Bushcraft Firestarting: A Guide to Tinder

Starting a fire can lead to many incredibly useful possibilities. To initiate that fire, a practical knowledge of tinder is essential. In this article I detail what tinder is, its desirable properties, finding and using it, and tips and tricks I've learned through experience Tinder is the first fuel used to establish fire.

It is the bridge between your ignition source (ie. a spark or ember) and your kindling (fine sticks or similar that ignite faster than firewood) It has the job of catching, sustaining and enabling transfer of the first quantity of heat, generated by your chosen ignition source. Because this is a very specific job, materials used as tinder have very specific properties.

Desirable properties

There are two essential requirements of tinder. It must:

1. catch fire from your ignition source; and

2. sustain the flame for long enough to transfer it toa material that will burn for longer.

I have summarised the properties of materials that favour these outcomes in Table 1. Materials that catch easily are often dry and fine, with a high surface area to volume ratio. An example would be the downy reedheads (A) that come from reedmace/cat tails (B). Materials that can sufficiently maintain flame are often fibrous, but still light and not very dense. A good example of this would be dry leaves of molinia grass (C) Tinder trials Give yourself time to experiment with different tinders. A ferrocerium rod (ignition) lighting cotton wool (tinder) is a great starting point. 1. Clear a suitable spot of ground with nothing overhanging (your tinder test area). Make sure you have a bucket of water or a robust boot nearby in case you need to extinguish. 2. Take a pad/ball of cotton wool and gently pull it apart, exposing the fine fibres in the middle (D). It should double in size. 3. Place in your tinder test area. With the ferro rod firmly pressing through the cotton wool to the ground, strike the rod once and move your hands away from the ignited tinder (E). 4. Watch the cotton wool burn away (F) (and ensure it’s fully extinguished). 5. Try other tinders from the main table overleaf.

Fire triangle I'm sure you will be familiar with the fire triangle — the three necessary components for combustion: heat, fuel and oxygen. Keep these in mind to guarantee success. Tinder is your fuel component. You can select and modify your tinder to make lighting them as easy as possible. In the cotton wool example, fluffing it out promotes the flow of oxygen around the fibres, enabling it to burn thoroughly. It also gives a larger surface area to encourage the heat from the sparks to catch. Table 1: Desirable tinder properties broken into how they aid the goal of firelighting

Extend your understanding

Since the best way to learn this is actively, I've put some ideas together to push your boundaries: - Light the same amount of three different finders and see how long each burns. - Using different amounts of the same type of tinder, see how much or how little you need to establish a successful fire. - Light and collect your tinder in different weather conditions. - Discover materials I've not mentioned. Look for common properties like downy or porous materials_ You don't even need to know their names yet - Once you've found a tinder that works for you, try adding some kindling and move on to establish fire. The reason it's so useful to build experience in failing and succeeding with a range of tinders is that it enables you to know your boundaries, the boundaries of the materials, and be confident of your success for the first critical stage of lighting your fire anywhere, in any season and in any weather Your experience will be the reason you excel.

Tinder tips

Optimise dryness by keeping your tinder off the ground, in pocket/in jacket until the very moment you want to light it On the ground, it will collect moisture and be harder to light. - Think of collecting tinder as an on-going practice. It is easy to want fire, then collect tinder, but if you consider it an on-going practice to collect and prepare tinder as you go about your day, you will find you have more variety to choose from and it will likely be dry already I especially recommend doing this the previous day in preparation for the morning - dew can make your morning fire very slightly slower! - Take advantage of having an on-going collection by drying your collection in the heat of your current fire. If you haven't got a fire, keep it in a pocket where you can dry it with your body warmth.
I hope this short article has sparked your interest and that you want to experiment with different tinder materials. In the next issue, I'll look at using tinders in combination, and suiting individual tinders with particular ignition types_ If you are wondering where you can find any of these materials mentioned, I have summarised them in the table below Now go and ignite a passion for tinder!