Picking Campfire Kindling

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is John Stewart, and this is how to find kindling for starting a fire. There's a few things that fire needs to burn. The one thing is fuel. To get your fire started, you're going to have to have some kindling. Kindling is very small pieces of wood that is very, very dry, and that'll ignite very easily. This can include hardwoods, softwoods that are dead, really dry; they're not wet, and you want to find a lot of these, because when you build your fire you want to start small, and then get bigger. So when you're looking for kindling, you just want to go around; find stuff in open daylight sun that's been baking pretty much. Find some small stuff, get you a handful of it, and then get some that's a little bit bigger, okay? Your kindling's always going to be smaller twigs, small branches; no big logs like that or anything. Other types of kindling can be fire sticks that light, ignite very, very easily, and they keep a flame. Other things is your igniting pieces, like cotton, pieces of material that might burn very easily, and catch a flame real easily, and hold that flame. But pretty much, when you find kindling, you always want to look for really small stuff. This is very small stuff that'll help get your fire started. Always look for really dry stuff such as pine straw, pine cones, and stuff like that will help you get your fire started. And this is how to select kindling for building a fire."