Sitting around the campfire is one of the best parts of camping. The problem is many people don’t have campfires because it takes them too long to get one going. If you know how to start a campfire it won’t take long and you’ll be enjoying a great campfire in no time.
To get a campfire started you need heat source hot enough to start a fire, kindling, and wood. Starting a campfire is about growing a flame into a fire without putting it out in the process. Always start small, putting to much wood on a fire too quickly will put it out. Get your kindling in a very small pile, light it, and slowly add more material as the flames get bigger. It sounds so easy. However, it’s not unless you know how to start a campfire.
Heat Sources
Matches
Matches are one of the best ways to light a fire. Many people strive to light a roaring fire with only one match. It can be done once you learn how.
There are two basic kinds of matches. Strike anywhere and safety matches. Strike Anywhere matches live up to their name you can light them off any rough surface. For years men have used their pants zipper to light these matches. If you are really talented you can use your teeth although it’s not suggested.
Safety Matches (strike on box) require that you have used a specific strip to light the match on. Either type of matches you use will work for starting a fire. The best part of using a match is that you can place them where you want and they will burn for a few seconds. This makes it easier to get your firelight without burning your fingers.
Lighters
Most lighters are the disposable kind. Filled with butane. These lighters are great for starting a fire because they allow you to have a flame for as long as you need. However, use caution as to not burn your fingers. If you leave a lighter burning long enough they get very hot.
A long grill lighter can help avoid burning your hand. They have a long tip to them thus keeping your hand away from the flame. The only downside to these grill lighters is they take up more space when you pack. Unlike the grill lighters, a BIC lighter is small and can easily fit in your pocket so you always have a lighter when you need one.
There is one other type of popular lighter. The Zippo style reusable lighter. They are also more expensive than the other lighters so when they get hot and you drop them in a fire it’s frustrating. However, anyone that’s ever dropped one in a fire can tell you. Most likely they will work again. They just never look the same.
Other Heat Sources
If you can’t get a hold of a lighter there are other ways of how to start a campfire. The easiest is using steel wool and a 9V battery. When you short a 9V battery into steel wool it will get very hot so you can start your kindling on fire. This works great even in windy conditions.
A Magnesium striker also works for getting sparks that help you start a fire. If all else fails you can try to rub two very dry sticks together. Although many people have tried this method, very few have succeeded. It’s best tried with a bow drill. Where you have a stick that you tie a rope around like a bow and then you wrap the string once around another stick. This makes it easy to move the bow back and forth spinning the stick against another piece of wood and with enough time and friction you can get enough heat to start a fire. This method takes lots of patience and skill. Most people don’t have enough of either to start a fire.
Tinder/Kindling
Plant Tinder
You can use all sorts of dead plants as tinder. The dried tree bark is great. Make sure it’s very dry and peels off the dead tree or it’s already on the ground. You can also use dried leaves, dry weeds, and dead grass. Pine cones also make good tinder, but they burn very fast. Small sticks and twigs also work well.
Branches
If you can’t find anything else to burn as tinder you can use kindling. You can take small branches and feather them with your pocket knife. What you do is use a knife or hatchet to cut into the branch like you where whittling it down but stop just before you cut the piece off. If you do this all around the branch a bunch of times it will look sort of like a feather. Hence the name. These small pieces of wood shavings catch fire quickly and help the branch start fire.
Paper
A newspaper is a great kindling. However since people have chosen to go paperless, it’s harder to find. If you want to raid a local recycle bin before you go camping grab a few newspapers, avoiding color ads since they don’t burn well. With any kind of paper loosely crumple it up and start a corner burning. Be careful about using too much paper in windy conditions because it causes flying embers that could start fires where you don’t want them.
Firestarters
Fires Starters are one of the easiest ways to get a fire started. They can be homemade or store-bought. Either way, they are the same. Some sort of tinder with a waxy coating. The reason these work great is that they burn a long time giving you a chance to get bigger pieces of wood and branches started on fire.
How to Start a Campfire
Now that you have all the material you need to start a fire you must decide how to lay it out. There are 3 basic ways to layout a campfire. The Lean-to, Tee Pee, and Log Cabin. All of these are basic layouts and will eventually burn down or fall over. Once you have a good burning fire you don’t have to worry about what style of fire you started with. Just keep adding logs to keep the fire going. Making sure not to add too much to fast, or risk smothering the fire out.
Types of Campfires:
Lean-To
The lean-to fire is one of the simplest ways to build start a fire. You take a log and lay it in your fire pit. Lay your tinder next to the log. As your tinder starts burning you place kindling across your tinder leaning on the log. As the kindling starts burning you can gradually place bigger branches and logs against the first log. Of course, making sure that you don’t put too much on at once and smother the fire. If the tinder starts to burn out before you kindling catches fire you can put more tinder under the kindling. Just make sure that you don’t add too much at once. As it will smother the fire. Building a campfire is all about patience.
Teepee
A Teepee fire is just like it sounds. You place your tinder in the center than place kindling and small twigs around it in a Teepee. Make sure you leave yourself room to light your tinder on fire. Also, make sure that you keep the twigs roughly the same size because otherwise you’ll have some catch fire and burn first allowing the others to fall over. The problem with your Teepee falling over is that it can smother you fire out causing you to start over.
Log Cabin
The Log Cabin fire is a simple way of laying your campfire out like a square log cabin. As you build up you close it in a bit with each layer. Then put your tinder and kindling in the center and light it. This works great for windier conditions. Plus you have less chance of something falling over and smothering your fire out. The great thing is that it allows air to flow through your fire and will catch the top logs on fire faster.
Conclusion
How to start a campfire is all about patience and skill. No matter what fire starter you use it takes skill to learn how to slowly build the fire. It takes practice to learn what works best for you. Just knowing the basics is a starting point. Learning how to start a campfire can be a lifetime learning experience.