• Question: how can you make a fire by just rubbing 2 stones or 2 sticks

    Asked by to Andrei, Ekbal, Gemma, Helen, Ruth on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ekbal Hussain

      Ekbal Hussain answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Hi!
      Rubbing two things together makes them warmer. You can test this right now by rubbing your hands together. The faster and harder you rub the hotter your hands will get. This is because of something called friction. Friction is what helps our shoes grip the floor as we walk and stops us sliding around everywhere.

      So if you rub two bits of together at some point they will get hot enough that they start burning. This was the way the very early humans made fire. But it takes a looooot of effort and you need to rub them really really hard.

      You can’t make fire by rubbing two stones together. They will heat up like the wood, but stones do not burn so they will just get hot and not light into a fire.

      Another interesting way to make a fire is by wacking together a bit of flint (a type of rock) and steel. This makes a spark which, if you’re careful, can be made to land in something that easily burns. Many people who spend a long times out in the wilderness learn these tricks as part of their survival training.

      Ekbal

    • Photo: Helen Gath

      Helen Gath answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      A very good survival skill to have indeed! Though it does require some patience and expertise…I know i’m nowhere near being as good as Ray Mears yet! Yet hundred of years ago, being able to able to make fire in such a way was crucial to survive.

      So is that its possible? Well it’s a little different depending on whether you use stones or sticks, and very importantly it’s the TYPE of wood and stone that you use.
      Not all wood is the same. You can see this just by looking at all the different colours of natural woods you get. Different wood varies in chemical make up, and this affects how flammable they are. When you rub the sticks together you create friction, which raises the temperature of the sticks. Once you get it hot enough, the wood will start to burn, and use the oxygen in the air around it too keep burning. You need to get the wood to at least 200 degrees celsius though so I hope you have strong arms! Or a team of helpers ;p

      With stones, it is an even trickier technique. You have to use particular stones, not just any old stone collected from the garden. They also need to be different types of stone; the ‘striker’ must be harder than the ‘handstone’. It is this difference which allows a spark to be made when you strike them together. A third crucial item for this method is tinder; dry, flammable material that will burn very easily. So when you make spark between your stones, it channels down to he waiting pile of tinder and the spark starts a flame. And then…man make fire.

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