Fire making
Evidence for fire making dates to at least the early Middle Paleolithic, with dozens of Neanderthal hand axes from France exhibiting use-wear traces suggesting these tools were struck with the mineral pyrite to produce sparks around 50,000 years ago.
[4] Ötzi, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived in the Ötztal Alps between 3400 and 3100 BCE, carried material to make a fire (tinder fungus along with flint and pyrite for creating sparks).
Often in the form of a cigar and made of compacted tinder materials held within a tinderbox, a smouldering ember could safely be saved inside.
Successfully creating fire by friction involves skill, fitness, knowledge, and acceptable environmental conditions.
This repeated spinning and downward pressure causes black dust to form in the notch of the fireboard, eventually creating a hot, glowing coal.
The bow drill uses the same principle as the hand drill (friction by rotation of wood on wood) but the spindle is shorter, wider (about the size of a human thumb) and driven by a bow, which allows longer, easier strokes and protects the palms.
The stake is pressed down hard and rubbed quickly against the groove of the second piece in a "plowing" motion, to produce hot dust which creates an ember.
[18][19][20] A fire striker or firesteel when hit by a hard, glassy stone such as quartz, jasper, agate or flint cleaves small, hot, oxidizing metal particles that can ignite tinder.
Fire starters based upon ferrocerium are popular with Woodcraft practitioners, bushcraft hobbyists and survivalists.
Another common type has the ferro rod attached to a magnesium bar that can be scraped with a knife to make a powdered tinder that will burn for a few seconds.
These are simple to light, often using a wheel mechanism that when spun with the thumb creates friction on the internal rod of ferrocerium "flint" and throws a shower of white-hot sparks into the gas or wick.
Similar to how a Diesel engine works, rapid compression of air heats the interior to 400–700 °F, well above the tinder's autoignition temperature.
[25][26] Matches are small sticks of wood or stiff paper with a coating that undergoes an exothermic reaction when triggered by friction.
A current is run through the object until it is red hot, like the burners on an electric stove, and it is brought into contact with the tinder, lighting it.
