The last months, I've been working on my fire starting skills in anticipation of rainy and snowy days. As I still don't know my types of wood well nor have I had consistently dry wood, the results haven't been as predictable as I'd like. Have some belief that I ought to be able to easily start a great fire on each non rainy day, no excuses...
The way I've been approaching it has been with a firesteel. D has a small inexpensive one he uses to start his stove but I've been hesitant to even touch it over the years as I didn't relish sparks burning small holes in clothing or being burnt. That's why I bought a pocket rocket deluxe in the summer, which has a piezo ignition vs his original pocket rocket.
Have come a ways since. Been practicing with a "Light My Fire Firesteel -- Army model". It's actually quite fun. And no -- I've not turned into a pyromaniac nor have burnt holes in everything!
Reason I went for a firesteel versus a lighter is because it requires no fuel, can be transported by airplane (thinking ahead of future adventures) and can be used wet. Plus I'm delving into all things Bushcraft nowadays.
I bought other fire starting materials as I develop my layered approached depending on weather. Wouldn't risk flying with some of this stuff though. It's easy to get carried away with all the options out there.
Found that the best motivation to seek better options and improvement has been after suffering from the elements, exposing a need. Thus the reason why I own 4 sleeping bags...Haven't yet forgotten how miserable I felt at night in Nepal and Mongolia using -11C and -18C rated bags respectively.
Even though I may not measure up in toughness, my latest winter sleeping bag, bivy and tarp are patiently awaiting their turn to show me what they're made of.
