Complete Book of Fire: Building Campfires for Warmth, Light, Cooking, and Survival

by Buck Tilton

Overview

With a focus on safety and the integrity of the outdoors, The Complete Book of Fire: Building Campfires for Cooking, Warmth, Light, and Survival initiates the novice as well as informs the experienced. Integrating the history, ecology, and science of fire with practical aspects of campfires such as cooking and warmth, author Buck Tilton has created the ultimate guide to properly building, enjoying, and extinguishing campfires.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897328296
Publisher:	Menasha Ridge Press
Publication date:	09/29/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Outdoor expert Buck Tilton’s respect and knowledge of our mountains, plains, and coastline are embodied in a lifetime of outdoor achievements, including winning the Paul Petzoldt Award for Excellence in Wilderness Education, co-founding the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS, and authoring Leave No Trace’s Master Educator Handbook. Buck also knows about fire first-hand. He’s battled wild fires on the ground as a hotshot with the Unites States Forest Service and from the air as part of helicopter fire-attack crews. Buck lived in a cabin for 15 years, heated entirely by a wood-burning stove fed by wood that Buck himself cut, split, and stacked. In his lifetime outdoors, Buck has cooked with every conceivable type of stove, but hot coals and flame remain a favorite way to roast or bake a tasty open-air feast. An experienced author, more than 15 of Buck’s books are currently in print, and he is a regular contributor to “Backpacker Magazine.” Buck lives in Lander, Wyoming.

Read an Excerpt

Then, as now, fire can hold body and soul together. It can greatly aid a human being in holding on to life and holding off death. Fire can not only cook food, but also, with its heat, reduce the amount of calories a human needs to stay alive. More heat from a fire means less calories required to stay warm. Fire dries out the wet skin, wet fur, wet polypropylene. It can scare away other meat-eating species intent on caloric intake of their own. It can be used to sharpen sticks for weapons, mold metal to make tools, and bake clay into pots. In an emergency today, a fire can be a signal for help. Who can place a value on the psychological comfort provided by fire? Perhaps its smoky warmth increased the life expectancy of early humans in more ways than are easily counted. And a fire can do all these things at once! Fire changed life on earth more than the wheel and The Web. The making of fire was arguably the greatest achievement of humans.

Table of Contents

(1) A Brief History of Fire (2) The Making of Fire (3) All About Wood (4) To Build or Not to Build (5) The Taste of Smoke and Ash (6) Wild Fire (7) The Body Burned