Firelighting

Fire making, fire lighting or fire craft is the process of starting a fire artificially. It requires completing the fire triangle, usually by heating tinder above its autoignition temperature.

Fire is an essential tool for survival and was important in early human cultural development. Today, its a key component of Scouting and bushcraft.

Fine tinder is a material that combusts first (as an ember or flame) and in doing so heats other material (heavier tinder, twigs, kindling, etc.) until it burns (as a flame). Fine tinder is characterized by its ability to combust from a spark, friction, or other action from the below methods.

Many forms of tinder are available - charcloth is preferred by many; tinder fungus and related fungus grows in most northern areas; most friction methods using wood generate their own fine tinder; today a pile of magnesium or ferrocerium shavings is common; and a moisture-resistant DIY tinder are cotton balls impregnated with petroleum jelly.

Autognition temperatures of common tinder:

Tinder is preserved within a Tinderbox, which today is often a plastic bag.

Tinder when formed into a tight bundle can also be used to preserve/carry an ember. Often in the form of a cigar and made of compacted tinder materials held within a tinderbox, a smouldering ember could safely be saved inside.

Fire occurs naturally as a result of volcanic activity, meteorites, and lightning strikes. Many animals are aware of fire and adapt their behavior to it. Plants, too, have adapted to the natural occurrence of fire (see Fire ecology). Thus, humans encountered and were aware of fire, and later its beneficial uses, long before they could make fire on demand. The first and easiest way to make a fire would have been to use the hot ashes or burning wood from a forest or grass fire, and then to keep the fire or coals going for as long as possible by adding more wood and plant materials many times each day. Natural sources of animal fats and petrochemicals that burn could have been used to keep and maintain fires that started naturally.

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