Inner Bark Tinder Bundles; Smokeless Fires; First Aid For Young People | AskPaulKirtley 76

Description

Welcome to Episode 76 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about how to use the inner bark of sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, for tinder bundles, ideas for minimising smoke from fires, first aid for young people, and some thoughts on every day carry (EDC) items…

TIMESTAMPS:

01:24 Using inner bark of sweet chestnut for tinder bundles…

09:21 Ideas for minimising smoke from fires

13:52 First aid for young people (and some thoughts on EDC)

LINKS MENTIONED:

Essential Wilderness Equipment - 7 Items I Never Leave Home Without

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2010/essential-wilderness-equipment/

#AskPaulKirtley Episode 38 – Carbon Steel Knives & Flint, Boots, 3-Season Sleeping Bags, How To Know When You Know Enough, Plus My Take On A Survival Scenario

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2016/askpaulkirtley-episode-38/

How to Build a Survival Kit on Bushcraft Principles

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/bushcraft-survival-kit/

How To Tie A Double Fisherman’s Knot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yHID-WBLqs

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Tags: bushcraft,survival,wilderness,camping,hiking,outdoors,question and answer,advice,questions,answers,bushcrafting,nature,self reliance,self sufficiency,outdoor skills,outdoor knowledge,Paul Kirtley,askpaulkirtley

Video Transcription

in this episode of a sport curtly we're going to talk about extracting tinder from inner bark minimizing smoke from fires and first-aid training for young people

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welcome welcome to episode 76 of ask Paul curtly where I answer your questions about wilderness bushcraft survival skills and outdoor life in general now I'm back in the South of England and it is still warm here as I record this in the UK we have had weeks and weeks of fine warm weather I know it's bothering some of the farmers it's causing a lot of the grass to be very dry but here in the woods it's nice and green the sun is shining and it is very very pleasant indeed without further ado then let us have a look at today's questions the first one is from Andrew via the speakpipe facility on my blog that's where you can go to my blog find a sport currently in the main menu go down you can press record you can leave me a voicemail which is a really efficient way of leaving a message and it's nice to hear people's voices as well I always like getting emails and messages etc but I think there's something quite special about getting a voice message like this one hello Paul this is Andrew I have a question regarding extracting tinder material from the inner bark sweet chestnut which I've read about but I've never had any luck finding it it just seems very flaky or there's not enough it's very laborious so it's much easier to go and find dead Bracken or honey suckle but I'm determined to try and do it I presume it's the same part of the plant that on the green wood when it's alive we use to make cordage but yeah so I thought you were the man to ask if you have any tips and techniques for making that process any easier thanks in advance

great so if you're not familiar with the species that Andrew is asking about sweet chestnut that's kaznia sat over it's a Southern European species of edible chestnut quite similar to American chestnut not at all related to horse chestnut though conquers you know what we're talking about the edible chestnuts that you would roast over an open fire as the old Christmas song goes that you would make a stuffing from that you would make chestnut puree from that type of chestnut and it has been quite widely introduced and the inner bark is quite fibrous and so as Andrews alluded to you can take the inner bark and you can make cordage with it you scrape off the outer bark and like willow you then use that inner bark for making cordage you can also make baskets and containers from the bark in the same way that you might use ash for example so it's a useful species from that perspective to make tinder from that same material you have to get the material in a different condition so whereas you might collect the bark off a green living plant for the cordage or for the baskets what you want for the tinder is you want a tree that is dead and you want one where the bark is starting to rot away from the trunk it's better when you've got quite large examples rather than really small thin material and it's similar with oak for example you you you can take the inner bark of oak and use it for making a bird's nest tinder bundle where you might take an ember from a bow drill set for example and blow that into flame that's the sort of thing that we're talking about just in case people are wondering what on earth Andrew is asking about and what on earth I'm talking about so we want to make that kind of bird's nest

tinder bundle that that fluffy literally like a bird fibrous material and where we may have broken it up and buffed it up and the way to get that from sweet chestnut is you find a downed tree typically that has been down for some time a number of years and what you'll get particularly on the underside of a horizontal limb a horizontal trunk is you'll get the bark starting to rot away it's exactly the reason we don't collect firewood from horizontal pieces if we can avoid it we want dead dry standing wood because you don't get a lot of water penetration into the into the wood where as soon as you've got something that's horizontal you get gravity pulling water into the wood and you also get water running around and pooling under this and dripping off the underside as well as getting into cracks in the bark as they form and pooling inside between the the wood and the bark and if it's on the ground you also get moisture being trapped there as well so you you've got this rock damp environment where things start to rot and break down and so if you're finding the bark too difficult to remove that's because it's not in the right condition and if it's if it's dry it doesn't come away very easily you actually want something that's quite damp and quite rotten where all of the barclays outer bark included just comes off and you can pull it off and then once you start getting it and you can sort of tear it along and you get a strip of it and when you find the right piece it just comes off really easily and then you turn it and look at the inside and you will see a kind of dark orange e red maybe burgundy coloration if it's still quite a light color it's probably still quite integral and quite integrated as a fibers and the remaining inner bark what you want is whether inner bark has started to rot away and you can scrape and pull the fibers out quite easy and they tend to be like an orange E red color at that point a bit darker when they're really wet and so you're then pulling that away you can scrape your fingernails along across the fibers and just pull it right out and it comes away a nice big strips it's something I do on some of my courses because

it doesn't just teach you about sweet chestnut although it teaches you specifically about sweet chestnut and but I also appreciate that that isn't the most widespread of species you don't get it much in the north of England for example the Scotland and you don't get it much in the north of the northern temperate and you certainly don't get it in the boreal but where you do get it it's useful and but also it teaches you that principle of how to take an inner bark and as I say there are other in a box that you can use whether the certain species are poplar whether the certain species of oak and there are others as well where you can remove the fibers but the you tend to want to have the bark still attached to the trunk but rotting away so that it's kind of pulling away and it's the same with if you wanted to use some of the Tilia species of the bass woods and the limes again you want them outer a bark to be starting to rot away and the inner bark starting to separate from the wood and starting to disintegrate a little bit and I've got the Sun right on my face there Sun in my eyes

and that's probably playing havoc with a video camera and it's certainly making me me squint but it go around behind that next spruce tree in a second but that's how as how you do it basically you need to find it in a rotten condition Andrew pull away a big sheet and then strip out the the fibers from the inside I'll see if I can I can make a video about it at some point I'll add it to my list because it's one that isn't obvious which is why I include it even in some of my basic courses because then you know the obvious things like Bracken and honeysuckle etc people remember that and it's not too much of a leap for them to understand other materials that are like it but even if I've shown people Bracken and honeysuckle and some of the other fibrous materials and plant fibers etc and it's not obvious how to get the materials from inner box which is why I show one on some of my courses so I think I might make a video on that at some point but hopefully that description has helped you understand it's about the condition that the Box in really damp and starting to disintegrate and rot down and you should be able to pull those fibers out nicely and let me know how you get on minimizing smoke from fires this is question via instagram using the hashtag ask paul curtly and his question is dear paul this picture was taken at the annual mayor bill's bonfire festival on the island of Texel where I live in the Netherlands unfortunately I cannot go there anymore because the smoke axe and as an asthma trigger which I must try to avoid if possible however I would still like to be able to practice some Phi lighting techniques and then of course the use of fire for cooking heating and social gatherings does this with it doing this with as little smoke as possible is my priority where do I start there are so many aspects to fire all the best

eles okay well I'm just thinking about smoky fires people will know me or know why that's funny and people who work with me smoky fires tend to occur because of moisture in the wood that's the primary reason if you're going to put somewhat damp wood on a fire it's going to more often than not be smoky because you get that incomplete combustion you can also of course get smoke from resins and other materials in box in particular and so one of the things I would say is to minimize smoke is to make sure the wood is as dry as possible dead standing that has been seasoned it's been dead for some time it didn't just die last week because dead standing wood that's been dead for a week is still going to be full of moisture so it needs to be dead standing and dry that's a good place to start as I say some barks can be quite smoky and I've noticed as well that barks with some lichens growing on the outside can be quite smoky as well so one thing you might want to do is minimize the amount of bark that you're burning maybe just take it off with an axe just scrape it off or what-have-you to really minimize the smoke if it's really going to bother you because I find going back to sweet chestnut for example around here there are certain species that grow on the bark and I find even if the woods quite dry that so decomposing bark that can be again maybe a little bit damp but pretty much dry with these lichens on the outside tend to be quite smoky even if the woods dry taking that off you get a much cleaner cleaner burn so that's something you could do outer-box can be a little bit damp anyway even if the woods dry so it's another reason to to remove them and then you will want to avoid burning some of the species where you're going to get acrid smokes because of because of the the resin in them so just looking around here there's Scots pine and there's noway spruce here both of those I don't like burning in relatively confined spaces because they tend to be quite smoky if you look at the smoke that comes off them if you put a billy can over them for example and burn them you tend to get quite a lot of resin black residue more even than some other woods and that's because of the resin in there so I would avoid the resinous needled species in particular and I would try and stick to hardwoods and I would stick to hardwoods burning them without the bark on and making sure that they're dry and that's more effort than it is for some of us but if you want a really clean fire those are things that I would be looking at in particular non resinous woods that are really dry and don't burn the box and you're gonna have a lot better results so you know willows Oaks fruit woods apples that type of thing and Hawthorne Beach that type of wood that's really dry you should get a nice hot clean flame from and then of course make sure it's getting plenty of oxygen as well making sure you've got that balanced the fire triangle heat fuel and oxygen making sure that that's in good balance so that you're getting a good clean full combustion or full of combustion as possible 2 min the smoke hopefully that helps first aid for young people and this is from Roberts and Robert asks this by email by the way that's another way of sending me a message what level of first aid would you teach 12 year olds I wanted to take a couple of classes and I wanted to take the kids with me on your EDC everyday carry in town and Bush what do you carry on your person and you ask I'm not sure if you're asking about first aid kit there or just general I can sort of answer both in brief and but to the main question first day for young people I would teach them the basic life support you know so you know if you're talking about outdoor first-aid go and do a an outdoor first outdoor oriented first-aid course that covers basic life support so your danger response airway breathing circulation that stuff is is the core of any first aid and you know there are cases where kids have used that or have been aware enough of medical conditions that they have phone for help and done the right thing in the mean time whether that's put somebody in a recovery position or or whatever it is I think that basic life support that basic first responder knowledge you can teach that to kids of course there are some you know aspects that might make them a bit queasy you know we're talking about bleeding and what have you I know some trainers show some quite graphic photographs of accidents and wounds and things to try and get you in the right mindset and to give you some experience so that it's not such a shock to you when you might have to deal with like a series bleed or what have you but you can talk to the trainer about that and I'm sure any good trainer would be sensitive to the fact that they had say a 12 year old in the class but I remember doing some basic first day training when I was in scouts around about that age and it was it was really really useful and you know that that basic understanding of preserving the airway making sure people are put in a recovery

position or that the airway is protected that it's opened etc that to see whether or not someone's breathing at what point to go and get help to be able to deal with wounds and bleeding etc that's all really really core stuff and it doesn't change the more advanced you get there might be more advanced techniques around that but the basics are the same so I would I would just go there and do you know a couple of days of basic life support first responder style training whatever it's called in your territory or your locality and and go from there so as to your other question about everyday carry well I've I've answered that in a way in the past I've got an article that I wrote called the 7 items I never leave home without and that's very much aimed at being out in in Wilder places and that's something that I think I can refer to I'll link to it under the videos in the show notes as well as I'll put a link on the YouTube video so that you can link to that article and don't get too fixated on the exact make and model it's more a case of the principles like I like a good strong belt knife a metal mug so that I can boil water a water bottle so that I can store water for example and there are a number of other items there you can see that so that is my thinking on some key things to have what I always like to have in my pocket is some sort of pocket knife and some sort of fire lighting device normally a Ferro rod or fire steel or however you like to call it and I'll typically either have a locking pocket knife or a Swiss Army knife depending on where I am and what I'm doing in my pocket now if you're asking about first-aid kits specifically and I mean I wasn't sure if you were talking about first-aid kits from an everyday carry point of view I do tend to have a small cuts kit on me definitely in the woods often in town when I'm also out with more than just myself I will have a small kit with me for dealing with maybe other people's issues if I'm on a more serious wilderness trip will have a bigger kit with me so it depends on what I'm doing and it's the same with you know what's on your person if I'm doing a canoe trip but then I'm gonna have a buoyancy aid on a PFD or whatever you want to call it and in there I'm gonna want a rescue knife I'm gonna want a a lamp I may have other rescue gear like carabiner and some tape and other bits and pieces that I can use while I'm on the river and if I'm on a wilderness trip and specifically where it can be an issue if I'm separated from my boat particularly if it's only me and one other person on the river in one boat if that boat gets stranded if it gets pinned somewhere and we can't get it I want to be on the riverbank with a belt knife and a saw and a means of lighting fire and a few of the bits and pieces on my person and I've answered questions about that on this show before I'll see if I can link to one of those somebody asked me about scenario quite a while ago I think was Andrew Casey asked me about scenario of being separated from a canoe on a river trip in a wilderness situation and I talked through what I might do in that situation with the things I would likely have on my person and I will link to that in I can link to the YouTube video on the video here and I'll link to the relevant episode of a spork early in the show notes below as well um so yeah there are some core things like a pocketknife and a firesteel I might always want to have on my person but then it's also situationally dependent you know if I'm out in the woods and I'm working with an axe I wanna tony kaye and a field dressing on my person maybe I've just got my normal small cuts kit when I'm using a knife but then if I'm using an axe or a machete or parang in a more tropical situation

I want a tourniquet and a pin and a first field dressing on me so that I can deal with any wounds and hopefully sufficiently well to to contain them and also particularly if I'm working with other people who are also using those similar tools I want to have those on me at least as well so I think in terms of everyday carry it's very difficult to put one set together that deals with every single circumstance without ending up with a massive kit but there are some core things that I always like to have on Mina I think I've explained those and then there are some core things I like to have on me in different situations that are specific to those situations and those situations are not going to take you by surprise if I'm doing a two-week canoe trip I know I'm going on a two-week canoe trip and I will take suitable survival rescue emergency gear with me for though you know I'll take an expedition first aid kit I will take a satellite phone and spare batteries I will take the things that I've talked about in terms of buoyancy aid etc whereas if I'm doing a hiking trip I'm going to take a different set of equipment because I'm in a different I'm not in a river I'm not around Rapids I'm not in the same situation similarly if I'm in the mountains in winter I'm going to have different survival equipment with me so what I might have if I'm in the forest in the summer I'm putting myself into those situations and I know with every day carry you're probably talking about small items on your person those small items on my person typically tend to stay the same as I say another one on my blog you might want to look at is my concept of building a possible pouch if you like rather than this concept of building a survival kit and then having everyday carry items I explored this idea of sort of thinking about what you might want to have with you that you're using and putting together a kit that is items that you can use everyday that you're not going to diminish and that are actually more useful to you every day but it also could serve you as a survival kit as well and I'll link to that on the YouTube video and below as well so that that doesn't answer the question cleanly I know that but there are different parameters for different situations and there's some core stuff I am going to make a video about how I typically organize my pocket gear when I'm in the woods when I'm working in the woods or I'm around camp on a canoe trip for example in the evenings things I like to have on my pocket all in my pockets all the time things I like to have in my pockets around camp when I'm working in the woods when I'm working on courses when I'm hiking etc I've got a system that is pretty much the same and I think that may and help answer the question further as well in a framework kind of way and then you can tag on these other bits it's like the skins of an onion and you've got stuff that's very close to you and then things that are further out hopefully that answers the question all right it felt like maybe I was a bit expansive there but that might give you a bit more of my thinking on those things well thank you for your questions and the sun's getting a little bit lower now and I am gonna continue with my day and I was visiting one of our courses earlier on today and this afternoon this evening I've been taking the opportunity with the nice weather too to make some videos as well some of my team were running the course that finished today and it was nice to see those guys and it was nice to see the students on that course I've got a number of other courses coming up as well and then I will and I got some more willis adventures coming up as well and I'll see if I can manage to record some of these in those different spots as and when I'm doing those things and and share some of what we're doing with you that way too also on my channel I'm starting to do some other shorter videos some how-to videos as well as some longer trip videos hopefully over time and do have a look at what else is going on on my channel not just the a sport Kirklees on my youtube channel have a look at those and see what's going on I know the a sport Curly's go out as a podcast as well if you're a podcast only listener please do check out my youtube channel you can find it very easily just type in Paul curtly dot TV and it will take you straight to my youtube channel easy URL for you to remember there Paul all currently dot TV that will take you to my youtube channel if you are a regular podcast listener to a sport currently I think you will enjoy a lot of what's on my youtube channel if you don't follow it already I would love for you to subscribe there and for you to see the other things that I am doing there of course a sport curtly works as an audio only that's why I do it as a Q&A in the way that I do but I'd also like to do some more show and tell things on my youtube channel that I think a lot of you who listen to the podcast as a listen to a sport curtly as a podcast would benefit from as well I think you're going to get into that and enjoy it so love to see you over on my youtube channel as well as listening to these shows if you're not there already if you're watching this on my youtube channel thank you if you don't already subscribe please do and if you're watching this on my blog then also make sure you get the emails from my blog and you can get all of those things as well you know that you can get the emails from my blog you can get my YouTube videos and you can get my podcasts as well all of that goes out on a regular basis and I look forward to talking to you whichever way you consume these a sport curtly sessions I look forward to talking to you again before too long and enjoy your outdoor life hopefully that has helped and I look forward to your questions

take care

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