David West says he’s a hobbyist, not a survivalist. His hobby is making fire with primitive materials. I’ll take that at face value, but I’ll add that I think it will become more and more apparent over time that anyone with an interest in primitive ways to create fire in the early 21st Century owes David West a vote of thanks.
He’s a tireless experimenter in this field. He has done a great deal to promote and expand knowledge of the Rudiger/Fire Roll, the rediscovery of which is of critical importance to survivalists. I don’t think anyone has experimented with as many combinations of fibrous material and “accelerants” as he has, but he also experiments with and advances our knowledge of many other facets of primitive firemaking, including hand drill and bow drill friction techniques, and has pioneered the important technique of “drying cycles” which enhances their real-world utility. It may be that much of what he has discovered is knowledge that has been long lost, but we live in a world that affords us very little opportunity to practice and learn things that were fundamental knowledge and daily practice going back to the Neanderthals and further. David West is single-handedly helping to expand the intersection of our knowledge and theirs.
I have no idea how many videos he’s posted, they seem to go on forever, but they are a rich mine of information that is vital to those who put a high value on being able to create fire in as many circumstances as possible, and spending leisure time browsing his videos is both enjoyable and time well spent. The world being what it is today, just knowing the utility of plastic grocery bags in creating fire in wet conditions is potentially of real value, and that’s the least of the subjects he has covered.
Highly recommended.
The David West Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/Bgood2ppl)
Thank you. Ashed tinder for coal extenders is my most amazing discovery. I keep touting it, but nobody seems to be getting it. A slow acting char cloth if you will… in the burn not the catching of a spark. Saturate any tinder with ashes and now the weakest of ignition sources, water bottle solat ignition, a tiny ember from a near burned out campfire, the spark from a spent BIC, etc…. Here’s my ashed tinder playlist. Than you! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkoXX8XsMW3mlY3P6FW8UH7_q1sY_xssX
Not at all, thank you for all that you have done for everyone with the core interest, and everyone having related interests. I understand that there’s a huge difference between pursuing your own curiosity and interests on the one hand and taking the time and trouble to record and publish it on the other, making it available to everyone (and, times being what they are, making yourself a target for anyone with an axe to grind… or who is just bored). Please know that it is appreciated.
Making fire has been a fundamental skill of being human since before we were fully human. We are (as Wrangham’s book points out) physically dependent on it, we have evolved around it, and although fire is artfully concealed in our machinery and infrastructure for the most part in the modern First World there are no guarantees. Even if most people don’t anticipate personally needed to know this skill now, we cannot afford for knowledge to be lost. We already have lost so much of it, discarded like out-of-fashion furniture even though it may become very valuable later… many of the skills of our ancestors were so much a part of their everyday existence that they never bothered to document them, never dreaming that in just a few generations the immediate need would be gone. I think the work you’re doing (in the form of a hobby) is very important.
I caught one video of solar ignition with ashed tinder, but I’ll watch the rest in the next few days and play with the techniques as time allows. I’m in the throes of packing and discarding in preparation for a move now, and I have little time to pursue my interests, but this too shall pass..
Thank You ! Excellent, exact info. Yes, David West is super, tireless in his research, learning, sharing, teaching fire methods. AMAZING ! I have been trying to contact him but he has never replied on any of my comments , suggestions (? )of offering my thoughts, thanks , appreciation for his excellent , well done demos, etc and all (?) I am a Ret. 59-82 Navy SERE-,POW, Jungle survival Inst /:VN Vet, now age 89 and still learning, sharing, teaching . I am not the old day ” Survivalist “, ha. I offer ” life saving skill knowledge ” to all. Everyone , from around the World are welcome to stop by, sit in the woodsmoke at my W. Colorado tipi camp. I have many friends around the World ftom the Arctic to Amazon . Learning , sharing , teaching skills has become my hobby not a true business ,, No. It is our lifestyle. I miss my good, ol friends like Jim Riggs, Larry Desn Olsen ,,Richard Jamison, Mors K, Steve Watts who taught this ol Sailor so much. ” Mtn Mel & Aussie Molly Blue ” THANK YOU all. ” Bravo Zulu “
Thanks for the kind words, and welcome, I hope you find more of interest here.
David West has honored our little blog with a visit behind the scenes. Very pleasant, but didn’t say a whole lot, quite understandable. He and I share something a bit unusual which is part of what originally attracted my attention to his videos, but it’s something I don’t talk about here, something that would reduce my anonymity, and he didn’t really open the conversational window far enough to bring it up without risk of seeming presumptive, so I didn’t. I’m surprised to hear that he hasn’t responded to you. I’d guess he’s probably a bit overwhelmed by people communicating with him. When you’re in the public eye there’s a big gap between the point where you can’t manage it all yourself anymore and the point where the (any?) revenue from the attention would compensate anyone else to do it.
I do find his work to be invaluable, almost all of it is pretty information-dense and relevant, but I’m especially grateful for his work in spreading knowledge of the Rudiger/fire roll along with “Boggy Creek Beast” and others. As far as I’ve seen they are all more than happy to credit each other’s work, although some of their supporters have also visited behind the scenes and can be quite nasty on the subject.
In any case, the Rudiger roll certainly works with more natural materials than store-bought cotton (and many “found” materials that we’re not likely to live to see get scarce), and it’s a mystery to me why it’s not mentioned more often or taught in more survival and bushcraft schools. Nor is it the subject of much rigorous investigation, I’d love to see how microscopic comparison of the fibers correlates with their performance, for instance, or exploration of how important the pressure from contraction of the interlocking fibers is.There are some obvious guesses as to why, say, polyester batting doesn’t work, and if confirmed that’s a big clue as to what else might.
I’m still avidly learning from the previous generations, and just a few weeks ago I picked up some valuable tips (need to write about those) from a Mors K. video I hadn’t seen before. Somehow in the past four decades or so the entire culture has lost a lot of respect for and understanding of the past and it’s painful to watch. It’s tragic to repeat ANY of the great mistakes of history, and nobody can survive repeating as many as we seem to be determined to ignore. All of our ancestors were survivors in some sense, and the vast majority faced hardships routinely in their lives that we couldn’t dream of handling today. To not learn easily-available information that they paid dearly to learn dishonors the very people who enabled our lives. Motion is change over time- you cannot know your direction without knowing where you’ve been.
In some ways I envy you your idyllic-sounding mountain location, but they have a saying here, “Mountain people are wise, ocean people are happy”. Having spent some time in a lot of different geographies I think there is some truth to that, so… maybe we took the easy way out.
As far as decades, I’m not far behind you. It’s been “a long strange trip”, sometimes I can’t believe how long, but… well, as I often say, I’m 24 years old… for about 15 seconds each morning, before I remember.
Definitely a fan of David West channel. Found out about him via a drying cycle video from Far North Bushcraft where Mr. West was credited.
What is David West e-mail Ed Prokop from PA
Sorry, for some reason I’m not getting email notices of all comments here- I’m supposed to. The only direct communication I’ve had with David West at the time of this writing is through these public comments. He did log an email, but I don’t know if he makes it public, and do not yet have permission to share it. I’ll see if I can find that he’s posted it on his Youtube channel.. failing that, you can ask him yourself right here.
Real OOPS on my comment..
Correction on my age , I am not 89 !
I will be #80 , 6 Nov this yr.
Ha, hope I can see 89 and still be learning, sharing and teaching . Thanks, ” Mtn Mel ” Deweese.