Au contraire, mon ami! By contrast, building a fire is a bedrock, absolutely necessary, fundamental survival skill. If by traditional, you mean a non industrial (i.e., no match, lighter, etc) but flint and steel, bow drill, etc. and natural tinder, I suppose it might be a peripheral kind of pastime. But you never know when a hobby might be useful....

Well yes, learning to light a fire is essential. I guess I worded that poorly. By traditional I meant with hand drill, steel and flint.
Although certainly nice to know, there is no excuse to be in the woods these days without proper modern firemaking equipment.

It might be worth noting that groups that lit fires using pre-industrial, matchless methods of creating fire often kept fires going for long periods and frequently developed techniques for carrying hot coals along with them when moving camp. Building a fire was not a trivial or an easy task under normal conditions.

I don't have much locally for museums but who knows? I can see someone who's seen intricate flintknapping, like myself, and wondered how its done. Definitely a highly skilled art. For now, to find the pathfinder video and maybe I can hit up google for other videos..

Its an interesting debate here. Traditional skills like firemaking I think are interchangeable with survival. While I agree with Stephen and I keep mostly all modern firemaking tools I still know (basic) flint/bow. I had even toyed with getting a "flint and steel" set - just for entertainment purposes mostly.

obsidian as I understand can be sharper than some blades and used in myan "swords" because it would flake off and bury itself in the opponents skin. Nasty! I think being in canada too, my best bet is obsidian from out west. It'd be nice to have enough skill to make a basic sharp edge if needed and try to learn the skill as a hobby/skill.

I ended up with one of those old school steel horseshoe steel flint thing-a-giggys as a gift. Really hard to use on a good day let alone when the weather is not playing along. In the old days, I am assuming people were so darned good at it because there just wasn't any other option.

I am willing to bet if I could travel back in time and trade my lighter with one of the early pioneers they wouldn't refuse. After all, the reason no one uses bowdrills, steels and the like anymore is because we invented something a hell of a lot better. Lighters, matches and the like are just to easy to acquire and use to not have some on hand, plus a modern type firesteel JIC everything else gets wet.

But, that being said. There are some who still do it for fun, nostalgia, hobby or other reasons (althought I am willing to bet anyone who takes a bowdrill into the woods still has a ligter stashed away somewhere)

Ray Mears has a lot of good watching/reading with the more primitave arts. A lot can be found on youtube.

oetzi was carrying one or two birchbark containers insulated with leaves and holding an ember from his last fire. there was evidence that he had previously carried pyrites, which will spark with flint. Oetzi used the best technology available-copper axe, imported flint, carefully selected plant products for each application. If oetzi wanted something easier than flint and iron pyrites, I do, too.

feros rods and new flints are definitely a world appart. I keep a large firesteel in every kit except my edc. Its even good for just starting a campfire or small bbq.

They'd have ot be out of their mind to refuse a nice zippo lighter or butane lol
There's something to be said about a flint/bow.. Maybe I like to collect odd skills. (I happen to also like knife throwing, and lock picking).

Yes! Les Stroud (Survivorman), or Bear Grylls made a tinder bundle (I think that was the term) and kept his fire going from one camp to the next. If I remember he either was too tired or it was too late to make a new fire anyways (through bow/flint like he usually does). Thank you for that article nurseMike, I definitely enjoyed reading of oetzi life and tech. Thank you Stephen, someone mentioned Ray Mears to me a while back in a game I play but couldn't remember his name....
I think I'm going to download some shows tonight lol

Sounds like Oetzi had been to Bronze Orientation Day..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EGAtLGDU7M