Congratulation. Good job.

Your understanding and appreciation of fire and what it takes to produce it has grown.

Way back I took a series of courses as a machinist. Everyone was itching to jump on the many large, expensive and impressive machines in the shop. there were several million dollars in machinery in that shop.

So after the first two days of safety basics it was something of a surprise to have the instructor walk in with a wooden box filed with chisels, hammers and files.

For the next week, four hours a day our job was to take a 2' long piece of mild steel rod-stock and using nothing but machinist vice, chisel, hammer and file to produce a one inch cube of steel accurate in all measurement to one one-thousandth of an inch. If you under-cut or gouged it you started over. It was a week of sore arms and hands. Of bloody blisters, frustration and sweat. Many bad words were heard. About a fifth of the class quit before the end of the week.

The point here, driven home by being surrounded by machines that could do the job in a few minutes, was to get a feel and appreciation for cutting steel and what the machinery does.

Learning to light a fire with a fire bow really gives you a feel for friction, heat, the production of a coal and how to delicately feed it with tiny bits of dry fuel and puffs of air.

Now you can stuff a couple of Bic lighters into your kit and when you use them you can contemplate how much time and trouble such simple, cheap and reliable devices save you. Should the situation present itself you can also take the kids out into the woods and amaze them by using your fire bow. It always goes over big.