Building a campfire: The basics

For this entry, we'll focus on straightforward, best-case-scenario fire-making.


The main components of a good fire are:

The Firestarter.
The Kindling.
The Logs.
The Lighter.
The Axe.


With most aspects of camping if you do thorough pre-planning, once you're out there everything is quite well taken care of. So having certain elements in advance is really important.

The Fire Starter:
The easiest thing to do and a great re-use, is to collect your used drier sheets. They take up a modicum of space and ignite very quickly.

There are people who swear by oven-dried pine cones dipped in wax, which is cute, good-smelling, and would be a fun little project for kids.

You can also dredge cotton balls in petroleum jelly and keep them in a tin.


The Kindling:
I like a variety of collected twigs -fallen, never ripped off a living tree- and inch-thick chopped up logs (note my lovely assistant below, using a borrowed full-size axe from a kindly neigbour who was less than impressed with our small maul).




and the fruits of his labour (note our mini version of an axe):





And of course, there's always the sunday paper -which is what I'll be using.

The Logs:
Drier the better, that's key when picking up logs at local sellers. Some places are nice enough to sell little bundles with dried bark and twig kindling as well. Give the wood a squeeze and a sniff -damp wood will smell musty and you'll be able to feel the moisture, if so, move along, it's just too much of a bother to use wet wood.

Tip: I like to keep a spare rain fly in my tent pack to put over our log pile for when the inevitable rain shower comes along.


The Structure:

There are a variety of ways to shape the fire, I like an amalgam of two basics -the log cabin and the teepee as seen below.



Create a log cabin-like square base with 2 large logs and kindling sticks placed perpendicularly on top. The large logs raise the kindling sticks off the ground and allows air to circulate, which is crucial for the fire to thrive. In that raised area, wedge your fire starter.

The point is to have the quick burning fire starter create enough flame to get the next quickest burning items -the kindling- to ignite, which in turn, sustain enough heat to get the large logs to work up a good, red, burn.

Around the log cabin, I like to place twig kindling around in the teepee shape. It creates a good surround of fire in addition to the kindling and starter within

Then strike up an extra long match, and spark all the firestarters.

Keep a good pile of kindling handy, you'll be surprised at how quickly they'll burn up. Tend the fire, in the beginning stages, blow, if need be, fan, if you like, add a bit of kindling here and there, until you see that the fire is evenly caught and toasting the larger logs.

Once you have a good roar going, be sure to keep stoking it with large logs -you'll be set for the night!

P.S. I'll dedicate an upcoming post to axes and axe techniques and alternative fire lighters.

Happy toasting.