Lodestone: (definition) a variety of magnetite that possesses magnetic polarity and attracts iron.
In days gone by ships would carry a lodestone as part of their navigation equipment. Should the ship’s compass needle become depolarised the magnetite could be used to repolarise it back again. This is the same principle the school child learns when they magnetise a needle and float it on a cork in water to create a basic compass.
This suggests that problems with compasses not pointing in the direction they should (i.e. magnetic North) is not a new one. There are many factors that can affect a compass and change its polarity – the most obvious being to store it anywhere near a magnet. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that some of the things we carry have magnets in them – for example the case of your iPhone or iPad probably uses a magnet – or, for example, to accidentally leave a compass next to a speaker.
So – as with any piece of equipment you may need to rely on in an emergency – it’s a very good idea to check it every now and again and make sure it is still working properly…
…the last thing you want is to be lost in the jungle and then start doubting your compass.
In the video below I show you some of the compasses I’ve had problems with – how you can navigate even with a faulty compass and how to repair one so that it points in the right direction again.
“Why is that one careless match can start a forest fire, but a whole box of them is needed to start a camp fire?”
Lighting a fire in the wet jungle can be a challenge and having something to help it get going (a plastic bag or rubber inner tube) can make all the difference.
A natural alternative that is often found in the jungle is resin (know locally as damar) – it is great for firestarting as the resin vaporises as it heats up and feeds the flame giving your tinder a longer burn time. However, lighting resin on its own is very difficult (similar to trying to light a candle that has no wick) and more or less impossible if just using a firesteel.
In the video below I show how to make a waterproof, firestarter (that is easy to light with a firesteel) using resin and also do a quick test to check that my fatwood handle has not lost its ability to light from a spark over the years.
It is often the case that the simpler the piece of kit the more useful and dependable it is: a compass is more reliable than a GPS, the simplicity and cutting ability of a parang makes it superior to the less suited multifunctionality of a Leatherman, a basic hammock is better suited to the jungle than the most luxurious of tents…
One piece of kit I carry on my EDC (Every Day Carry) belt is such a simple and basic item and yet it is something that solves that important problem of how to carry more water when you have a cut-down EDC setup that doesn’t include large water bladders or extra water bottles.
This item is the Maxpedition Rollypolly dump bag and, in the video below, is a quick review of it and a demonstration of how it can be used to carry an extra 3 litres of water.
Silly season (definition): a period (in late summer) when the media often focus on trial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories
It’s mid August and we are in the midst of the silly season and it’s a relief to take a break from some of the awful headlines that have plagued us in the first half of the year, anyway in the spirit of the season here is video of a mini/pocket bowdrill.
Although in practice this is not an option I would recommend, it’s still a challenge worth setting yourself. As with any task, when you make conditions more difficult than normal it forces to you to focus on technique and then, when you revert back to the normal conditions, it all seems easier than before.
The same is true of tasks like tying knots: if you can tie them in the dark, then your muscle memory is truly ingrained and if, out in the field, you are trying to set up your hammock with rain beating down on you it’s not a problem; your fingers know what to do so well they do it despite the distraction of the rain.
Friction fire is also a skill worth learning as it teaches you more than just how to get an ember: you then have to get a fire from that small ember too. Another way of testing yourself (if you are determined not to learn any friction fire techniques) is to go into the jungle, light a cigarette and prop it on the ground somewhere. Then as the cigarette burns down you have that amount of time have to collect all the materials you need (i.e. before the cigarette goes out) and to get a fire going from the cigarette ember alone – a fire that will burn long enough for you to collect more wood until the fire is fully established and you can boil enough water for a cup of tea.
Give it a try…it’s harder than you might think and the next time (when you just use a lighter and some inner tube) it will seem like a breeze to get a fire going.
Update – 24th Oct 2016
A week or so ago, a fellow outdoor enthusiast (called Darcy) sent me some photos of his own design for a mini-bow drill set. I was really impressed and thought his set looked far superior to mine, so I asked Darcy if I could post some of his photos here, which he kindly agreed to.
He used Cedar for for the drill, hearth board and bearing block and stainless steel to connect the bow parts (made of bamboo) with bamboo shavings as an ember extender. Cardboard to go under the hearth board and shoelace for the bow string.
“People say that nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day” (Winnie the Pooh)
Last month a young climber died in Vietnam after falling and getting lost. He was high up a mountain and had gashed his arm and hurt his leg, however he had his mobile phone with him and called for help. Tragically by the time they found him he was dead. There haven’t been any details of the cause of death although at that altitude it could have been hypothermia.
If you become lost in the lowland jungles of Malaysia, hypothermia is not a major issue, however an inability to light a fire very much is. Not only does a fire make it easier for a search and rescue team to find you, it also allows you to purify water, cook food, make a brew, keep insects and animals at bay and, perhaps most importantly, it will keep your spirits up.
This got me thinking about how feasible it is to light a fire one-handed: with a lighter and rubber inner tube it is no more difficult than if you have both hands working; with a firesteel only marginally more difficult; but what about friction fire methods?
So I spent a day experimenting on how to set up the bow drill and make it work with one hand. It was quickly apparent that everything becomes much more difficult – carving the spindle, which normally takes less than five minutes, took much longer. With almost every task you need to replace the missing hand with some sort of mechanism to hold things in place – a bit like using a vice in a workshop – so, for example, carving the spindle is much easier if you lash one end to a small sapling and work on the protruding end and then swap it round to finish off the other end.
Then there was the problem of how to press down on the bearing block without the use of one hand. Here the trick is to create a stable structure as you are trying to do so much – one knee presses down on the parang that pins the hearth board, the other knee is used to push down on the bearing block, while you are using a lot of force to work the bow – all of which can easily send you off balance and the spindle spinning off into the bush.
In the video below you will see how I set it all up and the one thing I forgot to mention, although you can see me doing it in the video, is that I am leaning against the sapling to give myself stability. It is also for this reason that I place the spindle quite near to the sapling that I am leaning on – if you put it further along the bearing-cross-beam it all becomes less stable.
Getting a fire from a bow drill one-handed is far from impossible, but it is not easy either and is most definitely time consuming.
However, if nothing else, I hope this video will persuade you to throw another spare lighter into your pack for that unforeseen scenario where you get lost in the jungle and need to start a fire.
