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It's our most ancient skill.

Without it, survival
would just not be possible.

I have created fire!

ONE MAN

ALONE

NO FOOD

NO T.V. CREW

- Synced and corrected by Graveurexterne -

Survivorman
Secrets of Survival: Fire

What's the number-one thing
to take with you

into a survival situation --
the number-one item?

For me,
it's a way to get a fire going.

I can cook my food,
boil my water, signal rescuers,

stay warm, and at night,
keep the fear away.

Everything else
can be dealt with.

If I can get a fire going,

especially if I don't have
matches or a lighter,

that can be the difference
between life and death.

These are my top five ways

of making fire
in a survival situation,

based on years of being
out there without the advantage

of having a lighter
or box full of matches.

Each one, for me,
is better than the last,

and I'll tell you why.

Before we begin the countdown,

let's take a look
at a few other

important aspects of fire
during survival,

and throughout this hour,

I'll share with you
the secrets of fire making.

If I am able
to get a fire going,

I'm going to need to be able
to travel with it.

I'm just working
on a fire bundle.

Carrying your fire
from one location to another

sounds at first
like a daunting task,

yet in any survival situation,

being able to have fire
is so vital

that I'll protect it
like it's another person

just as in need
of staying alive as I am.

The principles are easy.

Start small on the inside
and gradually work your way out

with the material
getting coarser.

The secret is the constant
adjusting of the binding

so that
it neither blows into flame

nor snuffs out while you hike.

If I take a coconut,

and there's tons
of all this coconut fiber.

This stuff is really good.

It'll hold an ember,
and fill up the cup.

And simply find myself a coal
and put in there.

And all I have to do

is just keep that
sort of smoldering while I walk.

I grabbed some vinyl
from the truck

to use to wrap around it.

I just got to tie it up.

Create a little hole there
and shove in

all the rest of my fine, fine,
fine shredded bark.

Instead of doing
sort of traditional fire bundle,

I might as well make use
of the tin can.

Some cow dung.

And I've got myself
a modern twist on a fire bundle.

It's smoking well.

Hopefully, it'll last the trip.

Worked absolutely perfectly.

If it flamed up,
I kind of snuffed it out a bit,

and now all I have to do
is add some twigs and some grass

and blow it into flame,
and I'm in business.

Worked like a charm.

One big fat cigar.

I was almost getting ready
to leave,

and I was trying to think,

"okay, how am I gonna carry
the fire now?"

And then all of a sudden,
it occurred to me.

Hang on a second.

I still have
three of these babies left.

My friend in survival,
david holladay,

said to me one day, "why don't
you just carry a cigar?

It is, after all,
a ready-made fire bundle."

There we go.

Instant fire carrier.

I've got
two more of these cigars,

and I'm sure
if I just sort of hold them

and let the wind work on them,
with any luck at all,

that'll last me through to
wherever it is I end up tonight.

Trying to build a shelter
that has a fire inside

is extremely difficult,
yet if I can do it,

it's a huge advantage.

I stay warm through the night,

I feel protected.

That little flame
is really exciting.

But it's very hard
to make it safe,

and I always run the risk

of actually burning down
my shelter in the process.

First time in my life,
my shelter caught fire.

You should've seen it.

It was a big ball of flame
in the sky.

If carrying a fire
sounds difficult

but proves not to be so,

well, having a fire
inside your shelter

is just as difficult
as it sounds.

The secret is to build
a long and low fire

along the length of your body.

It can be tedious to maintain,

but if it works,
it's a life saver.

The fire did not go to where
the plastic was on the roof.

It was over in the fire area

where the flames
were supposed to lick up,

but I guess
they just kept drying out

and drying out
the wood up above it,

and I let the flames
get too high.

Wow.

Even inside a car,

there are ways to add
just a little bit of heat.

There we go.

One-candle heat.

Let's hope it's enough
to take the edge

off of the cold inside this car.

I'm not a believer
in small survival fires.

I want to have the biggest fire,
the hottest fire.

I want my rescuers to be able
to zero in on it.

For me, a survival fire
is a safe one but a big one.

Whoo-hoo!

Oh, tell me
that wasn't a thing of beauty.

I love it when a plan works out.

One secret that I like
to believe is my very own

is the concept
of covering my fire

with big rotting logs
before heavy rain comes.

It creates an oven-like fire

that will still be going
when the rain stops.

Once I get a fire big enough
like this,

I can use punky wood
and burn it, as well.

See, that's the key.

If you've got a big fire,

those coals will still be there

when you come back
after a reconnaissance mission

or gathering wild edibles
or getting more firewood,

and if it starts to rain

and you put over
some big punky logs

and you protect that fire,

it'll keep going until
long after the rain has stopped.

I'm in here somewhere.

Just a couple of big punky logs
laid overtop of my fire,

and just let to smolder and burn
underneath,

and pouring rain --
it just poured on me,

torrential downpour
with thunder and lighting

for about an hour and a half
straight.

And my fire's still going.

The beauty of a big fire is

that it can be seen
from the sky,

and that makes it a powerful
way to signal for help.

It hasn't been all that often
when I've needed to get

a signal fire going
while filming "survivorman,"

but there have been
a few occasions

where getting noticed from afar
was everything.

A signal fire
that you can keep burning

all hours of the day and night

would be extremely difficult
to maintain.

Remember,
the point is to go home,

so signaling methods
are vital to survival.

The secret is to be able
to light the fire

within seconds
of your potential rescuers

in the sky showing up.

Let's set up
a spot in the open here.

We get a fire going.

We can cook up the bird,
and it'll be a signal,

hopefully, for the plane
at the same time.

A chopper.
Hopefully, it'll come back.

He was following us overtop.
It's right overtop of us.

Make sure we don't burn
those other trees.

Got smoke going.
Chopper in the air.

If we can keep the fire going --
just the sticks underneath,

some evergreen boughs, but when
we throw on that sphagnum moss,

it really makes a lot of smoke.

Sooner or later,
they got to see the smoke.

And smoke is the key.

Nice dry wood
won't give you that.

It's got to be something damp,

but not so much so
that you put the fire out.

The secret is to have a strong,
hot flame underneath

topped by anything
that will give lots of smoke,

from rubber and plastic
to evergreen boughs and moss.

Whatever it takes,
but be prepared.

It'll be frantic no matter
how ready you think you are.

Now that is
some great search and rescue.

Unbelievable.

Here now from the year 2000

is my very first attempt
at a signal fire.

I've taken the spruce roots,

and I've tied around from pull
to pull and back up to pull.

Tied up at the top,
and for strength,

and then I've done,
like, a lacing

with some more spruce roots
across the bottom

to create,
like, mesh on the bottom

and also on the sides

so that stuff doesn't blow out
of the sides.

I'll do the same
across the front once I'm done.

But the next stage, basically,

is to get all my birch bark
and all of my tinder

and stuff like that

and to shove it in there
and get it all in there

with lots dangling
down at the bottom

so that it's ready to go.

Transporting fire,
putting it inside a shelter,

using it to signal a rescuer.

There are as many uses
for fire during survival

as there are
places to get lost.

As a skill itself,
the ability to get a fire going

anywhere at any time
is quite possibly

the most important skill
you can learn.

Think I'm rescued.

Can you set up a tarp
and get a big fire going

after three or four days
of solid rain?

If you can't, start practicing.

Triangle tripod formation held
up really well in the storm.

It was blown on all night.

Thought it was gonna blow over,

but it's stood straight
and strong.

The boughs helped
to shed the rain,

so the birch bark wasn't so wet,
and I couldn't get this.

What are my top methods
for getting a fire going?

Well, short of having a lighter
or a box of matches,

I've discovered dozens of ways
to keep myself warm and safe.

I've placed them
in an order that,

for my personal skill level,

goes from the most difficult --
my number five --

to the most assured --
my number one.

These are my top-five methods
of fire starting

during a survival ordeal.

Stay with me
while I create fire.

Yeah, baby.

The number-five method
for fire starting in survival --

the hand drill
and vine friction.

This is not going to be easy.

Fire by friction
can be really tough.

Here we go.

Some vine.

But in the jungle,

it's amazing
that it's even possible at all.

This method is one of the
oldest forms of fire making.

Not so good.

All right.
Let's try this again.

Come on, baby.

Don't break on me this time.

I can make a coal this way
in a matter of seconds,

but each day is different
than the last,

and if every little component
is not just right,

I run out of strength,
materials, and patience.

Well, I have gotten fire using
this vine method out here.

Just not today.

When I was with the hewa
in papua new guinea,

I was able to have
much greater success

with their guidance.

There he goes.
Look at that.

Even in a rainy place,
a dry vine rubbed quickly

against a small,
dry piece of wood

will still create
enough heat to burn.

The tough part
is remembering to breathe

in this hunched-over position.

Hey.

So, with these guys,
matches are premium

when someone like I come
into the village.

Leave the matches, that's cool,

but sooner or later,
those matches run out,

and they all,
even the young ones,

have got to know how to do this.

From the wet jungle,
we go to the desert.

First I'm gonna give
a good effort to get fire going

by using the traditional method
of this area -- the hand drill.

I found this spindle

just while I was down getting
the carrizo cane.

It's a piece of seep-willow,
and the baseboard that I'm using

is one of the ribs
of the saguaro cactus,

all dead and dried out,

and I've just sort of
whittled it down

to be the right shape
for me to work with here.

The other thing I did

was make this fire lay over here
ready to go.

Just a stick
stuck in the ground,

and then all the other --
the heavier wood put on top.

That way, when your grass
goes underneath to light up,

the heavy wood doesn't crush it

and you can get a nice, good
aerated fire to get it going.

Now, to do this right,

first I had to just find
the right place,

and then once I've got
the spindle settling

on the baseboard,
I cut out a little notch,

and that'll give a place for all
the hot dust to fall down into.

And what I was showing

was to try and keep
this motion going --

to do the kind of
the itsy, bitsy spider move.

You practice that for a while
to get the motion right

of what it is you want to do
while you make this thing spin.

Fire by friction
is all about the feel.

With that said,
until you get that feel,

it can be very physical
and exhausting.

The secret is to breathe
and try to relax.

When you're spinning
really hard,

if you're just spinning
in one spot like this

and you're just doing
little short ones,

it's a lot tougher
to get it going,

so that's the motion I want to
try and keep happening.

And the last thing is,
as you can see,

I've been practicing --
from these blister marks,

it's really easy to get blisters
doing this,

and so as soon
as you're sort of stopped,

you smack your hands together
really hard --

so hard that it hurts --

but that rushes the blood
back into the skin

and helps any way to prevent
the blisters from coming on.

Let's give this a try.

The combination of all the
physical and technical aspects

of getting this to work
is mind boggling.

First, the wood has to be
perfectly dry.

It has to be
the right type of wood

for both the spindle
and the baseboard.

Even the air
can't be too humid,

or the wood will soak up
the moisture like a sponge

and be unusable.

The size of the notch cut
most be just right.

Too big and the dust won't pack
together into a hot ember,

and too small and it won't have
enough room to form.

I have to keep the spindle
perfectly straight

and maintain a downward
pressure the whole time

without it slipping
out of my hands

or out of the base
at the bottom.

While doing that, I have to
keep it spinning constantly

to create enough heat.

Each time I stop spinning,

the area of friction
between the two pieces of wood

cools down a fraction.

And remember,
all I'm really trying to do

is make a delicate little pile
of hot wood dust

that ignites on its own
into a little ember.

Yeah, baby.

Ooh, doesn't that look good?

Whoo!

It's gonna be a warm night,
and it's gonna keep

the peccaries and the
mountain lions away from me.

In the kalahari desert,

I had the chance to survive
with the san bushmen.

Thought to be the genetic line
direct from the first humans,

it only goes to follow

that the hand-drill method
of fire starting

originated with them
and is still in use today.

In our modern world, children
learn fast about things

like how to take the bus
to school or ride a bike.

In places like this, they learn
how to make fire from the land.

The elders' method
of using a hand drill

is what my own method
was mirrored from,

but notice the difference.

There's a smoothness
in his skill

that comes from a life
of making fires this way,

yet just like it was for me
in arizona,

the details are the same
on the other side of the world.

The delicate balance
must be struck

if hot wood dust
is to be ground out

from the friction
this man is giving to it.

All he has now
is a pile of smoldering dust,

and the secret here
is to remember

that you don't yet have a fire.

The job is not done
until you can walk away

and get larger pieces of wood
to add to the flames.

I would guess
that the first fires

were simply collected
after lightning strikes.

The hand drill is
when we took charge of fire

and made it work for us.

We were, I am sure,

too impatient
to wait for lightning.

Whoever first figured
this method out

held the secret to fire,

and from there,
we became a civilized species.

That's the way I do it, too.

Yeah.

It's funny how fire-starting
methods around the world

seem to have evolved
in the same manner.

Thousands and thousands
of kilometers apart,

yet still, pretty much,
tribes everywhere

learn to start fire
the very same way --

they're rubbing some sticks
together.

The hand drill, to me,

is such a beautiful and organic
way to get a fire going,

but up next, fire starting
isn't always pretty.

If you look around you
in a survival situation,

you'll quickly learn
that just about anything

can be used to ignite a fire.

There's matches inside,
so that's not a problem.

But still, just to conserve,
and some of this old duct tape,

I'm gonna use that
to light the fire.

Combine modern technology
with wood,

and you have yourself
a quick survival fire.

One thing about duct tape,
it's good fire starter.

The number-four method
in fire starting for survival --

using man-made tinders.

Potassium permanganate,
an antiseptic.

Glycerin for diarrhea.

Watch what happens
when you put them both together.

The chemical makeup
of everything

from duct tape to liquid soap
can be highly flammable.

That's what happens when you put
the two of them together.

There we go.

Now I'm gonna put these corn
chips in, believe it or not.

All that effort and a couple
of corn chips was worth it.

Duct tape, glycerin,
and corn chips

were not meant to make fire,
but they sure work.

I'll show you what I mean
about those corn chips.

Look. See that?

And it holds its flame
just like a little tiny candle.

So, if you don't have
much tinder

and you happen to have some corn
chips in your pocket like I did,

then it's a great way
to help get your fire going.

I like to go into the stores

and grab those
last-minute survival items.

You know, it just says
"general survival" aisle.

And just to test them out.

So, I grabbed some stuff
that is some kind of --

well, they call it fire dust.

We'll see what that's like.

To go with it,
I've got one match.

The secret to using

store-bought emergency
fire-starting tinder

is actually knowing
the down side,

and that is
that for most of them,

you still need a flame
to begin with.

They won't ignite
on just a spark.

That said, once you can
light them with a flame,

they maintain it long enough
to build up your fire

and help to keep it going.

All right.

So far so good with this dust.

And that's what I like to see.

We have fire, folks.

Using chemicals
intended for fire starting

bought from the camping store

or just figuring out
what materials around you

contain flammable chemicals
can save you a lot of effort

searching in the forest
for tinders.

Some simple hand sanitizer
and a spark.

And we've got fire.

Petroleum jelly.

And mixed in with the cotton.

Take a flint sparker here.

See that?

Cotton takes the flame real well
and holds it.

Birch bark comes in.

And I've got myself
a very fast fire.

So, I've got a piece
of this cotton,

and there was some toilet paper,

but the way
I'm gonna make them last

is I've got some lip balm.

So, I'm gonna utilize
this wax...

In both places --

I'm gonna put it on the cotton
from the first-aid kit

and on the toilet paper.

And that should really hold
the flame.

The one-match fire
you do not want to miss.

It's got to take.

Whether toilet paper,
cotton balls,

or the ends of q-tips,

cotton and wax combined
is often my go-to fire starter.

Success.

Let's find out if this works.

If it does,
I can heat up some water.

On this occasion in norway,

I tried some chemical pellets
meant for survival.

The fumes
were toxic and horrible,

but the heat and speed
of the fire

was undeniably advantageous.

Even this little flame, as
chemical as it is, feels great.

I like
this little survival stove.

It's getting a thumbs up
in my book, I think.

Whereas the hand drill
requires a great deal of skill,

and using
chemical fire starters means

you needed to have brought them
in with you,

these next two methods quickly
became favorites of mine

because they connected me
emotionally and physically

to the mountain men of old.

A spark.

Sometimes all you have
is a spark.

But if you have something
to catch that spark,

you can make a quick fire
and continue to survive.

Pioneers had rock and steel,
but we bettered that

with the addition of magnesium.

The number-three method
in fire starting for survival --

flint strikers
and rock and steel.

Every time I come out and try
survival in a new location,

I like to test
some kind of survival item

just to see how it works.

This time around, I'm gonna try
this little item --

magnesium flint stick.

What I want to do
is shave off this magnesium.

I need to make a little pile.

Got to be real patient.

Drop a lighter or a pack
of matches in the water

and you're out of luck.

Drop this striker in the water,

and with a wipe of your shirt,
it'll still work just as well.

Well, that's not a bad pile.

We'll see.

I just don't know.

Magnesium.

Some flint strikers come only
with the sparker, no magnesium.

There we go. There we go.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Burn, baby, burn.

The secret
to this kind of striker

with the magnesium bar attached

is that you don't need to find
any tinder

to catch the spark.

That little magnesium stick is
definitely a winner in my book.

Hey.

If the sparking device doesn't
have magnesium attached,

that's still okay,
'cause there are

often many different types
of fluffy tinders around

like cattails or milkweed.

But if you're carrying bullets,
as most hunters would,

then your gunpowder will take
a spark quite nicely.

And by the way,
more hunters are caught

in survival situations
every year

than all the other types
of wilderness travelers

combined.

Shotgun shell.
Basic striker here.

Beautiful, strong spark.

Got gunpowder from the shell.

Let's give it a shot here.

Here we go. There we go.
There we go! Hey!

Bingo!

The thing
about getting a fire going,

you've really got to seek out
dry tinder,

dry brush and twigs,
and you can find it.

Even if it's been raining
all week,

you can find it underneath logs,
underneath rock overhangs,

and take your time.

If you take a long time
to get all of this dry tinder,

you will get a fire going.

This time, I'm gonna use,

basically,
the traditional pioneer method.

They didn't have their packs
of matches or lighters

to carry around.

What they did have was steel --

something
with a high carbon element --

and rock,
and let's not get into

what different kinds of rocks
you can spark with.

If you're lost,
just find a rock that'll spark

if you happen to be lucky enough
to have

some steel with
a high carbon element in it.

Ow.

Haven't done this in a while.

Last thing you need is a way.

What's happening here
is you're coming down

and shaving off
tiny little slivers of metal,

and they're shooting away
melting --

melted -- and they need
something to land on.

So what you need is something
to catch that little spark

and then hold a glow.

So, you try to get the spark
to land on it.

Just like the wood you might
use in fire by friction,

even the humidity in the air
can affect how well

this charred cloth
will take a spark,

and in this clip,
I'm in far northern ontario,

and the nighttime temperatures
are dipping

40 degrees below zero.

Not a good start.

So this fire was vital
to my survival.

The cloth is 100% cotton
that's been put

inside a closed metal can
and charred through.

Any natural fiber can work,

but my secret is using
blue-jeans cotton.

Oh, boy.

Lots of good sparks,
but the cloth isn't holding it.

That's not a good sign.

Remember "jeremiah johnson"?

Robert redford sat there in the
bush trying to get a fire going.

This is exactly the method
he was using.

Another secret to this
is the feel.

A smooth striking method
will be far more effective

than hard hitting.

Got her.

All right.

What I've got now is
this piece of charred cloth

is just holding
a little ember --

a little glow.

I think you might be able
to see that.

That gives me some time
to put it in my tinder bundle,

which is this collection
of dried grass

and spanish moss, cedar bark

that's been
all schmucked up there

and sort of broken up and that.

And try to make yourself
a little furnace here.

Keeping any breeze at my back

and my hands
underneath the heat,

I blow up and into the bundle.

Whoo. Close.

Make sure you got
all your other tinder ready,

and of course, birch bark
is a perfect tinder --

full of oils.

Even when it's soaking wet,
it'll burn well.

Oh.

And you're in business.

"Now, why should you bother

carrying a piece of rock
and steel," you might ask?

If you found a way
to get a spark like that,

you can extend the life
of your lighter and your matches

and not even have to use them,
and that may matter a great deal

if all you have is a handful
of three or four matches

on your person.

Hand drills and steel strikers

are somewhat romantic methods
for fire starting,

and man-made emergency tinder

is
a very effective improvement,

but up next, anything goes.

Over the years, getting a fire
going in a survival situation,

whether it's raining or dry,
hot or cold,

became somewhat of
a personal challenge for me.

There were a lot of times
that I would head out,

and I would know
what I was going to do.

I knew I was going to do
a fire bow or a hand drill

because I was
in a certain situation.

But there are
a lot of other times

where I just took it
as it came at me.

I had no idea how I was gonna
get my fire going

or how I was gonna make use
of whatever was available to me.

The number-two method in fire
starting for survival --

anything goes.

I have started fires by hitting
rock and steel together...

Oh, that's beautiful.

...spinning a piece of wood
with my hand...

Gasoline and a spark...

I don't like playing
with gasoline.

Okay.

Yeah.

Hey!

Whoo!

...batteries...

A little 12-volt battery.

Steel wool.

Touch it to this terminal here.

Oh.

...flashlight.

What I need to do
is break the bulb

without breaking the filament
inside the bulb.

There's the bulb in there.

All I got to do is turn it on.

Yeah.

Even started a fire using
chocolate and a can.

Just a little bit of chocolate.

And apparently, I can take
the chocolate, polish up --

with the wax
that's in the chocolate --

polish up
the bottom of this can.

The idea is the concave nature
of the bottom of the can

should focus a beam of sunlight
into the tinder

and start it up just like you
would use a magnifying glass.

Hard to do.

There's light there,

and it's just coming back
onto the grass right there.

For years,
people have been sending me

their ideas on survival,

and fire starting is always
at the top of the list.

Amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

I really didn't think
I had a hope in anywhere

of getting a fire going
with a piece of chocolate,

some sand,
and the bottom of a pop can.

You can make a fire
with that lighter without fluid.

First I'm gonna sacrifice one
of these pieces of tissue.

And what I want to do
is just first

just take it and roll it up.

Need a little bit
of a sort of funnel --

funnel-like opening.

The next thing that I want to do

is turn to my socks here

and pull off
a good wad of sock lint.

Just try to get, oh,
I don't know,

maybe a dime-sized amount
of lint.

Just put the fluff in this
top end of the tissue paper,

and we have the makings

of what I'm going to call
a prison match.

This is how people often get
a fire going

even just to light
their cigarettes in prison

when they ran out of fluid,

since lighters are
at a premium there.

Don't ask me how I know that.

No flame.

Success.

Right off the bat.
The first one, too.

Nice. Nice. Nice.

Yeah.

See if I can get a fire going.

Gonna harvest the power
from the batteries --

three double as --
to see if I can make fire.

That's where the bulb would go.

And I'm gonna just take
the wires

right off of this piece here.

Theoretically, I should be able
to attach those two wires

and perhaps create
a hot enough bit of wire

to make fire with some cotton.

So, we're gonna give this
a shot.

One piece of cotton batting
down on the pile.

Here comes a lucky battery.

Not sure
if that's gonna work or not.

That's really hot.

Got me some smoke.

And let that sit.

It's very hot.

But I can't believe it works.

An l.E.D. Flashlight,
taking the back off,

attaching the wires
to each other,

and then simply turning it on,
and it was hot enough

to get that cotton batting
to ignite.

It's fire time, and I've
only got one paper match.

If I'm very, very careful,

I can split it
right down the center,

turn it into two matches.

Okay.

Here we go.

One match has now become two.

The whole point
of these crazy methods

is to extend your ability

to get a fire going
as often as needed

without using up your matches
or lighter fluid.

I'm gonna try something new
for getting a fire going.

I've got all the stuffing
from the coconut tree.

Add a bit of gasoline.

There we go.

This is a rescue tube --
diver's rescue tube.

And usually, things kept in it
are items like matches,

lighters, and often,
in my case anyway,

I have flares.

These things
tend to shoot really far.

Wish me luck, folks.
Here we go.

This is potentially

a dangerous method
for starting a fire,

but it does illustrate
just how important fire is

in a survival situation.

Whatever it takes,
you got to have a fire.

What happened there was
there's my flare.

See, you just pull down
on this lever,

and boom, you shoot the flare.

And normally it goes flying
up into the sky,

so I just had everything closed
in there with the rock up top.

Shoot that right into it.

Come on, baby, burn.
Here we go.

That's what I like to see.

And I'll bet you that would work

whether there was gasoline
or not,

so it's a good thing to know.

Flare, big bundle of dry tinder,
protect it with a rock,

and you've got yourself
a good fire.

So, I've got dried wood,
dry grass,

and little arctic flowers
that have already gone to seed,

so they're fluffy.

Sounds to me
like the makings of a fire.

I had often heard
that it was possible

to remove the projectile
from a bullet

and fire the powder
still left in the shell

into dry tinder to make fire.

The original pioneers did use
their flintlock rifles

to start their fires,
but not quite this way.

It proved to be
easier said than done,

and here in the high arctic,
it took several tries

before I finally noticed

a tiny glowing bit
of tinder fluff

waiting to be coaxed
into a flame.

Ooh.

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes.

Oh, man.

Hey, there we go.

100% cotton.
So, my bandana's 100% cotton.

That's a really good thing
'cause I'm gonna make use of it.

Just use enough
so I can still wear it.

What I want to do
is I want to rough it up,

break up the fibers so that it's
somehow kind of fluffy.

I've looked
around the desert here,

and I'm just not seeing
anything fluffy.

Lots of pointy and prickly
and stabby things,

but nothing fluffy.

There we go.

Just breaking up
these fibers nicely

so I can pull them apart
with my fingers.

I'll start off
with this small piece --

see if I can do it.

Hopefully, that'll do the trick.

Let's keep all this small stuff
right there ready.

Shove the cigar in.

Blow.

And I think
the beauty of this is

I might be able to actually blow
from the end of the cigar --

from the non-lit end --
to make this work.

Hmm.

This is gonna be tricky.

Here in mexico, it turned out

that the only piece of
non-synthetic material I had

was my bandana,
but it was worth the sacrifice.

And that's the secret
about anything goes...

...being ready to sacrifice
something to make fire.

I got fire.

Up next
is my number-one method,

and it wasn't easy deciding.

I had to go with a way

that I myself could pull off
fairly easily

and a way that didn't require
having anything more

than what the surrounding
landscape provided,

and the bonus
to my chosen method

is that the act
of doing it alone

would always warm me up,

even before I got the flames
of fire.

And the number-one method
in fire starting for survival --

my personal favorite --
the fire bow.

In the year 2001,

though I'd been successful with
a fire bow 1,000 times before,

it was here in northern ontario
where, for the first time,

getting this fire going
really mattered to my survival.

You know what?

I'm getting smoke, but my notch
is not close enough to the hole.

The dust
is just scattering around.

The temperatures had soared

during a record-breaking
heat wave,

and I'd been dropped off alone
for the first time ever

to film myself surviving.

I was nervous on all levels,
and nothing was working.

Even my bootlaces on the bow
were not performing as usual.

Aw.

My bootlace is broken.

I've doubled the bootlace
to hopefully make it stronger.

Boy, this is one of the toughest
I've ever had to do.

And you know, I've done hundreds
of these fires.

But this setup is not optimum.

It's not working for me
for some reason.

The bugs were bad
and there was not much to eat,

but still, I had to get fire.

This area was prone
to big storms,

and it wouldn't be long before
another one came in on me.

The days were long,
so I had plenty of daylight,

but time
was still running away,

and many hours passed
working hard at it

under the scorching sun.

Oh, god.

So close.

With cedar from trees
close to the shore of the lake

as my bottom baseboard piece,

I used poplar wood
for the spindle.

I started using my bootlaces
for the bow,

but they kept breaking on me

as I continued trying
different combinations of wood.

And every time I stopped,

I focused my eyes on the dust
I'd created,

hoping to see a little wisp
of smoke, but nothing.

If I don't get it this time,
I got to take a break.

String broke.

Down to one string.

You can see here,
out of desperation,

that I move my right hand up

and how tightly
I'm holding the bow.

I'm moving my hand up the bow

to keep the string
from loosening

and it's not working.

After five hours of attempts,

I'd broken all my bootlaces
and I had to start all over.

This time, I'd cut off
the bottom end of my shirt

and twisted it together

into a string
I could use on the bow.

Piece on the top that I used
to push it all down

is called the bearing block.

In this case,
it was just any piece of wood

that would fit
in my palm nicely.

Oh, man.

By the time I had finally got
the dust hot enough to ignite,

I'd spent
nearly 11 hours on it.

It's very important here
that I don't jump up...

...'cause I could
kick everything flying.

It's very tender.

Okay.

All right.

I got to be really gentle.

11 hours of effort
and 7 days of survival

were riding on this tiny
and fragile little ember

formed from the hot wood dust.

Not a very optimistic
beginning, I know,

but over the next 10 years,

I'd have a chance to attempt it
again and again

in places like mexico,

costa rica,
and northern ontario.

I've never had so much trouble
getting a fire going.

Oh, yeah.

Whoo!

Got my fire bow, which is
just a bow and this bootlace.

And a spindle --
straight and dead and dry --

and then to push it all down,
I've got this bearing block.

I can put the spindle
right up in here,

and I think I'll be able
to hold it down.

It'll be my bearing block,
basically.

Put a little hole in here
to start off.

Can see the edge out there.

And hopefully, that little notch
there will give it a place --

all the ash -- a place to fall.

Let's give this a shot.

Wish me luck.

I've always preferred
to go barefoot,

even in the snow,
when I attempt the fire bow.

I find that I get a good feel
for the baseboard

underneath my foot

and that I can manipulate it

and move it around a little
if I need to.

I always found that keeping
my big hiking boots on

added the risk of knocking
the setup flying

when I lift my foot off,

and thereby destroying
the little ember I was creating

in the first place.

And I come off it real careful.

Here we go.

Transfer.

When I first began filming
survival,

it took me over 11 hours to
create fire using the fire bow.

I was now able to make it all
happen in just a few minutes.

Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

There we go.

Whoo!
Touch and go.

Whoo!

Yeah. That is sweet.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's how it's done.

Having a fire changes
almost everything

in a survival situation.

It creates
psychological comfort,

cooks your food,
keeps you warm,

keeps away predators,
signals rescuers,

boils water,
making it safe to drink.

It can even be used
to make tools,

so it follows that one of

the most important
survival skills you can have

is the ability to create fire.

But not only create it, move
it, manipulate it, contain it,

and maintain it
over a long period of time.

These were my top five methods,
but truth be told,

I'd rather head out
into the wilderness

with a lighter
and a box of matches any day.

- Synced and corrected by Graveurexterne -