Fire by..........phone?!!!!

IMPORTANT NOTICE!!
Short circuiting Lithium batteries is apparently very dangerous and can result in the battery catching fire or exploding so only use this method in a true survival situation!!

I like to set myself challenges, so while out the other day I decided to see whether I could make fire with just the items in my pocket. The items from my pocket were a set of keys, my mobile phone, cotton wool from a small bandage and a small piece of wire wool.

I knew the cotton and wire wool could be used as tinders but I couldn't think of any way to use my keys or my mobile........but then I considered the methods I have previously used to ignite wire wool. I had no method to create a spark but I have used a battery with both terminals at one end to ignite it in the past and then realised that a phone (or camera battery) usually have such a battery inside.

I had never heard of or seen this demonstrated before I so I was rather sceptical about it working, so watch the piece of video below to see whether it did.

Poplar, wet tinder and a brew

Found this fallen Poplar tree while out walking.


The bark can be used as a bearing block for the bow-drill and I have used it to make floats for fishing nets.

The bark is also good to burn as it burns slowly, smouldering rather than flaming and gives off a a lot of heat (the end of a long piece can be placed in a fire and once smouldering, used to carry fire with you).

To make a fire for a brew, I collected a hand full of damp leaves from the ground and rubbed them vigorously between my hands to break down the fibres and remove moisture. I placed these on the ground and using flint and steel, sparked onto a piece of Crampball fungus and once glowing, placed it on the leaves. I then placed another handful of buffed leaves on top leaving a small cavity around the fungus. By gently blowing, the glowing Crampball produces heat and the cavity acts like an oven to hold heat and gradually remove moisture from the leaves. Eventually the leaves will dry sufficiently for a flame to appear.

Once the fire was sufficiently large enough to burn small fuel sized sticks, I added the poplar bark.

After the billy can of water had boiled, I was able to enjoy a cup of vegetable stock.

I also found a nice specimen of Artists Fungus on the fallen Poplar tree. When you mark the white underside with a blunt stick it turns black.


Here is a rather nice example I found on another website.