Log Cabin Fire Lay

Fire Lay: A small structure, made from Tinder and Kindling, built with the purpose of igniting Fuel-wood.

Log Cabin

The Log Cabin fire lay is one of the more popular, easy to build and stable fire lays; especially when compared to other fire lays, such as the TeePee. POSITIVES: Long self sustainment period. If you are just getting to camp and daylight is an issue, this is the fire lay for you. With this fire lay, you have the ability to quickly set up your fire. get it lit and get on with setting up your shelter before nightfall. Having the Tinder, Kindling and Fuel layers all built into the fire lay enables there to be quite a bit of time between lighting and tending this fire lay. The key here is the fuel sized wood you use as your base. If you use pieces too small, you will not end up with a decent enough coal bed to reignite the fire with should the flame go out. You "really" cannot go to large with the wood diameter on the base of the Log Cabin fire lay, assuming you are able to gradually work your way down to kindling and tinder sized material. Note: The larger the wood is, that you use for your base, the larger your fire lay will physically need to be in order to be able to effectively burn the large base pieces. Personally, I do not go more than forearm diameter until I've got a good bed of coals built up. Cooking. The Log Cabin fire lay tends to build a nice bed of coals, especially if you use a hard wood as its base, that can be effectively used as a heat source when cooking. NEGATIVES: Practice: The Log Cabin fire lay can take a bit of experience to "get right." Practice with different diameter pieces and with different types of wood. Many soft pieces of wood, such as pine, will do great with this fire lay, but will burn down fairly quickly and create less of a coal bed than a harder wood, such as oak.  Note: Keep in mind, the available wood you have is highly dependent upon your particular environment.This is where the practice comes in handy; helping you predict the actions of the fire lay based upon the wood you've supplied it.

How To: Note: This Log Cabin fire lay walk-through was written from the perspective of being in a time crunch, such as arriving to your desired campsite late as evening fast approaches, and not having the time to babysit the fire as it moves from being lit to being self sustaining. It is also assumed that this method has been practiced and its first use is not when under the aforementioned time crunch. Choose a location. In this case, I've chosen a very well used and exotic location; also known as my backyard fire-pit. With this in mind, when you are out on the trail, you will often camp where others have camped in the past. If at all possible, try to use the same fire-pit as they did to avoid scarring up the area. Better yet, practice Leave-No-Trace. Also, a known wind direction can come in handy, especially if lighting the fire with a flame. I'll explain why towards the end.

Here, I've dug into the dirt in order to create a "low spot" that will sit directly under, and just sticking out of, the Log Cabin fire lay. The low spot, or trench, should be inline with the winds if at all possible. This low spot will serve, potentially, two purposes depending upon how you light your fire. For one, will help in allowing a good draft under your fire lay during its initial burn before converting to coals. Secondly, it will allow a place to light the fire from the bottom as this fire lay is designed to burn, initially, from the bottom up and then back down again.

This is the base of your Log Cabin fire lay. It should consist of Fuel sized wood with the first two pieces laid down parallel with the small trench you dug in the center of your desired fire-pit. The portion of the trench that sticks out from under the Log Cabin should be on the upwind side of the fire lay.

The next step is to lay a few pieces of sufficiently large pieces of kindling down as shown. These initial pieces of kindling tend to help keep the air gap under the fire lay and support the "guts" of the Log Cabin fire lay. The fire lay itself is quite drafty, but it cannot hurt to ensure your fire can breathe good as O2 is one required leg of the fire-triangle and we are aiming for a successful burn on our first try; always.

Continue to build the Log Cabin fire lay upwards, gradually decreasing diameter of the fuel pieces you are using. Within each layer of Fuel, create another layer of kindling laying across, as you did previously, decreasing their diameter as you build upwards. Sandwiched between the kindling layers, use wads of tinder to fill the voids.

Continue to use good, dry,  Tinder and Kindling to fill the void within the Log Cabin fire lay as you work your way upwards.

For best results, when filling the void, transition between Tinder and Kindling gradually.

Soon, the void in the center of the Log Cabin fire lay should consist of Kindling only. Transition between layers of Kindling gradually.

Kindling transition continued.

Once you reach the transition between Kindling and Fuel, you are done! At this point, you can lay a few pieces of small fuel over the top if desired. For stability purposes, I usually fill the inner void of the Log Cabin fire lay and stop when I get to the top. Light It: In the trench you dug, just in front of your structure, wad up a good amount of Tinder. Light the tinder using your favorite method. Using a stick, shove the lit Tinder under your structure. If you are using a flame to light it, now is why you positioned the trench under the Log Cabin as you did; in line with winds and with the opening upwind. Now, as you light the Tinder bundle, the winds will blow the flame away from you and towards the bundle helping keep you from getting burned. Congrats for thinking ahead!  If you've stepped gradually enough from the Fuel to the Kindling your fire should lite quite easily and stay burning for a fairly decent amount of time.

Top