A no prize, simple skills contest....Light shavings firesteel

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
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Seems like we need a motivator for getting us to practice some simple skills and of course, to post them up. Rotte`s natural cordage thread was great, but it needed a hell of a carrot! How about we just do something nice and easy and have folks post up their success. It would be fun if these kinds of threads keep popping up so W&SS isn`t totally populated with `what an ass that guy is for getting lost`types of threads.

So very simple challenge.

Ignite wood shavings with a fire steel. Some people have trouble with this, others find it easy. The trick is to make your shavings nice and thin so that they curl on their own as you are slicing them. I usually find that these will ignite themselves just by hard scraping my firesteel (really horsing it with a shower of sparks). If I have trouble with that, then I will making scrapings by running my knife against the wood so that the edge is perpendicular to the surface and scrape, scrape, scrape until I get a pile of powder. This is easy to ignite by firesteel as long as it is dry.

Okay - try not to use fatwood or other resins or PJCB or synthetics. I want shavings from a stick....This is basically the last part of a one stick fire type of challenge - but the focus is on how to light some wood chips on fire using your firesteel.

Lets go and have fun!
 
Ok I will try this in the morning and post pics. I would do it tonight but in a few minutes NCIS starts, then NCIS Los Angeles, and then unforgetable and I am not missing them to shave some curles on a stick and then start them on fire with my firesteel lol.
I am heading to the timber in the morning for a walk in the woods with Kelly girl so I will do this challenge then.



Bryan
 
ha ha ha, gotta have your priorities!

sicily02 said:
Ok I will try this in the morning and post pics. I would do it tonight but in a few minutes NCIS starts, then NCIS Los Angeles, and then unforgetable and I am not missing them to shave some curles on a stick and then start them on fire with my firesteel lol.
I am heading to the timber in the morning for a walk in the woods with Kelly girl so I will do this challenge then.



Bryan
Click to expand...
 
Okay here is my little video demo.

[youtube]LttTw_M2OnQ[/youtube]
 
IN!


Kgd's Challenge on BF 001 by jclservices, on Flickr

Some Shirley Temple curls with the Tracker on LEFT and Reg curls on RIGHT.


Kgd's Challenge on BF 002 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 003 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 004 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 005 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 006 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 007 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 008 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 009 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 010 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 011 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 012 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's Challenge on BF 013 by jclservices, on Flickr


Kgd's challenge on BF 014 by jclservices, on Flickr

THANKS KEN!!
 
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Great stuff Jason - those are some Shirley Temple curls if I ever did seem them!
 
This is cool, kgd. I have never successfully gotten a firesteel to work on wood shavings, or anything naturally found for that matter actually :( even magnesium shavings.
I'll be out camping with my wife this weekend and I'll try again and ask her to man the camera!
 
uyotg said:
This is cool, kgd. I have never successfully gotten a firesteel to work on wood shavings, or anything naturally found for that matter actually :( even magnesium shavings.
I'll be out camping with my wife this weekend and I'll try again and ask her to man the camera!
Click to expand...

Thats the whole point of this thread uytog - so that we get off our butts and try it out! Have fun camping and give it a go!
 
well, tried numerous sticks found in the yard and alley with no success getting a spark to take.
errands to run, then back this afternoon to try again. will post pix then, success and failure. thanks for the challenge.

later:
well, my first mistake earlier was to use a stick left over from the post about making primitive knives.
used a piece of mulberry i'd cut fresh that day=green wood.
so found another stick that was dry=success.
have made numerous one stick fires but dont do as a routine.
always carry some sorta other tender or make a birds nest of grasses, inner bark etc
good to practice these skills. thanks again kdg.

the tools
ml knife ive had awhile now. matt also made me a striker and i handled the firesteel with osage orange to match the knife handle.
all nicely together on the sheath.
DSCN9840.jpg
[/IMG]

then grabbed a new knife i picked up this past weekend at bois d'arc.
a fella named bruce stephens from springfield missouri.
made from a recycled saw blade. nice rawhide sheath and braintan stitched over wood covered with hemp cord for a handle.
feels good in the hand. the texture from the cord gives it a good grip.
sharp as the dickens.
will have to see how the edge holds and then how it takes an edge.
DSCN9897.jpg
[/IMG]
the steel is fairly thin. tho it is a large knife not sure id want it as my only one.
will wait and see how it holds up-i'm pretty hard on knives and sometimes use em for things that makes others cringe...
here is the ml and the stephens side by side
DSCN9899.jpg
[/IMG]

and the point of all this
fire!
DSCN9901.jpg
[/IMG]
 
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Hi all,

Went out this morning and took part in this little contest. I selected my branch from off a dead willow tree down by the river.
DSCN0045.jpg

after cutting my branch from that tree, I went down to the sand bar and had a seat and started shaving some curles with my knife.
DSCN0046.jpg


DSCN0047.jpg


Got out the old fire steel and started to do some fast scraping with my knife and made shower of shower of sparks till my curls lit.
DSCN0049.jpg


DSCN0051.jpg


Bryan
 
Does that dust ever work! I just did it with some dried red pine. Perhaps pre-dried is cheating, but I'm in a city so I'll take what I can get.
 
MacCairnie said:
Does that dust ever work! I just did it with some dried red pine. Perhaps pre-dried is cheating, but I'm in a city so I'll take what I can get.
Click to expand...

Sawdust doesn't work that great because it gets too compact. Scrapings from your knife retain enough fluffiness that they work quite well. Again under the caveat that you are creating dry scrapings.

Good jobs Sadiejane & Brian.

Also I see that Terry Barney posted a tutorial on lighting up 5 natural tinders with a firesteel. Clearly a larger challenge then asked in this thread but very well worth pursuing. Check it out:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/886258-Using-a-fire-steel-with-natural-tinders
 
Nice work Ken. Thanks for the link. It is my opinion that if you have wood a knife and a firesteel you can have fire. This is a great exercise for anyone who spends time in the woods.
 
sadiejane said:
well, tried numerous sticks found in the yard and alley with no success getting a spark to take.
errands to run, then back this afternoon to try again. will post pix then, success and failure. thanks for the challenge.

later:
well, my first mistake earlier was to use a stick left over from the post about making primitive knives.
used a piece of mulberry i'd cut fresh that day=green wood.
so found another stick that was dry=success.
have made numerous one stick fires but dont do as a routine.
always carry some sorta other tender or make a birds nest of grasses, inner bark etc
good to practice these skills. thanks again kdg.

the tools
ml knife ive had awhile now. matt also made me a striker and i handled the firesteel with osage orange to match the knife handle.
all nicely together on the sheath.
DSCN9840.jpg
[/IMG]
Click to expand...

Great looking blade, what are the specs ?
 
Very generous to offer up your Wildertools S Curve for this thread Ken !:D

Over here in the PNW it is often very hard to use just wood as the damn stuff is always so wet. Before any smart ass says split the wood to get to the dry inner, over here you split the wood to get to even wetter ,rotten inner....that's why god gave us Fatwood !!!

If just using wood I'll typically look for some shaded, dead, low hanging Cedar branches such as these below. If you find they break cleanly off with a nice crisp snap then they are probably fairly dry !

P9290005-1.jpg


Here is a little vid also from today~

[youtube]i_8adxO0Y-0&noredirect=1[/youtube]

Great thread idea Ken !:thumbup:
 
Thanks for this challenge. So far I have learned that I either really suck at this or am using the wrong wood. I now have curls of sassafras all over my garage floor. It seems dry enough and the curls seem thin enough. Thank goodness for all the fatwood Myke sent me or I'd die of old age trying this in the woods. I'm going to give it a try again this evening if I can find some limbs on the way home. Better stop and get some beer too to help quell the frustration.
 
keyser223 said:
Thanks for this challenge. So far I have learned that I either really suck at this or am using the wrong wood. I now have curls of sassafras all over my garage floor. It seems dry enough and the curls seem thin enough. Thank goodness for all the fatwood Myke sent me or I'd die of old age trying this in the woods. I'm going to give it a try again this evening if I can find some limbs on the way home. Better stop and get some beer too to help quell the frustration.
Click to expand...

Best tip I can give you is to try a quick succession of sparks and don't stop till ya see flame !
 
I'm going to try and set the curls on a piece of bark or something, I think alot of the sparks were making it through the curls and burning out on the cold concrete floor before igniting. I was really just playing around with the new Wohlwend knives that came yesterday and was ill prepared, using what I found in the garage. Thanks for the tip Pit.
 
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