Fire Activities

Fire Skills require Supervision from a qualified Adult

Fire Activities are some of the most enjoyable activities in Scouting.  It's also a vital outdoors and life skill and worth revisiting annually  and over course at all campouts where fire is appropriate and legal.  

Example Fire Class

Fire Demo

The Demo needs to have pizzazz and inspire the audience.  Consider demoing a fire trick our Scouts are not familiar with. 

• Bic Lighter

  • Dependable

  • Easy to use

  • Remove Child Safety for Wilderness use

    • Allows Turbo Mode on pants or wood 

    • Use Turbo to dry out wet lighter or start tinder on fire when lighter empty

    • Allows one handed use if fingers are cold and nonfunctional 

• Ferrorod

  • Good Tinder

  • Fatwood Fuzz

  • Feathers

• Flint and Steel

  • Char Cloth

  • Char Punk

• Bowdrill

The Demo Setup

Demo Setup from Right to Left:
1) display bowdrill/wrapped bowdrill
2) punk-wood
3) flint/steel/carbon-knife/chartin
4) wood/hat/shavings
5) ferrord/knife/fatwood

Tinders in tins and boxes: grass, moss, jute, thin wood shavings, charred punk, charred cotton

Far left - fire stand to dump burning demos

Far right (show shown) readied bird's nests - moss and grass (jute left in tin)

On Blanket - immediate use tins, extra blanket for fire or kneeling, spare Mora/Swiss Army knife/ferrod/fatwood

Behind - drill sets, box of spares, char tins, flint and steel, boxes of tinder

Breakout Classes

Split larger groups up and have them rotate between classes.

Class 1 - Ferrorod

• Ferrorod on fuzzed up fibers

  • Fuzzing up twine with a knife creates an easy to ignite tinder and incorporates knife use with fire - a great combo

  • Cotton balls works great for Webelos and when you don't want a lot of knives moving around (like at night)

• Ferrorod on other tinders - including wood feathers

  • This will take a little more skill and persistence

  • Many of those new to the use of ferrorod won't get this work 

Class 2 - Ember Fires

• Ferrorod on Punk Wood

  • Creating an ember on rotten wood and starting a fire is easy enough to do and is a great way to get you started on ember fires

• Flint and Steel

  • Use a purpose made striker or one made from a metal file

  • Flint on Knife is NOT recommended for Scouts

• Bowdrill for advanced users

• Processing bark into tinder - also for more patient users

Class 3 - Knife Processing 

• Use knife and baton to make kindling 

• Use knife to make feathers

• Use Spine to fuzz fatwood

• Use spine of blade to fuzz up twine

Class 4 - Bic Lighter (if large class and lots of time)

• Demo how to remove the Child Safety

  • Required for advanced uses below

• Dry out wet lighter

• Fist use on boots

  • Used when fingers are so cold they can't use the roller

• Use when fuel is empty

  • Use lighter with hole drilled through it (no question it is out of butane)

  • Light cotton ball

  • Light fatwood fuzz

  • Light other tinder - using power roll

Supplies

• Knife Box

• Wood

  • Wood to be split

  • Wood rounds to split on

  • Wood turned into batons 

• Fire Pans

  • Dollar Store Pizza pans to start small fires on

• Ferrorod Box

  • Lots of Ferrorods

  • Strikers

  • Big bag of cotton balls

  • Roll(s) of jute tinder

  • Fatwood Sticks

• Ember Kit

  • Flint

  • Strikers

  • High carbon steel knife

  • Char Tins

    • Cotton pads

    • Char punk or other dry vegetation 

  • Bowdrill sets

    • Bearing block

    • Spindle

    • Fireboard

    • Bow with string

    • Leather or other ember catcher

• Ember Tinder

  • Bucket of dry moss

  • Jute

  • Dry Grass

  • Inner Bark

Classic String Burning Race

Classic Fire Activity that never gets old. 

• Materials:  for each patrol, two 2-foot sticks, two 3-foot lengths of binder twine, two matches

• Method:  Before the race, each patrol pushes the two sticks into the ground, 24 inches apart. They tie one length of twine between the sticks, 12 inches off the ground, and the other one 18 inches off the ground. Each patrol gathers native tinder and firewood. On signal, two representatives selected by each patrol build a fire lay (not higher than the lower string) and light it. After being lit, the fire must not be touched, nor can more wood be added.

• Note: Patrols are limited to using only one “fist-sized” amount of tinder in their fire lay.

• Scoring:  The team whose fire burns through the top string first wins.

Supreme String Burning Race

This race incorporates Axe and Knife skills.  

• Materials:  for each patrol, one 2-inch x 4-inch x 9-inch piece of pine, one hand axe, two sharp knives, one “hot spark kit,” two cotton balls, one thin cotton string suspended between two upright sticks, 10 inches above the ground

• Method:  On signal, using the hand axe, each patrol will split their wood into kindling and immediately start making tinder shavings using the knives. (Using a Hand Ax and Knife to Prepare Kindling and Tinder Video) When ready, they will build a small fire under their string, igniting the tinder shavings using the hot spark kit and a cotton ball. Kindling may be added throughout the race. (Feeding a Fire Video)

• Note: Adult supervision is required to ensure Scouts use safe axe and knife techniques. 

• Scoring:  The patrol whose fire burns through the string first wins.

Advanced Fire Skills Competition

For units with Scouts with Advanced Skills.  This race gives competitors with primative fires skills an edge over those that don't. 

Prep Phase

• Allow Scouts time to prep materials

• This portion of the event is NOT a race

• Safe techniques must be used to process fuel

Competition

Flint Phase

• 1 Minute to start fire with Flint and steel

Ferrorod Phase

• 1 minute start fire with flint or ferrorod

Match Phase

• One match provided per minute

First team to burn string wins

Supplies

• String Burning Kit

  • Poles

  • String

  • Hammer 

• Flint and Steel Kits

  • Stones

  • Strikers

  • Charcloth

• Ferrorod Kits

  • Ferrorods

  • Strikers

• Matches

  • Big box

  • Smaller boxes - used for strikers only

• Fire Extinguisher

  • Buckets of water work fine

• First Aid Kit

Vintage Scout Fire Skills (Second Class Requirements)

These skills haven't changes that much over the years, but the approach may be a little different.  You can use vintage requirements and handbooks to recreate Scouts skills used by the Grandfathers of our Scouts. 

Old School Fire Skills

Consider recreating a privative skills fire activity used by Scouts in the day of our Grandparents.

Note: the following is from the 1967 Scout Handbook.  Although it was once commonplace in School or Scouting, it is no longer considered acceptable to dress up like a Native American or act out how you think one would act.  Native dress, symbols, customs and rituals are sacred in a way that is difficult to convey to non-natives and it is so easy to be offensive. 

Bow Drills used for fire making have been used by many prehistoric cultures, to include peoples living in North America, Alaska, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan.  It is considered acceptable to use fire skills used by Native Americans and other cultures long ago and is a blast to work on these skills.  The following is presented to show what Boy Scouts did in the past for fire skills.