive tinder, for example, a burner.

I have often come across recommendations for making a concave mirror for these purposes from a beer can. It was suggested to polish the bottom of the jar with a piece of chocolate. After Les Stroud (Canadian host of the Science of Survival television program) demonstrated this method in his video, I decided to try this method. But, as expected, nothing good came of this idea: the bottom of the jar, instead of becoming mirror-like, became matte. Rubbing the bottom of the jar with ashes from the fire and toothpaste also did not add shine. The method actually suitable for polishing turned out to be simple, but tedious: it turned out that the bottom of the jar could be polished with a piece of cloth.

Compared to the method of producing fire with a lens, this method is less convenient, since you have to hold the tinder in a canopy between the sun and the mirror, which is not always convenient. In addition, the tinder itself, in most cases, with its shadow partially obscures the sun's rays hitting the mirror, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the method. In general, this method has the same advantages and disadvantages as the method of making fire using a lens.

Starting a fire by rubbing wood on wood

The principle of starting a fire in this way is based on the fact that when friction occurs, the wood heats up, and the dust formed as a result of friction begins to smolder. This smoldering dust is carried into the kindling, igniting it.

These methods are very difficult to implement and labor-intensive. Without prior training, it will be difficult to light a fire in this way, especially in our latitudes. In addition, the method is sensitive to wood: not every tree heats up well by friction and, if you make a mistake in choosing it, the chances of success are sharply reduced.

However, I personally consider this method to be basic, that is, one that will allow you to light a fire without anything at all, when a person in the wild has no equipment at all, and besides trees there are no more stones or metal in the area. Therefore, it makes sense to spend time and effort on mastering it, especially since fire on a hike or in survival conditions is one of the main things for a comfortable and safe stay in the wild natural environment.

Starting a fire by rubbing tinder fungus on wood

The principle of this method is similar to the previous one, only in this case friction occurs between the wood and the tinder fungus, namely chaga.

For reference: chaga is a type of tinder fungus, also called birch fungus. As the name implies, this mushroom grows on birch trees. Chaga is used not only for starting a fire, but also for making tea, kvass, and also for medicinal purposes.

To start a fire this way, you need to follow these steps:

1. In the upper part of a dry tree trunk, two sides are cut out longitudinally with an ax, located at right angles to each other. Top part cross section the trunk resembles a gable hut.
2. Chaga is cut into two parts.
3. One part of the chaga is pressed with a cut with both hands to the tip formed by the edges and begins to move. These movements should be reciprocating in nature, directed along the trunk, and performed before the chaga begins to smolder.
4. The smoldering chaga is transferred to the kindling and fanned until fire appears.

This method is somewhat similar to the fire plow method; it requires considerable effort and time to implement. In addition, this method requires an ax or other tool that allows you to fell and process wood.

The disadvantages of this method also include chaga itself, which does not grow in all regions. In any case, I have never found it in the south of Ukraine, including due to the small number of birches growing in this region.

However, in a birch grove, of all the methods of friction, this is perhaps the most effective, since using birch for the same method of making fire using an “Indian fiddle” is not best idea due to the hardness of birch wood.

Starting a fire by rubbing wire on wood

In this method, the tinder is ignited by a wire heated by friction against wood.

The tourist usually has wire in his repair kit: here it is in case of equipment breakdown, which can be repaired with its help. In addition, wire can be used instead of rope to fasten elements together when building a shelter or raft. You can make traps from wire, in particular snares, and much more.

Some types of traps, such as snares and snares, may be illegal in some regions. Therefore, before catching certain representatives of the fauna, you should always ask what local legislation says about this. So, in one region the use of a particular gear may be permitted, while in another it is prohibited by law. It is clear that in a survival situation no one will pay attention to these things, but for a peaceful tourist who wants to practice survival skills in the wild, they should still be taken into account in order to avoid a fine and damage to nature.

The wire for this method should not be thinner than 2 mm thick, so as not to break prematurely as a result of heating.

When camping, wire is generally very useful - it is used to hang dishes over a fire, various devices are made from it, and it can also be used to start a fire.

To start a fire this way, you must do the following:

1. Take a piece of wire at least 80 cm long. A smaller piece will be inconvenient to work with.
2. Two small sticks are screwed to the ends of the wire as handles.
3. A thin dry log is taken, at one end of which a small area (about 20–30 cm) is cut down on one side.
4. The log is placed on a dry area and, to prevent rolling from side to side, is fixed in any convenient way.
5. The wire is passed under the hewn area and the “sawing” process begins. They work in a similar way when sawing wood with a chain saw.
6. After the wire has rubbed against the wood a little and a small groove has formed, tinder is placed on the hewn area so that it touches the wire tightly. As tinder, you can take an old dry cattail stalk with fluff. If one is not available, another tinder is wound on the stick.
7. The tinder stick is pressed with the foot against a hewn area on the log.
8. The handles of the “saw” are crossed once so that the wire forms the number “8” with the top ring torn.
9. Sawing begins, leading to heating of the wire and igniting the tinder from it. The smoldering tinder is moved into the kindling and inflated until it ignites.

Like other methods of starting a fire by friction, this method is labor-intensive, but with wire and suitable tinder it can be implemented in the shortest possible time and does not depend on the type of wood. And taking into account the fact that many people take wire with them on a hike (and sometimes it can be found among the garbage that comes across along the way), this method can be recommended not only in urban areas, but also in the wild.

Starting a fire with a nail and hammer

This method is based on the ability of the metal to heat up during sudden deformation and, transferring heat to the tinder, setting it on fire.

For this method you will need nails 10 or 20 cm long, a hammer, an anvil and, for example, paper as tinder. Smokers can try to light a cigarette in this way, which can also be used to light kindling.

For obvious reasons, this method is urban: it’s unlikely that anyone would think of putting a hammer and an anvil in their backpack, but in the wild you can also get away with it by finding a replacement for them. For example, instead of a nail, you can take another metal object; instead of a hammer and an anvil, you can take two stones. But in this case, it will be much more difficult to get fire.

So, to light a fire this way, you must follow the following instructions:

1. The newspaper is rolled up into a tube and pressed down with some object to prevent it from unwinding. To do this, you can put the same anvil on the newspaper or step on the newspaper with your foot.
2. A nail is placed on the anvil and a series of blows are applied to it with a hammer.
3. The heated nail is pressed against the newspaper until it begins to smolder.
4. If smoldering does not begin within a few seconds, the newspaper is removed and a few more blows are applied to the nail. If the newspaper begins to smolder, it is fanned until a fire appears.

As I said earlier, this method is suitable at home. I would not recommend trying your luck in the wild, trying to light a fire in this way, wasting precious energy and time. However, if fire is still vital, and other methods cannot be implemented for some reason, it can also be used. As they say, in the absence of fish...

Starting a fire by rolling cotton wool with or without chalk, ash

In this method, a smoldering ember appears inside a cotton roll, which is vigorously rolled out with a board along flat floor. Untreated cotton wool is suitable for this method, which can be extracted, for example, from old mattresses and children's toys. The principle here is that when cotton wool is rolled, its fibers rub against each other as the temperature increases. With due diligence, the cotton wool becomes so hot that it catches fire.

Instead of cotton wool, you can use cattail fluff or fibers taken from the stems of dried nettles.

Making fire occurs according to the following scheme:

1. A piece of cotton wool is spread out into a rectangular plate and rolled into a tight roll. To obtain a denser roller, at the final stage you can wet your hands with water (or spit) and roll the roller between your palms. Most often, chalk is used to fasten the roller (in the old village house it is applied to the walls, which is why they get dirty if you lean against them) or ash (you can take it from the oven), crushing the cotton wool on both sides with it before rolling it.
2. Then the roller is turned over and a little more cotton wool is also tightly wound on top of it in the opposite direction. This is necessary so that the inner roller does not unwind when rolling it on the floor with a board. This step can be skipped if chalk or ash is used.
3. The roller is placed on a flat floor or board, pressed on top of another board and rolled for even greater density. The denser the roller, the greater the chance of starting a fire.
4. The roller pressed by the board begins to intensively roll out across the floor in one direction and the other. The pressure on him should not be excessive. As a result of such rolling, the inner layers of cotton wool heat up and begin to smolder.
5. The smoldering cotton wool is inflated and transferred to the kindling, which ignites as a result of these actions.

This method can only be implemented in conditions settlement or, for example, in a forest house, where you can find even, smooth boards. In addition, this method requires a special tinder from which you can roll the roller.

And yet, despite its shortcomings, this method has a right to exist and can be used in situations where more simple ways will be unavailable. In particular, it can be implemented in an abandoned village or in an old hut in the forest.

Starting a fire with electric current

Fire using electric current occurs through one of two mechanisms. In one case, due to high resistance, the conductor heats up and ignites the tinder; in the other, a spark when the contacts close ignites the tinder.

For this method you will need a source of electric current. When hiking, the current source is usually a battery taken from a flashlight, or a battery from a cell phone or navigator.

The battery poles are closed with a conductor, for example, foil (you can take it from chocolate - one of the recommended products for hiking in the cold season) or steel wool (it is used to wash pots of soot and food debris), which light up when an electric current passes through them.

IN Lately Metal dish scourers are mass-produced and sold, which look like steel wool, but cannot be used to create fire. An experiment I conducted showed that such washcloths not only do not catch fire when in contact with a battery, but also do not produce a spark. In addition, an attempt to close the battery contacts with a thread removed from such a washcloth ended in failure: the battery did not even heat up (heating occurs when short circuit, for example, when shorting a battery with foil), which indicates the possible electrical insulating abilities of the material from which these sponges are made. The subsequent experiment with foil gave a positive result: this indicates that the problem was not in the battery.

We have already talked in detail about ways to start a fire using a battery or accumulator in

There is an opinion that steel wool can be set on fire using a lemon if you stick a series of steel and copper nails into it, connected to each other in a certain sequence with wires. But the sequence of connecting nails inside one lemon, which is suggested in most videos, does not make any sense, since it does not increase either the current or the voltage. And, it seems to me, the current arising from the “fruit battery” (and this is according to different sources 0.2-0.9 V) will not be enough to bring this idea to life, unless there are a dozen or two of these lemons.

On the other hand, this method can still be implemented even in mid-latitude wildlife where lemons do not grow. So, instead of a dozen lemons, you can take almost any fruit or vegetable that is found in our area (for example, wild apples), since they also contain the electrolyte necessary to generate electricity. The only thing left to do is to get copper and zinc elements that will be used as electrodes.

There is, however, a fundamental point: if a person in the wild can get apples, and especially lemons, then he has no urgent need for fire. These fruits ripen in the warm season and can serve as food without fire. So the method of making fire with their help should be classified, rather, as hypothetically possible, rather than practically of little use.

You can learn more about the main methods of starting a fire using a battery or accumulator on the website in a separate article. Here we will consider an option implemented in a populated area using a 220 V outlet.

Attention!

Exposure to fire from high voltage current can be life-threatening and may result in electric shock and fire caused by a short circuit.

Let's look at two ways to start a fire using high voltage electric current.

For the first method:

1. A plug with a piece of wire is cut off from any electrical device (preferably damaged). You can take a piece of ordinary insulated wire without a plug, but then you will have to make it yourself and using such a wire will not be so convenient.
2. The wire at the end is divided into two contacts and stripped of insulation. This creates two forks on both sides.
3. A piece of foil or steel wool is used as tinder. For the same purposes, a piece of paper on which with a simple pencil a square is drawn and painted in the center: the graphite layer on the paper has electrical conductivity and high resistance, so such paper can be effectively used to start a fire using this method.
4. The plug is plugged into the socket.
5. Contact of exposed wires with foil, steel wool or graphite-painted paper causes them to catch fire.

For the second method:

1. Take a cigarette. Instead of a cigarette, you can make a roll-your-own cigarette: stuff another tinder into a small piece of toilet paper.
2. As in the previous method, a plug is made with exposed wires.
3. The edge of the cigarette is slightly moistened with saliva.
4. The plug is plugged into the socket.
5. Touching the exposed wires to the wet part of the cigarette causes a spark, which, due to the puff from the cigarette (as when lighting a cigarette), helps the tinder ignite.
6. The smoldering tinder is transferred to the kindling and fanned until a flame appears.

Based on the principle implemented in the second method, as a child I managed to light a fire from a dynamo (“dynamos,” by the way, are used by many on bicycles, including on bicycle trips).

It all happened by accident and became the reason for the subsequent replacement of the oilcloth covering kitchen table, which I successfully burned through. To do this, I poured a small pile of magnesium shavings obtained by processing the magnesium plate with a file. He brought the wires coming from the dynamo to it. As the dynamo rotated, the wires, due to shaking, either came into contact with the magnesium or were disconnected from it, as a result of which small green sparks appeared, which actually attracted my attention. As a result of these actions, at some point the magnesium flared up and burned through the oilcloth.

After this incident, the method was retested, but on a non-combustible foundation. In all experiments, sooner or later the magnesium caught fire.

Magnesium gives a dazzling flash at the moment of tanning. That is why its mixture is used to produce magnesium flash bombs, used to blind the enemy.

For many who use a modern flint to start a fire, a magnesium block in a backpack pocket is a common thing. It is from this that shavings are scraped onto the tinder, which is ignited by a spark struck by a flint. Magnesium can also be extracted from the remains of an aircraft (here it is used due to its lightness), for example, after an emergency or military action, if there is still something left from the aircraft. Magnesium alloys containing more than 90% magnesium are used to make vehicle bodies, binoculars and much more. At all the main problem is not where to find it, but how to distinguish it from other metals.

Summarizing the methods of producing fire using electric current, I can say that they are very easy to use, although they do not always guarantee success. Some of them can be implemented in the wild with a battery or accumulator, while others require more civilized conditions.

In survival conditions, you always need to decide what is more important - fire or a charged battery.

Methods where it is necessary to use high voltage current should be resorted to only as a last resort for the reasons stated earlier.

In general, these methods can be recommended when there are no matches left, the sun is hidden by clouds or is below the horizon, and other methods are too complex to implement. Nevertheless, you always need to look and evaluate the situation: sometimes getting fire is not as important as staying in touch, for example, with a rescue group, because often to get fire using this method and work mobile phone The same batteries are used, the charge of which, as is known, is not unlimited. Being left in the wild without a navigator or phone can sometimes be more dangerous than without fire.

Starting a fire using chemicals

Some chemical reactions proceed violently, releasing enough heat to ignite the mixture. This method is based on this principle.

Two methods are most applicable in camping conditions - rubbing potassium permanganate with sugar (or without it) between two wooden surfaces and wetting the potassium permanganate with anhydrous glycerin, which can be found in the first aid kit. In urban conditions, to create a fire, you can also use cotton wool soaked in alcohol, which must be placed on potassium permanganate moistened with concentrated sulfuric acid.

These and others chemical methods getting fire without matches was discussed in detail in, so I will not repeat it here, but will only draw a conclusion on them.

This method is simple and allows you to quickly start fire, but its big disadvantage is the high cost and rarity of some of the reagents involved in the reaction. Potassium permanganate, for example, is generally included in the list of precursors, and getting it today is not an easy task. In view of this, this method is rational only when there is a critical need for fire and the availability of appropriate reagents in humans.

Starting a fire with a gun shot

In this method, the tinder is ignited by the gunpowder in the cartridge, which ignites when the weapon is fired.

Attention!

This method is very unsafe, so it should be used only in extreme cases.

As you know, almost every modern hunter has a gun, at least in our country, so this method is primarily for those who like to shoot in the wild, as well as for the military who have the appropriate weapons at their disposal.

In order to ignite a fire with a shot from a gun, you should adhere to the following instructions:

1. There is a small depression in the dry soil, although you can dig it yourself.
2. A piece of dry cotton fabric is cut.
3. Spacers, wads and all the shot are removed from the hunting cartridge. If the cartridge is live, the bullet is removed from it.
4. Half of the gunpowder in the cartridge is poured out: firstly, there will be plenty of remaining gunpowder in the cartridge (excess gunpowder can even cause harm), and secondly, the poured gunpowder can be useful for starting a fire in the future.
5. A piece of fabric is cut off and inserted into the cartridge on top of the gunpowder so that fragments of this fabric do not extend beyond the cartridge body.
6. The cartridge is inserted into the weapon.
7. A shot is fired into the previously found depression in the ground - the fabric flying out of the trunk lights up.

Due to the high cost of cartridges, this method is advisable only when other simple methods of starting a fire are not available, but it is still necessary to organize a fire. For many tourists and city residents, it has no practical meaning due to the lack of weapons.

As you can see, the number of ways to produce fire is quite large and you can always choose the one that turns out to be optimal in a given situation. The main popularity, according to my observations, has been gained by methods of making fire using a battery with foil, a fire bow, a sun lens, as well as potassium permanganate with glycerin.

However, ideally you need to know and be able to apply everything possible ways for starting a fire, because making fire in an emergency survival situation is one of the primary tasks. Another thing is that it is not always possible to practice in all known methods, since some methods require a lot of money (for example, the method with a gun), others are difficult to access (for example, the fire bamboo method, although if you really want, you can get a bamboo trunk even in the area where it does not grow, for example, by purchasing it over the Internet), and still others are simply dangerous to life (for example, some methods of making fire with electricity).

In addition, in conditions of survival you always need to be able to correctly prioritize. For example, if the weather is not too cold, instead of starting a fire, it is more useful to build a shelter from the rain or just a comfortable place to sleep, which will require less effort and time, but will allow you to get a good night's sleep without having to get up and add wood to the fire. If you are 100-150 km from a populated area or the nearest road and you have a navigator or phone with a charged battery, it is wiser not to stop for the night at all, and especially not to waste battery power on starting a fire. You can sleep during the day, warming up in the sun, and the rest of the time you can confidently go out to civilization using the navigator. Finally, the effort required to start a fire by friction can be greater than energy value food cooked over a fire. In this case, it may be advisable to eat the prey raw.

Yes and not always modern man there is time to practice these skills, because besides them there are others, for example, constructing a temporary shelter, orienteering, overcoming different terrain at different weather conditions and much, much more that may be needed not only in survival conditions, but also for an ordinary hike of the first category of difficulty.

That is why here I have selected the methods that I recommend mastering first. These include:

1. Getting fire from sunlight and a lens, namely options with a ready-made lens, a condom and a water bottle. These methods are easy to learn and can be used in clear weather as an alternative to matches. Personally, I almost always start a fire using this method.
2. Chemical method, namely lighting a fire with potassium permanganate. This method is simple but expensive. However, in the absence of standard means of ignition in inclement weather, it can help a person save time and effort in getting a fire, for example, using the friction method.
3. Getting fire by friction, namely with the help of a fire bow (aka Indian fiddle). This method is the most “severe”, but allows a person to make fire in nature from scrap materials. You can also try to master a fire plow so as not to be dependent on the reliability of the bow string rotating the wooden drill.

These are the basic methods for starting a fire that you need to master first. Other options can be explored later if desired, time is available and the possibility of their implementation is possible.

Interesting video: Starting a fire by rolling cotton wool

Nowadays, in conditions Everyday life, making fire presents no difficulties. Humanity has come up with enough devices to facilitate this process.

But the diversity of life is such that a person may find himself without matches and a lighter in extreme conditions, when the presence of fire is vital.

In such a situation, only the ability to make fire using improvised materials or methods that are commonly called primitive can help.

And for this you need some skills and an understanding of how to make fire, so as not to reinvent the wheel.

These methods work. Although, it happened that due to lack of skills, people made fire on the second or third day.

To make fire you need not only equipment, but also auxiliary materials. Such materials include tinder and kindling.

Tinder and kindling.

Very important element in the process of making fire.

Tinder serves to preserve the produced fire and transfer it to kindling or directly to fuel if it can ignite from smoldering tinder.

Kindling is a material that can catch fire from smoldering tinder and ignite fuel.

To do this, a soft spongy part is cut out of the body of the mushroom, which is boiled in water with ash for two hours, and then beaten into a cake shape and dried.

The resulting material smolders well from a spark and smolders for a long time.

A wick, a cord made of natural fibers impregnated with a solution of saltpeter, has long been used as tinder when making fire.

Such a wick was also used to ignite a charge of gunpowder when firing from a matchlock firearm.

Many natural materials can be used as tinder - wood dust, rotten wood, birch bark husks, small wood shavings, dry wood mushrooms, moss.

Cotton wool, fluff from plant fruits (cattail, reed, fireweed, etc.) or thin moss can ignite directly from a spark and can be used as kindling.

A cigarette is a good tinder for making fire. It smolders well from a magnifying glass and from a spark when striking a fire and smolders for a long time.

You can use coals from an extinguished fire as tinder when starting a fire. Due to their black color and roughness on the cross section, they absorb heat well and smolder. It is especially convenient to use them when making fire using a magnifying glass.

Before going out into the field, it is useful to prepare your own tinder in advance. Paraffin-soaked cotton wool lights up well. To start a fire, a piece of such cotton wool should be well fluffed. When a spark hits it or focused sunlight is pointed through a magnifying glass, such a piece lights up well.

This tinder is not afraid of dampness. It is useful to have it and devices for making fire in.

Good tinder is the so-called “zhenka” - charred natural material. Charring is achieved by heating it without access to air. For example, in a closed tin can.

Burnt can be annealed from fabric or cord made from natural fibers, grass, etc.

It is useful to prepare means for making fire in advance and have them in the field. After all, lighters tend to fail, and matches tend to run out or get damp.

Methods of making fire.

Making fire by friction.

These methods are quite labor-intensive and require certain physical training.

Making fire using the “drilling” method.

Most often, as the most effective, the “drilling” method is used.

When using this method, the lower end of a stick rotated between the palms rests on a hole made in a dry board. It is advisable to make a hole on the edge of the board. From the hole, through the edge of the board, a groove is cut down through which coals from the hole will be collected on tinder or a placed piece of bark. (Photo)

The tinder, at the same time, begins to smolder. The smoldering is fanned and the tinder is placed in the kindling which ignites.

The stick rotates between the palms. During the process of rotation and pressing, the palms move down and have to be constantly intercepted (Two people can do this alternately).

But, when making fire by drilling, rotating the stick using the bow string is more effective.

The string is wound around the stick. And the stick, with a stone or a piece of wood, is pressed against the board. It is clear that the stone or piece of wood must have a recess for the upper end of the stick. It is advisable to grease or moisten this recess to facilitate rotation. (Rice)

As the bow moves back and forth, the stick rotates.

With this method of making fire, you should not press the stick too hard. Pressure and rotation speed increase when smoke appears. You can add charcoal powder into the hole in which the stick rotates. This will speed up the heating.

The optimal length of a stick for making fire by drilling is 30-40 cm, diameter 1.5-2 cm. The lower end is semicircular, the upper end is sharpened sharply.

The surface of the stick, in order to avoid slipping of the bowstring, must be roughly processed.

One turn of the bowstring is made. The stick is located outside the bow. The end of the string coming from the hand should be on top.

The thickness of the board is 1.5-2 cm..

The wood of the stick is harder, the wood of the plank is softer.

When making fire by drilling, the bow can be replaced with a rope that two people alternately pull towards themselves.

Instead of a board, you can use a stick with a hole. In this case, the coals spill onto the tinder located under the stick, on both sides.

The wood of all fire making devices, tinder and kindling must be dry. From this important condition the result directly depends.

Making fire using the scraping method.

A very labor-intensive method of making fire. It doesn’t always work out for everyone. But it has the right to exist and be used, for example, in the absence of a rope.

With this method of making fire, the stick, with its lower end, quickly moves back and forth along a groove on the board. The embers collect at the ends of the groove or fall onto tinder or a piece of bark if the board is tilted forward and the groove is cut to its front edge. It is clear that the friction must be very energetic.

Making fire by rubbing two pieces of wood.

The next way to make fire is by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other.

This method is well demonstrated by Cody Lundin in the famous TV series “Survival in Two”. (F0to)

Cody, of course, is a peculiar person, but he succeeds in making fire.

With this method, it is important that the point of contact between the pieces of wood is small in area. Then the heating from friction is distributed over small area and combustion occurs faster.

We used a part of a dry bamboo trunk split lengthwise into two halves. One of the outer, convex halves rubs against the edge of the other half.

The tinder is placed inside the rubbing half above the point of friction and pressed with a stick held at the edges by the thumbs.

When rubbed, the bamboo heats up, rubs and begins to smolder. It sets the tinder on fire.

Or the second option for making fire this way.

The tinder lies on a flat surface and is covered with one half of the bamboo trunk. A notch is made above the tinder along which intense friction is produced by the edge of the second half of the bamboo trunk.

Another way to make fire is by friction.

If you rub the inside of a dry birch mushroom, chaga, against a rib wooden beam then the chaga begins to smolder. It smolders for a long time.

Making fire by rolling cotton wool.

If a strip of cotton wool 15 - 20 cm long and 8 - 10 cm wide is rolled into a tight roller, then, thanks to friction, fire can be made from it.

To do this, on a flat surface, the roller is covered with a flat board and rolled back and forth for 1 - 3 minutes. Due to the friction that has arisen inside the roller, it heats up and begins to smolder. It should be inflated and the kindling should be ignited.

It is very important to roll the roller as tightly as possible.

It is easier to make fire from unrefined cotton wool. If the cotton wool is purified, for example medical, then such a cotton strip, before rolling on both sides, should be anointed with chalk or charcoal to increase friction.

Deserves attention making fire the method of “sawing” in pieces soft wire on wood. The tinder is placed in the area where the embers are formed.

In an extreme situation, the key to survival and the basis of minimal comfort is not only food and food, but also fire. Fire is warmth, protection from insects, snakes and animals, the ability to cook food, dry clothes, melt snow to get water, and also feel at least a little more comfortable and relaxed psychologically, which is very important in survival conditions. But what to do if matches and lighters are not on the list of necessary things that you happen to have with you in an extreme situation? We will tell you how to make fire without matches in this article.

1. Friction based

The bow and wood hammer is probably the simplest of the friction-based methods, but it also requires a lot of components. As a rule of thumb, it takes a little longer and requires a bit of practice to get the fire going, creating friction between the hammer and the bow strings, which are an important part of both the bow and the bow.

2. Manual friction

This method has a little more self made, but this is an effective way to make fire if you don't have ropes or other similar materials with you. Here you will need a wooden stick, preferably with a pointed end, and a weak wooden base for its friction. If you have enough energy to finish the job, you will be able to warm your sore hands with the fire you have produced.

3. Friction of wooden sticks

The most energetic and intense way to make a fire is to arm yourself with several wooden sticks, one of which should have a diameter of 5 cm and the other 1.5 cm. There should be a crack in the large stick, against which you rub the end of another stick. This is another one great way to make fire with limited resources and tools.

4. Flint and steel

In this method you need to take flint and steel with you. Find a wooden base for them and prepare brushwood. Then put it on the ground, take the flint in one hand and the steel in the other and light the fire as if you were lighting a match on a box.

5. Bottle of water

To make fire, hold a water bottle up to the sun and place it under it. paper sheet. The water bottle should be full and the paper should preferably be black for quick ignition. The principle is simple - water acts as a lens.

6. Balloons and condoms

This method is the same as using a water bottle, this method will help start a fire if balloon or a transparent condom to hold it and create a formative and focusing lens. It will take a little longer to start a fire using this method as the material used is more fragile. You can't let the fire start to flare up and the balloon or condom burst and put it out.

7. Fire from ice

Take ice, cut a transparent and small sphere out of it, place it on a tree so that the sun's rays pass through it completely. The fire will burn right before your eyes. It is effective and effective method, which accurately answers the question: how to make fire without matches and without much difficulty.

8. Bottom of a metal can

Using the bottom of a Pepsi can you can create a focusing mirror effect. The catch is that you need a polishing agent to create a shiny mirror to focus the light. For this purpose, you can take a chocolate wrapper or silver-coated candy. This is another way to know it and use it in an emergency.

9. Batteries and steel

By using a battery and steel, you can create a really hot surface and start a fire very easily. Put the battery in a piece of wool and bring it to the steel, so you can easily get fire, but you should prepare in advance to get it.

10. Lemon

New and interesting way to create a power and voltage source. Take a lemon and parallel to each other, insert 5 screws and 5 nails into it, tie them together with metal wire, and from the outer ones, run two contacts to the brushwood.

Conclusion.

With this information in mind, you will have a practical understanding of how to make fire without matches. Warmth, the ability to heat water and cook food are now literally at your fingertips. We encourage you to practice these techniques to develop your skills and test your knowledge. Practice will improve your chances of success when you need to put them to use and help reduce stress in emergency situations. Be careful when attempting to use these methods, and follow fire safety guidelines.

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The problem of lighting a fire hiking conditions occurs in the absence of traditional sources of fire. For many novice tourists this is a problem. In such a situation, it is important not to despair and act using available means. In practice there are several effective ways, which will help you get a fire and light a fire on the go, without matches or a lighter.

Classic friction method

The temperature on the surface of the wood increases due to friction. For this, it is recommended to use soft species: willow, pine, cedar. A wooden rod is made from any branch. Its thickness is arbitrary, the main requirement is strength.

Tinder (dry grass, moss, small sawdust) is located near the ignition zone, but not on it. This is necessary for air flow. The base is a wooden plank, a piece of bark, but with full wood. It is installed on a small hole so that traction is created under the friction zone.

• Plow. A groove is made on the surface of the board, and the rod slides along it. It is recommended to make a small hole at the bottom of the latter.
• Saw. A notch is made at the end of the board, which is fixed on the surface of the earth. The other performs forward movements until smoke appears.
• Drill. Traditional way– transmission rotational movement palms. The best way is to make a small “bow” from a flexible rod and rope. He rolls around the rod, moving it, the friction process becomes more intense.

Disadvantages of these methods – long time until smoldering appears on the surface of the wood. It is recommended to use only as a last resort if other methods are not available.

An alternative is to use steel wire. Improvised handles are attached to its ends, creating an analogue of a handsaw. A log of small diameter is selected and forward movements the wire seems to be sawing it. The metal surface heats up, which causes the tinder to ignite.

Flint is the optimal way to make fire

An alternative to traditional flame sources is a flint. It is made from magnesium or ferrocerium. A spark is formed upon contact with a steel rod or its equivalent. Advantages - the system works even when completely wet, takes up little space, and is often included in camping equipment.

Features of a tourist flint as a tool for making fire:

• They are small in size and can get lost. The best option- store in the first aid kit.
• Short smoldering time for flint particles. This places increased demands on the tinder - it must be perfectly dry, not dense.
• Some models have a small container for storing dry tinder. This is convenient if it has rained in the forest and finding dry fuel is problematic.

Using batteries and foil

Basic knowledge of physics will allow you to light a fire if you have a charged AA battery and foil paper. The latter can be taken from the packaging of chewing gum and cigarettes. The essence of the method is to increase the electrical resistance in a section of foil, which causes heating and further combustion of the paper base.

Procedure:

1. Clean the surface of the battery down to the adhesive layer.
2. Cut a strip of foil, the width along the contact areas of the power source.
3. Cut the strip in the middle, forming a thin part.
4. Apply one part of the foil to the adhesive layer until it is fixed.
5. Prepare tinder that fits loosely against the thin “isthmus.”
6. Apply the second constant to the other pole of the battery.

The smoldering of the tinder must be maintained - not by blowing on it intensely, but ensuring normal draft.

Solar energy

In clear sunny weather, you can use a natural source of heat - the sun. In this case, the ambient temperature will not matter. The essence of the method is to focus the sun's rays at one point to heat the fuel.

You can use tinder or a thin roll of cotton wool as fuel. It is recommended to treat the end of the latter with soot to reduce reflectivity. Methods of making fire using solar energy:

• Magnifier. The best option, as it focuses the rays well at one point. Disadvantage - a rare item in field conditions.
• Polished steel spoon. Its “bowl” needs to be leveled so that a concave lens is formed. An alternative is the bottom of a tin can. It initially has the desired shape.
• Ice. It should be as transparent as possible. A lens is made from a small piece, the shape of which is similar to glass. Disadvantage: it takes a lot of time to make and is not available in the summer.

IN critical situations In the absence of traditional flame sources, there is no need to panic. In your camping kit or environment, there will always be items with which you can make fire.

The video clearly explains how to make fire in a damp forest:

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