| To keep healthy a person must stay warm. A person should never enter the woods without proper clothing that would keep them warm if they needed to stay overnight. If you go into the woods you need to know some basic firestarting skills. A good thing to have in any survival kit is basic firestarting materials. Waterproof matches are great, but you can only use them once. Flint and charcloth will last a long time but are very hard to use. Between these two is the sweet spot, something that lasts along time and is fairly simple to use. My favorite in this group are Magnesium blocks with a striker embedded in one side. |
| With these blocks you shave off some magnesium and take the shavings and mix them in with your tinder which is small material that lights easily and burns quickly. Then after you mix in your magensium shavings you have to cut some more shavings off and place right beside your tinder. When this is done you can turn the striker on the magnesium block to were it is on the top then take your knive and scrape it with the blade perpendicular(or at 90*) to the striker toward the tinder. This may take a few trys but when you light your tinder but when you do it is time to stack on you kindling. There are several methods for stacking your kindling over your tinder, a few of these are pictured above. |
| Fire is also necessary for preparing food correctly. By cooking meat you kill most of the bacteria within it. If you plan to cook over your fire you need to burn plenty of fuel or larger logs so that you have plenty of hot coals to cook over instead of just searing the out side of the meat. Before you cook an animal it must be properly cleaned, all entrails removed and the skin removed. Fish need to be scaled an have their fins and tail cut off, the head is optional |