Tinder Bundle Construction 2
Taking an ember from a bow drill set-up and producing flame is not difficult given a few items: cooperative weather; choice materials; dry materials; and skill (the latter obtained from instruction and practice). This page will discuss two options when choice materials can't be found (see Tinder Bundle Construction 1). Looking at this fire-building problem from the perspective of winter in a forested portion of Maine (or anywhere else in the northeast), finding light, fluffy material can be very difficult. This material (such as cattail down, goldenrod flowers, milkweed seeds) is primarily found in open areas and/or at the edges of open wetlands (i.e., two habitats that may not be present in large, forested tracts). Further, desirable plant material may be buried under snow. This light, fluffy tinder material is necessary to take the ember, extend its life, and produce heat capable of igniting birch bark. Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) and yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) are ubiquitous in Maine and can readily be found with minimal travel. Though it may be possible, I have not been successful producing flame from an ember placed on birch bark (no matter how carefully I tried to prepare the bark). Therefore some other material is necessary to raise the temperature of the tinder bundle to the point that birch bark will ignite. Here are two solutions I have found.
1. Marcescent Leaves. Leaves that die but remain attached to the plant are referred to as marcescent (as opposed to leaves that remain living through the winter, termed "evergreen"). The beech family (Fagaceae) have a number of species that are well known for retaining some dead leaves on the trees through the winter, including beeches (genus Fagus) and oaks (genus Quercus). These leaves are quite dry (and dry fast after rain and snow) and are easily found in many forests of the northeast. Other trees and shrubs will occasionally hold their leaves and will work for this method. Collect a handful of leaves and reduce them in size to small pieces. Many tree leaves can be crumbled in the hand; however, beech and oak leaves usually need to be torn into as tiny pieces as possible. The smaller they are torn, the easier they will ignite. Create a solid handful (or more for higher success) of leaf tearings. Place these on top of very finely shredded birch bark, which is placed on top of larger pieces of birch bark for support of the tinder bundle. Place the ember from the bow drill (or whatever friction fire method you use) into a small depression within the pile of torn leaves. This material can be easily blown to flame with a little practice. Too much movement of the tinder bundle can cause the leaf tearings to disperse or fall down through the remaining tinder material, leaving too little material to be ignited by the ember. Carefully position, hold, and move the tinder bundle when using this method.
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| winter branches of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) with marcescent leaves | collected leaves for making a tinder bundle | tearing up dry leaves into small pieces | prepared leaf tearings, kept dry from snow using a leaf | completed tinder bundle ready for an ember |
2. Dead Wood. In an article by E.J. Pratt (Primitve Technology: A Book of Earth Skills; 1999), he describes using dead wood to create tinder material that will produce a flame. The wood used should be dead and can be partially degraded, but should not be highly rotten. Further, it needs to be relatively dry. Therefore, collecting large branches and plates of wood from dead, standing trunks work well (i.e., material that is off the ground). Many species of wood will work. Red maple (Acer rubrum) was used in the images below. You need to make two types of material from the dead wood. First, cut as thin of slivers of wood from the source branch, log, or plate as possible. They need to be thin in order to easily ignite. Create a small handful of these thin slivers and place them on top of finely shredded birch bark (preferably paper birch or yellow birch). Next, holding a blade at near right angle to the source wood, scrape the surface with your knife to create a pile of light, almost powdery, wood fiber. Collect the falling wood powder on a piece of bark or some other item to protect it from getting wet. Place the wood powder on top of the wood slices and make a small indentation in the wood powder. This indentation is where the ember will be placed. Once the ember is carefully placed on the wood powder, you will need to gradually and carefully squeeze the tinder bundle together to make sure the powder remains in contact with the ember (otherwise, the ember will burn a small cavity in the wood powder and then stop growing in size). The wood powder, which is critical for this tinder bundle method, is very prone falling down through the remaining tinder material or being blown away. Therefore, make a lot of wood powder and construct and move the tinder bundle with care so the wood powder is not disrupted.
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| examples of source material for tinder—red willow (left) and red maple (right) | slicing very thin slivers of dry, dead wood
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consistency of thin wood slices | scraping wood to create powdery material | consistency of powdery material | amount of material used to create tinder bundle (excluding birch bark) | completed tinder bundle ready for an ember |