Self Feeding Fire Part 1 Basic Bushcraft 

Dave, how about doing a time lapse video of this type of fire. Maybe condense it down into a 5 minute video over the duration of the fire life. I think it would be very educational to see how this fire works, how long it lasts and the whole mechanics of it.

That is a really slick idea with the sloped Greenwood to hold additional logs to slide down into the fire. Just when I thought Dave had done it all, he's like, "nope, I'm just getting started." Good job and thanks for the instruction!

I love the people that comment and think that they are teaching YOU something!!!! It cracks me up. You have a wealth of knowledge and use that knowledge on a daily basis.

Dave, I have to applaud you on always taking your time being precise and methodical when starting a fire. Sometimes I “rest on my laurels” and I pay for it.

Another great video, Dave. The great thing about this type of fire set up is that the logs set at an angle can be fairly wet and they will dry out from the fire.

Just wanted to say thanks, Dave, for all the hard work. While the show may have kickstarted something, you have definitely shown the skill, responsibility, effort, and class it takes to make the whole thing work. I have gleaned enormous amounts of info from your vids and have been trying to teach my girls what I've learned. And...well, damnit, you're just a nice guy. Thanks and Merry Christmas to you and yours. God Bless.

I cant wait for that tent. This is great knowledge to have thanks dave

Dave, this is exactly how my grandfather taught me to make a fire !!!

Nice video! That's my favorite fire too. You can really make that last with butternut.

Subscribed. I appreciate your straightforward approach to instruction. All knowledge no waste.

Merry Christmas Dave and family. Thanks for all you do. Roger

Happy Holidays Dave and family. .Thanks for all you do

Excellent lesson!thank you Dave! Merry Christmas!

Can't wait for that tent to become available!

Well I feel alittle stupid now. Keeping your knife stationary to make the Feather Sticks is so simple (& obvious) but I never have done it that way.....but I will from now on. HaHa as usual, I've learned another gem from your great videos. You rock Dave...Merry Christmas and thanks for all you do.

Merry Christmas Dave and Pathfinder crew.

thanks Dave, I am looking forward to that scout tent as part of my kit.

Hey Dave you made that lay wrong that fire want burn in stages. With the gaps between the wood it will burn like a normal fire soon after it gets to blaze your coals will fall to the bottom layer and light the whole pile and then you have a huge fire that burns out fast. If you want that fire to burn long and hot push the wood together with as little gap as possible and each layer should be one pine/cedar then one hardwood to create each layer so you will have hard and soft wood on each layer. Put small kinlin in any gaps and stack it with full logs on bottom half logs the next layer half logs the next layer and quarter logs the layer on top then you start a TeePee fire on top of your lay and it will burn one layer at a time all night. The fire you built was just a modified log cabin fire. I do like the idea of the feeder on the side I hadn't thought of that before.

Merry Christmas, Dave, thanks for everything!

Great job, Dave. Merry Christmas to you and your family. This is my absolute favorite type of survival fire. I hate waking up at night having to feed a fire, so I tend to either build these about knee high out of hardwood, usually red or white oak because its everywhere around here, with just the top layer being pine or birch, or I just build a cook fire and let it go out at night while I sleep in my MSS (might be my military training kicking in there). That really depends on what gear I have. I'll be honest, I much prefer to use the MSS without a fire than any blanket plus fire. No muss, no fuss. But this is a great survival fire, and if its really cold out you can pack between each log with dirt so that the logs on the tier above have to burn through before the next layer catches. This greatly extends the life of the fire, allows you to use much less wood for an entire night, and not have to get out of the blanket to feed the fire. On one fishing trip I took up to Minnesota I had one go all night and the whole next day, we ended up raking the coals out of the fire pit, building a new fire lay, and throwing the old coals on top of the new lay to get the next night's fire going. It wasn't winter conditions, but the nights were down in the mid 30's, just cold enough that you didn't want to get out of bed to stoke the fire. It kept burning through a moderate rain the second night. This is when I really fell in love with this type fire. Its so easy. Set it and forget it. Pro Tip: We found that if you need more light, just throw a piece of pine or birch on top and within seconds it will brighten the whole camp up. Which is nice if you wake up in the middle of the night and have to get rid of a few gallons by the nearest tree. Semper Fi

merry Christmas dave and everyone who reads this

Enjoyed your video Dave. Merry Christmas to you and your family and everyone associated with the pathfinder school.

Wow, no snow yet. There's two feet where I am right now and the lakes have 10 inches of clear blue ice. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Fatwood is the King Bro. Probably have a 100 1"x10" processed and stored in a box, with maybe 6 in my pack at all times.

Merry Christmas Dave! I'm definitely interested in the tarp tent your working on. I appreciate ventilation and the ability to open the flaps to catch heat from your fire. That said, as a suggestion, I think a flap of canvas over either the loops or toggles to cover the gap when fully closed would be an improvement. You can still open it up to get heat from the fire or leave the top and/or bottom toggles open for ventilation, but you gain the ability to button the whole thing up to be even more watertight. 3"x48" of extra canvas would add a just a few ounces, but it would add an extra level of versatility.

Another good one Dave. Fatwood is my favorite. I found the mother lode the other day in about a 4' high stump from a storm blow down. I was like a kid in a candy store with my Wetterlings. I was shooting a video on Georgia natural fire resources but my microphone decided to break so the audio was horrible. That just gives me a good excuse to go back and get some more fatwood. By the way, thanks for the list of old school outdoor writers the other day. Most of them were new to me so I have a lot of reading to do. Merry Christmas to you, Iris and your whole family from the Stevens family here in Georgia. God Bless.

Thanks alot Dave! I have been wating to see you do this type of fire for a long time!

Merry Christmas Dave!!! And Merry Christmas to everyone!

Dave I think the prototype tarp tent is perfect, no need to defend the door . I doubt if the critics ever slept under canvas before. gotta have some ventilation.

Thanks Dave. Your videos are always so interesting and knowledgeable. Thanks for sharing. I hope you and yours have a lovely Christmas and new year.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you & you're loved ones - sincere thanks for all the fantastic & inspirational videos & education. Its always a great pleasure to find a new video from you! Thank you, also, for such fine service from the Pathfinder store. Peace & Best Wishes, always - cheers.

I woun't buy any tarp until this tent tarp will be avilable for sale. Looking so much forward to buying it !!!

Very nicely done prep.

Great video Dave!

cool set up. Ive never seen this one before. Thanks for the knowledge Dave!

Great video Dave, Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!

Fantastic fire building technique - preparation is key. I am extremely interested to learn more about that tarp and it's setup - I'm watching very closely sir. All the best to you, your school, your family, your sponsors, and all you do.

Hi Dave, I would like to take a minute to wish you and your family a safe and joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for all videos and sharing your knowledge. Cheers..!!

Would have liked to have seen some time lapse footage on that fire , great stuff Dave happy Christmas to you and your loved ones.

Dave I hope you do a part 2 on this,good video. happy holidays to you and your family.

I've messed up more fires because I was in to much of a hurry to get the damn thing lit.For starters,the wood,leaves,pencil thin sticks were all damp due to rain.No Pine trees to try and process into Fatwood,and I never thought to use feather sticks.Helpful video(I had quite a few sucesful fires to,always using a Ferro rod for my fires)

hey dave merry christmas and a happy new year. angled sticks to feed logs into the fire, brilliant! i never thought about that. great video as always . thanks

One of the fastest one second fire I have seen!! Rock on brother!! ...LOL ...Great info BTW

Thanks Dave ! Now that I see it I understand. Merry Christmas to yall !

thank you dave for sharing this excellent fire lay for damp conditions as well as self feeding wishing you a merry xmass and an excellent new year and thanks for all you effort and work and sharing atb

As always, your vids are entertaining and highly informative. My son and I love watching and learning from the myriad of topics you put out. From our family to you and yours, Merry Christmas; and a happy, healthy, and safe New Year!

'somethin' about watchin' you making fire.... i don't know, it's just cool to watch. one thing that benefits me for having access to a huge pine forest, is all the free fat wood, and brother , i've got a lot of it.i really do wanna get one of those tarps. if i don't spend my money like a moron during the next couple of months, then i can get one without having to worry of whether or not i have enough in the bank to pay my monthly medical bills. 'sure wish there was a video about oilskin tarp making for the common man. hint, hint. 'just kidding. i'm sure that it's just as great as an expense. great stuff dave.

Don't know which has me more excited, an excellent example of a self-feeding fire or the fact there were bricks of .22 LR at Wal/China-Mart this morning. Kinda makes a fellow want to go out and shoot a cute little bunny to cook over a self-feeding fire. It must be Christmas ! Y'all have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Thanks dave merry christmas!

I love everything about this video!

I used the leaning sticks to self feed a fire before and found that if you build the fire to big it makes a very large one, lol... but I got better with that by keeping the fire smaller..(works well).. I like watching your videos, thanks and keep up the good work

Love your videos.... I wish you would of shown how the fire progressed...

Another great video..love em all..would like to see a part 2 of the fire...how long it burns and how it feeds...merry Christmas brother!

I really like that shelter, did you make a video on that one?

great vid!! love any and all nessmuk info. love when u talk about him brother. super awsome. my favorite books are 100 yr old woodsman tales. so thx for your witchery of archery sieries a few yrs back, 1879 editon maurice thompson one of my fav books never would have got it if i wernt for u

Merry Xmas And Happy New Year... thanks for another year of your shared knowledge

Merry Christmas to a great entrepreneur!

Awesome vid, never eveN new this type of fire lay existed. Will be definitely getting in some dirt time on this. Thank you sir.

I found out about these a few years ago. They are also great in the fireplace and the back yard during a gathering. You don't have to mess with it. Light it and concentrate on other things. I have learned that you need to concentrate on keeping the lower layers tight together or it can go up faster than you would like. You want it to burn from the top down not all at once. If done right, and you have some good big logs on the bottom, a fire like this will last most of the night.

amazing, fantastic, absoultely fasinating, good job, Merry Christmas

Another great vid! I could almost smell the smoke :) Merry Christmas to the whole wilderness outfitters clan brother....Wishing you health, happiness and joy for the new year!

Looking at this setup, I am imagining the sticks supporting your reflective logs burning and breaking allowing hot logs to roll around your camp.

Great video and thanks for your comment explaining why you did not place the logs tight against each other. Once the Scout Tarp is in production, would you consider a side-by-side comparison with the 8x8 tarp? Pros/Cons/Usages type of stuff. I would love to buy one of those oilskin tarps but want to buy the best one for my simple usages. Thanks so much and God bless!

thanks for another year of great instruction, ,keep them coming in 2014,&please more trapping vids merry christmas to you and yours,,from leo,in ireland

Thx for your videos and advice! For me it is a great opportunity to learn more, ´cause i don´t have the chance to come to america and to one of your courses! Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you and your family

great info on the self feeding fire lay Dave, do you know how soon that shelter will be on the market.

I have seen variations of the "self feeding fire" all over the internet, but have never tried it out. I would be interested in seeing a time lapse video of it burning all the way through its cycle. Fire burns up. Seems to me all the logs in the hopper would eventually burn together along with the uprights.

another top tip many thanks, merry xmas to you and yours and a happy new year...

Great video, great ideas!

Awesome video this is the first time I've seen this.

What keeps the fire from climbing up the stack of logs before they roll down into it?

Great video ive seen this in other videos but this was the best happy holidays kepp up with the great videos

Another great video, thanks mate

Nice.. I need to try that one. Thanks for the video

merry christmas dave!!!!!

beautiful fire.

I think I would make a little bit of a overlapping flap for that tarp. You got a major gap right there for rain falling into the selter

Great video, thank you for the share ~Peace~

I just started reading Nessmuk's Woodcraft and Camping this morning and I stopped to go shopping right when I got to this part. This is kind of a spoiler for me but a video is worth 10,000 words. I would like to see how long it lasts though.

Great Video

Great video and tip!

Ya Merry Christmas...and thanks.

Is that canvas fit for long term survival, like a Self reliance situation? If not what is best or could you link a video if you have a video on it already? Thanks Bro! Signing up for some classes for my birthday! Really Excited!

i still hope you guys will consider a larger version of the tarp. i'm 6'2" and that thing would be kind of tight. plus, for those of us that have families, it'd be nice to see something one day that can accommodate a father/son or husband/wife, and so on. i'm not talking for fun weekend camping trips, i'm talking for minimal emergency situations, hunting, preparedness, etc., Thanks Dave

Nice video-about how long did it burn before you had to add wood?

I like the video........got any tips for keeping ticks away ? I read a lot of Tom Brown books and there is nothing about ticks

Dave long time Pathfinder here, I was wondering what you thought of Claude Dallas. It seems like he was a bit of a Pathfinder.

Hey, if you can you make a tutorial on how to build a long bow from the right wood material that'll be fantastic!

Dude the beard fits you well

Great video. What do ya think bout a self feeding long dakota fire? Or would that even work?

SEE YOU AT THE SHOT SHOW!

Merry Christmas to you and your family.How long did the fire last?

have you tried Maya dust? I understand its made from fatwood but never knew u could just grind it into power and still use it

hey Dave I live In ross county and it is way to wet to build a fire so how do you get a good fire without using pine.

Merry Christmas. Will these tinder sticks take to fire rod?

Thanks Dave, in your video from last week (axe care made simple).. i was wondering if you can generate sparks from the axe using a flint and make a fire with a char cloth ?

good video -- wudbe nice tohave some time lapse to see how well those ramped feeder logs feed inta the fire

Do the back logs really roll down? I've tried this before but after a while even the back logs caught on fire.

I find that these fires will only burn a short time longer than a conventional set up... the benefit is negligible in my experience. It's better to go BIG and push uncut dead falls in every 2-3 hrs since most campers will be up every few hrs anyhow.

You are the man!