How To Start A Fire (Video)
Published May 1, 2020. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Learn how to start a fire no matter where you’re at or what the weather is every single time that will last hours.
I make a fire in our pit in the backyard once a week and we cook all sorts of stuff from s’mores to chicken wings to T-Bone Steaks. It’s always a blast and such a fun way to cook.
Cooking With Fire
If you look back at the history of cuisine, there is one thing in common no matter what country was cooking. Everyone used fire to bake, cook or roast. Back then it was a necessity in all food preparation, and unfortunately, the art of using the open wood flame has certainly died off.
It may be primitive but making a fire is a skill everyone should know, whether it’s to keep warm, make fun treats with the family, or just to survive.
Safety First
Making a fire always requires the utmost safety measures. Please be sure to have the following:
- Work Gloves – so important when chopping wood or dealing with a live fire so that you do not burn your hands, so be sure to protect them with some good gloves.
- Fire Pit – be sure to secure a safe area to make your fire, whether it’s in a fire pit that is store-bought, or one that is made using bricks with a sand base.
- Water – always have water nearby to help tone down any excess unwanted flames.
- Sand – if the fire is out of control nothing will stop a fire quicker than sand.
What You Need to Start a Fire
Here are the basic things you will need to get a fire started.
- Fire Wood
- Hand Axe
- Kindling Wood
- Flint Striker or Lighter
What’s the Best Wood to Use
There are several different kinds of wood to use when making a fire with the most important thing being wood that burns slowly so that it lasts a long time. Often times when purchasing wood from a local firewood shop, hardware store, or even gas stations or grocery stores, it will be a blend of different woods. Here are some of the best woods to use:
- Apple
- Beech
- Ash
- Maple
- Walnut
- Honey Locust
- Mulberry
- Maple
- Oak
- Sycamore
- Cherry
- Hawthorn
How to Make Wood Kindling and Tinder
There is absolutely no need to use lighter fluid or newspaper when starting a fire, it is all about kindling and tinder. You will need about ½ to 1 gallon worth of kindling and tinder to get your fire started, don’t worry it’s easy to achieve and only takes a couple of minutes. Here is how you make it:
- Choking up using a hand ax, while wearing gloves, take thin chops on the bark side of each piece of wood to make small wood pieces known as tinder.
- Also, thinly shave the corner pieces of the wood as well to make longer kindling.
- You can also tear off any loose wood pieces using your glove safe hands.
In addition, if you’d like to forgo all this then I definitely recommend using fatwood. Fatwood is the stump/root of a dead pine tree and lights extremely fast. Here’s an affiliate link to pick up some fatwood.
How to Start a Fire In a Pit
Follow these easy steps to make a fire:
Place two logs running parallel with each other about a foot apart from one another.
Stack two logs lying crosswise over the two logs about a foot apart.
Place all of the kindling in the center between the logs.
Light the kindling using a flint starter or a lighter.
Once it is lit place a few small pieces onto the small fire to get it going.
Immediately place 2 more logs a foot apart from each other crosswise on the other logs.
Make-Ahead
Make-Ahead: Making a fire takes about 10-15 minutes from making kindling wood to getting it started and keeping it so give yourself enough time if you plan on cooking it.
chef notes + tips
- This fire using 6 total logs will last approximately 45 minutes.
- Be sure to feed the fire with 1 fresh log 1 at a time for as long as you would like to keep it going.
- When making kindling make sure the wood is on a flat stable surface and is standing up vertically.
- Put out your fire by smothering it in the sand.
- While fire needs air to breathe and grow, it also needs protection from the wind so that it does not go out which is why you will place on the 2 logs at the end.
Open Flame Cooking
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How To Start A Fire (Video)
Equipment
- axe
Ingredients
- ½ to 1 gallon of kindling and tinder wood
- 6 cut wood logs
- 1 lighter
Instructions
- Place two logs running parallel with each other about a foot apart from one another in a fire-safe place.
- Next, Stack two logs lying crosswise over the two logs about a foot apart. Like building a log house.
- Place all of the kindling in the center between the logs and light it using a flint starter or a lighter.
- Once it’s lit place a few small pieces onto the small fire to get it going.
- Immediately place 2 more logs a foot apart from each other crosswise on the other logs to protect the young fire from going out, especially if it’s windy.
- Add 1 log at a time to keep it going as long as you’d like.
Notes
- Make-Ahead: Making a fire takes about 10-15 minutes from making kindling wood to getting it started and keeping it so give yourself enough time if you plan on cooking it.
- This fire using 6 total logs will last approximately 45 minutes.
- Be sure to feed the fire with 1 fresh log 1 at a time for as long as you would like to keep it going.
- When making kindling and tinder make sure the wood is on a flat stable surface and is standing up vertically.
- Put out your fire by smothering it in the sand.
- While fire needs air to breathe and grow, it also needs protection from the wind so that it does not go out which is why you will place on the 2 logs at the end.
This is a good technique to start a fire, works very well.
What kind of fire pit is that? I’d try it for sure my old Weber has seen better days. Thank you for the steps very helpful!
thanks for giving it a shot!!
I fell in love with fire pits at 36 years old, a LITTLE late in life I know! I haven’t been without one since. That would be 5 different homes ago and I’m now 57. I raised my two kids by the fire and watching mom cook their dinner. Both my kids have fire pits now too. My daughter even got her father to put one in at his home when she was just a kid. Good food, good people, good fire make for awesome memories for family. Loved hearing a chef talk about cooking on a fire, not something I hear about much in this modern day! Thank you!!