How would you start a fire IRL in TLD like situation?

[acada]

Imagine situation, which can happen in TLD easily. You are in the cave, blizzard outside. All you have is few pieces of cedar or fir wood and matches. No tool, no tinder, no fire accelerant, no fish oil and no sticks. How would you start a fire? These 0,5 kg wood pieces are pretty big to be ignited by a match. All I could whink is I would search my clothes for those fiber fluffs which can be in clothes seams and use these as tinder.  Or maybe I would sacrificed little piece of inner shirt for tinder. Maybe hitting the stone floor with the log woulf loosen few splinters for making tinder. I have limited IRL skills with bushcraft. I can make a fire, but always I use some kind of tinder. I never started a fire with log only.

[hozz1235]

Without any tools, I would try to scrape/break off bits of bark and kindling and essentially try to break up the wood as much as possible to help lighting and burning.

[odium]

you would have to be able to scrape some tinder pieces loose or find some smaller sticks to start it.  even the pieces we see in TLD are stylized more like nice dry split firewood.  in real life, if you chop of a fallen log laying in snow its gonna be a big round wet mess

[xanna]

For dry wood you want to find a dead tree, or a dead branch hanging in a tree, and snap or chop that. Rest it on something to keep it off the ground to keep it dry and to avoid blunting the axe on the ground, and to save you stooping.

If I have a knife or axe, then shave off some of the log for kindling. If I need tinder then find dry moss or dead leaves inside the cave if I can. Hair isn't great tinder, but I'd try it - it would be oily at least. Other options might be sacrificing a few crackers or other dry/oily food.

[TonyInPleasantValley]

You could use fatwood, or pine resin, as an ignition source. I think a lot of IRL survivalist depend on this. I watched a few Youtube videos of people collecting it. Basically get it from dead pine trees, as the sap flows after the tree dies and collects in the trunk or where branches meet the trunk. I think this is the best way to do it without a ton of kindling. In my wood stove, I just take a log, hit it with the hatchet, and split it over and over and over until I have easy to light kindling...

[conanjaguar]

If I have binoculars with me, I will use a lens from that as an impromptu mag lens.

Like @TonyInPleasantValley suggests, I would try to find fatwood. 

In a truly desperate situation, a bow drill fire would be called for, but those are very difficult and generally unreliable unless you’re an expert.

[acada]

Seems like TLD people likes to do challenge more challenging. You have matches and logs. Like in TLD half kilo of cedar or one kilo of fir. Lets be generous and you have two cedar and one fir.

Would it be possible to scrub one log on another to get some splinters aka kindling?

[Leeanda]

Rip off spare pockets,if any..    maybe pull some hair out!!  🤕 

is there any moss in the caves?  

[conanjaguar]

2 hours ago, acada said:

Would it be possible to scrub one log on another to get some splinters aka kindling?

Doubtful. You could probably smash the log on a protruding rock, but that would scatter the splinters.

[mfuegemann]

I do think that scraping the log along a sharp rock edge will give some splinters. Collecting the bits would be fun, though.
Without splitting the logs it would be almost impossible then to light a fire with scraped off splinters and matches alone.
But You could use stones to split the log, one with a sharp edge and another to drive it through.

[conanjaguar]

18 hours ago, mfuegemann said:

But You could use stones to split the log, one with a sharp edge and another to drive it through.

Ah, I hadn’t thought of that.

For tinder… if I’m wearing clothes of natural cloth, then I would probably sacrifice the second hat/pair of socks. (how often in TLD do you not have both slots filled, besides right after a mauling?) Shoe laces might also work.

And vegetable oil/olive oil is combustible, right? I might try soaking the “tinder” in the oils from, say, a tin of sardines.

[TonyInPleasantValley]

Bark makes really good tinder. I use it all the time in my wood stove...guessing there is a bunch of sap in it as it is easy to light and really gets my fire going. Tinder is also needed, so I split the heck out of a really dry log and with a lighter, can get a fire going in no time. Never tried it with matches though...hmm.

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

Yellow birch bark strips seem to be super flammable.

[mfuegemann]

59 minutes ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Yellow birch bark strips seem to be super flammable.

Yes, birch bark is a really good tinder. So much so, that I would love to see the a huge fire starting chance increase, using it. This would also lead to more thoughts about the use of birch bark as tea or tinder.

[Glflegolas]

I actually did this a couple days ago. I went to a cabin with only matches (no axe or knife) and wanted to start a fire. There were dry, fair-sized logs in the woodshed, but nothing small.

I ended up going outside and getting a big pile of birchbark, then breaking off some small branches from a dead spruce. With a nice base of dry branches, I was able to get the logs burning.

[acada]

I think all answers just strengthen my personal rule: "never leave house without a knife". Maybe I can add "and few little pieces of birch bark". Because I had bought a birch wood for my stove and the bark is Oh My... And birch bark is light.

My EDC knife is no chopper. But I think it can be used for making kindling from any log.

[xanna]

Machete is good for knife, and can chop up limbs

[acada]

You mean tree limbs. right??? RIGHT???

[xanna]

LOL yes!

[acada]

I prefer kukri knife.

[ajb1978]

I always carry a simple knife with me any time I'm out of the house, so as long as I have my pants still, I'll have my knife. Just a basic 3" blade, full tang. The knife plus sheath fits comfortably in my front jeans pocket. So if I were able to find flint out in the wild, boom. I've got flint and steel right there. But assuming I already had some form of ignition, I'd use the knife to feather off small shavings of wood from a larger piece to make tinder and kindling.

Of course if I had my way I'd just shove a few handfuls of wadded up newsprint under my tent of sticks, hose it down with naphtha, and chuck a match at it. Fwoosh, instant campfire.

[Moosemaster]

16 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

I always carry a simple knife with me any time I'm out of the house, so as long as I have my pants still, I'll have my knife. Just a basic 3" blade, full tang. The knife plus sheath fits comfortably in my front jeans pocket. So if I were able to find flint out in the wild, boom. I've got flint and steel right there. But assuming I already had some form of ignition, I'd use the knife to feather off small shavings of wood from a larger piece to make tinder and kindling.

Of course if I had my way I'd just shove a few handfuls of wadded up newsprint under my tent of sticks, hose it down with naphtha, and chuck a match at it. Fwoosh, instant campfire.

Same but I have a Swiss Army knife 

[ajb1978]

7 hours ago, Moosemaster said:

Same but I have a Swiss Army knife 

I used to carry one of those but preferred to go with something more durable. Folding knives are great for daily carry, but they can't take too much punishment.

[Moosemaster]

16 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

I used to carry one of those but preferred to go with something more durable. Folding knives are great for daily carry, but they can't take too much punishment.

Well lucky for me as a true gamer I haven’t touched grass in 20 years and won’t need to use it 😎

[ajb1978]

12 hours ago, Moosemaster said:

Well lucky for me as a true gamer I haven’t touched grass in 20 years and won’t need to use it 😎

Oh ho ho, but now we have the Steam Deck so even true gamers are allowed to go outside once or twice in their life!  A handheld capable of emulating every other system, in addition to playing most PC games? Magic! At least At least as long as the battery holds out. Totally takes me back to the good old days where I'd raid every remote in the house looking for batteries to power the Sega Game Gear only to have it drain them all dead in about 8 minutes, then put all the dead batteries back where I got them and quietly laugh at my family trying to figure out why nothing works anymore. *sigh* Good times...

But now I'm getting way off topic.