To build a fire, you need three types of materials:
If you have a lighter in many cases you may go without tinder, but if you do not - all three types of fuel are a must.
Tinder
Tinder is dry material that ignites with little heat - even a spark starts a fire. Only if the tinder is absolutely dry, you can be sure that a spark will ignite it. If you have a device that generates only sparks, charred cloth will be almost essential. It holds a spark for long periods, allowing you to put tinder on the hot area to generate a small flame. You can make charred cloth by heating cotton cloth until it turns black, but does not burn. Once it is black, you must keep it in an airtight container to keep it dry. Prepare this cloth well in advance of any survival situation. Add it to your individual survival kit.
Good fire fuels
Tinder
- Birch bark
- Shredded inner bark from cedar, chestnut, red elm trees
- Fine wood shavings
- Dead grass, ferns, moss, fungi
- Straw
- Sawdust
- Very fine pitchwood scrapings
- Dead evergreen needles
- Punk (the completely rotten portions of dead logs of a tree)
- Evergreen tree knots
- Bird down (fine feathers)
- Down seed heads (milkweed, dry cattails, bulrush or thistle)
- Fine, dried vegetable fibres
- Spongy dreads or dead puffball
- Dead palm leaves
- Lint from pocket and seams
- Charred cloth
- Waxed paper
- Outer bamboo shavings
- Gunpowder
- Cotton
- Lint
Kindling
- Small twigs
- Small strips of wood
- Split wood
- Heavy cardboard
- Pieces of wood removed from inside of larger pieces
- Wood that has been doused with highly flammable materials, like gasoline, oil or wax
Fuel
- Dry standing wood and dry, dead branches
- Dry inside (heart) of fallen tree trunks and large branches
- Green wood that is finely split
- Dry grasses twisted into bunches
- Peat dry enough to burn (this may be found at the top of undercut banks)
- Dried animal dung
- Animal fats
- Coal, oil
