Hygiene from Fire

Description

http://www.thepathfinderstore.com

Dave Canterbury, David Canterbury, The Pathfinder School,Bush Craft ,Survival skills, Historical Lore, Primitive Skills, Archery, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Navigation, Knives, Axes, Fire, Water, Shelter, Search and Rescue

Tags: Bushcraft,Survival,David Canterbury,Dave Canterbury,Pathfinder,The Pathfinder School,Archery,Hunting,Fishing,Camping,Primitive Skills,Fire,Water,Shelter,Navigation,First Aid,Search and Rescue,Signaling,Prepper,Preparedness,Self Reliance,Survivability,The 10 C's,Knives,Axes,Saws,Bow Drill,Ferrocerium Rod,Ferro Rod,Tarp,Hammock,Canteen,Cooking,Longhunter,Trapping

Video Transcription

okay so in today's video I wanted to discuss a little bit about personal hygiene this really wasn't about starting a fire starting a fire with an open flame ignition source like a lighter is a no-brainer that's why I carry a big lighter I've got a thousand times I could pop that thing into a flame and I'm gonna get fire and it's only gonna take up that much room in my pack and it weighs next to nothing so once we have this fire we understand that we can do lots of things with fire we can cook our food disinfect our water it's going to keep us warm and help control body core temperature we can signal for rescue we can't preserve our food we can sterilize metal tools that we may use for medicinal purposes and things of that nature there are lots and lots of things we can do with this fire but one of the things that I don't see covered a lot are the hygiene uses of this fire the smoke from this fire is antibacterial so if we let it saturate our clothes and permeate around our skin it will help to kill the odor causing bacteria that build up on a daily basis once this fire burns down we're going to have ashes and/or coal and charcoal and wood ashes our main components and lots and lots of things if you look at soap hardened wood ash is a key component in soap so you can use that hardwood ash to wash with to wash your skin you can mix it into your metal container your cup or what have you with warm water and you can use it as a washing liquid and it has some abrasive qualities that will also help exfoliate the skin and things like that

but it's a very good usable powder for that purpose you can use that as a powder by itself as a deodorant you can use it in your hair to help absorb some of the oils in your hair you can use it as a tooth powder mix it with water into a paste and it will give you a scrubbing powder that you can use on your teeth charcoal can be used in very similar fashions if you have charcoal instead of just the axe you can pretty much use them interchangeably the ash is going to be a little bit better in my opinion for sure usability and not having to crush up the charcoal but charcoal and ash are both used a lot especially charcoal is used a lot in hygiene products from soaps to tooth powders and things like that and then the ashes give you things that you can use in your hair things that you can use for liquid washing and then deodorant powders and things like that foot powders you can use it on your feet to help absorb sweat and things like that as well so ashes from your fire are a very very good resource for hygiene now one of the things that I want to discuss is I see a lot of references on the internet all over the place really and in books too using a branch as a toothbrush and your mouth can give you some of the biggest problems in any wilderness emergency or longer-term environment than anything else next to your feet and not being able to walk really your mouth needs to be kept fairly clean but at the same time you don't want to add problems and using a stick with splinters hanging off of it to scrub your gums imagine sticking a splinter up in your gum from that stick and having to live with that for several days when it would have been just as easy to take your bandanna or your cotton material and wrap it around your finger dip it into a paste of hardwood ash and scrub your teeth that way or just carry a toothbrush a toothbrush doesn't weigh hardly anything and it can be used for lots of things if it needs to be but a toothbrush is a very lightweight item that you can just throw in the bottom of your kit and generally what I'll do in my hygiene kit for a short term I rely on the bierce to be able to see my face and things like that see areas that I can't see I rely on a bone comb that's just a bone a comb that's made from bone material its horn to pull lots of things out of my hair if I need to and then a boars bristle or natural bristle toothbrush and that's a very very simple hygiene kit combined with ashes or charcoal and your metal container

you're carrying most of that most all the time anyway you have a rag because you have cotton material so you have a wash rag you have something you can scrub your teeth with and that brings us to the point of using the bathroom taking a crap in the woods I have a lot of people ask about that as well you know how do you take a crap in the woods what you used to wipe with all those things and there's lots of things that you can use to wipe with you can use plant material you can use leaves you can use snow you can use pinecones there's lots of things that you can use but really if you do things right you shouldn't have much to wipe to begin with and what I mean by that is when you go to do your business in the woods it sounds silly it sounds gross it's might sound stupid but I don't care when you squat down to do your business use your hands to spread your butt cheeks apart so you don't have all that stuff sticking to your skin and the hairs on your it's that simple then you won't have very much to wipe it's like a dog at that point then you can take your bandana and wipe your tail in with that and disinfect that bandana using your fire and your metal container full of water then you can use that bandana over and over again for other things or carry two bandanas one designated for hygiene purposes and one designated for other things that you may need okay so once our fires burnt down we've got ashes we're in business we can save those ashes if we want to set them aside in our metal cup or whatever the case may be or fold them up into a piece of bark and save them for later and we'll have that tooth powder or that washing powder or that deodorant powder or that hair powder that we need to help absorb oils with so that fire becomes another multifunctional resource for us that we can use for personal hygiene and like I said most of that kit you should already be carrying a cotton bandana a metal container a mirror on your compass those things you're already carrying with you anyway if you throw in a toothbrush you're not hurting anything by adding a bunch of weight or space to your kit that's all I'm saying it's not part of the tendencies because in the short term you can just use a rag on your teeth so it doesn't need to be part of the tennessee's but if you're trying to smooth it a little bit throw toothbrush in your kit it's not gonna hurt anything I'm Dave Canterbury with the Pathfinder school I appreciate this quick video on the uses of fire and the resources of fire for hygiene I've been back to another video as soon as I can I thank you for your views your support for everything you do for our school for our family and for our business follow our sponsors instructors affiliates and Friends and I'll see you on the next one guys