[macintologist]

, how did you ignite a fire?

I'm talking about the middle ages, and not China, where they had this stuff figured out already.

[Sky Captain]

Flint, steel and smudged cloth.
Or a bow, dowel and tinder.
Hang on and I'll see if I can video a demonstration.

[turtle777]

What sky said.

How to Start a Fire Without Matches - eHow.com

-t

[Sky Captain]

I have created FIRE!!!!!

OK so it's an 18th century firearm.(and yes it's a REAL 18th century firearm)

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Sky Captain 

Flint, steel and smudged cloth.
Or a bow, dowel and tinder.

Or magic.

[Sky Captain]

Or find a dragon.

[Doofy]

Or a balrog.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Or magic.

Clarke's third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Which means that aliens made fire before matches, right?

I've made fire with a knife (which was never the same again afterward) and a piece of flint picked up in a river bed, a particularly straight piece of stick and a hastily made bow with the stick stuck in a chipped spot in a rock and wood shavings around it, and in the high-tech vein, with steel wool and a 9V battery (that's fun!). The bow and stick method, by the way, is generally immune to rain if you work the bow fast enough.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Sky Captain 

I have created FIRE!!!!!

OK so it's an 18th century firearm.(and yes it's a REAL 18th century firearm)

Click, pop, snap, psssssssssssst boom.

(Civil War joke)

[- - e r i k - -]

[- - e r i k - -]

"Scout Notebook - Fire"

[Sky Captain]

I still rule!
I have proof I can make fire.
That like makes me Chief!

[Mark Larr]

I taught my young'un to make fire when he was 10.

He can take two chunks of flint and pop a shower of sparks right off of them, no file needed.

The tinder is the easy part to make.

My best time from sparks to flame is 5 seconds.


But hey, we southerners are too stupid to do anything so technical like make fire.

[MrsLarry]

speaking of which... does anyone watch survivor: cook islands?

Some of the teams won a flint to make fire. but some obviously had no clue how to use it. they got the spark part right, but not the magnesium. They just kept banging that machete against the flint sparkin like crazy amongst a bunch of twigs and leaves.

DUH.

you'd think you'd brush up on your outdoor skills before going on SURVIVOR!

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

, how did you ignite a fire?

I'm talking about the middle ages, and not China, where they had this stuff figured out already.

We have had fire since the stone age, and not just in China.
Flints mostly, used with tinder boxes.

[Mark Larr]

The bow method will take alot of work out of it.

You will need to make a loose bow, a dowel of really dry wood, I mean REALLY dry, a small board with a "V" cut our with the small end into the point where the dowel has drilled into the board so it is right on the edge.

You will need a bearing surface to hold the drill dowel, a smooth stone, or soapstone is the best.

You have to place a leafe or something under the board to catch the char-embers as they come out of the notch, drop the burning ember into a tinder "nest". It can be made of dry pine straw.

Hold the nest to your face and blow, it should ignite easily and then quickly put it to the kindling to get the fire started.

I'm a firestarter, a twisted firestarter.

[Rumor]

This guy figured it out

[And you need to figure out our rules, which set a maximum width for inline images. --tooki]

[Dakar²]

Originally Posted by Mark Larr 

I'm a firestarter, a twisted firestarter.

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