How do you make a fire when it's wet?

So it's been raining or it's otherwise wet and soggy. What techniques do you use to make a fire? What kind of fire starting tinder do you carry or find, and how do you get dry enough kindling, sticks and logs? What fire starter do you prefer -- ferro rod, match, lighter, blowtorch?

In the wet past, I've sometimes just not even tried, but felt guilty later about acting like a bush-league bushcrafter. I'm trying to put together a better fire kit.

Birch bark really good for starter. I look for standing dead about 3 to 4 in. dia. to split for both small stuff and to build cooking coals. Can also make a couple of fuzz sticks too. There's always dry dead starter and kindling at the base of firs, along with old man's beard and dry pine needles.
I'm a fan of "strike anywhere" matches, but a lot of the usual stores don't seem to carry them any more. I carry a ferro rod and use occasionally to keep in practice. Vaseline soaked cotton balls work well for starter if you want to bring them along. If you would rather use something already down, stick to branches, trunks etc. that are vertical or less than 45 from vertical if it has been really wet.

Collect "squaw wood," "dead but from a tree."
Past injuries have convinced me that hatchets are dangerous. Saws and axes are much safer for cutting and splitting.
Light with a Zippo.
Use army surplus trioxane bars for tinder. (Full of formaldehyde and an environmental disaster.)
Or, being much more responsible, collect birch bark.

Birch bark is amazing. Almost cheating. But I love it. I have a small bag of it in my cookpot along with an extra bic lighter. This is for emergencies.

I try to keep my firestarting skills sharp, so I will use gathered materials first. As was mentioned "squaw wood" is excellent kindling. Two summers ago I pushed myself to get a fire started with just gathered materials after two days of soaking rain. I spent a fair amount of time getting squaw wood, birchbark and a large chunk of dry punk wood from the underside of a dead tree. Bark-less dead twigs will dry quickly with the heat from the burning tinder especially the ones found hanging up in the air. Spending the time to gather and prep the materials is key. Building the fire as it grows using its heat to dry the next layer. Fun practice.

Birchbark and the smallest Spruce, Hemlock, Fur ... branches in the base for my Kelly Kettle even if I'm attempting to start a campfire. I touch that mix off then set the kettle on top and let the chimney effect begin. Once I have the fire going well, transfer it to the fire pit.

My recent trip to northern Quebec was a real test when it came to making a fire. It rained just about every day, never had any sunshine to dry things out but the constant wind might have helped. Plus, there where very few birch trees, but I did manage to find some birch bark washed up on shore while I scrounged around for twigs in the underbrush.

I carry an old 35 mm film canister filled with cotton balls soaked in vasiline. That worked well, really flares up and a little goes a long way.

Even after the heavy rains I managed to find a good supply of dry twig stove material up under the bushes



And finally, Thanks to alsg's headsup on a good deal, I purchased a pair of those metal expandable fire starting bellows. It worked well to get the hot coals flared up.

I try to collect some birch bark on the first day or two of the trip and keep it in a zip-lock for rainy weather but usually don't have much problem without it. When it's been damp and rainy for days I start by cutting dead standing softwoods and splitting them into small pieces, which gets you to the dry wood in the middle. These aren't large diameter and I keep them short. Sometimes I use a hatchet and other times baton with a knife. Some get split down not much bigger than match sticks and others finger sized.

Then I make a bunch of shavings from dead standing wood. Sometimes I'll split it open first and then shave from the dry inside and other times I'll start from the outside and discard the wet stuff. I make a big pile because too often I've tried to skimp by with less and then had the fire fail.

Like others said the small dead branches still attached to coniferous trees are great if you can find them and I try to grab big bunches of these as well. You can lay a huge pile of the finest ones on a fledgling fire without fear of smothering it because they breathe so well.

When it's time to start the fire I make a log cabin setup with the small diameter split wood with some shavings in the middle and light the shavings with a cheap bic. Once the fire starts I add more shavings and more small diameter sticks and keep building from there.

Like Robin I've also found a twig stove is a great way to get a fire started as it breathes very well. It's easy to get one going in the twig stove and then remove the stove once it's burning good so you can build it up from there.

When I think it might rain overnight of even if the dew is bad I'll collect extra small diameter wood in the evening and keep it under the tarp.

I carry a ferro rod or two as well as matches in a waterproof case. I never use either of them. I also carry vaseline soaked cottonballs in case of an emergency (no time to screw around prepping).

Alan

I do what Alan does, collect birch bark along the way and when needed cut and split to get to the dry stuff. In the North where there are black spruce there is always dry stuff in those nest like wads that form on the tops, even when they are fallen over and on the ground. Elsewhere I look for the dry dead lower branches on spruce trees. You may have to bushwack a ways to find something good, especially at a well used campsite.

If it's really wet I will take some leftover dry wood with me to get my next fire going. It's easy to do when you have #4 Duluth packs, you can always stuff something else in them.

Pretty much what Alan said. I usually carry a full size axe too, so splitting large, dry dead trees into kindling is pretty easy. Where I travel, it is rare to not be able to find birch bark, although it has happened once in a while. The bottoms of spruce trees almost always has small dry twigs even in rain situations.

Not to veer off into the controversial, but language can often be geographical. Squaw wood is a term I have never heard my Anishinaabe chums use, pretty sure they wouldn't want to hear it either. Up in this country, Squaw would be in the same category as the N word in the States. I know the world is overly full of political correctness, and i often disregard much of it, but just a heads up that if you were tripping in Anishinaabe country, you might want to leave that phrase in the closet.

Resin from dead coniferous branches tend to "leak down" and collect in crotches - what I've come to know as fat wood. Plenty of that stuff along with the regular players - the lightest shavings of cedar bark being one. Fallen pine cones are great for a quick boost, too.

I have ziplock bags of birch bark collected from a tree in my back yard which sheds large paper curls every year. The tree is healthy and a valued member of our extended backyard family. The 2 grandkids fight over a swing I hung from one of it's strong low branches. I don't quite know why they make a charge upon arrival straight from the car to that tree swing the moment they escape from the back seat. I did hang an identical swing from a nearby crabapple so with one swing each there's nothing to fight about. Unless of course it's the tree itself. While the crab is gnarly and old, twisted and bent, the birch is tall and slender, graceful and open to the breeze. Or maybe they just like to fight.
There is no shortage of paper birch where I trip so it's easy to gather tinder as I trip. Unless a campsite has been denuded of small sticks there's always something to be found along a nearby shoreline. I've yet to walk that far in search of something to burn. There's always enough for everybody. No need to fight over it.

As per use.
If you scrape the bark surface with your sharp knife to get a small pile of dusty shavings you'll find that takes a spark remarkably well. I just use one of my ferro rods I try to keep handy amongst my person and pack. An easy light even on damp days.
Last year on a trip my wife found a small old ziplock bag she couldn't identify. "What the heck are you collecting now Brad?!" I had to admit it did look a bit like button mushrooms well past their expiry date, but it was obvious to me that they were some old forgotten cotton balls dabbed in Vaseline. As proof I wasn't collecting funky fungi I had to demonstrate to her how well they worked. I started our cooking fire with them that night. During bug season (when is it not bug season?) a little spritz of OFF into your tinder will ignite. It is flammable stuff. I am not fond of that smell so avoid getting that desperate. Also I have experimented with snack food. It is a well known factoid that Doritos corn chips are flammable. Don't ask me why but they do burn but you'll need a Bic lighter for that. Seems a waste of Sweet Chili Heat if you ask me. And brazil nuts are oily enough to hold a flame. Again, I'd rather eat the mixed nuts than commit them to the flame. I have no idea if plain potato chips are a good fire starter. I've never gotten close enough to my wife's bag of Lay's to give it a try.

If all my normal fire starting practices fail, I resort to a squirt of hand sanitizer and use my MSR pocket rocket as a blow torch.

Puncture balsam fir blisters on the trunk. The sap is not only an antiseptic but a good fire starter. If wet you may need to employ all the measures everyone has suggested along with a lot of patience.

I carry a two or three inch piece of fatwood for tinder. Where I camp is usually thoroughly picked over, so no birch bark and only large dead wood so an axe is very important to me in wet weather. With 7-10 curls of fat wood and split dry kindling I have always been able to get a fire started. I always bring a ferro rod, but generally use my Soto Torch XT.

In a real pinch I smear a little chain saw bar oil on the sticks and let it soak in for a few minutes. Last resort is a little squirt of the gas mix. Doesn't everyone pack such supplies?

Midwest Firecraft said:

I carry a two or three inch piece of fatwood for tinder.

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Do you scrape the fatwood into small shavings to get it to start up?

I use fatwood at home, the thin curly shavings act like tinder lighting easily with a match, and one stick will be enough for many fires. If you don't have kindling two or three full sticks should be enough to get your bigger wood going.

You've really hit it big if you happen on an old beaver lodge. Best biscuit wood there is.

Glenn MacGrady said:

Do you scrape the fatwood into small shavings to get it to start up?

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You can use shavings with a fire steel, but curls work best.