In the March/April 2019 Issue...

• Cooking Outdoors While Living Off The Grid
• A Modern Version Of A Classic Folding Knife
• Repurposing A Survival Flashlight
• Cast Iron Cookware Collecting
• The Dance Brothers Texas Rebel Revolver
• How To Make A Very Simple Fishing Lure

About Us

Backwoodsman magazine was started in 1980 and is published bi-monthly. We are dedicated to preserving Old Frontier living, primitive hunting and fishing, tool and weapons lore, and wilderness survival. Each issue includes articles, information and how-to projects associated with this unique period of North American history.

Types of articles you'll find in our magazine..

• How to build shelter, canoes, firearms and bow-and-arrows
• How to fabricate clothing, create tools and other gear necessary for life on the frontier
• Survival techniques, fire-building, cooking
• Primitive hunting and fishing
• Indian lore

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fire with the sun has been something that has fascinated me since childhood. However, I've come a long way since the days of chasing ants on the back porch with a magical dot of light produced from my Dad's magnifying glass. Having studied, practiced, and utilized countless techniques for starting fire utilizing the sun over the past couple of decades, I've concluded it is one of the more valuable (and misunderstood) survival skills. First, it's truly a skill. While almost anyone can pick up a high powered magnifying glass and make a fire, very few can do it with low powered or improvised magnifying devices. A sudden and unexpected survival scenario will rarely offer someone a perfectly tuned high-powered magnifying glass, such as the one that sat on my Dad's desk. However, it will likely offer the materials necessary to crudely fashion a low-powered, improvised magnifying lens. The knowledge and skill required to get a fire going between those two options (high powered and improvised) is literally like night and day, and it only comes from countless hours of experience in the filed. In this article, I will explore the critical difference between high and low-powered lenses, as well as some very unique improvised solar fire starting techniques.
Welcome to my Solar Fire Starting Master Class