Types of Campfires : 6 Different Kinds & How To Build Them

Simply put, a campfire is a small size outdoor fire for functions like providing warmth, cooking, and entertainment.

In dense forests, a campfire is also a means of signaling the forest officials for help or threat, shoo away bugs/mosquitoes/insects, etc.

In modern times, a campfire is a cool place for chatting, dancing, singing, etc., with family or friends.

You may think that a campfire is a 21st-century concept, but record-wise, the concept of campfires got light more than 1.6 million years ago.

At that time, humans used campfires for cooking purposes. Campfires are more than just sitting around a small-sized fireplace and gossiping for hours.

It’s a leisure time best enjoyed with family and friends. If you think that there is just one type of campfire, you’re wrong.

To your amazement, there are as many six types of campfires that serve different purposes, are made differently, and have distinct pros and cons. If you wish to know about these in more detail, read below.

Types of campfires

As said above, there is a multitude of campfire types with distinct purposes and pros & cons. So, here is a detailed analysis of each of these campfire types.

1. Lean-to-fire lay: Best campfire for wind.

This exceptional kind of campfire is generally suitable for windy days.

You need to start looking for a medium-sized tree trunk and spot it down where you need to start your campfire.

Put the log on a level plane, going up against an enormous part of the breeze. The reason, the log can hinder the breeze and have a significant effect on your campfire.

At that point, you will get your starting fuel which is typically a lot of kindling stuffed together. A couple of other things you can put up include dead grass or weeds.

Your last thing to put down is your twigs. They should slant toward your log, over the strands you have put.

You must set the twigs vertically this time since it is slanting toward the log. It would help if you kept the twigs centered between your strands’ focal point, so you have space to light the fire when you are ready.

When you are going to enlighten it, get your fire source (lighter or matchstick) and spot it on one of the fiber closes. The fire should start and overgrow.

Pros

• Useful against high winds.
• Easy to set up.
• It works against rain too.

Cons

• It produces less amount of warmth.
• It may or may not last for long.

2. Log cabin campfire: Best for warmth

If you want warmth, this is for you. Log cabin campfires may not have all the earmarks of an attainable campfire for everyone since it needs lots of softwood cut with an ax.

For the people who do have wood open to cut, this is a magnificent campfire to render.

To start, you will take your cut-up softwood and start making a hashtag-shape on the bare ground.

So you will have two pieces equivalent on the ground and have another two stacked on top. It is the primary layer or base of your log cabin campfire.

In the future, top off the middle with one layer. At whatever point you get done, you can continue to stack the softwood on top with the identical hashtag shape as before.

It will give your fuel a ton of oxygen for the fire to launch and continue to create since it is one layer over the ground.

Resulting in adding around three-four extra layers of your softwood, you can incorporate birch bark. At last, you can have a few additional pieces of softwood on top, and you are set up to light the fire!

Pros

• Lasts longer
• Ideal for cooking
• Produces lots of warmth

Cons

• Time-consuming
• Can go off in windy situations

3. Teepee campfire: Best for enjoying snacks

Here is likely the most notable campfire ever you’ll come across. It is essentially more fundamental and different than the others in the list and snappier to prepare.

The foremost thing you have to do is make a free layer of 6-7 sticks on the bare ground.

It is to allow air to move beyond and make the fire start without any issues. By then, you will put your fuel straightforwardly on top of the layer you just built.

You should put one piece of firewood on each side of the fuel layer, interfacing like a triangle. If you like, you can reach through the middle and add arousing.

It would help if you started filling in the circle with fuel until there is no more space left. Continue digging each piece into the ground and connecting in the middle.

In case you have any more firewood left, you can add that to your finished teepee. But remember to leave a part open, so you have space to reach in and light the fire again if needed.

Pros 

• Produces lots of heat
• Ideal for small camping trips
• Ideal for cooking purposes

Cons

• Difficult to maintain
• Challenging to make in windy conditions

4. Smudge campfire: Best to repel bugs and mosquitos

You won’t use the smudge campfire for heating purposes. Its objective is to spurn mosquitoes/bugs. And the best thing is that you can make everything without the hassles of swapping an unprecedented bug repellent.

To get rolling, you will require two things. First, any soup (any metal) can and second, a coat holder. Now, drill two openings on each side of the can, ensuring that the openings are on the opposite side.

At that point, bend the coat holder into a U-shape, and after that, turn the tips so it can get a path into the can openings.

Essentially, stick the holder in, and ignite the fire. Now, look around for punk or powder wood. It’s not hard to find it in a forest.

If there’s a fallen tree that appears in the same state for a long while, it’s unmistakably the thing you are trying to find.

All you require to do now is to top off your can with punk wood in a sufficient amount. As there is not that much space for oxygen inside the can, a fire will not begin.

That is satisfactory because you do not want to light a fire here. Instead, fumes will start to develop, and that is all you desire to fight the mosquitoes off.

Pros

• Easy to maintain
• Easy to make
• Repels mosquitos and bugs

Cons

• It needs a drill machine

5. Star campfire: Best for survival

A star campfire is an exceptionally standard fire layout and perhaps the best one. The best thing is that a star campfire can last for longer.

The imperative thing you ought to do is uncover a bare area where your campfire will take form. The area doesn’t need to appear big to bestow your fire more oxygen to burn.

The essential concern you will do is get your fuel and spot it into the little opening you have made.

Now, you will need around 6-8 bits of the log (2-3ft in length) to spot them in a star shape. That is, take one log, put it down, and put the log close to it at a point.

The tips should contact each other at the center. Do this until you approach your first log.

Finally, you will need some additional sticks to make a center stack in your logs. It is your fuel for igniting fire into the star campfire. So, endeavor to have them erroneously packaged.

Pros

• Ample room for cooking and warmth.

Cons

• Not suitable for windy conditions.

6. Swedish fire torch: Easiest campfire

A Swedish fire torch is perhaps the most simple campfire for you to bring about. It’s time-saving and ideal for cooking.

To start with, locate a short but wide log of wood and cut the timber into four equal pieces.

You can do this with any cutting instrument or with a hatchet. That is all you require to accomplish for the plan of this fire. It is that easy to make!

The next thing to arrange is to fill in the gap between the four pieces for burning. Keep the long upright and fill in the opening with a vast extent of sorts of fuel like tree shavings, tree skin, and roughage, etc.

At last, light up the fuel and contemplate the torch start! You can keep including limited quantities of fuel on the top as the fire picks up intensity.

This campfire-style is phenomenal for permeating water and a blend of food items that ought to get prepared in pots as you can comfortably place the cooking pots over the standing log.

Pros

• Easy to make
• Uses fewer resources
• Easy to maintain

Cons

• Fire doesn’t last for long.
• It would help if you cut tools.

Essential tips of all types of campfires

Below are some essential tips for all types of campfires discussed above.

• Know your surroundings.
• Use the designated fire ring to set up the campfire.
• Don’t go after cutting down the entire tree to waste it.
• Don’t leave behind any waste.
• Use only dry wood for a campfire.
• Make sure the wood you’re using doesn’t emit smoke.
• Use the campfire for its intended use. 
• Don’t go with too large campfires extending outside the fire ring.
• Properly douse off the campfire before heading to sleep or leaving the campsite.
• Don’t let any inflammable substance come closer to your campfire.
• Be mindful of your campfire’s heat intensity. It need not gain much heat as it could then lead to a forest fire.
• The campfire should have a proper amount of fuel to keep it going.
• The campfire should bear the brunt of strong winds and heavy spells of rain.
• Make sure to make your campfire at a suitable distance from your tent.

Conclusion

Knowing the different kinds of campfires and manufacturing them when going out outside is both stunning and essential for a camper.

Exactly when a particular condition arises, you may save yourself a great deal of torture and disappointment by acknowledging how to design and manufacture the right campfire by then.

It would help if you got comfortable with all of the different sorts of campfires discussed above and when to create them.

Since when the situation arises, you probably won’t have your PDA or some different techniques for investigating how to construct each and how.