How to Start a Fire Without Matches or Lighter

An essential survival skill that everyone should learn how to do is to start a fire. In a survival situation, being able to start a fire can save your life, and it can often mean the difference between life and death.

The most obvious reason for needing a fire is to provide warmth, but you might also need fire as a way of cooking food that you wouldn’t be able to eat without cooking. 

Since the beginning of human life, people would create fires as a way of surviving through winter months outdoors and providing food for their families. Without fire, these people likely wouldn’t have survived, but it is a skill that has been lost in a modern age of heating and electricity.

Even in today’s society, there are instances that could occur that could throw you straight into a survival situation where you would have to fend for yourself.

Having some essential survival skills could help to save your life in these situations. Maybe your plane goes down, and you get stuck on an island, or you get lost while camping in a forest and get completely stuck. 

The situation doesn’t always have to be so dramatic, but being able to start a fire is an essential skill to have just in case the worst does happen. 

You might not always have matches or a lighter to hand when you need them the most, or there could be really wet or windy conditions that render these fire-starting options useless.

If this is the case, then you would need to find another way to start a fire. Thankfully, there are other ways of starting fires that are more reliable in different conditions, and we will list them here so that you can be prepared for any situation that may arise. 

Friction Fire Starting

This is probably a method that you have heard of or have seen in a survival movie. While it may seem like a simple take to start a fire using the method of creating friction, it is actually the most difficult way to start a fire.

Even though it is really hard to create a fire using nothing but friction to help you, it is definitely possible. The most important thing that will help you here is the type of wood that you are using for the fireboard and the spindle. 

If you didn’t already know, the spindle is the wooden stick that you will have to use in a fast spinning motion to create friction between it and the fireboard. If you manage to create enough friction, it will begin to generate heat, and eventually, there will be embers that can be utilized to create a fire.

The best types of wood that you can use for this process are cottonwood, juniper, aspen, willow, cedar, cypress, and walnut. It may be possible with other types of wood, but you will have an easier time using these types.

The wood will also need to be completely dry all the way through. If you do not have any access to dry wood, then you will need to dry it put first. 

To do this method, you will need to stand the stick vertically on top of the fireboard and put your hands together on either side of the stick. Next, you can start to rub your hands together to spin the stick and start creating your friction.

You can also move your hands down the stick while rubbing them together to help generate even more friction and heat. You will need to work quickly, as the faster you spin the spindle, the more friction that you will generate.

This friction should eventually turn to heat and provide you with the embers that you need to start your fire. 

Flint and Steel

A trusted and simpler method of fire-starting is by using flint and steel. Anytime that you are venturing out in the wild for a camping trip or excursion, it is always a good idea to have a flint and steel set with you, just in case of an emergency.

Matches can get wet and prove to be useless when you need them the most, and a lighter can be rendered useless by the wind, or become damaged, or even run out of fuel or gas. Good old fashioned flint and steel will never let you down. 

All you have to do for this method is to use the steel to repeatedly strike the flint and allow the sparks to fall over the material that you are using as kindling. The sparks that land here will glow, and you can use them to start your fire.

You can lightly blow on the embers to get them to light as oxygen will add fuel to the fire. Be careful not to blow too hard, as you could end up blowing out the embers. Repeat this process until you can get them to light and start your fire. 

Lens Fires

Another method that you have likely seen in a movie or on your favorite tv show is the lens method. It is common knowledge that when the sun reflects off a surface and is projected onto an object, it can cause a fire.

This is also a cause of some house fires, where the sun has reflected from a mirror or a glass of water and burned into a flammable object. Using the lens method doesn’t require too much work, but it will need a lot of patience and time. 

All you need for this method is the sun and some sort of lens to help you start your fire. You can use glass, a mirror, or even a magnifying glass to do this. You can add some water to the lens if you have some available, as this will intensify the beam that it creates.

You will need to angle the lens towards the sun in a way that allows the light to reflect onto your tinder nest. Unfortunately, you are limited to using this method only when it is a sunny day outside. You cannot use this method during the night or if it is really overcast and gloomy outside. 

It might take some time for the process to work, but if you keep in position, eventually, the tinder nest will start to smoke. This is the first sign that what you are doing is working successfully. Eventually, it will light, and you will have created your very own lens fire. 

Leave a Comment