Lighting a fire at night with no lights!

[Dave ward]

Hi everyone, I've just got back from a little test I had given myself (it's 8.10pm) I've always practiced fire lighting as regular as possible with a fire steel and natural/man made tinders, but it's always in the day time. So I thought it's about time I tested my skills of finding tinder, kindling, fuel, in the pitch black, out in the farmers fields that are wide open acres, no torch at all, so I limited myself to a fire steel and one cotton ball (not soaked with anything) and that's it, apart from the car keys :) it was 1 degree above freezing so cold hands also playing apart in this. So as I'm walking to a area I want to use as my chosen final fire place i was looking for tinders, as I say it was dark open fields but I could make out straw like grass which I collected up as I went along, I just managed to get enough together to create a "birds nest" now as it's pitch black I couldn't see if it was wet/damp etc and also my hands were going numb by now (as I say, this was a test for me) so onwards I go and started to get close to my fire spot, and as I'm getting close the only wood I could see was a very thin hedge row, again with it being dark, the only way I could collect kindling from the hedge was to do so by touch and sound, going for the smallest off shoot twigs and bending them and if they snapped like a fire crackles then I was confident they were dry. The fuel also came from the hedge. So now it's time to light all this! So I take the "birds nest" rough it up lots and lay it down, next I got the kindling in two little piles and laid them half over the tinder nest and then fuel on top of the kindling. Now I got my fire steel and striked into the nest and got a flame that must of hit a wet spot and went out. So tried again and it lit up again and by this time my hands were cold and index fingers were totally numb which made feeling the fire steel hard so had to think about what I was doing with my hands etc but the flame did catch and off it took! YES warm hands! Lol some of the fuel was damp as I could see steam coming out the ends in the fire light. But I just wanted to share this test and let you all know how I got on and maybe for some of you this is the norm, or maybe it's something you'd like to have a go at :) after I put the fire out and left no trace (as much as I could see) it was a long cold walk back to the car! :campfire:

[Ehecatl]

Well done Dave and thanks for sharing,

M@

[FishyFolk]

Well done, but please use some paragraphs next time you tell us your tales from the bush. By the time I was half way I had lost the will to live :sad:

[nilo52]

Rune ,
hee hee hee

[snowleopard]

good challenge for anyone!!:happy-clapping:

Thanks for sharing,

Joel

[paulthefish2009]

Nice one, never tried lighting a fire at night with out a torch.something I must try.

[rawfish111]

Dave nice challenge!

Rune :happy-clapping:

[ADz]

Well done, but please use some paragraphs next time you tell us your tales from the bush. By the time I was half way I had lost the will to live :sad:

My thoughts exactly bud ;)

[JEEP]

A good challenge! One I will take once I get the chance.

[Dave ward]

Thankyou to all the positive guys out there, glad I've gave you a nice little challange that you could set yourselfs and let me know how you get on :) and for those who didn't find it intresting well im sorry you didn't enjoy but you just should of stopped reading and gone and tried it and then we could see how you got on.

[ADz]

Thankyou to all the positive guys out there, glad I've gave you a nice little challange that you could set yourselfs and let me know how you get on :) and for those who didn't find it intresting well im sorry you didn't enjoy but you just should of stopped reading and gone and tried it and then we could see how you got on.

I think you missed Runes point. It wasn't about the content of what you wrote it was how you wrote it, ie without proper breaks/paragraphs which makes it kind of annoying to try and read long posts.

[Dave ward]

My apologies, the whole point of my challange was to do this with nothing on me that i maybe tempted to use as a light (which a mobile can be in a pinch) and just have a fire steel with me and 1 cotton ball. If i had took my mobile to take pics i would of been tempted to use it for light lol i wanted to test myself (how my hands in the cold would cope) and my fire lighting skills as well as doing it all with no light and in the pitch black. After all, your not always forced to get into trouble or need to get a fire going just in the day time. :)