Making fire with a condom

While teaching fire craft at the World Scout Jamboree earlier this year, the most popular method of firelighting proved to be fire by condom.


Basically you put some water into a condom and tie the end. Then you manipulate the condom to form a lens shape.


Once you get the shape correct the result is instant. Personally I favour Crampball Fungus for this method of firelighting.

I've just found this video which demonstrates the method rather well.

Diagonal woven basket

Using Torjus' instructions here, I have been experimenting making a diagonal woven basket using strips of cereal packet.

Personally I found this quite difficult and certainly much more work than the other type of woven baskets I have made.

One for Mungo

Earlier this year I spent two weeks in Canada working with survival instructor Mors Kochanski,


working with schools in British Columbia, teaching children of various ages about nature and basic survival skills.

We taught them shelter building, navigation, plant identification and their uses and a variety of native crafts.

Club Moss

Club Moss is common on the forest floor at my cabin in Lapland.

After the first frosts of the autumn, the moss produces clusters of yellow spores which you can see above. These spore clusters are collected and after being left near the fire overnight, they open and release large amounts of spores.

When the spore powder is poured onto a naked flame, they produce a very explosive effect as you can see here......

In the past these spores were used my magicians as part of their act when on stage.

More information about Club Moss and it's uses can be found here

Willow/Grey Fire Bracket

While out walking I found several specimens of the Willow or Grey fire bracket fungus. The specimen I collected is almost identical to the one featured in my field guide (a text book specimen you might say!).

The native people of North America and Alaska used to (and I believe still do) dry and burn this fungus and use the resulting ash as an alternative to chewing tobacco.

Fish/Crayfish trap

Using the skills I learned on the basket making course last week, I have now started making a fish/crayfish trap.




Finally completed the trap today (Thursday 8th) and just need to test it now.

The cone was the most difficult part to construct.

Reed Mace/ Bulrush/Cattail

In America the Reed Mace/Bulrush is called "cattail". The Latin name for this plant is Typha Latifolia. The word Typha means "a cats tail".

Other uses for the leaves include what were traditionally children's toys made by the native people of North America.

The Cattail duck

and Cattail dolls


I used Birch bark to make the buckets for the "Milk Maid" at the back of this picture.

Here is a seasonal Cattail doll; a Christmas angel