Sounds like a Digestion Issue: Construction and Usage of the Dakota Fire Hole

One of the first things I learned when I started bushcraft was making a fire. And as some people know doing it the right way and the easy way are vastly different.

Fire is as simple as three things but as difficult as 30 different ways to make it. A fire needs fuel, oxygen, and heat. Now fuel is you bigger logs for when it’s caught up to the little tinder bundle made of fluffy easy-to-catch-a-spark-on materials.

Next the oxygen. This is the air in the form of breath or wind. To heat the coals up and catch the next layer of fuel up. This is a lot of the time my problem if the fire fails. I don’t give them enough space and over crowd the pool. Fire doesn’t like that.

Finally the most important thing is heat. Quick! When I say fire what do you think of? If you say hotdogs or s’mores then you’re hungry; go eat. But really, have you ever had a cold fire? No. Heat is the “spark” that makes a fire grow. It eats the food and builds up by the wind and oxygen. And we usually carry a variety of instruments used to produce heat.

Like I said there are many different ways to make your fire. I’m just going to go over 4.

First is the teepee fire we are all familiar with. It layers your fuel with the tinder at the bottom and heavy sticks and split logs at the top using the fact that fire feed upwards. The layout’s design can allow for a funnel to let the air into its center and smoke out the top. At least in theory.

Second is the log cabin. Sometime turned into the upside down fire. It has the tinder at the top then kindling and finally fuel. This way you don’t have to worry about collapsing the fire. Also by arranging the sticks you can allow creation of air flow.

Third is the Swedish torch. I haven’t done one of these yet, but as I understand, you split roughly a 7 inch wide log into 8 section but stopping about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through. This is usually done with a chainsaw for speed and ease. Next making a tinder bundle at the top in the center of the cross section you light your fire. This will burn down through until it starts to use the log as fuel. Benefits are: cooking, self-feeding, and resource management(only need one log).

Finally the fourth one is the main point of this blog. The Dakota fire hole is known for its smokeless, stealth, low impact, low maintenance, and cooking. The only problem is it will not provide the user much heat.

WARNING: In a survival situation you do not want this fire lay. This will not give the user any warmth and is hard to see for signaling purposes. Using a larger fire for warmth and signaling is your best option.
Now let’s get to the construction.
The first step was to find some flat ground in my back yard. I wanted a place where I could prevent fire spreading to other areas. This method uses the winds more than other fire methods and because of this I take special care to control where the fire will spread. I took some time to kick some of the leaves back and gather up the small branches so I could use them later during the fire. Next I test for the wind direction, as I said this is method is nothing without the wind. I didn’t have any other method so I did it the old fashion way. Once found I placed a large stick it the direction of the wind. The wind blew from the bottom right of the picture to the upper left.

Next I began digging two holes about 10 to 12 inches apart.I began at first using my shovel, but quickly tried a large tablespoon instead. I found that as long as I didn’t rush or get greedy with my bite, or the amount of dirt you pick up at a time, it was simpler to get done. I felt more in control because of the smaller precision bites. Another benefit was the storage of a spoon as opposed to the larger shovel. In the end it’s all up to what works for you and until I upgrade I’m keeping my spoon.

  Here are the three different items I worked with while digging the hole. The left most is just a fist size chunk of flint. I like flint because it is more primitive tech than something machine made. Next option is also kinda harder to find but has a few more uses. It's either a railroad spike or some large nail. I am not 100% sure, but I’m guessing it is a spike. I like to use it as a dig stick just because I can have it on me and to try to wedge logs I’m splitting.However, these days a spoon is going to be cheaper and easier to find than flint or the railroad spike. I say cheaper because you can get them at Walmart or dollar stores. This came out of my kitchen drawer, enough said.

However unlikely it really did wonders during the process. While connecting the holes I couldn’t use my spoon without risking breaking the neck. The spike came through, literally. With it I could break through the wall between the holes and make them one. To make a hole, I ended up knocking it through with a dense bit of wood on hand. You want a reasonable sized hole so that the air flow will come into the first hole and flow into the other.

This is what I had done in about 10 minutes to 15 minutes. The picture on the left is the completed holes that are connected down below the soil line. To the right is the other hole that I dug out more and sloped it a bit upward to try and capture the air flow. The slope is very key to getting the amount of wind you need to feed this fire.

I had the hole deepened to about my forearm’s length, about 9 inches. I then stacked wood and sticks vertical in the burning hole until it was full. Next all I did was light my fire with the fire starters I made in the blog before. I did this right on top of the sticks to start the process of heating up my sticks to get my fire up and off the ground. Not long after, it was up and roaring. The only thing to do after that was to add a few more sticks.

Well I hope you enjoy joining me in my first of many adventures with the Dakota fire hole. Next week I will be showing you what I used it for. In this picture to the right, all the tools used are shown. From the left to right is the military folding shovel, my leather gloves, that big peace of flint and that log I used to knock in the spike (shown above), and my spoon. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.