Everyone should know how to light a fire - you won't be lost with such knowledge. A real dude certainly knows how to make fire without matches. This is a survival skill. It is impossible to guess when you will need to make a fire, and there will be no matches at hand. Maybe your plane will crash in some wilderness, for example, somewhere in Alaska. Or, for example, you go into the forest and lose your backpack in a fight with a bear. After all, you may find yourself in very windy or humid conditions where matches are practically useless. It doesn't matter if these skills ever come in handy, but it's still very cool to know how to get fire, no matter what conditions you are in.

We get fire by friction
Making fire by friction is not for the faint of heart. This is perhaps the most difficult of the "non-match" methods of making fire. There are different ways of producing fire by friction, but the most important thing in this matter is which tree to use as a plank and a rod.
A rod is a stick that needs to be twisted back and forth on its axis to create strong friction between it and the board to produce a spark. If enough friction is created between the rod and the board, embers can be produced and used to light a fire. Poplar, juniper, aspen, willow, cedar, cypress and walnut are best suited for producing fire this way.
An important point: the wood must be dry.

Hand drill
The hand drill method is the most primitive, simple and at the same time the most difficult. All that is needed for that method is a tree, strong hands and iron patience. Applying this method, you will feel like a real primitive person. So, we get fire with a hand drill:
Collect the tinder in a compact pile that resembles a bird's nest. The tinder nest will be used to ignite the flame received from the spark that we have to extract. Such a “nest” should be made from a material that ignites easily, such as dry grass, leaves or bark.
Make a small indentation in the "nest". Cut a V-shaped hole in the fire board and make a small indentation next to it.
Place the bark under this groove. Smoldering coals from the friction of the rod against the board will fall on it - this will give the fire a chance to ignite.
Start rotating the rod. Place the rod into the indentation on the board. The rod must be at least 60 cm long for everything to work properly. Press the rod on the board and rotate it between your palms, quickly moving them up and down the rod. Keep doing this until embers form in the hole in the fireblade.
Fan the fire! As soon as you see the red coals, knock on the fire plank so that they fall onto the piece of bark located under the hole. Move the bark to your tinder nest. Blow gently and gently on the coals to start the flames.

Fiery plow
Prepare a fire board. Cut a groove in the board where you will put the rod.
Three! Take a rod and place the end of it in the indentation on the fire board. Start rubbing the tip of the rod against the walls of the groove in the board, moving it up and down.
Start lighting the fire. Arrange the tinder "nest" so that the smoldering coals, which will arise from friction, fall into it. As soon as you catch a coal, gently blow on it - and get a small tongue of living flame.

Bow drill
The use of a bow for making fire is probably the most effective of the friction methods because it makes it easier to maintain the high pressure and speed of rotation of the rod. There is strong friction required to make fire. In addition to the rod and board, this method will require a weighting material to hold the rod and a bow.
Make a weighting device. It is used to press on the end of the rod that is on top: the rod is moved by the bow and becomes unstable because of this. You can use a stone or a piece of wood to support the rod. If you are using a piece of wood, it must be harder than the shaft. It is very good to use water or oil as a lubricant to get things going better.
Make a bow. It should be as long as your arm. Use a flexible, slightly curved wooden vine. The bowstring can be made of anything, such as string, rope, or a strip of rawhide. One condition: it must be a durable material that will not tear. Pull the string and you are ready to start making fire.
Prepare a fire board. Cut a v-shaped hole, place a tinder under the hole.
Wrap a bowstring around the rod. Place the rod into the loop of the bowstring. One end of the rod should be in the hole that you made in the board, and the other end should be pressed with a stone or a piece of wood.
Start moving the bow. Move the bow back and forth in a horizontal plane, just like when you saw something. As a matter of fact, you have now assembled an elementary mechanical system. The rod should rotate quickly. Keep moving the bow until you have embers.
Make the fire burn Throw embers into the tinder and blow lightly on them. Ready! Now you've started a fire.

Flint and steel

This is the old method. It is always a good idea to have good flint and flint with you. Matches can get wet - and then they are of no use, but then you can still count on your flint and flint.
If these things are not at hand, no one forbids you to improvise using quartzite and a steel blade of a pocket knife.
You will also need a kindling material, usually cloth or moss. They catch sparks well and smolder for a long time without flaring up. If you do not have special material for lighting, then a piece of mushroom or birch bark is fine.
Fix the ignition material and stone. Grasp the stone with your thumb and forefinger. Make sure that the distance from the fingers to the edge of the stone is about 5-7 cm. The ignition material should be between the thumb and the flint.
Hit! Take a steel bar or use a knife handle. Hit the steel on the flint several times. Sparks will fly off the steel and strike the ignition material, causing smoldering.
Light a fire. Place the ignition material in the tinder "nest" and blow lightly on it to fan the flame.

Getting fire with a lens

Using a lens to light a fire is as easy as shelling pears. Anyone who melted plastic soldiers playing with a magnifying glass as a child knows how to do it. If you have never done such a thing, then here are the instructions for you.

Traditional Lenses
All that is required to create fire is a lens to concentrate sunlight on a specific location. A magnifier, glasses, or binocular lenses will work fine. If you add a little water to the surface of the lens, you can amplify the beam.
Rotate the lens at an angle to the sun to focus the beam on as small an area as possible. Place a "nest" of tinder to this spot, and soon a fire will break out.
The only drawback of this method is that it only works when there is sun. Therefore, if it happens in the evening or on a cloudy day, the lens will be useless.

In addition to the simple lens fire method, there are three additional lens fire methods that also generate fire.

Balloons and condoms
By filling a balloon or condom with water, you can turn these simple things into a lens that will help you get fire.
Fill a condom or balloon with water and tie the end. Shape the balloon or condom as much as possible. Do not inflate too much a condom or balloon as this will distort the focus of the sunbeam. Squeeze the balloon into a shape that will focus the beam. Try to squeeze the condom in the middle to form two smaller lenses.
Condoms and balloons have a shorter focal length than conventional lenses, so place them 2–5 cm away from the tinder.

Making fire with ice
Ice and Fire is not only a quote from Pushkin, which you probably recall from a school literature course. With a piece of ice, you can actually make fire. All you have to do for this is to shape the block of ice into a lens and then use it as intended, like any other lens. This method is especially good for tourists during the winter.
Get clean water. In order to make a lens out of ice, it must be transparent. If the ice is cloudy or contains any impurities, then, no matter how hard you fight, you will not get fire with it. The best way to get a clear block of ice is to fill a ball or cup with clear water from a lake, pond, or melted snow and let the water freeze. The block of ice should be about 5 cm thick in order to serve as a good lens.
Shape the ice into a lens with a knife. Remember that the lens is thicker in the middle and narrower near the edges.
After you get a rough shape lens, buff it with your hands. The warmth of your hands will melt the ice enough to create a nice smooth surface.
Start making fire. Place the ice lens at an angle to the sun just as if it were a regular glass lens. Concentrate a ray of light on a pile of tinder and see how useful it is to remember the quote by Alexander Sergeevich.

Coca-Cola can and chocolate bar
I saw this method in a YouTube video, which is quite an interesting thing. All we need is a Coca-Cola can, a bar of chocolate, and a sunny day.
Open the chocolate bar and start rubbing the chocolate itself on the bottom of the can. This polishing will make the surface of the tin bottom shine like a mirror. If you don't have chocolate with you, toothpaste works the same way.
Get fire. After polishing, you essentially got a parabolic mirror. Sunlight will bounce off the bottom of the can and focus on one spot. This is somewhat reminiscent of the principle of operation of mirrors in a telescope.
Turn the polished can bottom towards the sun. This will create a perfectly focused beam of light aimed directly at the tinder. Place the tinder about 2–3 cm from the focus of sunlight. After a few seconds, a flame should appear.
So far I cannot imagine that I ended up somewhere at the end of the world with a Coke can and a chocolate bar, but this method of making fire really works.

Batteries and natural wool

As with chocolate and a bottle, it's hard to imagine a situation in which you can find yourself in extreme conditions without matches, but with batteries and a piece of clean wool. But you never know how life will turn out. This method is very simple and fun, so you can try it at home.
Stretch the piece of wool. The strip of wool should be approximately 15 cm long and 1 cm wide.
Rub the battery with a piece of wool. Hold the strip of wool in one hand and the battery in the other. Any battery will work, but the optimum power is 9 watts. Rub the side of the battery with the "contacts" with wool. The wool will ignite. Blow it lightly.
Transfer the burning wool to the tinder. The wool won't burn for long, so hurry up!

Surely everyone has seen how in a movie or circus people hold a flame on their hand, or even juggle or throw it. And if they can be created using computer graphics, then in a circus it looks like a real miracle. In fact, this phenomenon has a completely scientific explanation and has received the name of "cold fire" among chemists. If you wish, you can surprise the guests at the holiday by making it yourself.

Let's define in terms

By non-burning flame, chemistry refers to an oxidation chain reaction in which glow is observed. So if you strictly follow the terminology, cold is not. It is used to create very spectacular special effects and some types of fireworks. A number of esters and acids, both organic and inorganic, are capable of producing cold flames. The most commonly used ethyl derivative of boric acid.

Often, cold fire is also understood as a visual "snag", in which the combustion process as such is absent. It is usually used not for magic, but for design purposes.

The most effective way to make a cold fire at home

If we consider the most famous option for creating a flame that does not burn, then it requires quite affordable ingredients. A spoonful of alcohol (medical or chemically pure, used for analysis) is taken. It is mixed with an equal volume of powder boric acid. It, like alcohol, can be bought at any pharmacy. A drop of concentrated strong acid - hydrochloric or sulfuric acid - is dropped into the solution. For the uninformed: this is poured into batteries, so getting it is also not a problem. The container with the workpiece is heated. The fastest and safest way to do this is in a primitive water bath. When the mixture is perceptibly warm, but not yet hot, you can start showing the focus.

If you have never made a cold fire before, you should not set it on fire right in the palm of your hand - if you do not have the skill, you will get injured. It is better to roll up soak it with the composition and only then set it on fire. The match (lighter) should not touch the thread ball.

Caution is above all!

The fire remains cold only as long as the ether formed by the reagents burns out. When it is over, it will deal directly with ethyl alcohol - but its combustion temperature is quite high. In addition, do not forget that the acid involved in creating a flame is a dangerous substance. So you should take care of the precautions:

1. Do not under any circumstances increase the acid dose. First, an explosive mixture can be created. Secondly, you can get a chemical burn by placing the ball in the palm of your hand.
2. Make sure that there are no hairs or edges of clothing near the ball to be ignited. An inexperienced magician may not catch the moment when alcohol ignites, and the things mentioned are highly flammable.
3. Keep a small, non-flammable container nearby to cover and extinguish cold fires when they get hot. Or use the trick above the kitchen sink to quickly throw it into it.

After a certain amount of training, when you have learned to control temperature changes to such an extent that you do not get burned, a non-burning flame can be ignited directly in the palm of your hand.

A safer option

You can make a cold fire in another way, although it will look less impressive, since the flame from it has the usual, not tinted greenish, color. A small piece of cotton fabric is taken, rolled into a ball and wrapped (or better, stitched) with threads so that it does not unfold. A shallow bowl is poured with low-temperature fuel, for example, isopropanol. You can take the so-called, but here you need to be careful: these liquids have different combustion temperatures, you can run into quite tangible ones. A tissue ball is dipped in fuel, wrung out and ignited. The lump will warm your hand, but if you roll it over your palm and between your fingers, you will only feel a pleasant warmth. And if you lubricate the place where the ball is laid out with cream, then you can keep it in one place. The only safety measure is not to touch the top of the flame - this is a guaranteed burn.

Short flame

There are other techniques on how to make a cold fire with your own hands, based mostly on the dexterity of the magician and small tricks. The easiest way is to implement two options:

Simulated flame

It remains to consider the cold fireplace fire. At home, not being able to lay out a real fireplace, many romantics do just that. A fan is placed in a box (maybe even a cardboard one) so that the air flow from it is directed upwards. LEDs and optical filters of red, blue and yellow colors are placed in the corners. There are mirrors on the sides inside. Triangles are cut from the fabric and glued to the box. The system plugs into the sockets - and the cold flame creates comfort in the room.

Some spectacular fire tricks can be shown with the help of improvised household tools and using quite simple methods. However, it should always be remembered that extreme caution and adult supervision is always required when working with flammable liquids. You can impress your friends with tricks worthy of a real circus show, or even fool them into thinking you are a real lord of fire. For more information, skip to reading the first step of the article.

WARNING: Be very careful. Handling flammable liquids without proper protective equipment is not recommended.

Steps

Gas lighter application

Take precautions. If you are going to perform this trick, you should take appropriate precautions so as not to set your house on fire and cause burns. To perform this trick, go outside, find an area of ​​free space without dense vegetation around and other combustible objects. In case you need to quickly extinguish the fire, you should have a bucket of water on hand, and you should also invite an adult to look after you while you perform the trick.

• If you wear gloves for protection, you should use old leather gloves or coated gardening gloves that will fit snugly around your hands and have a sufficiently strong surface in the palm area. While bulky, heat-resistant fabric gloves provide excellent protection against burns, the trick with cloth gloves usually fails and can even become more dangerous. Bulky, heat-resistant gloves often extinguish flames at the root, and regular fabric gloves can absorb liquid gas, increasing the likelihood of the gloves themselves catching fire and getting burned.

1. Make a fist, leaving a gap between your little finger and palm. Clench your fist, leaving enough space inside it so you can freely insert the end of the lighter. Your fingers should be clenched relatively tightly so that gas does not seep between them when you start filling your fist with them. The upper hole of the fist, where the index finger touches the palm, should be pinched with the thumb.

   • Try to imagine holding water in your fist and trying to prevent it from spilling out. The trick, in essence, is to fill the fist with gas and set it on fire when the hand is opened.

2. Insert the end of the lighter into your fist. Insert the end of the lighter with the chair into your hand deep enough so that you can fill the cavity created by the fist with gas. It is not enough just to bring the lighter to the lower edge of your palm, you just need to insert the lighter inside.

   Press and hold the gas button for 5 seconds. To start the trick, you must press the gas button. Don't strike a spark by turning the wheel of the seat, just press the button.

   • Different performers of this trick hold the button longer or less, depending on the intensity of the gas supply from the lighter, as well as on the size of the fireball required to create. For extra caution, it is better to stick to a time of five seconds, this is quite enough for the accumulation of the required amount of gas, giving a relatively brief flash of a fireball.
   • Once you get used to using the lighter during the trick, you can try creating a larger fireball by holding the gas button for ten seconds or a little longer if you like. However, you need to start small. This trick is dangerous, you should not try to jump above your own head.

3. Move the lighter away from your fist and light the flame. After the countdown of five seconds, you need to act quickly so that the gas does not have time to disperse. Move the lighter about 30 centimeters from your fist, and then light it by sparking and turning on the gas again.

   • Never strike a spark while the lighter is in your fist filled with gas. This is extremely dangerous.

4. Bring the flame to the hole in your fist near your little finger and open your palm. Quickly bring the lighted lighter to your fist, at the same time opening your palm and removing all fingers one by one, starting with the little finger. Act quickly. The gas will ignite and burn quickly. From the outside it will look as if you can "control" the flame, generating fireballs with your palm.

   • It takes some practice to get things done together. You need to fan your fingers away from the lighter, opening the little finger first, then the ring finger, and so on. If you open all your fingers at once, the gas may not ignite, and if you don't open your fist, you can burn yourself. Under no circumstances should you leave your fist clenched.

   Using a flammable hand sanitizer

   1. Be extra careful. This method describes a common party trick that is popular on YouTube, but should only be used with extreme caution and should only be performed under adult supervision. If you don't act quickly and safely, self-harm is not difficult.

   2. Purchase a flammable hand sanitizer. This type of trick involves setting fire to a small amount of disinfectant and quickly interacting with the fire, followed by immediate extinguishing. To perform the trick, you need to find the right alcohol-based disinfectant: look for "ethyl" or "isopropyl" alcohol.

      • It is very likely that some disinfectant fluids will contain many ingredients, others one or two, however, the presence of one of the above two alcohols in the product will make it flammable, depending on the presence of other components. Nowadays, more and more alcohol-free disinfectants are available that are not suitable for the trick. Be sure to read the composition of the product on the label, otherwise the trick may not work.

   3. Take proper precautions. The idea behind the trick is to spread a small amount of disinfectant in a thin layer over the surface and set it on fire, followed by very quickly run your finger over the burning surface and immediately extinguish it. It is very important to use gloves for this trick, you also need to have a bucket of water on hand to put out the fire if necessary.

      • Find a suitable heat-resistant surface to work on. To perform this trick, you should sit outside, preferably on a concrete surface, away from any flammable objects. The smoother the ground, the better. Clear the area of ​​all combustible objects: branches, turf, paper. You need to make sure that nothing other than the disinfectant will catch fire.

   4. Spread a thin layer of alcohol-based disinfectant over the concrete and ignite. Squeeze out a small amount of disinfectant and spread it evenly over the concrete using your fingers. Wipe off the disinfectant liquid from your fingers so they don't catch fire prematurely. While the alcohol has not evaporated, take a lighter and light the oiled surface. It should light up with a barely noticeable bluish flame.

      • It is better to perform the trick at night to make the glow of the flame more visible. However, the lighting should be sufficient so that you can understand exactly what you are doing. You can try the trick in the evening, when there is moderate natural light and the flames are already noticeable.
      • Under no circumstances do not lubricate your hands with disinfectant and ignite it on your hands. The trick works because of the speed at which you perform it, not because the disinfectant burns safely. Such actions will be extremely dangerous, you will get severe burns. Do not do that.

   5. Quickly slide one finger over the burning disinfectant layer. If you do this quickly, you can pick up some of the burning disinfectant with your finger, which gives a fleeting impression of burning fingers. After completing this step, you will not have much time to admire the spectacle, as you will get burns if you let your fingers burn for longer than 1-2 seconds.

      • You should feel hot or a strange combination of hot and cold. Hand sanitizer usually provides a cooling sensation that can be confused with heat. Either way, you won't have enough time to really feel something. You just run your finger over the surface, look at it for a second and extinguish the flame.