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Category: Firecraft

The wood match, icon of the Age of Flame

The wood match, icon of the Age of Flame

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TweetThe wood match is an icon of the ‘Age of Flame‘ in home and hearth and of the woodcraft tradition in outdoor recreation and wilderness survival. Not so long ago families and outdoors enthusiasts relied on wood matches for daily use for cooking, heating, lighting, hygiene and more. Today, the iconic wood match is mostly replaced by technological systems; butane lighters, piezo-ignitors, natural gas pilot light systems, and electric element ignition systems. Daily dependence on wood matches is a bygone…

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Eight D’s for reduced campfire impacts

Eight D’s for reduced campfire impacts

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TweetEight “D” words describe low impact campfire practices. Dead, Down, Dinky, Dispersed & Dangling — Dismember, Dis-ember & Distribute Wood fuel gathered and used for reduced impact campfires is best gathered; Dead and dry, Down near ground, Dinky like your pinky & Dispersed along a length of trail or throughout a large area surrounding a campsite. Dangling or suspended down wood held above ground level, below head level, often holds less moisture–a better fuel, and remains in ecological limbo, or…

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Woodsmoke in the wilds, the BushCooker LT III titanium stove

Woodsmoke in the wilds, the BushCooker LT III titanium stove

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TweetWispy woodsmoke in wild lands is like soft butter melting on oven warm bread; not necessary, but oh so good! Campfire is in my DNA, the flicker of yellow flame and the smell of woodsmoke complete the wild lands experience for me–it’s a personal thing. Most outdoors enthusiasts feel as I do. Nevertheless, low impact camping methods are essential today–it’s a public thing. I expect to find our public wild lands unmarred and in nearly pristine ecological condition. I am…

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Tea-fire on snow

Tea-fire on snow

TweetA one-match fire on snow, no knife or axe needed (OK, I used one match, twice). The tea-fire tradition crossed the Atlantic with early settlers when America was fresh and wild. A mid-day tea break was felt essential and restorative on even the most difficult trails. Tea drinking caught on everywhere. Tea trade reached the furthest remote indigenous populations, even Inuit nomads wandering traditional hunting grounds from Arctic tundra to ice flows in the Arctic archipelago. The immaculate white Arctic…

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Firecraft 101 #1 Coming home to fire…

Firecraft 101 #1 Coming home to fire…

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TweetOur Promethean origins Our relationship with fire is ancient and intimate. Early in our hominid prehistory we borrowed useful fire from natural causes. Later, like mythological Prometheus, we stole fire from the gods: We learned to create fire at will.  That essential primitive skill energized a cultural leap and much more. Our relationship with fire became reciprocal: Arguably, fire recreated us as we influenced the adaptations of fire-dependent landscapes. We have been torch bearers, dependent upon fire, shaped by fire,…

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