Bushcraft

Making a bushcraft fire and keeping dry are the two most important Bushcraft skills to learn. If you don’t have a campfire you will soon become cold and not be able to cook or heat water.

Bushcraft and bush crafting skills such as making a campfire have become extremely popular with the help of bushcraft and survival television programs. In particular the BBC programmes on Bushcraft and Survival with Ray Mears. Ray Mears covers traditional bushcraft and bush crafting skills as used by early hunter gathers.

Other TV programmes that cover bushcraft and survival techniques including the Born Survivor, this is presented by ex SAS Survival expert and Born Survivor Bear Grylls.

Viewers lean the basic skills required to survive out in the elements using Bushcraft techniques such as Bushcraft fire starting and making a shelter.

There are many Bushcraft course weekends up and down the country that you can attend to improve your Knowledge of basic Buscraft skills. These will include making a bushcraft fire and building a shelter.

Basic Buscraft skills include making a shelter to keep you out of the elements.This will keep you both dry and warm.

The use of a Basha, like the Web-tex army basha - this is the quickest and lightest option, these are light and don't take up much room in your rucksack. Just a simple zip line of paracord running between two trees, place the basha over the para cord and tie down the edges. The basha will give you a great shelter for the night and keep you both dry and warm. If you don’t have a basha or tarp, it is possible to make a shelter using sticks and foliage from the surrounding area.

Making a bushcraft fire

To make a bushcraft or campfire you will require tinder to start the fire, to save time, especially if the surrounding area is wet, you could use maya dust, which is treated wood shavings or even cotton wool. These are both very good items to have in any basic bushcraft survival kit.

The tinder will act as an excelerant material, once your campfire is sufficiently alight you will be able to add larger bits of dry wood etc, which you will need to collect from the  surrounding area.

To ignite your bushcraft campfire you will need to create friction. There are many bushcraft techniques that can create friction, one of the more popular ones is the bow-drill method.

Alternatively there are many bushcraft fire starting devises available such as the Web-tex SOF steel of fire survival match or a Web-tex fire starting flint rod with steel striker.

The Web-tex SOF survival match is very easy to operate with one-handed operation, pressing the strike plate down creates very hot fire starting sparks.

Web-tex also make a fire starter kit which contains 1 flint, 2 fuel tablets, cotton wool all contained in a tidy tin.