This episode of the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast explores essential fire-starting techniques, focusing on various tools like ferro rods, arc lighters, and magnesium fire starters. Host Chris Speir shares practical insights, product reviews, and personal stories to help outdoor enthusiasts master fire-building under challenging conditions.
In this episode, Chris Speir discusses the critical skill of fire-starting for outdoor enthusiasts and survivalists. Starting from basic fire principles to advanced tools, Chris provides detailed reviews of popular fire-starting devices like ferro rods, arc lighters, and magnesium blocks, sharing personal anecdotes and practical tips to ensure you’re prepared for any situation. He emphasizes the importance of practice, resourcefulness, and being equipped with reliable tools to stay safe and comfortable in the wild.
Key Topics Covered:
Links Mentioned:
Takeaways:
Closing:
Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast! Don’t forget to check out the coffee and book for more outdoor inspiration. God bless, and see you next time!
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to the Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft Podcast.
My name's Chris Speir
and I'm gonna be your guide
to enjoying the great outdoors.
How many times have you
ever got out into the woods?
And because of some kind
of environmental factor
or something happened,
and it is usually, you know,
Murphy follows me around a lot,
especially when I'm shooting videos.
If it's gonna go
wrong, it's gonna go wrong.
But how many times have you
ever got out into the woods
and due to some factor, you
could not get a fire started?
Happens to me all the time.
But, but, there's a big but there.
It's not that big of a deal.
And let me tell you why and I'm gonna
walk you through it.
But first of all, you know,
thank you so much for joining me today
and I really do
appreciate all the people out there
with the feedback and everything I'm
getting from the podcast.
I really do appreciate
everything, all the videos,
everybody watching the
videos and stuff like that.
So anyway, let's dive into it.
So right here, we're in the book still,
Primitive Camping in Bushcraft.
And we're on page 146.
And in general, if you have dry tinder,
so last week we talked about dry tinder,
kindling and fuel, you know,
oxygen and stuff like that,
recycle, you know,
symbol, stuff like that.
It was relatively
short because, you know,
when it gets to this kind of stuff,
I'm starting to feel like, you know,
this is the second
time through this book.
And once we did a real overview
and now we're just
kind of like, you know,
just talking more in depth.
So we're gonna just
take a little bit less
a slow down approach.
And we're just gonna
talk about a couple of ways
to start fire today.
But anyway, in general,
if you have dry tinder,
kindling and fuel, as
well as a simple lighter,
getting fire going,
it's gonna be fairly easy.
It's not gonna be very hard at all.
But it's life, especially in the survival
or camping setting, it happens, you know,
it always, it's not
always straightforward.
It's not always going to be
straightforward for me.
It never is straightforward.
And that's why it's helpful to know
how to build a fire under
even the most extreme conditions.
And I can't stress that enough, you know,
you have to get out there and practice.
You have to be able to practice.
And case in point, well,
Paul's right there on this,
on the book, and we'll start going over
some of this stuff here.
You have to be able to practice.
Now right here is a
little survival flint still
or a ferro rod from a big box store
that starts with a
Debian ends with a Mark.
And this comes together
as a nice little package,
comes with a little rope, you know,
where you can hang on to it, you know,
you're not gonna lose it.
And you can feed it through a belt loop
and you know, you ain't
got to worry about losing it.
And the way it's on
there is kind of awkward,
but you know, it does
very well at growing sparks.
And you can tell I have used this thing
a tremendous amount of time.
And I started off with one of these.
And this is what I started
the entire spear outdoors with
was this little doohickey right here.
And this was the absolute first ferro rod
that I ever purchased on the counter.
So, all right.
So we all know that ferro rods are great.
You know, I've done
videos, stuff like that,
you know, on ferro
rods, what is ferro serial,
how to use a ferro rod.
I've done so many videos on, you know,
starting fires that it
starts to get very repetitive.
And, you know, it can happen to anybody.
And you get start getting burned out
doing the same old thing
over and over and over again.
But, you know, this, this
being the first ferro rod
I ever had, I had to
learn how to use this same
because before, and this we're talking
12, 13, 14 years ago,
you know, the first
emergency ferro rod ever bought.
And before that, you
know, all I ever used
was lighters and matches.
And, you know, but the big lighter,
and there's going to be people,
there's going to be some
of your traditionalists
that are like, no, I
can't use a big lighter.
You got to do a bow drill.
Sorry, I'm going to do
a bit lighter, you know,
if I got a bit lighter with me.
And usually I do and my
fire kid, I got a bit lighter.
But that brings me to
one of these right here.
This is the arc lighters.
And it's going to throw an
electric arc right there.
And it does pretty
good at light and stuff.
But the problem with that
is, is the electricity in it
is going to run down pretty quick.
And it's not going to be as effective
as a flame from a big lighter.
Granted, a big lighter has fuel
and it has a propane inside of it.
The fuel can, you know, it
won't work under 32 degrees.
If it's freezing outside, you know,
there's all kinds of
little variables in there
that everybody should know by now.
But, you know, the arc
lighter is pretty cool.
It's pretty cool.
It can be useful.
You can have it in your bag.
Sure, go for it.
But you're always going
to have a backup source.
Now, what I have in my hands right here,
if you're not watching the video,
you're actually
listening to the podcast itself,
is a arc lighter by a
Blackbeard Firestarters.
Now, I've talked about
the Blackbeard Firestarters
in the last episode that I
carry them things with me
everywhere I go.
I got them in my hunting bag right now
and I take them with
me whenever I go out.
And because they are the easiest way,
without a big lighter, the
easiest way to start a fire.
And you just throw a spark
from one little bitty spark
from one of these little bitty ferro rods
and you are good to go.
So you got a fire.
And I've done it countless times,
countless weather conditions.
You can't, you cannot,
the Blackbeard
Firestarter is going to light,
no matter how long it's soaked in water.
It's ridiculous.
So now, moving right along.
A little bitty fire ferro rod,
like this Exotec,
I did this for another app called Flip,
where, you know, I
ordered some stuff off of there
and you do a video on it
and make content for them.
And then you get paid
commissions and stuff like that.
And so I ordered one
of these to try it out.
Now, although this is not
something that I would carry
with me in the woods as my
main source to light a fire,
but this is something
that I carry in my pocket
every single day with
this little bitty, you know,
Fox Volpus knife.
It's kind of like a army knife,
Swiss army knife, you know,
it's got scissors on there.
It's got a nice little saw, you know,
I'm not going to slice my hand open
trying to get that saw out,
but anyway, it's got
can openers, you know,
stuff of that sort, that nature.
It's just like a little
army, Swiss army knife.
This little ferro rod is very
cumbersome with this striker.
So it's always best if you
have some other way to do it,
like a,
where are you at?
Come on, there we go.
So that's why I carry the knife with it.
The striker doesn't work as well,
but, and I'm trying to
figure out, you know,
still this knife, one of the video I did,
this knife was expensive.
And I'm like, is it worth the price?
You know, thank God
they gave me a discount,
but it was, it was like 80
bucks for this little knife.
And I ended up getting it for like 15
or something like that using all my
discounts and stuff.
But I mean, you could start a fire
with this little bitty
Exotac ferro rod, you know,
but you have to have
something to bring to strike it with
because the striker that
comes with it is horrible.
And that's just my
professional personal opinion.
I've got, so, but anyway,
these, these little things,
I always recommend
having something like this.
That's on my EDC.
This is actually technically,
this is in my front right pocket.
Every time I leave the
house, is that right there?
That's it. That's it.
That's all I carry as far as you can see.
I'm able to start a fire.
I'm able to cut my way out of something.
I'm able to carve things if I need to.
So now moving right along, boy,
I have got something on my nose here
that is itching.
I think my beard is tickling me.
But anyway, excuse me.
So moving right
along, we got moving on up.
We got another ferro rod.
Now this came from a fellow.
I did a review on a rocket stove
and he sent one of his
ferro rods with me too.
It looks like a 50 cal shell with a,
ferro rod built into it, glued in there.
And it's pretty cool.
You got the lanyard
all the way back through
where it's not going to slide out.
So you're not going to lose the handle
or anything like that.
And this thing is awesome.
It's starting to fire.
Now these will start a
fire no matter where you're at
or what you're doing.
If you have one of these,
the only drawback to this is
that this is extremely heavy.
This is, I'd say seven or eight ounces.
This is pretty heavy.
This is a half inch
by eight inch, I guess.
And it can start a fire anywhere.
I've started many of fires with it.
It doesn't take a lot of
strikes as long as you do,
like we did the last
time preparing your tender.
All right.
You can prepare that
tender and have it ready to go
to where it accepts a spark.
And that spark is
just going to immediately
throw it into flames.
Now, if you had like a flash tender,
like cactail or something like that,
it's going to be almost like gasoline.
(blows) But then all of a sudden you
have to have something else
to catch that flame as well
whenever that flash tender goes off.
And so you're going to
have really processed down
some kind of bark or natural fibers
or something to that effect in order to
render your tender useful,
your flash tender useful.
So now we're going to
move on to this one.
And
this, if you've heard about
the company Prepared Forex,
this is a,
it's a wick and billow
system with a ferro rod in it.
And so this is some waxed hemp rope,
something to that effect.
And what you do is you really just,
you make these fibers all nice and loose.
So you just twist them up.
You scrape it and stuff like that.
Now, and then you
scrape and make a spark.
I'm not trying to burn
down my studio in here.
I don't have
everything set up for that man.
But you will like this rope
and this wax rope stays lit
and you're able to use it
like a candle to light a fire.
I have plenty of videos
of that on my website,
I mean, on my YouTube page
and you know, linked to my
website, Spare Out Doors.
All right, so now we're moving on
to my absolute favorite
way to start a fire in woods.
These guys are amazing.
And these are the absolute
best way to start a fire.
They are the absolute best fire starter
on the market today.
And you don't see a lot of
people talking about them,
but these are the most
amazing fire starters.
You can start fires in any condition
with these fire starters.
And what we have is the
all weather fire starter.
Now, I do not make a
commission off of these,
but you do get like 10% off on the sales.
This is the big one.
And it has a little
compass on the handle,
which I'm not too worried about that
because I wouldn't use that anyway.
I use my regular compass
in the bag, in my backpack.
But it has a magnesium block.
This is a magnesium block.
And then it has a ferro rod.
Now it looks like that's
a quarter inch ferro rod.
Yeah, it's about a
quarter inch ferro rod.
And it's a half inch block
or a little bit bigger
than half inch of magnesium.
And you just scrape you
off a piece of that magnesium
and just keep scraping you a pile, a
pile, a pile, a pile
on whatever it is
that you want to ignite.
And you flip this dude over and you just,
and it boof, there it goes.
And this strike credit
comes with it is amazing.
This is one of the
most amazing fire starters
I have ever used.
I've used a lot.
I've used a bunch of, you know,
everything from flint
and steel all the way
to just common ferro rods
that you get at Walmart.
And, you know, big lighters and
everything like that.
Yeah, big lighters, great.
And, you know, big lighters can run out.
Big lighters can break.
Big lighters can get lost.
And a lot of times a big
lighter is going to get lost.
But in my little hands right here
is the Fire, the All
Weather Fire Starter.
And that's the name of it,
allweatherfirestarters.com.
And you can go by there and
use Spear, I believe Spear.
I'll put the link and
everything in this video description
for you guys.
But these are the best.
These are the absolute best fire starters
on the market today.
And if you have a better fire starter
than this one right here, let me know.
And we will hash it out.
And, you know, because
I don't think they'd get
any better than this at all.
Now, this is the big model
with the wooden handle here.
Now, the only thing I
don't like about this
is there's adjustment
screws here and here.
And that is so you could
reorder another piece of magnesium
and put that down in
here and tighten it down.
Now, you do the same
thing with this handle
and that handle gets real loose here.
That's the only thing I
don't like about this, but,
and there's a, there's a but there.
Let me show you the alternative to that
with this same model.
You have the smaller version here,
which does not have the big handle.
And it's the same, it's the same
everything from there now.
It's separate, it does not have the
handle going inside here.
It still has your compass there.
It still has your lanyard and all that.
It's got your
adjustment screw right there
for you to replace your magnesium block
and all that good stuff.
But I'm telling you right now, this,
I wish I had a fire
plate in here, you know,
but this, it, it throws amazing sparks.
It throws amazing heat.
I mean, this thing showers the sparks.
I've done countless videos
with this on my YouTube page
and I'll put a, I'll put a video,
I'll put the links to
all the videos in here.
So that's it.
That's what this thing does.
I mean, it's amazing how
well these things work.
You could use them in whatever capacity
you want to use them.
I mean, these things are amazing.
So anyway, that's it as far as these.
These are my favorite
fire starting devices.
I'll leave them, a link
to them in the description
and then the show notes of
this, this video right here.
And, you know, this
episode, this podcast,
and, you know, these, these items,
and there's, there's many more,
and I discuss them all
throughout the book, you know,
but these items right
here can save your life.
And these items right
here, it practice with them.
You don't have to carry a
ferro rod into the woods.
You can carry a lighter.
You can carry six lighters.
I get that all the time from a lot of my,
a lot of my people, you know,
a lot, a lot of people
had to check, you know,
I think, anyway, a lot of
people come on my comment section
and they just eat me up saying, yeah,
you could carry a lighter.
Yeah, you could carry a lighter.
Yeah, you could carry a lighter.
Absolutely. You can carry a lighter.
Anybody could carry a
lighter with them in the woods,
but, and this is, this
is out there a little bit,
but if you lost your lighter,
if you forgot to bring a lighter,
if you didn't have one
with you, if it cracked,
if it broke, if it's frozen outside,
you can't get it to work.
If it's fluid is, is
gone in it or it ran out or,
you know, your, your,
your, your thumb hurts
and you can't get it to light
because you didn't take
the thumb guard off of it or,
you know, any kind of
butts, there's always a butt.
There's always a butt and
it usually don't smell good,
but that butt is going to be a huge butt.
And you have to learn how to
make a fire in different ways.
If you're going camping,
if you're going to go way
out in the middle of nowhere
for X and many days,
you have to be able to start a fire.
You have to, I see I lost focus.
There we go.
You have to be able to start a fire
because if you cannot start a fire
when you're out in the middle of nowhere,
you're going to end up
catching some kind of,
some kind of waterborne illness.
You're not going to be able
to heat your cooking food.
And you know, depending
on the time of the year,
which yes, you can do
hyperthermia in the winter,
I mean, the summertime, you know,
but it's not as common,
but you know, fire keeps you warm.
And I've watched, I've
watched many episodes on,
you know, the TV show with Long,
where they didn't have a fire
for like a week or something
because of the dampness
until they figured it out,
until they got everything working.
You know, I get it.
I understand.
And they tried.
And these guys understand what to do
and they know how to do it.
But the regular person that
is not the 100% survivalist,
you know, that hasn't
gone out there and practiced
with all these skills is
going to have a hard time
starting the fire in perfect conditions.
That's why I'm saying
get out in the woods,
get out, you don't
have to go into the woods.
Go, go walk around your property,
go walk around somewhere,
go walk around the park.
If you're, if you live
in the city, you know,
something like that,
identify different tenders
that you can make a fire with.
Then sit down, practice.
Sit down and practice starting a fire
with one of these
items, you know, practice.
If you, you know, I
realize people live in places
where they don't have the freedoms
that I do here in South Mississippi,
but you know, there's a place
where you can go to practice
to, you know, starting you a fire.
You could start, you could
practice starting your fires
in a barbecue pit,
you know, at your house,
even if you're limited in space,
and you can barbecue
on your porch, you know,
well, put your stuff in
there to start your fire
in your barbecue pit and
practice starting your fire.
That's what a barbecue fits
for, is for a fire, you know,
and it doesn't matter.
It's a perfect place for you to practice.
There's always a place for you to
practice starting your fire.
Now, don't be
irresponsible and go out there
and start a day going wildfire
and burn down half of California.
That's ridiculous.
And, you know, these people that are
irresponsible with it,
you know, they do the
prosecutions for a reason.
And, you know, I agree with it.
If you do something stupid
and you're not paying attention
and you're building this ginormous fire,
you don't have to have
a big fire, you know?
I just, I don't get people,
I don't get people at all,
you know?
There's an inappropriate joke my nephew
told me a while back
and it was true.
It was like, you know,
us Americans like to
build a real big fire
and sit very far away from it, you know?
Where the Native
Americans, when they were here,
they built smaller
fires and they set closer.
And, you know, there's a
lot to be said in that,
not only just about the fire,
but about
relationships and stuff like that,
because, you know, these
people that were here before we were
mastered these skills
without these things
and they mastered firemaking,
they mastered all these
skills and they were able to,
you know, they didn't have
to have a ginormous fire.
They got real close together.
And then that allowed
them in the camaraderie
and their family and their, you know,
all that to be closer together.
They were more well
knit than we are today.
So, but anyway, I can
get off of that soapbox.
But, you know, the practice is not gonna
make you perfect at anything.
Practice is gonna make
you a little bit better.
You're never gonna be perfect, you know?
The only time you're gonna be
perfect is after Jesus comes,
you know, and takes us back home.
After that, you know, we
will be in our perfect bodies.
But, you know, this right here is a skill
set that you got to practice.
It's called a skill.
It's life skills.
It's stuff that you need to
practice in order to make it
more valuable and
more valuable skill set.
Make it more valuable for yourself
and more valuable for your
family, if that makes sense.
Because if you are, look at these people
that go to these parks
and they get lost and
they end up, you know,
like some of them die because they were
ill prepared, you know.
They didn't have this in
their front pocket, you know.
They didn't have an emergency blanket.
Like if I'm going on
any kind of hiking trip,
I have a minimum emergency blanket,
a some kind of pacho,
like an emergency pacho.
I have compass.
I have a fire starting
kit and I have a flashlight.
And those things are in my bag that go
with me every time I walk into the woods.
And literally, if I go squirrel hunting,
if I go deer hunting,
if I'm going to a place I've been a
million times in my boat,
I'm still bringing
all those survival items
because you never know
what's going to happen.
True story.
My brother was, we were fishing.
And we were on the Tennessee River and we
were catching some good fish.
We caught a lot of fish
and he was in the boat.
And we went out in my boat and checked my
lines and checked my doodles and stuff.
And then I come back and
nobody had heard from him for hours.
And then the cell
phones didn't work up there.
And so my dad comes up to me and says,
hey, you need to go
check on your brother.
I'm like, dude, he's like,
no, go check on your brother.
And I said, all right, so I
get up and I get in my boat.
I drive up and down the Dead Gun River
looking for my brother.
And I see some dude
laying on the side of the bank.
His boat broke down
and couldn't get back.
He had started a fire on the bank and was
just sitting there chilling.
And it was that resourcefulness that he
just enjoyed the moment that he was in.
He was prepared.
He was prepared starting a fire.
He was prepared to stay the
night because it got cold.
He was actually prepared to stay there.
And although he was just a couple of
miles away from where I was at, and
he was on some shell bank or a bunch of
seashells and stuff.
It was still a opportunity for him to
exercise his preparedness, I should say.
So, but anyway, I feel like I
got off a little track there.
But take your time.
You can use matches.
If you want to use matches, use matches.
Diplomacy wax first.
That way they don't get wet and ruined.
Matches are extremely
well known to get runt.
Matches are very well known to just
really be like a dexterity thing.
If you get too cold or stuff like that,
they break and you try
to do it too hard or too
fast and they go out.
But matches are, they're
viable options to start fires.
There's 14 million hacks on the internet.
I mean, you got this one guy out there.
He's Sergio or whatever his name is.
Middle European or I don't know where
he's from or whatever.
But this dude, he copies
everybody on the internet.
I watched somebody do a
hack on how to make pool.
I think it was Bushcraft Kelso or
whatever from Georgia
Bushcraft or whatever, something
like that where this guy made fire
starters, dipped them in
wax and it was pulled and you
pull them and they automatically lit.
Now don't take me for who I said it was.
I don't recall who it was.
But the next day, this other dude made
his own video from
this guy's and copied it.
He copies everybody's
everything on the internet.
The biggest woods bound outdoors.
He'll make a video and this other guy
serves you or whatever his name is.
He copies his videos the next day.
As soon as his hits the internet, the
other dude has one the next day.
Same exact stuff.
He never says a word.
He just does what's thing.
You've probably seen it.
It's useless information.
Most of it is anyway.
But anyway, it's neither here nor there.
Just practice with your stuff.
Use matches if you
want them to use matches.
Use a bait lighter if you
want to use a bait lighter.
Use a flint and steel if you
want to use a flint and steel.
Use a rock if you want to use a rock.
Practice different things because
different situations and
scenarios are going to present
themselves.
That's all I'm saying.
So anyway, alright, so don't forget.
Go ahead and try out the primitive
camping in bushcraft coffee.
That stuff is pretty good stuff.
I love it.
But right now, let's see.
You get, I can't remember what they said.
If you buy a five pound bag, you get like
12 or 15% off or something like that.
Go ahead over there.
I'll leave the link in the thing.
And don't forget the
buck is still on sale.
It's $14 on Amazon right now.
And $14.42 or something like that.
So check it out.
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this.
I really appreciate you for joining me.
And I'll see you in the
next video or the next podcast.
God bless you.