If you guys are out camping and there is a rain storm and you can not find any dry wood. What do you do? If the wood is damp, do you need to use a hotter flame source then a regular match? How do you start a fire after a rain storm? Thanks guys.

Split larger branches to get at the drier wood inside.

-Blast

Look in protected areas, such as at the bottom of a brush pile or the lee of some rocks. Also, stack the damp wood around the fire once it's started. Sometimes you don't need a huge fire to dry out more wood.

I recently got a firebowl for backyard s'mores making and fire building practice. I too am concerned with things like this because thus far I have not been able to start a fire using dry leaves and dry grass with a Magfire. I'm thinking that if I had to start a fire using only natural materials when the materials are the slightest bit damp, I'd be in big trouble!

In the "Prepared to Survive" DVD they suggest the splitting larger branches method to obtaining dry material. The dry stuff can be shaved and powdered to make nice tinder and kindling from what I understand.

A couple of things:

Preparation of fire making materials is essential. Make sure you have plenty of tinder (wood shavings, dry leaves/pine needles, cattail fluff, etc.), kindling (small-medium twigs, split branches, etc.) and fuel supply (larger branches, limbs, split logs, etc.). Have everything ready ahead of your fire making attempts.

Wood will absorb more water/moisture from end grain then side grain. Breaking off and discarding the ends of small twigs and branches should, combined with removing the outer bark and outer layers of wood give you the best opportunity to obtain dry(er) wood. Look for dead twigs and braches still in the tree, these should provided better fuel then wood laying on the ground.

Pete

If there are any evergreens, break off some of the lower, inner, DEAD branches, they'll be dry (unless it's flooded) and will burn like they've been soaked in gasoline, I did this one time years ago while in the field with a former SF Ranger... apparently he was asleep when they covered this in his training, because he was amazed that I, a mere mortal, could get a fire going in the rain <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

Troy

On canoe trips, my brother-in-law usually brings along a plumber's blowtorch. I've seen him start a health blaze in the middle of a serious downpour, under the edge of a tarp shelter. Feeding the fire with lots of wet branches kept it going.

Ors,

We have a Dutch Oven table in our back yard that we practice fire making on. With the leaves or dry grass try holding some in your hand with some sticking out the end. Then smash them against a rock or something hard. The grass will crumple into little pieces and some will be powdery. It will then be easy to light with your ferro rod. Remember only the fine, frayed, stuff catches a spark and starts to burn. The Magfire is great! Take a piece of scrap pine wood and whittle some thin curls. Once you have a little pile try sparking it with the Magfire. Try putting the end of the Magfire in the pile and scrapping down into the pile. It should light right up. Everyone in my family has been able to do it.

For wet wood, here is where a fixed blade knife and a folding saw come in handy. Cut a likely piece of wood to a usable length with the saw and then use the fixed blade to split the wood into kindling. Get some inner pieces and make thin shavings from it. Use your ferro rod to light the shavings.

With some treated cotton balls you can skip the thin shavings. With a few sticks of fatwood you can add them to your kindling to keep the fire going long enough to dry and burn the kindling. You have to get embers to have a sustainable fire. The embers heat the wood that vaporizes the oil in the wood and the vapors burn in the air as a flame.

I have read (not tried) that a candle lighted and surrounded with damp kindling will gradually dry tinder. Once a bit of tinder is burning use it to dry more and so on. Extreme patience would be required as well as some kind of shelter under which to work.
I like the idea of inner dead twigs on the lower parts of evergreens being dry and flamable. I need to try some of these techniques during next rain. Also, wet fire tinder or esbit fuel can substitute for candle.

Looking under the thickest of vegetation, trees, brush and such, sometimes I find good kindling. Pitch from pine might help get it going. I second what was said before here using evergreens.

I hike along rivers alot and this is a problem after rains. It is a pain, but I shave out sticks constantly to get them to burn and keep a fire going until embers form and then it gets easier. I do look for higher dry branches to break off, I'm a taller person at 6'5".. When hiking along rivers, I make it a habit now to carry along tightly rolled pieces of newspaper tied with twine and then dipped in parrafin. This has alleviated alot of the problem.