Featured Image Credit: Ed Blomfield

If you only watch one beautifully shot film about the art of making fires today, make it this one featuring bushcraft expert Thom Hunt. Hunt, founder and director of the outdoor experiences company 7th Rise, is no stranger to the fire starting process and knows better than most that it’s essentially the staple skill for every single outdoorsman in history

The film, a result of a collaboration between Filson and Outdoors Magic, explores the essence of fire and what makes it so special from a bushcraft perspective. From the obvious things like its historical role in cooking food and staying warm to its place at the centre of ancient communities, a place where people would meet and settle disputes, the piece gets to the heart of fire-craft and will almost certainly make you want to go out there and learn the skill yourself.

In an age where we’re increasingly reliant on technology, an age where we spend big portions of our time shuffling around urban spaces on the way to and from the office, the film manages to highlight one of the main lures of being outside – that desire, within all of us, to be at one with the world, to be at one with nature. It’s an idea that’s easy to sniff at but the reality, as numerous medical professionals have already confirmed, is being outdoors is good for our wellbeing – both mental and physical.

“You connect with your environment in a way that you just can’t do in a city,” says Hunt when discussing what makes learning to make fire such a unique and appealing thing to do.

If you’d like to learn more about the bushcraft skill that is ‘starting a fire’, keep an eye out on Outdoors Magic for a useful instructional video that’ll, if not turn you fully Ray Mears on its own, at least set you on the right path to bushcraft boss level. Get outdoors. Get wild. Get burning twigs the old fashioned way.

Bushcraft expert Thom is a Filson ambassador and is wearing the Filson Alaskan Guide Shirt and Filson Lightweight Angler Cap.

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