- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 708
Here's what's on the menu for today:
My Uber-trusty BK-16, A couple of Fresnel lenses found at my local small-fart, and a "fire turtle" -- basically a flint & steel kit my brother made years ago that I somehow managed to borrow to get some practice in with
Part I: The Fresnel method:
I wasn't certain that this would work in the cool autumn afternoon, as my previous Fresnel fires were done on warmer days, but a little persistence paid off.
Step one is to make tinder. I used some fine shavings, and some coarser... My BK-16 does shavings easy, and the squared spine makes some of the finest shavings I can produce. I mixed those together with some bits of dry leaf and some cottony grass I found for my tinder ball. It speaks well of the ergos that it's easy to do the spine shavings in basically a reverse grip.
Here's the proof of concept on the el-cheapo Fresnel... when you get things aligned right, it should burn a smoldering hole through a leaf in seconds...
Here we see about what it looks like when you're in business with a Fresnel (it's really hard to photo this alone) the keys are to get the lens between the sun and the tinder, and to cast a small oblong shaped beam of light on the tinder. It doesn't have to look white, but it does have to be bright and steady on one spot.
... And after a little patience, and re-sorting the tinder, we've got open flame!
A few tips/ what I learned:
1.) Mix dry leaves into the tinder bundle. Smolder them and then fan/blow until the small shavings, etc. catch.
2.) The sun should feel warm when attempting this. A few minutes after my success, the sun cooled off and My followup was thwarted.
3.) Be moblie. the sun is constantly moving and you need to follow it for best results.
4.) treat the smolder like the coal from a bow drill and you will do better.
5.) The 2.5x (red package) worked better than the 2x (bluish package) but both were serviceable
6.) some breeze is a good thing, more breeze sucks.
7.) for the weight/bulk, we should probably all carry a tiny Fresnel. This is a low-exertion Firecraft method.
Part II: Flint and Steel
This is a method that I've been able to do for a number of years, but with my spotty practice, I get inconsistent results.
Step one is to, of course, prepare a tinder bundle. For this I used more of the fine spine shavings and some mini-fuzzsticks done with the 16's edge and light pressure. I also used the cottony grass, but it proved to be a hinderance for this method.
Here, I show the method I used to hold the charcloth to the flint, I'm sure there's other ways, but this catches a spark easily for me. The sparks tend to roll along the top of the flint you can control the area the sparks land in with the pressure and speed of the strike.
I was trying to be all cool and strike it with my 16's spine... it's heat treat is such that it makes a better flint knapping tool than a striker The upside is that you can use this to create a spot to strike with... the flint gets "duller" over time and a fresh-knapped edge throws sparks more easily.
Strike both in to the flint and across it. Once you get a spark to land on the charcloth, it's game on!
Blow to keep the ember smoldering. Putting a little charcloth into the tinder bundle will make your life easier. Please forgive the out of focus shot, but multitasking apparently makes focusing suffer...
Here's the smolder blown into a small fire...
GOAL!!!
Things I learned here:
1.) You cannot possibly have too much charcloth on hand.
2.) What is good tinder for one method might hinder another.
3.) BK-16's are Hard
4.) it's neat to think of finding a rock and striking it with your knife in the woods to make fire, but it might not work out the way you hope. --test your gear!
5.) There's something very satisfying about beating stuff together until there's a fire!
I had a lot of fun doing this, Thanks for looking, and hope you learned something!
My Uber-trusty BK-16, A couple of Fresnel lenses found at my local small-fart, and a "fire turtle" -- basically a flint & steel kit my brother made years ago that I somehow managed to borrow to get some practice in with
Part I: The Fresnel method:
I wasn't certain that this would work in the cool autumn afternoon, as my previous Fresnel fires were done on warmer days, but a little persistence paid off.
Step one is to make tinder. I used some fine shavings, and some coarser... My BK-16 does shavings easy, and the squared spine makes some of the finest shavings I can produce. I mixed those together with some bits of dry leaf and some cottony grass I found for my tinder ball. It speaks well of the ergos that it's easy to do the spine shavings in basically a reverse grip.
Here's the proof of concept on the el-cheapo Fresnel... when you get things aligned right, it should burn a smoldering hole through a leaf in seconds...
Here we see about what it looks like when you're in business with a Fresnel (it's really hard to photo this alone) the keys are to get the lens between the sun and the tinder, and to cast a small oblong shaped beam of light on the tinder. It doesn't have to look white, but it does have to be bright and steady on one spot.
... And after a little patience, and re-sorting the tinder, we've got open flame!
A few tips/ what I learned:
1.) Mix dry leaves into the tinder bundle. Smolder them and then fan/blow until the small shavings, etc. catch.
2.) The sun should feel warm when attempting this. A few minutes after my success, the sun cooled off and My followup was thwarted.
3.) Be moblie. the sun is constantly moving and you need to follow it for best results.
4.) treat the smolder like the coal from a bow drill and you will do better.
5.) The 2.5x (red package) worked better than the 2x (bluish package) but both were serviceable
6.) some breeze is a good thing, more breeze sucks.
7.) for the weight/bulk, we should probably all carry a tiny Fresnel. This is a low-exertion Firecraft method.
Part II: Flint and Steel
This is a method that I've been able to do for a number of years, but with my spotty practice, I get inconsistent results.
Step one is to, of course, prepare a tinder bundle. For this I used more of the fine spine shavings and some mini-fuzzsticks done with the 16's edge and light pressure. I also used the cottony grass, but it proved to be a hinderance for this method.
Here, I show the method I used to hold the charcloth to the flint, I'm sure there's other ways, but this catches a spark easily for me. The sparks tend to roll along the top of the flint you can control the area the sparks land in with the pressure and speed of the strike.
I was trying to be all cool and strike it with my 16's spine... it's heat treat is such that it makes a better flint knapping tool than a striker
The upside is that you can use this to create a spot to strike with... the flint gets "duller" over time and a fresh-knapped edge throws sparks more easily.
Strike both in to the flint and across it. Once you get a spark to land on the charcloth, it's game on!
Blow to keep the ember smoldering. Putting a little charcloth into the tinder bundle will make your life easier. Please forgive the out of focus shot, but multitasking apparently makes focusing suffer...
Here's the smolder blown into a small fire...
GOAL!!!
Things I learned here:
1.) You cannot possibly have too much charcloth on hand.
2.) What is good tinder for one method might hinder another.
3.) BK-16's are Hard
4.) it's neat to think of finding a rock and striking it with your knife in the woods to make fire, but it might not work out the way you hope. --test your gear!
5.) There's something very satisfying about beating stuff together until there's a fire!
I had a lot of fun doing this, Thanks for looking, and hope you learned something!
)
