Getting a fire going is mostly a wood problem. Almost every fire that won’t light is wet wood, wood that went on too big too early, or wood packed so tightly that air can’t move through it. Sort the wood out and the match becomes a formality.
So this section runs in two halves. The fire itself: how to lay one that catches first time, how to cook on it, and how gas and smokeless pits behave differently from the wood kind. The cooking part hinges on one habit. You cook over coals, never over flames, and waiting for that glowing bed under grey ash fixes more camp meals than any recipe will.
Then the wood, which has a pipeline most people discover backwards. Choose the species, dry it properly, store it somewhere it stays dry, stack it so it doesn’t fall over. Skip a stage and you become the person at the next site blowing on smoke at eight o’clock.
And the part everyone rushes. A fire isn’t finished when the flames stop. It’s finished when you can hold your hand in the ash. Drown it, stir it, drown it again, feel it.
One rule that never bends: nothing fuel-burning goes inside a tent or a camper. No stove, no heater, no lantern, no charcoal. Opening a flap doesn’t make it safe, and carbon monoxide has no smell.
Start with a file. Sharpen a camp hatchet with a mill bastard first, pushing into the edge until a burr forms along the back, then refine it with a sharpening puck and finish on a strop. Aim for a cutting…
Start with the block. Set the round on a knee-high one, look for the cracks already in the end grain, and swing so the tool meets the wood square rather than at an angle. Let the weight of the head…
Stack firewood in a single row on a raised base, build both ends so they hold themselves up, and keep the pile under about four feet tall. Leave a gap between rows rather than gaps inside a row. Cap the…
Store firewood outside on pallets or a rack, at least 30 feet from the house, somewhere sun and wind can reach it, with a cover over the top and nothing over the sides. Keep it four inches or more off…
Season firewood by splitting it, stacking it off the ground where sun and wind reach it, covering only the top, and waiting. Softwood needs about six months. Most hardwoods want a year, and oak often takes two. The target is…
The best types of firewood for a campfire are dense hardwoods: oak, hickory, beech, sugar maple, ash and black locust. They burn slow, throw steady heat, and collapse into a bed of coals you can cook on. Softwoods like pine,…
To light a gas fire pit: open the propane tank valve slowly, wait about thirty seconds, then push and turn the control knob while holding a lighter or pressing the igniter at the burner. To turn it off, close the…
Put out a campfire by drowning it with water, stirring the ash and embers with a shovel, drowning it a second time, then feeling the whole bed with the back of your hand. It is not out until everything is…
A campfire is three sizes of wood stacked in the right order. Put a loose handful of tinder in the center of the ring, build pencil-thin kindling around it in a teepee or log cabin, then add wrist-thick fuel wood…