Starting Fires

By Tom Poland

 

Winter is pretty much a no-show so far. A lot of firewood is sitting around, getting a good soaking from all the rains. I’m not a fan of cold weather but I enjoy a roaring fire and a bit of snow as much as anyone, and that brings me to a subject dear to men’s hearts: starting a fire.

Knocking the chill off a room with a fire is a good thing but it’s not everyone’s forte. At the risk of sounding like a macho man, I’ll state that a man’s manliness in part depends on how quickly he can get a good fire up and roaring. A girly man takes forever, if he succeeds at all, but a manly man gets a fire roaring in no time at all. That’s a desirable skill set on a frosty winter morn.

Times were a fellow had to start a fire from scratch. If the previous fire’s coals had burned to ash and no matches were to be found, what then? Survival skills, that’s what. We’ve all seen movies of Indians starting a fire with a bow drill. They twist a wooden shaft in a hole in a dry piece of wood and friction brings the wood to the kindling point. Small streamers of smoke means it’s time to apply kindling to the hole. You can also use this method with your bare hands; just rub the stick back and forth rapidly. Other non-match methods include a magnifying glass to heat up kindling and a 9-volt battery where you hold both terminals against steel wool to spark the wool into flames. I don’t like this method simply because woodsmen of pre-battery times had to use primitive methods and their brains to start a fire. A 9-volt battery and steel wool? Too high tech but it works.

 

 

A time-honored method for starting a fire involves flint and steel. Just saying those words sounds manly, does it not? “Flint.” “Steel.” It so happens my daughter, Beth, gave me a FireSteel Scout fire-starter kit as one of my Christmas gifts. It’s made in Sweden where a good fire can mean survival or death. Those Swedes; they sell fire! A firm stroke down the starter rod with the striker or a knife showers sparks akin to those released by an acetylene torch starter. With sparks landing in dry tinder, a fire starts in seconds. Now getting the fire to the next stage, one that can turn those rain-soaked logs into an inferno demands another thing dear to the hearts of manly men: lighter’d as we call it. In other locales folks call it fat wood. Whatever you call it, it’s rich with flammable pine resin and ranks among nature’s most prized fire starters.

Whenever I catch the scent of Pine-Sol, I recall the many pine stumps I saw in the woods back home. Whenever I’d spy one I’d make a mental note of its location. The more you saw the easier it was to know the real thing, not some mushy, rotten stump. Weathered, with green moss covering them at times, a spindle of wood rose from the stump. Shave off a bit with your Barlow pocketknife and there it was: red-and-yellow, oily heart wood. Hold it to your nose and you could smell that unmistakable turpentine smell. Just what you need to build a fire with. Chopping it into kindling-sized pieces isn’t easy though. That stuff is as tough as, well tough as a lighter’d knot, and the axe will glance off it if you aren’t steady with your swing. Persist, however, and your efforts will be richly rewarded.

These days you can get most anything online. LL Bean will sell you a 35-pound box of lighter’d for $45. You can buy 14 bundles (30 pounds) of Georgia fatwood from Osceola Stakes for $25. Or you can be a man and go out and gather your own. A small bundle of lighter’d secured by a strip of inner tube is worth its weight in gold come a day when the temperature drops to nine degrees Fahrenheit and the sky looks like a quilt stitched from billowing pewter. No worries, though. Out back is a long stack of cured logs. Should the electricity go out, no problem. In fact it would be a blessing. What a joy to sit by a blazing fire and read a good book as opposed to watching TV or sitting in front of a computer.

I see city folks taking what I call the commercial route when it comes to starting fires. They’ll buy a Duraflame log and shoot a jet of fire at it from a long Bic lighter. With a sorry stack of green, expensive, store-bought logs falling all over the Duraflame log, they sit back and hope that a fire takes hold. Sometimes it does; sometimes it doesn’t. Note: starting a fire with a Duraflame log and a Bic lighter is not a display of manliness. Get yourself a box of Diamond Strike kitchen matches and keep a FireSteel Scout fire-starter kit handy.

Another classic sign of a man prepared for the perils of winter: a seasoned, orderly stack of firewood. Consider it vintage fuel, stacked, and ready for Old Man Winter’s icy breath. It’s a cliché but true nonetheless: wood warms you twice: once when you cut it and again when you burn it. It’s a trip into the past, too. A plume of fragrant woodsmoke stirs up nostalgia in this era of heat pumps and gas heaters though some Chicken Littles point to wood fires as a source of air pollution. Well, the sky isn’t falling, yet. One volcano can quickly undo all of man’s pitiful efforts to control woodsmoke and hydrocarbon emissions. But let the panic prevail. Let’s just do away with all things that bring charm and rustic beauty to life.

A few closing thoughts. Which would you rather have sitting near your wood stove or fireplace? A box of Duraflame logs or a box of fragrant lighter’d? I think I know the answer. Among the joys fire starting delivers are the clean smell of lighter’d, sweet-yet-sour-smelling split oak, and the scent of smoke at dusk on a cold day. And then there’s the warmth thing. A fire warms the heart of anyone who’s backed up to a hearth or old stove. Just be alert to some prankster who pulls your jeans against the back of your legs to scorch you. He’d be the type who thinks he’s a manly man but he’s not. Probably uses a Duraflame log, toothpicks, chopsticks, and a Bic lighter to start his fires.

Ladies, feel free to get your own kindling too. Or even better charm a man into gathering it for you. And do it soon. A blast of seasonal air is on the way … finally. Bring out the Doors’ classic “Light My Fire” and enjoy a cozy winter evening. Men like starting all sorts of fires, but if your fellow walks in with a Duraflame log, show him the door.

 

 

 

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

 

Tom Poland is the author of eleven books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.

 

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