how to build
the perfect fire - a guide
Headed outside ready to build the perfect campfire? Our guide can be downloaded and printed for easy access offline and offgrid.
Headed outside ready to build a perfect campfire? This guide can be downloaded and printed for easy access offline and offgrid. Just follow our easy steps and have light, heat, and cooking facilities sorted all in one go.
What you’ll need
- Tinder (or fire lighter cubes)
- Kindling & Firewood
- Matches (long or short)
- Bushcraft knife
- A bucket (with water)
How to
1. Collect/carve tinder, or bring out your fire lighting cubes, and kindling (6” sticks). Build a tipi structure with your kindling leaned together over a big bundle of tinder as base.
2. Grab your matches and light the tinder/firelighter cubes. It helps to light the tipi structure in a few different places to get it burning faster. Add more tinder if the kindling takes a while to catch fire. As it burns, you can gradually add larger and larger sticks, and then firewood.
3. Some prefer to build large tipis with their firewood, while others build a square structure around their small tipi. Generally, the square "log cabin" structure is better for letting out heat, but a tipi is easier to make into a large bonfire.
Remember:
Only light fires where it is allowed, and never (ever) when there is a fire ban, or when it’s windy. Place your fire on gravel or sandy ground, with stones and gravel underneath and a ring of stones around it. The fire should not be placed on or next to a rock face, neither on peatland nor moss. Avoid starting a fire near trees, tree stumps, or dry grass.