Fire is an essential part of survival. It can keep you warm, cook food, signal for help and more.
To start a fire, you need kindling and tinder material. A survival knife can help you shave wood from a log and split it into smaller pieces for kindling.
When choosing a knife for this task, you need one that will be strong and durable. Whether you choose a fixed-blade or folding knife, make sure it’s designed to withstand abrasion and impact.
Choosing the Right Wood
It’s important to choose the right wood for making kindling. Ideally you want to find upright logs with a diameter that is large enough to fit into your stove or fire basket but small enough to split easily into multiple sections.
The wood should also be relatively straight-grained, and preferably knot free. Knots will create an extra layer of resistance that can damage a knife and make batoning difficult.
The easiest and most practical way to make kindling is to baton a piece of wood using a knife. This process can be a little tricky at first, but it’s not as dangerous or damaging to the knife as it would be if you were splitting wood with an axe.
Preparing the Wood
If you’re planning to make kindling, it’s important to prepare the wood. This can be done by sanding the wood, but it also includes repairing holes, cracks and loose joints that could be damaging to the wood.
The wood you use to make kindling should be dried out so it loses as much moisture as possible before burning. This is so it won’t become a fire-smoke hazard and will prevent creosote buildup in your fireplace or wood stove.
The best way to dry out wood is to stack it in a manner that allows air and sun to get to the bottom of it. The bottom row of the pile should be off the ground, while the top rows should be slightly higher than the rest to allow air flow.
Splitting the Wood
While it seems that many armchair preppers think splitting wood is easy in a survival situation, this skill isn’t really necessary. In fact, it could actually be dangerous and even kill you in a survival scenario.
Rather than try to split the log on its own, you should make use of a knife to chop the wood into smaller pieces. This will help you to start a fire more easily.
To begin, place the cut end of the wood on a firm surface and hold it in a vertical position. Using your non-knife hand at the top, slowly turn your knife edge in towards the wood to cut off small shavings from the high points of the log.
Repeat this process until you have the size of kindling that you need for your fire. Ideally, you should have a range of sizes from very small to very large. It is also important to keep a variety of different types of wood on hand, including bark shavings and twigs.
Using the Knife
One of the most important things that a knife can do is to make kindling and tinder material. This is an important survival skill that will help you in many different situations.
For example, if you find yourself in the wild and you’re stranded without any water, you can use your knife to dig a hole and collect water from a source. This is a great way to keep yourself alive during harsh conditions in the wilderness.
You can also use your knife to create a variety of other tools that are useful in the outdoors, such as tent stakes, friction fire sets, trap parts, stabbing weapons, and spits.
A knife is an amazing tool to have in the outdoors and it’s important that you know how to use it to its fullest potential so that you can be prepared for any situation. You can start a fire with your knife in almost any condition and this is an essential part of your survival skills.