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.
Survival – The Importance of Fire
While I was being told about this, standing around in our kitchen, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt since I hadn’t gone out yet on a Saturday, I reached in a pocket, pulled out a lighter and flicked it into life. No, I don’t smoke, I just understand that fire is really that important. I could have just as easily produced a knife or a flashlight, and I have an electronic compass in my casual watch and another in my phone. That’s lounging around the house, not going anywhere. When I’m leaving the house I carry more. If I’m driving or walking more than a block or two, much more.
Survival – Making fire without technology (or tools!) turns out to be easier than anyone thought
There’s a new, relatively easy way to make fire entirely with “primitive” (or found) materials, and it’s much, much easier than any other method I’ve seen over the decades.
Anyone who knows something about the subject of primitive fire-making will probably consider that incredibly unlikely, and possibly an outrageous statement. After hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of years of making fire with primitive materials new techniques simply don’t appear out of nowhere. Indeed, it’s very possible that this is a very, very old technique… even, just possibly, the first and oldest technique used by our ancestors to make fire at will, that it was very nearly lost in recent times, and is just now becoming known again.
National Geographic “Origins”, “Spark of Civilization”, another swing, another miss
I stayed up the other night (despite being very tired) to watch the premier episode of National Geograpic’s new series “Origins”, entitled “Spark of Civilization”, which promised to enlighten us as to the importance and origins of our use of fire as a species, a subject I find fascinating.
Exotac titanium nanoStriker
This is NOT A REVIEW, just a comment. I haven’t had the thing for long enough to wring it out, and, well, despite the assertions of some “experts” that some ferrocerium rods spark much better than others, so far to
The Tondeldoos/Tonteldoos reflects a rate of technical change…
I was looking further into the tonteldoos, and for the first time came across the spelling “tondeldoos”. Google Translate recognizes both as Dutch, but from my search results I suspect that “tondeldoos” is Dutch and “tonteldoos” is Afrikaans, at least
The South African Tonteldoos or Tondeldoos. No, seriously.
Recently I learned about a South African version of the tinderbox called a “tonteldoos” or “tondeldoos’ (as Dave Barry says, “I am NOT making this up”), which apparently dates from the late 19th Century and the Boer Wars. I guess
Prometheus unsung
Most people in the US are vaguely aware of the myth of Prometheus, that he gave fire to mankind. Fewer are aware that he is said to have stolen it from the Olympian gods, and that is probably a later