In a pickle? Need a fire? Hope you brought a sandwich bag. Take out your pickle and get ready for flames and smoke! Perfect if you’re lost on a hike, out of matches at a campsite, or in an emergency survival situation.
20
SANDWICH BAG FIRE STARTER
SAFETY KEY:
+ Fire
SKILL LEVEL:
EASY
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
APPROXIMATE TIME:
25 minutes
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
+ A sandwich bag
+ Bark
+ Rocks
+ Twigs
+ Dead branches
+ Dry grass
LET’S BEGIN
GETTING STARTED
1. First you’ll want to find some tinder to ignite your fire.
PRO TIP: The tinder that you use is critical. It must be extremely dry. Bark is always a good option.
2. Next grab some rocks and start crushing up your tinder into a fine powder.
HELPFUL HINT: The finer you can get your powder, the easier it will light from the rays of the sun.
3. After a few minutes, your powder will reduce to a sawdust-like substance. The darker the powder, the better, because it will absorb more heat!
PREPARING FOR THE FLAMES
4. Grab a flat piece of bark for a base plate and transfer your pile of powder onto it.
ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP: A backup bark plate with powder will come in handy once your embers and coals start burning. You’ll want to be able to sprinkle more dust on the fire to keep it burning.
5. Now you’re ready to gather some different types of tinder.
SCAVENGING THE FOREST FOR TINDER
Look around and see what Mother Nature has to offer to help you kindle your fire!
+ Thin twigs: Usually twigs cover the ground. These are what you will transfer the embers to once you get the flame going.
+ Dead tree branches: Break some off from a dry tree and these will also enhance your fire. You can get a full handful in a matter of seconds!
+ Dry grass: Search for some dead yellow grass. Yank this out of the ground and try to get enough of it to fold it over and build a nest. The twigs and branches will nestle inside of it.
PRO TIP: Once your fire starts to catch, the smoke and flame will transfer from thinnest tinder to thickest: dry grass, twigs, and then branches.
SANDWICH BAG MAGNIFYING GLASS
No turkey on white for this sandwich bag—it’s about to become a tool of combustion!
1. Make sure your bag is empty and then fill it halfway with water. You can use water from a stream or a water bottle.
EXTREME SITUATIONS: Can’t find a water source? Ur-ine luck! In an emergency, pee will work just the same.
2. Tilt your bag to the side to form a diamond shape with one of your points facing down.
3. Then grab the top area of the bag and twist it to trap as much of the water inside as possible. The more you twist your baggie, the more it starts to bulge out until it resembles a liquid sphere.
PRO TIP: There is a fine line between twisting and creating a sphere shape. You want to make it as sphere-like as possible before it bursts!
INVOKE THE POWER OF THE SUN
1. Now that you have your tinder laid out and a cool liquid lens, all you have to do is be patient and let the sun work its magic.
2. Use your baggie bulb as a magnifying glass by hovering it over your tinder. Be careful not to drip water on the powder and bark.
It should start smoking almost immediately!
3. As the white coals start getting exposed, sprinkle some fresh new tinder on top.
4. Repeat this process until you get a good amount of smoke. Keep supplying it with fresh new fuel as it smolders and heats up. Throw together your tinder pile in the meantime.
5. Press the tinder bundle to your smoking bark and carefully turn it over.
6. Gently wrap the bundle around the bark to contain as much heat as possible.
PRO TIP: Thick smoke is a good indicator that it is ready to move on to the next phase. Blow into it gently to accelerate the ignition.
7. Once you get your first flame, add sticks as quickly as possible! If it starts to go out, all you have to do is blow on it a bit more.
There are so many random things to build fires with in survival situations—bottles, lightbulbs, Saran wrap, even your pee! Any time you can add a new item to your fire-starter arsenal, you get closer to becoming a true survivalist. Once you become an expert in the art of fire building, you’ll be able to utilize almost any available resource if the situation calls for it.
FUN FACT: How was fire invented? When oxygen reacts with a fuel source, a natural chemical reaction occurs and fire is created. So it really wasn’t technically invented. Fire from lightning and other natural sources must have amazed the first beholders of fire. However, the question of who was actually able to first create fire from scratch using tools and resources is still a mystery to scientists. Sometimes our questions have no definitive answer. We just have to continue to explore.