How to Start a Fire With a Fire Plough

The sh*# has hit the fan and the power is out. Despite all warnings,
you didn't stock up on matches, lighters, or a flint. It's getting
cold outside, and you could really use a warm meal. What now? There
are many ways to build a fire without matches or lighters, but in my
opinion, the best way is to make a fire plough. While it does take
some stamina, it is very effective.One of my favorite survival movies
is Cast Away in which Tom Hanks plays an everyday guy named Chuck
Noland. In a very powerful scene, Chuck struggles for hours to make a
fire using a bow drill. While that is a good way to build a fire, it
is very difficult (as it is for Chuck in the movie). Finally he gives
up on the drill and tries another method: the fire plough.Follow these
instructions and you'll be warm and eating a bowl of hot soup in no
time.Prepare some kindling. There are many things you can use such as
tree bark, dead plants or grass, wood shavings, or just some shredded
paper. The drier the better.
Find a piece of soft wood. You might get it off a piece of furniture
or from an abandoned building. As long as you can make a mark on it
with your fingernail, it is soft enough. Make sure it's no more than
two feet long, no more than six inches wide, and no more than an inch
thick.
Find a very hard stick, about a foot long and a half an inch thick.
With this one you shouldn't be able to leave a mark on it with your
fingernail, otherwise it is too soft.
Kneel down over the soft wood. Rest one end of the hard stick on your
thigh and the other end on the wood. It should slant either right or
left (depending on whether you are right or left-handed) about about a
45-degree angle.
Get a good grip on the stick and start rubbing it up and down the soft
wood, making sure the keep the path straight as it forms a groove. The
"ploughing" should be hard and fast. This is where your stamina comes
into play. Ignore your burning muscles and keep at it!
Soon a pile of wood shavings will form at the end of the wood.
Eventually the wood will be hot enough to ignite the wood shavings
into embers.
Immediately place your kindling on the embers and gently blow on it
until the kindling ignites.
Triumphantly shout, "Fire!"