With these simple steps, you will never struggle to get your campfire going ever again.

There’s nothing worse than getting to camp after a long day in the hills than facing a long battle to get your camp fire started, especially when you are hungry!

However, fear not, Outsider is here to help with our six simple steps to ensure you have your campfire blazing in under five minutes.

Step 1. Prepare your site

You need a round bit of ground picked free of all leaves, grass or anything flammable. This should be a metre in diameter.

Step 2. Find your firewood

You need to have three bundles of pencil lead sized twigs, two bundles of pencil sizes sticks and one bundle of thumb sized sticks.

Collect dry wood that is still attached to the tree. Wood lying on the ground will be soaked through. You can tell that the wood is dry by the snap sound as you break it off of the tree.

Step 3. Prepare your firewood

If your wood is wet you need to use the back of your bushcraft knife to scrape off all of the wet bark and wet wood. You can use your thumbnail for the smallest bits of twigs.

If your wood is still wet you can make a feather stick by carving long chips into your thumb sized wood.

The Pros and Cons of Different Camping Stoves

Step 4. Build your structure

Your fire structure should be only as tall as your outspread thumb and fingers. Build a double layered raft with your thumb sized sticks. You need to get your fire off of the damp ground. Make a teepee with your thumb sized sticks filling in the holes with your pencil sized sticks.

Now lay down your tinder bundle. This is made from three bundles of pencil lead sized twigs that are as long as your hand. Place one bundle down on your raft and place then next bundle in a tee shape resting on your first bundle.

Save the last pencil lead sized bundle to be lit by your fire starter.

Step 5. Light your fire

If you are using a lighter you hold your third pencil lead sized bundle at the end, dropping the other end down towards your lit lighter. Let the flame slowly work up the length of the twigs.

Once it is lit move the bundle down underneath the first two twig bundles that you put in a T shape. Let the flames work up into the higher bundle of twigs. Slowly blow on your growing fire until it catches the pencil sized and thumb sized stick teepee.

Step 6. Make your fire work for you

If you are using your fire to heat your cup of tea, keep adding thumb sized sticks into the fire until you get a fist sized bed of coals. You can place your tea pot or rocket stove directly on the coals making sure that it doesn’t tip over and spill.

Top Tip:

A fist sized fire is all that you need to boil your kettle and to keep up to four people warm. You can collect enough firewood for an entire night of bush camping quickly if you keep your fire small.

Check out our Hard as Nails podcast:

Like this? You should check these out: 

By Outsider

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Next Post

Ultra-Marathon Tips: 7 Essential Tips for your First Race

GET YOUR FREE GUIDE TO IRELAND’S BEST WALKS

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the latest adventure news, events, and gear. Plus download our free guide to the 50 best walks in Ireland!

    0
    YOUR CART
    • No products in the cart.