Hey guys,
How do you setup your tinder. I was thinking of making a square pattern and putting a hexamine tab under it. This seems like it would like nicely. How do you arrage your wood when lighting a fire. thanks.

Hi,
I like to put the tinder first then small stuff and kindling in
a tepee fashion,then a square or triangle log cabin arrangment around that.Once thats going good I add larger wood. "those of us who live by the sword,get shot by those of us that don't"

patton,

Great question!

I have asked it myself to see if there was a popular answer. There seems to be two popular answers: dump the tinder on the ground and feed bigger wood as needed, the second is to build a fire lay in different shapes.

You should try all of the different procedures that seem good to you and pick the one you like the best. The tepee is one of the best but is easily knocked over when you try to light it with a ferro rod. A modified version with a fat stick stuck in the ground works better. My favorite is the one in the Ritter PSP instruction sheet.

An air space under the fire lay really helps a lot. Here is what works best for me: Get or cut a wrist size piece of wood. Make a row of finger size sticks lined up at 90% to the big piece of wood. Put your tinder on the row of sticks. Place your kindling over the tinder, setting against the big piece of wood making an upside down V shape. That is the opening to start your tinder. If you want you can take a piece of cotton ball tinder and wrap it around the end of a stick and use it like a big match to light your fire lay though the upside down V space.