How To Use Your Glasses To Easily Start A Campfire

Campfires are at the core of the camping experience. It seems as if no overnight excursion into the outdoors is complete without building that perfect campfire and cooking delicious campfire meals. However, it seems as if no matter how meticulous you are about packing for a camping trip, supplies are sometimes forgotten or perhaps lost during your time outdoors. If one of those forgotten or lost items happens to be what you had intended to use as your fire starter, you may be facing the prospect of going through the night without a campfire. This means that beyond missing the ambiance, you may also be lacking heat, light, and a way to cook your dinner.

While being stuck without a lighter, flint, or other fire starter may seem to be an insurmountable obstacle, if you happen to wear either prescription or reading glasses, you are literally looking through a great fire starting device. Learning how to use your glasses to easily start a campfire ensures you will never be stuck without a means to light a fire again. This hack can come in very handy not just in the event of forgotten or lost camping supplies, but also if you should ever find yourself in an emergency situation such as being lost in the woods. As long as you have your readers or glasses and a little bit of sunshine, you will be able to start a campfire.

Starting a fire with a piece of paper or a leaf and a magnifying glass is a common science project for school kids. Indeed, many survival experts recommend carrying a magnifying glass in your emergency supply pack when adventuring outdoors. Some magnifiers, such as the Thor Instruments Nautical Magnifying Lens, are fitted on leather lanyards and can be easily worn when adventuring outdoors. Others prefer to carry credit card-size Fresnel lens fire starters. However, even if you find yourself without any of these magnifying devices, your glasses are, by design, magnifiers, and can be used to start a campfire.

Starting a campfire with a magnifier must be done during daylight. The idea is to magnify and concentrate the sunlight into a small beam, which is focused on an easily light piece of tinder such as leaves, paper, pine needles, or wood shavings. If tinder is not available, small pieces of dried wood will work, but will take longer to light.

In order to start a fire with your glasses, first gather the materials you will need: tinder — paper, dry leaves or grass; kindling — small sticks or twigs; and larger wood. Next, make a small pile of tinder, then point your glasses toward the portion of tender that is directly facing the sunlight. Adjust the angle of your glasses to where the sunlight becomes a tiny, focused point of light. Hold the light steadily in place. As the tinder begins to smolder, you can gently fan or blow on it to help it ignite. Once the tinder is lit, follow Smokey Bear's fire safety advice for building a campfire by adding kindling in stages until the fire is big enough to add a larger piece of wood.