Hello,-I'm a Relative Newcomer to this Site and Forum. And certainly this Thread. I Have Many Years of Firebuilding Experience Behind me, and a "Sense of It All". Even if I'm Not yet Up on All of your Methods and Gadgets / Means,-I am Well Experienced and "Firesensed".

I Know One's Gotta "Guttily Go Along"!,-with the Moment to Moment, Conditions of a Firestarting Situation!,-One Can't just Merely and Doobily Go Thru the Obligatory Motions! -To Do That is a Real Hit or Miss Affair,-and It's of course Most Typically Often,-a Miss! -No Dang Wonder!,-that Such Firestarters often Don't Get It! -It of course Shud Not be a Matter of "Dah!,-I Guess I've Got to Put Another Stick on Now!" -But All Too Often,-I'm Afraid some Novice Firestarters are Under such Illusions and Spirit! At Least back in my Scouting Days and Troop,-a Good Enuf of my Fellow Scouts,-were More or Less Like That!

- Point I'm Driving At,-is that you've Got to Have the Materials, Means, Equipment,(If Only a Match!), and Techniques / Methods,-All Right,- -But you've Also Got to Have the Spirit and Sense of It All!,-the Leadership Guiding Over It and the Wanting To!

But the Firecraft Lackings Common among Many Scouts,-that I've been Much Reading of here Lately,-Has Begun to Become a Little Too Much!, for me. I Have to Make a Constructive Comment and Contribution.

And This concerns,-the Sizeable Prevelence,-for Whatever Reason,-of Sorry Firecraft and Firesense,-Among Many a Scout! I again was a Boy Scout once myself,-and I Know Well How at Least in my Troop,-a Lot of Fellow Scouts were Pretty Much just Obligatorily Going Thru the Motions!,-Heart and Spirit Not Really in It!,-Frankly Often just Goofing Around! So Much of Successful Firebuilding is WANTING to Build a Fire!,- Sure the Proper Materials, and their Relative Combinations, Timing, and Placement, -are So Much of It as Well. But Somebody's Gotta WANT To! -As Well as Have the Overall Sense, Knack, and Spirit of It All!

With Many of Them Not Really Wanting To!,-Thats One Major Reason a Lot of Scouts Don't Get Fire Prep, Starting, Control, or Maintenance!,-Down Pat.

Now Other Scouts are,-Really and Intently Enuf Trying to Get It.,-But Still Somehow are Off some of the Firestarting Wavelength. At Least They Do Want To,-and Are Trying To.

Here as Elsewhere,-It Comes Down to Leadership, Knowledge and Firesense, and a Sense of Working with Youth or Boys.

Someone of course Doesn't just Set Down Sticks in Any Old Timing or Way!, - Now when One Does Operate So!,-Just Doobing Steps and Sticks Down Any Old Way, -No Dang Wonder some Don;t Get It!,-and some Pretty Sorry Firestarting Efforts be Present!

It's a Sense and an Art,-Not Only a Pure Skill or "Science"! Once One Has Got That!,-as Well as the Requisite Amount of Correct Materials in the Right Placement and Combination,-One Quickly Finds that Firecraft is Certainly Not Brain Surgery,-Nor Nuclear or Rocket Science!,-( the Work and Attention that Can Go Into Making a Successful Fire,-Notwithstanding.)

It Comes Down to the Knowledge and Firesense Base of the Scoutmaster or Others in Charge,-as Well as of Course the Leadership, and Sense of Working with Boys. -All of Which I'm Sure you All Well Have.

Some Scouts could Care Less,-Others Care!,-but are Too Off!,-of a Truly Outdoorsy Spirit and Wavelength. You've Ventured what you Feel to be Likely Reasons for Such,-in Other Posts on this Thread. -Too Much "Citified" 21st Centurying,-is Quite Likely Going On! Even with All the Best Knowledge, Knack, Experience, Materials / Methods / and Means, Leadership, Firesense, and Other such Things as I may have Mentioned,-on the Supervisor / Instructor's Part,-You've Got something of a "Hill to Climb"!,-if you've Got to Work with either Disinterested, or Somewhat "Too Citified and 21st Centuried Up"!,-of Pupils.

And It's the Going Cultural Wave and All!,-They're Not Exactly Gonna Buck Up Against It! -Knowingly or Unknowingly. -If It Comes Down to an Awkward Conflict between their Scout Troop and It's Scoutcraft!,-on the One Hand,-and the Waves of Their Predominant Peer Society Out There!, on the Other, -Guess Which One some of Them are Going to Much More Likely Choose?!

Still I'm Quite Sure you've Got some Quite Exemplary Scouts!,-I Don't Mean to Suggest that All Scouts are "Too Citified, 21st Centuried Up, Non Outdoorsy, Disinterested, Sad and Sorry Firestarters"! I Remember some Great and Exemplary Ones!,Back from my Own Scout Days and Troop!

Keep Plugging Along!,-and Doing your Best by All the Boys in your Troops,-as I'm Sure you Well Already Do! As Always,-You'll Have Boys Who Readily Get It!,-and Others Who can Be Brought Upwards Toward Getting It!

Scouting and Scoutcraft was Born in Times Before Many of Us Had It "Creature Comfort Good"! Thats Why Many Scouts Naturally Fell in Synch and Line,-Back in Days of Old! And Thats Why some are Somehow Off It,-Nowadays!

I Don't Know How you Exactly Get Past That!,-It's a "Hill to Climb"! All I can Advise!,-is Don't Lose Heart Too Much!,-Things Oftentimes in Life Aren't as Bad as They Seem and Look!,-Keep Plugging Away!,-As Long as There's even One Boy Receptive to you There, or Elsewhere So!,-He Needs You!,-and You Eminently Have a Place!

In Short, Fire Sense and Craft Comes Down to Something More than Actual Means, Materials, and Methods, of Starting a Fire,-Vitally Important as All Such Are! It Also Comes Down to a Certain "Gut Sense" of What It is All About!, -and of a Really Wanting To!

This has Not been so much a Firestarting Nuts and Bolts Post,-as It's been a "Larger Sense of What It's All About!",-of a One.And I Apologize for any Repititions which may have Occurred here,-in my Drafting and Editing Process. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]billvann[/email]