Fire from Scratch with a Swiss Army Knife 

Thanks William. It's always great hearing from fellow PNW guys. Other people see the wet conditions and think they understand; but that's very different from having experienced the sogginess first hand.

Thanks!

I'm so glad that you enjoyed it feroxgordon!

Thanks Charlie!

Thanks Zoltan. 🙂

Thanks Dan!

Thanks David! 🙂

Thanks JR3!

Thanks Ratchety! I have a lot of fun with this stuff and being able to share it with others is a good excuse to get out and play more often.

Thanks Will! 🙂

Thanks Thomas! All of my friction fire experience has been in the Pacific Northwest, so I don't know how well I would do in other parts of the country. I'm sure that some techniques would transfer over, but knowing what to use, where to find it, and how to find dry examples is one of my biggest assets; so I might fall flat on my face in a different environment.

I highly doubt that you would be falling far!!! 😃😃

I appreciate you watching. 🙂

Thanks John!

Thanks Mark! I appreciate the compliment but it's not magic; just lots of time spent practicing.

Thanks WAGONJON .... I love hearing that.

Thanks Curtis! That's a very attainable dream if you're willing to get out and practice. Let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help.

Thank you! I was watching Lonnie and David's videos and they both mentioned you and someone's comment led to your threads on Bushcraft USA. I've started!

Very cool! It would be great to see you join up as a member over at BCUSA and start posting over in the Friction Fire Tuesday Thread.

Thanks again buddy! 🙂

Thanks Ed. Cooking outdoors is always fun, but it isn't always pretty. 😉

I totally agree.

Thanks Clint. I've broken a lot of it trying to figure it out.

I appreciate you watching!

I'm glad you did too. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

¡Gracias Señor!

Thanks Gary! It's great to hear that you're getting something out of these videos.

Thanks David, I appreciate the advice. It sounds like SAK videos are pretty popular. I did a search for SAK on your channel and see that you like the Fieldmaster, so I'll have to check that out. I know the Farmer is pretty popular with the Bushcraft crowd too. I don't even know what model this one is as it was a gift, but I'd sure rather have the saw I see on that Fieldmaster than the corkscrew on this one. 😀

It looks like it might be a Spartan or a Tourist model.

Awesome advice, David. Thanks!

Good eye TC!

Thanks Ted! There's always more to learn. I always enjoy hearing fellow PNW guys that know what this place is like.

Thanks JRP!

Thank you Sir!

Thanks again James! 🙂

Thanks Katta Maki!

Thanks! What a great username ALDNH! 🙂 It reminds me of this great line from King of the Hill... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ag0vMFiyPF0.html

To true friend, too true!!

Thanks man.

🙂 Much appreciated!

The soup was saved by the fact that it was frozen. I picked it up out of the dirt, threw it back in the pot, and didn't lose much at all. That's the second time I've seen that guy (Cédric) mentioned today. I clicked over and found one of his videos and his voice is very familiar, so I may have seen him on RU-vid before. It looks like he's got a lot of videos that I'm now looking forward to checking out. P.S. I've never heard that Lincoln reference before (warts and all) , but I love it.

Thanks Thom! 🙂

I'll have to look him up too. Thanks Craig!

Wow, thanks Kees Roma!

Thanks Wild Brigante! That wasn't the first time my lunch has hit the dirt, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

That's for sure. There's nothing like wood heat indoors when it's nasty outside.

Gracias Ricardo! 🙂

Thanks buddy! Checking the timestamps on the photos I took that day, it looks like it was just over two hours from gathering materials to getting flames. Filming makes everything take longer, but an hour or two is pretty typical for me depending on the materials and conditions.

Punkwood definitely buys you more time and heat to dry out your bundle if it's soggy. I don't know if I would call this my main interest, but it sure is fun!

Thanks jooky5!

Thanks Mike! The camera is nothing special...a $175 Canon SX610 HS

Very nice!

Thanks! 🙂 Cedar roots for cordage.

Thanks Master Tracker! In this case the cordage was western red cedar roots. You can check them out at 1:34

Thanks for pointing this out . I must be getting blind in my old age !

🙂

Thanks Shaun! Those shavings were from the Douglas Fir. Red cedar curls up beautifully if you can get a piece of wood from a large downed tree or stump, but the branches are a little trickier. You can still get nice little curls from the branches, but it takes a bit more practice. The good news is, that living in the PNW, there are a ton of great woods that will make amazing little curls. Here's link to a photo for encouragement... i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm171/NWPrimate/Curls%20Feathers%20and%20Shavings/Ontario12InchMacheteFeatherSticks1_zpsjdjaophv.png Here are a couple of links that should also help you a lot..... bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/making-curls-and-feather-sticks-the-easy-way.172519/ bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/pacific-northwest-fire-tip-downed-cedar-logs.170897/ bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/shavings-pictures.176835/page-23

Thanks so much. I am enjoying your videos tremendously and learning a lot as though I’m right in the woods observing your skills. Thanks again.

Thanks Brian! 🙂

I'll be trying this Saturday to do the exact same thing I'll use my Swiss champ.

Keep me posted and let me know how it goes! 👍

I will upload the video of the success or fail lol I must get out in to the woods to get away from town.

Awesome! I just subscribed to your channel and will be watching for it.

Thanks. I'm not sure of the model though.

😅

Thanks for taking the time to check this out buddy. It was right around two hours from the time I picked out the sapling to getting flames. Filming makes everything take longer, but I generally expect it to take anywhere from one to three hours depending on the cordage and how difficult the set is. The base was a piece of Doug fir dry rot, but wasn't fatwood. I chose it simply because it was a convenient dry platform when everything else was wet.

Ok thanks...just looked at your other video with the vent at the bottom...I have never tried the bow and drill you have got me wanting to give it a go...will use boot lase though....not as crazy as you haha

I think you'll really enjoy it. Some people will tell you that it's next to impossible in the PNW, but it's all about finding the right materials and minding the details. We're blessed with some amazing natural materials in this area, so there are a ton of options out there. You may want to start by bringing some wood inside to dry out first while you're working on the basics and perfecting your form, but once that gets easy, moving on to fresh materials is the logical step. Just let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything else I can do to help.

Thank you Sir! 🙂

Skin on by looks of it on 2nd watch.

They are cedar roots, which are generally inferior to spruce but a lot more common in my woods. They work best peeled and split but sometimes you can get away with being lazy and using them unprocessed.

Very cool!

Agreed :) 👍

👍

Oh man..I'm not sure why.

😆

NW Primate Brother, i do something like that every time... Every.... Time......

Thanks buddy!

Thanks Green Acres. I'm looking forward to checking them out.

I do keep a fresnel lens in my kit, but they are not the most reliable option in the cloudy and rainy Pacific Northwest.