1 500 000, what is the meaning of this number ? 1,5 milion years ago the early humans started to use fire. Direct evidence limits this number only to hundreds of thousands of years, but even that is a long time. What did they use it for ? Primarily for heating up. To light up dark places and to defend from animals. In agriculture it has been used for deforestation. Just as we needed fire all those years ago, we need it today. There are situations where our life may be dependent on it. And for this, we need to know how to light up a fire. Do we know how to do it? Probably not by using sticks and stones, but there are tools that will help us.
For warming, cooking and defending
With the help of fire we can can defend ourselves in the nature from wild animals, it will help during cold nights and to heat up food and water. Do we know more important reasons why we should know how to light up a fire ? We can carry a firelighter, but it may not work or matches, but they can get wet. What seems to be the the right choice is a fire starter/flint but even with these tools we need to know how they work for the desired results.
Strike and nothing
A widespread possibility how to light up a fire is by using matches. They contain of two parts - head (fire starter) and matchstick (wood), that burns well. With the contact of igniter, it ignites and we get a fire. This is under ideal conditions, but outdoors, when there are windy conditions, it may not be as easy. Luckily nowdays we have matches that are windproof and waterproof. Such matches have longer heads that can ignite even during strong wind and rain. Their burn time is shorter then with standard matches, but the flame is bigger so they ignite better. Firelighters offer similar principle. But they can get wet or we run out of the fuel. Moreover, the gas lighters are not really friends with wind. We can then opt for other types of lighters, such as petrol lighters or others. Which ones are better ? Good question.
The oldest and most reliable
Ancient ways of starting a fire were firstly using sticks and then pieces of rock, which creates sparks. It may be dificult to find some pieces of rock and even much more difficult trying to start a fire using them. Especially when there are available modern fire starters. These firestarters are mostly made from magnesium alloy or ferrocerium. With the help of steel counterpart we create a sparks of temperature 2000oC, which then creates an ignition. In reality, it is a small rod with a striker on a lanyard. We wouldn´t think that such tool can avert some disaster. There are two types of firestarters, each works little differently.
Other possibilities
In addition to wide range of firestarters, matches and lighters, we can also find another products in this category. For example tinder sticks, which makes lighting a fire easy task. And we don´t even need that much of a tinder when we have some solid fuel (tablets). We can also come back to our roots by using special firestarters from unique pine tree that grows only in Central America. There are many possibilities, it is only up to us what we choose.