Fire starting

 Primitive Fire- Starting 

Fire Starting is the skill of starting fires with traditional tools and methods.

Tools: any of the following: Flint and steel, bow and drill, magnifying glass, fire piston You will also need tinder (dry combustible materials) The only fire starting methods described by Tolkien were flint & steel, and matches. But any of these will do you well in the woods.

Bow Drill
The oldest known method of starting fires is through friction. What is commonly called "rubbing two sticks together". While it is possible to actually rub two sticks together and through the friction cause sufficient heat to get an ember, it is extremely difficult, tiring and time consuming. Primitive man came up with the bow drill. The bow drill allows for the quick rubbing of a round piece of wood against a semi flat piece of wood at right angles. With a small notch in the flat pice next to the area where the two pieces rub to allow for a spot for an ember to fall/collect.



Flint and Steel
At some point someone, probably an early blacksmith or flint knapper, saw that a spark could be gotten by striking a piece of flint or steel with a another piece of steel. .  Fire kits would then have been produced using flint due to the greater sparks and eventually become common place for several thousand years.



Fire Piston
The Fire Piston is a device that uses a self contained compression system to generate heat. The heat builds up in the compression chamber until it meets/exceeds the combustion point of your tinder material.

MER Usage
The fire piston is a real historical fire making method used in South East Asia for at least 1000 years. While not described in Tolkien, they feel rather Dwarvish and are used by some of our Khazad members.

Lucifer
Lucifers are the forerunner of the modern match and work the same way. So called because of their sulfer smell reminded people of the Biblical descriptions of Hell.

The lucifer is struck against a hard item, friction heat and a spark raises the temperature and the chemical on the tip ignites which in turn ignites the wood stick. Matches are specifically mentioned by Tolkien.