Lay a fire-starting bed. Crumple up several pieces of dry paper and lay them close together.
Use your pocketknife to shave small pieces of bark onto the paper until there's a layer of wood shavings over the papers.
Use your pocketknife to create a second pile of shavings and smaller pieces of wood ranging in size from your finger to half of your hand. Keep this pile within arm's reach but not near enough to catch fire on its own.
Light the paper in four corners. If you're using an enclosed fireplace, light the back corners first so you won't be reaching over the fire.
Blow gently on the fire bed until the bark shavings are burning with flames, not just glowing red or smoking.
Feed the other wood shaving in, getting progressively larger until you have a fully involved fire.
Place your smallest full piece of wood on the fire. Blow on the flames until the wood catches with full flames.
Stack other pieces of wood near the fire. The heat will help them to dry and be able to catch more easily when their time comes.
Monitor your fire. Green wood fires tend to go out more often than fires made with well seasoned wood. If the fire starts dying, add more wood shavings and blow onto the remaining flames.
