Lesson 3: Making the most of your firesteel (natural tinder)

        Once you have the hang of man made tinders, you will be ready to take on natural tinders. The advantage to using natural tinders is that you no longer have the need to carry your tinders with you, allowing you to stay out longer and reducing the weight in your pack.

         The best place to start, when choosing your natural tinders, is silver birch bark. The easiest way to recognise this tree is my looking for its distinct white bark and peeling a small piece off. the bark will be very thin, like paper. The thickness of this bark is one of the reasons it is so successful as a tinder, the other reason is the high sap content. The sap of the silver birch is extremely rich in natural oils which are highly combustible.

The technique for lighting a fire with natural tinders is similar to the method used in lighting man made tinder, the key difference is in the preparation.

Step 1. Shaving

Place your knife at 90 degrees to a thick piece of bark and scrape it towards you. Keep doing this until you have a small pile of fine shavings.

Step 2. cones

Take a large, thin piece of bark and make it into a cone. Pin it in place with a small sharpened twig. The cone

shape will focus all the sparks from your firesteel into the bottom, where your tinders will be waiting.... Place the shavings and a few small, very thin pieces of bark into the cone.

Step three. Light  a fire.

Using the methods learnt in lesson two. light the the tinders inside the cone. Scrape off plenty of shavings from the steel onto the scrapings, position your striker and pull the steel.

Hey presto...FIRE