Feathersticks
are extremely useful under certain circumstances. Yet many people who
enjoy bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life are not particularly
well practised in the skill of making them.
Many books,
particularly those involved with survival training, contain images of
what are often referred to as “fuzz-sticks”. These are little more than
twigs with a few short, shallow knife cuts made around them.
On
the other hand, feathersticks – when made properly – provide a very
certain way of establishing a fire in otherwise potentially difficult
circumstances.
The circumstances in which feathersticks are invaluable come under a couple of categories:
First,
you may be in a situation where all the available fuel in the woods is
wet. It may have been raining for days; even dead, standing wood will be
wet on the outside. Small fuel such as dead twigs still attached to
trees will also be wet or even soaked.
The second circumstance
under which feathersticks are particularly useful is when there are no
small sticks available in the area and, therefore, there is no small
fuel to start your fire. This could be a situation where you are within
an environment that has a limited variety of tree species. It could
also be a situation where you are above the tree line but firewood is
has been transported there. A prime example of this would be in a cabin
in the mountains in winter, with a supply of logs in the woodshed.
Leaving things as we would wish to find them in a mountain hut in Norway. Photo: Paul Kirtley
A
situation much closer to home in which there may be no small fuel – and
is much more likely to be encountered by many – is where you are
camping in a popular spot where all the small fuel that was immediately
available has been used. I have stayed on many Scout sites where this is
certainly the case.
Another example of lack of small fuel I’ve
encountered is when making canoe journeys in popular areas – such as the
Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada – where you are restricted
to particular camping sites. Even though these sites can be quite
remote, they often have a scarcity of the small fuel that everybody will
grab first for lighting the fires. Many of the people travelling in
these areas do not have basic bushcraft skills; few people have any real
skill in the use of cutting tools and so are unable to produce smaller
fuel from the larger pieces of wood that often remain unmolested in the
camping area.
A campsite in Algonquin Provincial Park – no kindling in sight! Photo: Amanda Quaine.
These
situations are examples of where you can apply your bushcraft skills
and have a plentiful source of all the useful sizes of firewood as a
result, whereas an unskilled individual would struggle to find fuel.
In these circumstances feathersticks really come into their own.
Feathersticks: What We Are Aiming To Produce…
The
primary purpose of a featherstick is to provide you with your initial
fuel. Most commonly this means producing what is generally referred to
as kindling. That said, you might also produce feathersticks of a high
enough quality, with fine enough feathers at the base of the
featherstick, that you may drop a spark directly onto the featherstick
to ignite it. Thus, the featherstick can also provide you with what is
commonly called tinder.
Your feathersticks should also inherently
provide the next size of fuel up from your finest kindling. The body of
the featherstick, as opposed to the feathers themselves, provides this
fuel. Therefore the body – that is the stick – should be fine enough
that the flaming feathers will ignite the neck of the stick and so
ignite the whole featherstick.
The shavings we are looking for on
our feathersticks should be long and fine. You should be aiming to
produce a dense bundle of such high quality feathers.
You might
ask why we don’t just produce a pile of shavings? Surely it is easier to
shave wood off a stick, then pile it up and ignite it that way? While
it’s true shavings can be used in the ignition of a fire – and certainly
if you cut off shavings from your feathersticks by accident when you
are producing them, you should use them – there are multiple advantages
to keeping the shavings attached to the stick itself.
First, in
keeping the shavings attached to the stick we keep them off the ground.
This is true both initially when we are creating the stick. While you
produce subsequent curls they all remain on the stick and up off the
ground (or the snow).
The second advantage is the shavings can be
moved around in bulk and we will not lose any. When you are moving or
storing the sticks, they are all together. When you come to light your
fire, the sticks can be can be organised easily and quickly.
The
third advantage is that once you light your feathersticks, the burning
shavings can still be manipulated while they are alight simply because
they are attached to a stick which you can get hold of at the end and
move them around.
Finally, a key advantage in having the feathers
attached to the stick is that it allows more oxygen in amongst the
feathers and the overall fire lay is not too dense. This is particularly
important at the start of the fire before it becomes established. A
further point – following on from our previous point about being able to
manipulate the feathersticks while there are alight – is that should we
need to allow still more oxygen into the initial beginnings of the
fire, we can lift up individual feather sticks in just the same way as
we can lift up bundles of twigs in the typical small-stick fire lay.
By
contrast, a pile of shavings, particularly short shavings as opposed to
long curly shavings, is relatively difficult to light compared to good
feathersticks. It is also very difficult to manipulate in any useful
way.
Material Selection For Feathersticks
As with many
things in bushcraft, the ultimate success of the application of a
particular technique – at least the quality of the outcome – is to a
large extent dependent upon good material selection. This is certainly
true when making feathersticks.
So what materials should you look for when aiming to make good quality feathersticks?
As
with any good firewood, the ideal raw material for feathersticks is
dead, dry, standing wood. You want wood that is well seasoned, in good
condition and not rotten or punky.
You should be looking for upright timber and, unless you have an axe, it needs to be of a particular dimension.
If
you have only a knife, it should be feasible to easily baton the
material. In other words, for a typical bushcraft knife, we are looking
for maximum sizes of maybe 3 inches (i.e. 7 cm) in diameter.
Also,
you do not want wood that is so small in diameter that persistent rain
will have penetrated far into the wood. So you are looking for a
minimum diameter of around 2 inches (i.e. 5 cm).
Species that work particularly well for feathersticks are pine, willow, cedar, and sweet chestnut.
In
terms of the quality of the wood that we are looking for, I will
re-iterate that it needs to be dead, dry and well seasoned. In my
experience, people can get lazy with applying these criteria strictly
and end up making sub-optimal feathersticks (i.e. they don’t work).
Equally, the wood should not be too soft or punky, i.e. too rotten.
The
wood you select should also be straight-grained and, preferably, knot
free. To a large extent you can get a good idea of how knotty a piece of
wood is just by looking at the outside bark. Because you are going for
relatively small diameters, any external knots will likely carry a good
way into the grain of the wood. Try to choose sections of wood that are
relatively free of side branches or the remnants of them.
In the
woods, you should be aiming to select an upright standing piece of wood
and cut it into multiple sections to gain all the fuel that you need –
including your feather sticks – to establish your fire.
You can produce all the sizes of fuel you need to establish your fire.
Once
you have selected your piece of standing timber, saw it down. Then you
should cut up your selected wood into sections that are 12 to 14 inches
(30 to 35 cm) long.
Now that you have these rounds – and I suggest
you have at least three of this length as a minimum to produce the fuel
to start your fire – you can begin to split the wood down into suitable
sizes.
In the absence of an axe, the technique to use is
batoning. This is a common and often used technique of basic bushcraft –
one with which you should become fully familiar, if you are not
already.
In the absence of an axe, use your knife and a baton to create all the split wood you need.
Stand
the sawed round of wood vertically on its end on a stable surface such
as a chopping block or log. Place your knife horizontally on top end of
the log with the handle as close to the wood, leaving as much of the tip
of the blade protruding on the far side as possible.
Place
your knife horizontally on top end of the log with the handle as close
to the wood and hammer with the baton.
It
may be worth creating a small wedge before you hammer the knife into
the wood and potentially get it stuck. The wedge will allow you to free
your knife if necessary.
Once you’re ready, hammer the blade into
the end of the round until the back of the blade is flush with the top
surface of the wood. Now proceed by hitting the tip of the knife with
your baton while maintaining pressure on the handle so as to keep blade
horizontal. The wood should split relatively easily.
For your
feather sticks I would recommend quarters from wood that is relatively
small – say 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter – and eighths for wood that is
larger diameter than this.
Split the rounds down into quarters or eighths depending on their diameter.
After
prolonged or heavy rain, the outer surface of even vertically upright
wood may well be damp. Once you have batoned out the splints that you
require, you should shave down the outer surface removing the bark and
any damp layers of wood that lie beneath, until all you are left with is
dry wood.
Shave off the damp outer layers as necessary.
Techniques For Creating Fantastic Feathersticks
For
those who have tried to make feathersticks in the past, the part of the
process they often find most difficult or frustrating is starting the
featherstick. Getting going and producing good long curls consistently
is reliant upon creating a good foundation in the first place.
To
create this foundation for all your curls, do not worry too much about
creating good curls for the first few cuts. Rather, what you should
concentrate on is creating a good even surface, which can then be shaved
down into nice even curls. What you do not want is a raggedy edge or a
lumpy-bumpy surface that looks like a washboard road, then try to create
nice smooth shavings from it.
Start by aiming to plane the
surface that exists as a result of splitting out your rounds of wood to
the desired size. Start on the inside edge, that is the edge that is
sharp. This inner wood will still be dry despite the heaviest of rains.
Even though sections have been split out quite nicely by your batoning
technique, the edge you are to work into feathers will still be uneven.
Start to shave off raised or rough sections which make the wood uneven.
Place
the split wood on a firm surface in a vertical or near vertical
position. Holding it with your non-knife hand at the top, take your
knife and place it below your fingers, turning the knife inwards so the
edge is turned towards the wood. If you’re using a flat-bevelled knife
you can achieve the angle relatively easily; turn the knife so that the
bevel is flat against the wood.
Push the knife downwards so that
the blade descends. As you do so, turn the knife edge in towards the
wood a fraction more and you should start to take off small shavings of
wood from the high points.
To reiterate, it is not important that
these stay attached. You are simply levelling the surface on which you
are going to work. If you have ever used a plane think of this initial
action in this way.
After your first descent of the piece of wood,
return the knife to the initial starting point and repeat the process,
shaving off more of the remaining high points. Repeat this process until
you are left with a smooth surface to work on.
After a few runs down the stick, you will have a much more even surface to work from.
Now,
repeat the step as described above but this time with the intention of
creating one continuous, even shaving from the beginning of the cut
downwards to nearly the bottom of the stick.
Now shave steadily downwards to create a nice, even curl.
The
part of the bushcraft knife blade you should be using for this is the
straightest part, which is close to the handle. Here you have most
control and least leverage on your wrist.
Push the knife downwards, maintaining an even depth into the wood, creating a nice even curl.
Initially this is easier said than done!
Placing the stick on a firm surface, work downwards with your knife creating shavings.
Featherstick Frustration
Do not get too stressed about losing curls at the beginning of your learning curve. It happens to everyone.
The
thing you should be concentrating on is getting a feel for how deep or
how shallow the edge of the knife is shaving the wood then making small
adjustments to maintain an even cut.
This takes practice but you
will soon pick up a good feel for the type of wood that you are using,
combined with the sharpness of the knife you are using.
It goes without saying that your knife should be as sharp as possible.
Once
you have started to create a few good downward shavings, you will find
that the bottom of the stick starts to become a little crowded. The
common mistake made here is to finish cuts progressively higher up the
stick on each descent with the knife.
The problem with this is
that the curls are not then all adjacent to each other and you will find
them harder to light. Also you will not achieve as thin a body of the
stick because you will not have shaved off as much along the complete
length.
If you need some more space at the base of the
featherstick simply use the side of your knife to push the shavings down
and away from the body of the stick, leaving more space behind for
additional curls.
Once you have started to get a good feel for the
basic downward shaving motion, you can add some variation into this.
What you do not want to be doing is creating shavings all around the
base of the stick. You actually want them all on one side of the stick,
in a nice arc of about 180°. This is important for when you come to
light your fire.
You should be aiming to create a 180 degree arc of curls on one side of the featherstick.
Getting Fancy With Your Feathersticks: Adding Variety To The Curls
The
basic downward shaving action will create curls that are pretty much in
line with the stick and at right angles to the blade of your knife.
To
put curls on one side or the other of the central curls you can change
the angle by raising or lowering the tip of your knife as you cut.
Start
with your knife on the stick close to the handle and turn the tip of
the knife upwards. Now shave downwards and slide the blade across the
face of the featherstick as you descend. This will create a tightly
curled shaving, which moves out towards tip of a knife.
With the knife tip up, curls move off towards the tip.
Once
you have created a few of the above with the tip up, go back to shaving
down the central part of the stick with the knife held horizontally so
as to create some more shavings in the middle.
Then, place the
knife at the top of the stick again, this time with the tip facing
downwards and the initial point of contact with the blade closer to the
tip. Shave down the featherstick again, moving the handle of your knife
towards the stick and cutting across the face of the feather stick as
you descend.
This will create a curl that moves towards the handle of your knife and fills in where there are no curls.
With the knife tip down, curls move towards the handle.
Create a few of these curls then go back to the central curl, then go back to the point-up curls. And so on.
In varying the techniques like this you will create a dense and even bundle of excellent curls at the end of your feather stick.
In
varying the angle and making sure you start and finish in the same
places, you end up with a dense bundle of curls at the end of your
featherstick.
To get the curls all at
the end of your featherstick, remember that you must start and finish
your curls at the same place on the stick each time.
Do not fall
into the trap of starting further and further down the feather stick.
Nor should you, as mentioned above, finish each curl at progressively
higher points up the stick.
Either way, curls will become shorter
and less curly each time, they will not sit next to each other on the
stick and you will not achieve a thin enough neck that will ignite from
the flames of the curls.
Practice Makes Fantastic
Practice
making feathersticks when the going is good, and the technique will
serve you well when things get a more tough. You should be aiming not
only to be able to make feathersticks but make feathersticks quickly.
While
making feathersticks may be quite a frustrating pastime at first, as
with many aspects of bushcraft, the more time and effort spent to become
proficient, the more likely it is that the particular technique becomes
a realistic one in a situation where you really need to depend upon it.
Besides,
the next time you are camping with your friends and there is little
firewood around, you can impress them by producing everything you need
from an unlikely piece of wood and dazzling them with your fantastic
feathersticks.
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