Making a tinder bundle

Dried grasses work well and can be found almost everywhere but lack any accelerants. Most resins, or sap, will act as accelerants within the tinder bundle. Evergreen trees are full of resins to help ignite the spark, or coal, into a flame.

Cedar is by far my favorite material for making tinder bundles, or nest. Cedar’s can be found all over and are easily identifiable. It’s the bark of the cedar that makes the tinder, not the foliage. If you gently scrape across the bark with your fingernails or a knife, you can remove the loose, peeling, dry bark off without harming the tree. Once you’ve got a fist full then you will need to work the material into that bird’s nest shape. To “work” the material, simply ball the bark up in your hands and pull it apart, ripping and shredding it a bit in the process. Be careful not to overdo this and turn your tinder into dust.

Tinder is an easily combustible material used to ignite fires by rudimentary methods. Basically, tinder is the
material where you will first see flame. Once you have a method for creating a spark, or coal, then you’re ready to get a tinder bundle together. Also sometimes referred to as a nest, the tinder bundle will sometimes resemble a birds nest, depending on the material you’ve used to make it.

Dried grasses work well and can be found almost everywhere but lack any accelerants. Most resins, or sap, will act as accelerants within the tinder bundle. Evergreen trees are full of resins to help ignite the spark, or coal, into a flame.

Cedar is by far my favorite material for making tinder bundles, or nest. Cedar’s can be found all over and are easily identifiable. It’s the bark of the cedar that makes the tinder, not the foliage. If you gently scrape across the bark with your fingernails or a knife, you can remove the loose, peeling, dry bark off without harming the tree. Once you’ve got a fist full then you will need to work the material into that bird’s nest shape. To “work” the material, simply ball the bark up in your hands and pull it apart, ripping and shredding it a bit in the process. Be careful not to overdo this and turn your tinder bundle, into tinder dust.

You’re not limited to natural materials for constructing tinder. Cotton balls covered in Vaseline is very reliable tinder. The cotton ball tinder is a must have for any serious backpacker for fire starting, as a solid backup method if natural materials cannot be found. Even if completely dunked under water, the cotton ball covered in Vaseline will still take a spark, right away!

The tinder fungus is a great method of getting a coal from a spark. If you’re having trouble getting the dried grass tinder bundle to take a spark, then the tinder fungus would come in very handy. Mostly used with a bow drill or some sort of friction fire, tinder fungus makes a great base wood. With enough friction against the tinder fungus, a coal will form, and stay lit on it’s own for quite a while, in some cases for up to 3-4 hours. Once you have a coal, you can use some dried grass, paper out of your pack, or whatever will catch flame, and place on top of the coal and by gently blowing on the coal to ignite the flammable materials.


The best method of creating tinder bundles are going to be different depending on what area you are in and what is available to you. My advise would be to not miss an opportunity to gather tinder supplies whenever you can. If you have cedar trees in your backyard, then grab a few handfuls for the next time you go backpacking. You should make the Vaseline cotton ball method a part of your survival kit, and use it as a last resort if natural materials aren‘t available.