Building a fire is very much just that - "building". You start with "tinder" which will light with, say, a match but burn long enough to ignite the first stage of kindling. The first kindling should be matchstick diameter or smaller. As someone else mentioned, the dead twigs near the bottom of evergreens are usually fairly dry and burn well. After this point it really doesn't matter how wet the rest of the wood is, as long as its not "punky" (rotten).

From there, you just work your way up gradually to larger and larger diameter sticks. One trick is to select a large dead branch and start at the small end with the twigs and work your way towards the larger end as the fire gets bigger.

Don't think "log" when you think about a survival or camp fire. And certainly don't think you're going to go straight from tinder to a single flaming log, even with a gallon of gasoline to help. In fact, a single log alone will soon end up just smouldering. You need the combined heat of several pieces of wood to keep a fire going.

Most likely, you'll never get over 1" diameter or so. Why? I don't know about you, but how big a stick can you easily break over your knee? Over and over?

Now, if you do need to keep a large fire going, there is a trick for burning larger wood without having to saw it into smaller lengths. Just lay the end of the large branch or dead tree across your fire and let it burn off a 1 foot piece or so. Move the branch in another foot and lay the seperated piece across it. Repeat. It helps to have three or four pieces feeding in at the same time from different angles. Remember, you need more than one piece of wood burning to keep it going.

- Tom S.