Bushcraft and Survival Skills

Items for use as tinder (must be completely dry)

• Birch Bark
• Shredded inner bark from cedar, chestnut, red elm trees
• Fine wood shavings
• Dead grass, ferns, moss, fungi
• Straw
• Sawdust
• Very fine pitch wood scrapings
• Dead evergreen needles
• Punk (the completely rotted portion of dead logs or trees)
• Evergreen tree knots
• Pine Resin
• Bird down (fine feathers)
• Down seed heads (milkweed, dry cattails, bulrush, Canada thistle, goldenrod, dandelion)
• Fine dried vegetable fibers
• Spongy threads of dead puffball
• Dead palm leaves
• Skinlike membrane lining of bamboo
• Lint from pocket and seams
• Charred cloth
• Waxed paper
• Outer bamboo shavings
• Gunpowder
• Cotton
• Cotton Balls
• Cotton Balls Rubbed With Vaseline

• Small twigs
• Small strips of wood
• Split wood
• Heavy cardboard
• Pieces of wood removed from the inside of larger pieces
• Wood that has been doused with highly flammable materials such as gasoline, oil, or wax

• Dry standing wood and dry dead branches
• Dry inside (heart) of fallen tree trunks and large branches
• Green wood that is finely split
• Dry grasses twisted into bunches
• Peat dry enough to burn (this may be found at the top of undercut banks)
• Dried animal dung
• Animals fats
• Coal, oil shale, or oil sand lying on the surface

Characteristics of Various Fuel Fire Woods