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Category: Fire methods

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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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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Paraffin-dipped wood matches

Paraffin-dipped wood matches

TweetMaking paraffin-dipped wood matches, their utility. This is an old standard. I first made wax-dipped matches while a young boy scout long ago. Wax-dipped wood matches and wax-dipped egg carton section fire-starters were standard equipment for scouts, then. Today, I used a “household paraffin wax for canning, candlemaking and many other uses” to prepare kitchen matches for outdoor use. I purchased the one-pound box inexpensively at my local grocery store, just $4.29. The matches I used, “large kitchen matches”, “extra…

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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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