Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Fire!

I have always wanted to do this. I wanted to light a fire ‘cavemen’ style. Without a lighter or a matchbox. I had tried it a couple of times before. But I did not a have a proper method. Last week I got what I had been waiting for. I was watching ‘Man vs Wild’ on Discovery and Bear Grylls showed a set up used to make fire that looks something like this:

“That’s it!” I thought. I could not wait to get home to try it out. I was going home for the xmas long weekend. Back home I have got all the tools and raw materials required to do such things :p. Reached home at around 6:30 am and by 7:30 I was all ready. All I had to do was hold the top piece of wood down and move the bow back and forth as fast as I can. This would turn the stick and the friction should get me enough embers to start a fire.

 

In less than 2 mins I had the stick smoking! Wow! But before I could get any further the stick slipped out of the bow. Damn. Lets try again. Again I get smoke but as I carry on the stick slips off the base. But this time the stick is charred. Impressive. From then on I don’t remember how many times I tried but each time the stick would slip, sooner or later. At one point I even got a glowing red dot on the base but it was too small.

 

After about half an hour, I was totally exhausted. So I thought, let me first try to make fire out of embers. So that when I do manage to get some embers, I don’t loose the chance. I lit a small piece of wood put it out and tried to get a fire going with a handfull of wood shavings.Again no luck. I just could not get it to light up.

 

I knew it was not going to be easy, but somehow I thought I would be able to do it this time. Anyways, I was down on motivation after about an hour and half of trying. I saw no point carrying on. Guess I am not yet ready to be stranded on a deserted island. But if I do get stranded, I hope its not 'Wilson' for company.

 

I decided to get some tips from someone who has done it before I try again. But I’ll do it.

 

 PS: If anyone of you has done it, please let me know how you did it.