Welcome! I hope you enjoy the forum, too. Feel free to jump in wherever and whenever it makes sense to you.

Fling set for May 21 at a private home in Antelope CA.

I recently decided to use one of the smaller measuring cups as a "Tinder Cup" seems to work well As you can easily collect your mag shavings in it without them blowing away to severely and it protects your tinder from the wind abit while burning. Also its easier to take the tinder to the fire if your not iginiting it right inside the fire.

Interesting. I like the protection idea.

Do you pour the lit "cup'o tinder" into your hand, your prepared fire, into a larger tinder bundle, or have some other technique?

I ask because I often have to compress, fondle / massage, and blow into the smoking tinder bundle to coax flame, which would be challenging if the tinder were left inside a cup.

The fire-starting, tracking, etcetera at Richard's house will feature some short presentations – you are welcome to do one if it is short and appropriate to fire-starting, tracking, cordage-making, or spoon / bowl burning. Expect active and friendly discussion.

Fire-starting opportunities will range from different types of matches and lighters, fire-by-friction [at least bowdrill and hand-drill], flint-and-steel [at least flint rock and steel, blastmatch, firesteels],, magnifiying glass [if sunny enough]and battery-steel wool. Other methods are welcome.

Tinders will include at least: cattail fuzz, usnea / old man's beard lichen, newspaper, fuzzed twine, wood shavings, crumpled leaves, dryer lint, cotton ball and pertoleum jelly, magnesium shavings, and commercial tinder tabs. Feel free to bring whatever you would like to try; this would be a good time to try out the stuff in you survival kit.

For tracking we are just going to dump some sand on the front lawn of Richard's house, maybe even in a frame! It would be great to see an informal discussion develop around the sand.