In this episode of the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast, Chris tackles one of the ultimate outdoor challenges: starting a fire with wet wood using only one match. Broadcasting straight from under the tarp at Camp Wut-Da-Heck in the middle of a thunderstorm, he shares practical fire-starting advice and a faith lesson about rekindling your spirit when life gets soaked.
Today we’re camped under the tarp at Camp Wut-Da-Heck, rain beating down hard and frogs cutting loose in the woods, digging into one of the truest tests of primitive camping — starting a fire with wet wood and just one match.
Chris walks through real-world fire-building skills forged from hard days in the field: how to find dry material when it feels like nothing’s dry, how to split and feather soaked wood, and how to build a fire lay that breathes life into soaked sticks when the rain just won't quit.
But this episode isn’t just about survival skills — it’s about the mindset it takes when comfort fails and grit has to kick in.
Between thunder cracks and raindrops hammering the tarp, Chris shares hard lessons learned about trusting your preparation, finding strength when you're waterlogged, and leaning on more than just gear when life gets heavy.
Drawing from Isaiah 42:3, you’ll hear a powerful reminder that even when storms leave you soaked and spirit-heavy, God sees the dry core inside you — the part that's ready to catch fire again.
Because whether it’s in the woods or in life, one spark, one small act of faith, can reignite everything.
If you've ever wondered if you could still cook your meal, warm your bones, or stand your ground when the storm comes in sideways, this is the episode you need.
In everything you do, acknowledge Him.
Mentioned in this episode:
Field-proven fire-starting techniques for wet conditions
Finding and using fatwood, birch bark, and pine resin
Building a fire lay that breathes in wet weather
Why preparation beats bravado when the storms hit
Faith encouragement based on Isaiah 42:3
Here is the link to the all weather matches I discussed: https://youtu.be/HsMzcpZbEAA?si=L4PBGfGx6S5IQhG8
In everything you do, acknowledge Him.
(upbeat music)
All right, welcome back to the
Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast.
My name's Chris Speir,
and today we're going to be
getting into something
that separates the real
from the fair weather campers,
and that is one match, and wet wood.
I mean, how
realistically, how often are you
really gonna go out into
the woods with a match,
or one match, but, you
know, in the event of,
and something like that happen,
are you still gonna be
able to cook your dinner?
Are you still gonna be able to
boil your water, or whatever?
So, yeah, coming to you live from,
well, I can't say live,
but I'm coming to you,
and underneath the tarp
of Camp Wut-Da-Heck,
in the middle of thunder and rain.
So you may hear
thunder in the background,
and you may hear some raindrops hitting,
and you're gonna hear
some frogs here in a minute,
and it is slam full
of mosquito bugs today,
and skeeter bugs don't play,
especially down here
by Camp Wut-Da-Heck.
And these things are atrocious.
So, because out here in the woods,
when it's rained, when it's been raining,
and what a better day to talk
about this subject than today,
because it has been raining.
It has been raining all day.
All the woods wet, everything's wet,
except for the dry ground
right here under the Camp Wut-Da-Heck
Camp Wut-Da-Heck
And, you know, when the
rain's coming in sideways,
and everything you own gets soaked,
it's not about bragging
rights, it's about survival.
It's about grit.
We're not out here just rapping.
Well, I mean, sometimes
you will brag, but, you know,
yeah, it's not a very
good idea to be the bragger,
be that guy that always, you know,
one time I had one match
and it was slightly wet,
but I still got it to
light and a little fire,
and I saved all the
people in my expedition.
No, it's not that
kind of stuff, you know.
Essentially, it's a reality check.
So, you know, weather
doesn't care about your plans.
They really don't.
I can't tell you how many times
that I have scheduled
me or Dave, you know,
we will schedule a
kayaking trip or a camping trip
or something to the
effect, and it will just flood.
It will just be a downpour.
Like, nobody wants to just head out
into the woods
camping like that, you know.
Camp is supposed to be a relaxing time,
but it can be done, you know.
If you're, and everybody
hears this quote unquote
survival situation stuff, and that's not,
that's not really what I'm talking about
when I'm doing this podcast.
What I'm talking about is
praying with the camping,
you know, heading out,
hiking out, setting up,
enjoying your time,
and catching use of food,
and hiking back, and going home.
That's what I'm talking about
when we're talking
about praying and camping.
I'm not talking about going out
with just the deer hide sitting on it
and carving some arrowheads or a knife
or whatever like Jake
Trent or Donnie Dust
or any of those guys.
You know, what I'm talking about
primitive is, you know,
you're going out and
you're just going camping
without all the modern
conveniences in the world.
Now, that's not being
like bushcraft, you know.
Bushcraft is you're going out with just,
ooh, there's some lightning.
Bushcraft is you're going
out with just a couple of,
a knife and a ferro rod, you know.
Not to say that they can't be done
because it absolutely can.
But, you know, when it gets down to,
there's some thunder, I
wonder if y'all can hear that.
But when it gets down to it,
wet wood doesn't apologize.
It's not going to apologize.
And one of the things that really
is going to separate you from the others
is being wet outside,
starting a fire when it's wet.
It can be done.
It can be done when
everything is completely soaked.
It takes you a little bit longer.
I mean, you got stuff that's been soaking
in the water for a month.
You're not going to get a
bow drill out of it, you know,
most of the time.
But I've seen some people that have.
I've seen people on, let's say that TV
show alone, you know.
I've seen people actually
pull it off on that show.
And it was like, it
took them days to do it,
but they actually got it.
So if you cannot start
a fire under pressure,
you're probably not going to eat.
But you brought like something
that don't have to be cooked.
Right here, bump the microphone again.
Right here, got my little blue Nalgene.
I have used this thing for years.
It is amazing keeping my water.
I usually carry a metal water bottle
whenever I, metal water bottle
when I go into the woods in the event of,
I have to boil some water.
But you know, this
Nalgene, I have used it for years,
transport water back and forth.
And it serves me fine.
So, but anyway,
Wet wood, like I was saying,
is not going to apologize.
If you can't start a fire under pressure,
you might not eat that night.
And this is if you didn't
bring any like MRE style
or something that could be
eaten without being cooked.
And whenever your morale
is literally bleeding out
and it's cold outside and a single flame
can mean the difference
between pressure and giving up.
A lot of times, you're
going to have more than one way
to start a fire.
And that's what I've been preaching for a
couple of years now.
And especially through my book,
Primitive Camping in Bushcraft,
which by the way, I am just
now launching three eBooks.
I have three eBooks
available on my website,
spareoutdoors.com.
And if you go over
there and check those out,
there's one on
shelter, there's one on fire,
and there's one on water.
The three, the big trifecta.
And you can check
those out, they're on sale
for like 40 some odd
percent off right now
for $5 or $6 a piece.
And you can buy the whole
bundle of all three of them
for like $11.99.
So when you go to do your fire,
the first thing you're gonna do is pick
your location, right?
So that's gonna be half of the battle.
You're gonna pick your site
that you're gonna start your fire.
And a lot of times with that,
you're gonna pick a nice little spot
that's got some
firewood around, you know,
where your camp is.
You're not gonna wanna spend all day
dragging firewood to your camp.
Let's see, Monday I'm
leaving for a kayaking trip.
We're gonna paddle 18 to
20 miles down the river.
And we're going to camp out overnight.
And so we're gonna try to select a spot
where it has some firewood there
and we could just pull the firewood up
and go ahead and cook our dinner.
But, you know, you're
gonna look for cover,
thick trees, natural rock shells,
anything that keeps the rain off.
You know, be careful when
you're doing it around rocks,
they heat up, sometimes they crack and
can fall or explode.
You know, you don't wanna really
do it around the rocks too much.
So it's starting to rain a little bit.
Maybe y'all can hear that.
And hopefully it doesn't get too loud.
But you're gonna look for cover,
thick trees, natural rock shells,
anything that keeps the rain off.
And you're gonna wanna be
camping in higher ground
because it's gonna drain faster.
Valleys stay wet longer.
And that's because all the
water's gonna be draining
down in there.
So you don't wanna be, like
here in South Mississippi,
you don't wanna be
camping in the high water mark
because right now
everything's flooded anyway.
And with this rain right here, the water
will come up a foot.
And it's crazy.
So you wanna build a
barrier if you have to,
something that is going to
protect your fire from the rain.
Now I've talked about this many times.
My son and I went onto a camping trip
and we were out there for eight days
and it rains for six solid
days and six solid nights.
I thought was gonna have to build an art.
And the river come up to 35 feet.
It was the second
highest flood stage since 1920
that it has ever been.
It was 35 feet.
And there was not a
piece of dry land anywhere.
It was all underwater
except for where we were camping
was the only dry spot.
And then it rained so hard.
The only way we can have a fire
was to use fat wood as our firewood.
And no, we didn't cook over,
I mean, we cooked in a bush pot,
but we had a cast iron Dutch oven
that we hung up over
the fire and cooked in.
But other than that,
that's the only way we was
able to get a fire started
or to burn because of the rain.
So with wet wood can
still give you dry stuff
to start your fire with.
When you split that wood,
it should be dry in the middle
depending on the type of wood
and how long it's been submerged
or how long it's been wet or whatnot.
And I'm thinking that this rain
is gonna be a little bit
too loud for this microphone.
We'll find out here shortly, huh?
So you can split a
log, you can split a stick
and it's still gonna be
relatively dry in the middle
and that's gonna be able
to get you some kindling.
You'll be able to do some feather sticks,
stuff like that.
You wanna peel your bark off the logs
to get to the dry layers underneath.
And the bark usually is
gonna have a barrier in between
that's gonna be like
soaking up the water.
Your water is gonna
stick in between the wood
and your bark.
So take the bark off if you can, if not.
And we're talking about stuff
that's been laying
down for a little while.
We're not talking
about your giant oak trees
that you just cut.
So you wanna hunt for dead branches
that haven't touched the
ground that are still hanging up.
And you can walk through the woods
and find tons of dead branches.
I mean, these things
will be laying everywhere
in these vines and
other branches of trees
and brush and stuff like that.
You'll find branches all over the place.
So when you're
finding these dead branches,
pick them up, break
them up, make them small,
cut them small, you know, and
then find you some fat wood.
Find some fat wood.
If you got resinous
trees, you have fat wood.
If you got pine trees, you got fat wood.
And birch bark, pine resin, you know,
those things are
nature's way of starting a fire.
And they are extremely flammable.
And I've preached about those for,
I can't tell you how long, you know,
since I started with this book,
since I started this podcast,
I've been telling you about fat wood,
birch bark or pine resin, you know,
all those things have oils in them.
Cypress bark, cypress
bark has a lot of oils in it.
And you could break that
down into real fine fibers.
And every year the tree exfoliates,
I think that's what they call it,
where it sloughs off the bark
and grows new bark underneath it.
And you take the old bark
and you could break it down
into like cotton ball size threads.
And that is what gets it.
That separates the wheat from the chaff.
That right there is what
actually starts your fire
is those cotton ball size threads
that you can get from a resinous tree
such as a cypress or cedar or whatever.
So now we're gonna set the stage.
You know, you're gonna do
fire building one-on-one.
It's the same thing, the same process.
The only thing, the
only thing that's different
in this whole process is
you're starting wet wood.
It's wet outside.
The ground's wet, but that should be it.
Everything else should not be wet.
Your fire tender should not be wet.
You could find fire tender.
You know, if you got fat wood, birch
bark, or pine resin,
you don't have to
worry about the fire tender
because that's what it is.
You just make some shavings with the
backside of your knife
and make a pile and just
these dudes are gonna start you
a fire regardless.
And you know, tiny, tiny shavings.
You can make feather sticks.
You do pencil-sized lead
kindling, pencil-sized lead,
pencil-lead-sized kindling.
(laughs)
So you're gonna do
pencil-lead-sized kindling.
And you know, it's gonna be damp,
but if it was up off the ground,
it's not gonna be
saturated, it's not gonna be soaked.
It may be damp, but there's a difference.
Once you get your fire lit,
that stuff will easily catch on fire.
If that catches on fire,
then the bigger stuff catches on fire.
And then so forth, so
on, so forth, so on.
You know, so, you know, a fire lay,
you wanna make a fire lay that breathes.
A fire lay that breathes
is a fire lay that lives.
A fire lay that
breathes is a fire that lives.
Let's see if I can
spit that out correctly.
You know, don't choke it.
Build it right the first time.
Don't choke it out.
Give it plenty of room.
Give it plenty of space to breathe.
Get it, you know, plenty of chaos
to actually develop the flame.
You know, I think it,
one of these survival
schools or something,
I saw a video sometimes,
it says, "Fire Loves Chaos."
And that has stuck in my mind ever since,
because if you think
about it, it really does.
Fire is a chaotic being.
Fire is alive.
And you know, it has to have oxygen.
It has to breathe in order to eat.
It is like a mold or
a bacteria or a virus
that it has to eat in order
for it to continue to grow.
And there was a big
old snake just slithered
right across in front
of me on the ground,
10 feet away in the woods.
That is crazy.
It looked like a
black racer or something,
but still nonetheless,
that is why we are doing
this in the great outdoors
at Camp Wut-Da-Heck.
Now we got the frogs in the background.
We got the rain on the tarp.
This is starting to turn real, guys.
This is really starting to turn real.
So remember, your one
match deserves a fire
that is ready to catch.
So we're pretending
like you have one match.
If you have one match,
make it a fireproof match.
(laughs)
A fireproof match,
make it a fireproof match.
(record scratch)
Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait just a second.
All right, after
listening to this podcast back,
I had to jump back in here and say,
there is no such thing
as a fireproof match.
What I was trying to
convey was the windproof
or stormproof or waterproof matches.
Okay, back to the show.
I saw some videos the other day.
That was pretty cool
because they took regular matches,
dipped them in wax or something,
then they took the striker
and somehow they taped it
in there with the matches
and then they put the
whole thing in a rubber balloon
and sealed it off and
then they just pulled the top
and it struck and the rubber balloon
became a fire extender and it
actually, it was pretty cool.
You gotta see, if I can think of it,
if I remember when I'm editing this
and putting the podcast up,
I will see if I can find that link
to put into the show notes
because that was pretty doggone cool.
And if I have one match,
that would be the match I want.
Typically, I don't even
waste my time with matches.
I either have a ferro
rod or a big lighter,
but we're gonna pretend like
we're using a match on this trip.
So, we got our fire lay
and we're making our
fire layup off the ground
where it's not going to get
put out whenever it starts
because if the ground's wet
and you're starting
to fire on the ground,
odds are it's gonna put out your fire.
And so, we're not gonna choke it out.
We're gonna let it breathe.
We're gonna let the
fire just grow on its own.
There's some thunder.
Remember, this one match deserves a fire
that is ready to go.
Not one of you,
not one of you is gonna
hope that it don't catch.
I mean, because
everybody's gonna be like,
"Dear God, please let this fire catch."
So, there's a picture in all of this
that we've been talking about
that if you really think about it,
in life, storms will come.
It's not an if, it's a when.
Storms are gonna come and no matter what,
just like I'm sitting out here
at Camp Wut-Da-Heck right now
with rain beating down on top of the tarp
and the lightning going
and the thunder going,
storms in your life are gonna come.
And sometimes you'll feel like that
soaked piece of wood,
weighed down,
waterlogged, no spark left in you,
but God sees the dry heart inside.
Now, Isaiah 42 verse three says,
"A bruised reed he will not break
and a smoldering wick
he will not snuff out."
Now, you may feel like
you're too beaten down
to catch fire again.
You're too used up.
You don't have any,
you're soaked with all
the troubles of the world.
You may feel like you're
just weighed down and tattered,
but he isn't done with you.
Just like when you
split that law a while ago
to find the dry core,
more thunder.
Just like when you split that law
to find that dry core
inside to make a feather stick
or to make shavings
or do whatever you're
gonna do to start a fire.
God splits through
all of our circumstances
to reach that part of us
that still is ready to burn for him.
So he doesn't need perfect conditions.
Kind of like we don't need perfect
conditions to go camping.
He don't need perfect conditions.
What he needs is you to be
willing to catch fire again.
So back to our one match mentality.
You gotta prep like
your life depends on it
because sometimes,
and I haven't had to put
in that situation, but one time,
but that could been the one
time that it had to apply.
But you want to prep
like your life depends on it
because sometimes it does.
You want to practice
like your life depends on it
because sometimes it does.
You practice like
somebody's life depends on it
because sometimes it does.
When we were in the
military, I was a medic
and we practiced like
somebody's life depended on it
because it really did.
People's lives depended on me,
depended on the people
that work with me or under me
and the doctors and all that above me,
people's lives depended on it
and we had to practice like
their lives depended on it.
So what I mean by this
is double your tender,
triple your feather sticks.
Make as much, make it
start, make it start.
Don't worry about how
long it takes you to do this.
It's not a race.
You just go ahead and make it start.
You make it work.
You do the job that needs to be done.
If you're trying to get a
fire started, get it done.
Build this thing slow,
think about it smartly
and set yourself up for success.
Do not, do not just go in there and say,
"Hey, I got this one little twig.
I got this right here,
I'm gonna burn my match."
You're not gonna have a fire.
If you only have one match with you,
you're not gonna get a
second chance and with life,
you're not getting second chances.
That match, I mean,
it's really not realistic
to be out in the woods with one match,
but in the event of, and
I'm not gonna say never
because it possibly could happen,
but in the event of you
don't want to take a chance
that you're not gonna be
able to get the fire lit.
So fire aids, what I mean by fire aids
is tools in your pocket, nature's tools.
These things are aids, fire aids.
That's what I'm talking about.
That birch bark that I mentioned earlier,
we got some form of variation.
I think it's a river
birch or something like that,
but it's not as good
as that stuff up north.
But I mean, it's still
feasible, it's still usable,
it's still paper thin.
I just don't think it has the oil residue
or the oil content that
the Northern birch does,
the stuff that they
get up north from here.
Birch bark, pine
resin, pine resin is good,
but here's the thing
with the pine resin is
if you're going to start a fire,
you better have a lot of it,
especially if you got one match
because it's gonna take a
bit for it to get started.
Dry grass, all right.
So Chris, we're sitting
here talking about wet wood
and starting a fire or a wet fire,
and you're wanting to
guess that you have dry grass.
Well, yeah, you're right.
But if you think about it,
you will be able to find some dry grasses
underneath thickets.
They will be drier than the other stuff.
Like right now, sitting out
here at Kent, what the heck,
I am looking around and I can tell you,
I see two, maybe three
different species of weeds
that I could use as a
tinder even when they're wet.
No lie.
So it can be done.
You can find grasses, you can find weeds,
you can find different
tenders for different things.
Now, that's not to
say that you can't bring
man-made backups like cotton
balls soaked with some Vaseline
or petroleum jelly or whatever.
My favorite, blackberry fire plugs.
And I tell you what, I
just revamped the website
and they are top of the list.
I carry with them, I carry
them with me everywhere I go.
I got a bag of them dudes
and I'm telling you right now,
they are worth every
penny, every pretty penny.
And those things are awesome.
They start a fire.
I have not been able to not start a fire
with a blackberry fire plug.
Did that make sense?
Not been able to not.
Now, here's one thing
that I've recently upgraded
my ferro rod from a, just a
regular plain ferrocerium rod
to the all weather fire starter.
Now, I got an
affiliate link for this thing.
I really, I don't get paid
anything, but you get 10% off.
You know, you use my co-sphere outdoors.
But these all weather fire
starters, they're expensive.
They're 35, 45, $50, but
I'm telling you right now,
it is the absolute
most amazing fire starter
I have ever, ever used.
You know, I've emailed
Edmund a couple of times
and you know, he is
so fired up about this,
this venture he's doing.
These fire starters are amazing.
And I'm telling you right now,
they are the best fire
starters on the market.
So what they are is they
are probably not a half inch.
It's like a probably a
three eights ferro rod,
a ferrocerium rod, which is
drilled into a one inch diameter
magnesium block.
And we're talking some awesome magnesium,
not that cheap Harbor
Freight stuff that you get,
you know, at the
checkout counter for a $1.99.
No, we're talking,
we're talking real deal,
Holyfield, real school stuff.
And that striker that he uses on there
is the most amazing strikers.
I'm telling you now,
I don't know what kind of striker he's
got on these things.
And I don't know how
much it costs him to source
all this material from all over the world
to build these things.
And I'm telling you right now,
this is the most
amazing fire starting tool
I have ever used.
And when he says all
weather fire starters,
I promise you, they will
start fire in all weather, rain,
snow, actually I used them
to start a fire in the snow.
I've used them to
start a fire in the rain.
I've used them to start a
fire in the dry, you know,
and they are amazing.
So, you know, if you're gonna use
something like that,
magnesium shavings are
amazing in wet weather
to start a fire,
especially with some kind of tinder
that is damp, say you had the damp grass
and you throw some
magnesium shavings in there.
Well, kind of like I
mentioned a while ago,
don't go half-hearted,
don't go half-cocked.
Go ahead and spit some shavings into it.
Cause some things burn at 5,000 degrees
and that's plenty enough
degrees to dry out that grass
before it catches it on fire.
And I'm telling you right
now, you will have a fire.
You will have a fire.
So, you know, I cannot
explain to you enough
how much or how awesome
it is to start a fire with,
the all weather firestorm.
All right, the rain is
really coming down now,
but listen, the rains are going to come.
Life is going to get heavy,
but if you've built the skill,
if you tended the fire of your faith,
one spark is all it
takes to reignite everything.
One flame reignites everything.
And I guess that's the hole
just behind this one match episode today.
So out here, starting
a fire with wet wood
is called survival or
bushcraft or a primitive camp
and whichever way you want to go.
But in life, keeping
your faith is eternal.
Keeping your faith burning is eternal.
So in all your ways, acknowledge him
and let him always direct your path.
Stay sharp, stay ready, stay faithful.
And when the storms come, trust the one
that can split the hardest wood
and set your heart on fire again.
Thanks for spending time
with me out here at camp.
What the heck?
With all the dogs, they
got Leia and Ranger and Tess
out here and I really enjoyed it.
And it's been different out
here in the rain this time,
but we'll see you next time.
God bless you.