One of the first things one must learn when setting up camp in the wilderness is how to build a campfire. Rubbing wood together (like in Cast Away) is probably one of the least effective ways to build a fire today, provided that you bring a small amount of supplies with you on your trip. Certainly, using a matchbox can make lighting a fire quite easy. However, if your matchbox is not waterproof and you run out of matches, then what do you do? (Using a simple lighter is cheating!) Starting a fire using friction can be very tiring and time-consuming.
One of the most well known ways to start a fire without matches is to use flint and steel. All you need is a piece of flint, a steel item, and some tinder. Stores often sell kits that include flint and an ideal type of steel. The basic idea is that you use the flint to strike the steel and create sparks that land on the tinder, which should catch fire after enough sparks are made. Common materials for tinder include dry pine needles, leaves, grass, birch bark, char cloth, or cotton swabs, essentially anything with a lot of surface area and edges. The flaming tinder is then used to light the kindling. See the full instructions here.
Have your heard that you can actually start a fire with a can of coke and some chocolate? Sure, this is a less traditional way to make fire, and it is also quite inefficient based on the available methods, but doesn’t it sound like fun? Apparently this was featured on Mythbusters and really works; it involves using the chocolate to polish the bottom of the can until it is shiny enough to set a small stick (or something similar) on fire at a certain focal point! See the full instructions here. However, using any other object that focuses light to one point (like a magnifying glass) can also allow you to start a fire. Just make sure you start with smaller, dry sticks that will definitely catch, before you add the larger logs.
Fritos make a good fire starter I’ve never tried a can of coke.