Campfires and Practical Crafts—Interviewed by Sylva Fae

Craftsman, Neil Rowlands

Interviewed by Sylva Fae

I met Neil Rowlands through a bushcraft group that I help run. Group members often share photos of the practical crafts and tools they’ve created for use in the woods. I was especially impressed by Neil’s craftsmanship, as using a ferro rod is my favourite method to light the campfire in my own woodland.

Campfires and Practical Crafts

As lockdown restrictions ease and the weather improves, I want nothing more than to escape to my woodland. At the heart of our camp is the campfire. Not only is it a central point to gather, but it provides a means to cook and warms us as the night air cools. The campfire is a focus for peaceful contemplation, staring into the flickering flames becomes hypnotic – it is almost a form of meditation. And yet at other times, we are drawn together around it, and the campfire becomes a social hub. Lighting a fire is primitive skill that takes time and practice to master, but once the flame takes, it is a wondrous feeling.

What do you make?

For the past eight or so years I’ve been making items used in fire lighting. They are mainly used by people with an interest in bushcraft and wild camping. Most of what I’ve made have been leather pouches to contain a fire kit, including a variety of natural, as well as man-made tinder, and ferro rods. Ferro rods are a modern equivalent to the traditional flint and steel sets.

So, what prompted you to make ferro rods? Can you explain what they are?

It began when I attended a knife forging weekend with a blacksmith, where I made my own knife, adding the handle and shaping it. Following this I made a few ferro or fire steel, rod handles as I had really enjoyed that part of the process. For anyone who doesn’t know a flint and steel set is a piece of flint rock, paired with a piece of hardened steel. When the flint scrapes minute pieces of the steel away, these are the orange sparks you’ll see fly at around 700 degrees C. With a ferro rod, some hardened metal is used to scrape the rod, and this time the rod gives off sparks which are much hotter, around 3500 degrees C. It can be used even when wet so unlike matches etc is a reliable way to light a fire.

What materials do you use?

I put a variety of handles onto the rods for use, such as red deer antler, sustainable sources of course, various wood, brass, even a few ultra practical ones where the handle was simply several metres of duct tape (handy in a fix) and a few from some driftwood I once found. Lately I’ve made a few mixing layers of different materials.

What do you enjoy most about this craft?

It’s a great way to meet people interested in the outdoors, or traditional living skills including fire lighting, Stone Age living etc. I’m attending a meet with some lovely friends I’ve made along the way in July this year, which has a focus on the American frontiers people and settlers who travelled and used their skills to survive and thrive. So other than a few sales and earning a few extra pounds to pay the bills (or buy camping equipment), I’ve found it’s been a lovely way to meet new people, many of whom I now consider friends, some of them very good friends indeed. What I enjoy most I suppose, is the challenge of trying something new, which

takes me out of my comfort zone or stretches the boundaries of my current skills and forces me to learn.

What new skills have you learned along the way?

Simon of Ashdown Forest Crafts (website of the same name) has been coaching me with some leather work and has been genuinely so kind with his time. With his guidance, I’ve recently worked to bring the quality and finish of my leather work to a new level and expand the range of things I make.

https://www.ashdownforestcrafts.co.uk/

Does your family get involved?

My youngest daughter has been wild camping with me since she was four and she enjoys the process of making and designing some of what I’ve made. She recently designed her own mixed material and multi-layer handle for a ferro rod which we then worked on together. A proud dad moment!

I’ve recently started a Facebook page “Neil’s fire steels” so please check that out if you want to see more of my recent work.

https://www.facebook.com/Neils-Fire-Steels106319874697129

Perseverance

By Sylva Fae

You arrive at the woods after a storm, the air is clear and the sunlight filters through the leafy branches. Everything is fresh but wet, very wet! To get that desired cup of coffee and feed three hungry rascals, first you need a camp fire; functional, essential but more importantly the heart of the camp. Now you could bring with you some paper, fire lighters or a disposable barbecue but where’s the fun in that? To start, you lovingly prepare your tinder, curls of silver birch bark, carefully peeled and feathered while you wander back to camp. Then, kneeling as if in prayer, you offer up a silent plea for the dry bark to catch the spark. You arrange your tiny fire, the smallest driest sticks stacked ready to go, the damper big branches piled close in the hope they’ll be dry enough by the time they’re needed.

Another whispered prayer, ‘please light, please light, please light!’

You gently poke that tiny magical bundle of bark into the centre. It’s time. With slow tentative strokes you slide a blade down the ferro rod marvelling at the dancing sparks as they jump off and disappear before they touch the tinder. Stronger now, more purposeful, you adjust your position and strike once more, coaxing, caressing the sparks down to the tinder below. Breath held, you see the slightest wisp of smoke rise. A minute orange glow catches, then dies. You sigh and start again. With each strike your hope rises and fades as the sparks dissipate to nothingness.

Tirelessly continuing, that coffee seems so far away. Then it catches. Bending close to shield the tiny flame, you cross your fingers. It flickers and dies but you strike again, urgent and insistent, you focus all your energies into willing that spark to be the one. It catches – a silent cheer – you shield the flame gently rolling the feathered bark across it, nurturing its birth. A second flame leaps up, then a third. Gingerly, you place the little twigs, careful not to starve it of oxygen. You lean in close and gently blow. The heat rises, the glow intensifies and the fire consumes the dry twigs. It’s a balance now, a race to feed the flames, to build the fire but you’re determined.

The fire takes a firm hold. You rock back on your heels and a smug grin curls your lips. Hands outstretched to feel the heat from your labours, you breath in and appreciate the swirling smoke that now billows above.

With deep satisfaction you fill the kettle and sit and wait with your roaring fire.

Sylva Fae is a married mum of three from Lancashire, England. She has spent twenty years teaching literacy to adults with learning difficulties and disabilities, and now works from home as a children’s writer and illustrator.

Sylva has published several children’s books and also writes a blog, Sylvanian Ramblings. Her debut book, Rainbow Monsters won the Chanticleer Best in Category award. Discover more about Sylva on Mom’s Favorite Reads website: https://moms-favorite-reads.com/moms-authors/sylva-fae/