Blastmatch Problems

H

heelflip_kid

Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
93
Hello all,

I recently purchased a BlastMatch from Ultimate Survival Technologies. A good video about it can be found HERE for those who are unfamiliar.

Does anyone have this? I haven't been able to light even a pile of dry leaves (as in the video, so I know it can be done). Is there some technique that I'm missing? Should I press harder on the striker? Softer? This is the first time I've used this and I assumed it would be easier than it was. Any hints?

Thanks,

Eric
 
Firesteels such as the BlastMatch require a certain amount of skill to use. It's not that hard, but you'll need some practice. I'd start with some tinder that will light easily, such as dryer lint, vaseline cotton balls, or some fine fatwood shavings.

The natural tendency for most people is to scrape too hard and too fast, although the opposite is just as bad, of course. You'll get better results if you rest the rod on the ground rather than holding it in the air.
 
Push the leaves aside for the time being. I'd start with easily combustible items, such as cotton balls or dryer lint. This will allow you to feel how much pressure is required on the striker to achieve ignition. Once you get a better feel for the Blast match, begin to introduce more natural tinder. There is a learning curve here, you're not working with a Zippo:)
 
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The deceptive thing about firesteels, and the reason why many people are unimpressed with them at first glance, is that they're harder to use in ideal circumstances than a bic, which is where people usually first encounter them. The advantage of a firesteel is that apart from the increased headache in tinder wrangling (which would affect a bic too), they work exactly the same in 20 below with a 50km/h wind as they do in your backyard in July. That's why they're so popular.
 
You have all told me what I have quickly learned - they *are* deceptively hard to work properly, I'll have to practice more. I didn't realize that, I just thought all I needed to do was press-n-push and lickity-split I'd have a fire. It's much harder than it looks. I tried it on some dryer lint and cotton balls and they lit up first try, so I guess things are looking up. I was just worried that if I ever needed fire and didn't have a PJB (or similar), I'd be screwed :(
 
Are you pressing the rod straight down? If you are, you won't get a good contact with the striker and as a result will get less sparks. Notice that the rod wobbles a bit inside the casing. You want to strike at an angle basically forcing the rod towards the striker. I have no problems getting dried leaves and even dry wood thats been feathered lit.
 
ziptrickhead said:
Are you pressing the rod straight down? If you are, you won't get a good contact with the striker and as a result will get less sparks. Notice that the rod wobbles a bit inside the casing. You want to strike at an angle basically forcing the rod towards the striker. I have no problems getting dried leaves and even dry wood thats been feathered lit.
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I did notice that it's rather wobbly, at first that worried me. Your comments though may help tremendously. I can't test it right now, but that may be the problem. I was pressing the rod straighter down than I should have, trying to use my thumb strength to press the striker to the steel. If I press the rod at an angle, using that leverage it should make more sparks. I certainly hope so, because so far I haven't seen the "stream of sparks" that they touted on their site. Thanks for all the input so far.
 
Use firm pressure and go slow. When you first go slowly, you'll think it gives you no sparks. When you do actually manage to get sparks from scraping more slowly, you'll find that it produces a larger amount of hotter sparks. If the striker chatters against the rod, you're using too much pressure.
 
Khalnath said:
If the striker chatters against the rod, you're using too much pressure.
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I'm sorry, I'll have to ask you what you mean by chatters. I would think if it chatters, it would mean I wasn't using enough pressure because the rod would be allowed to "chatter" in the casing. :confused:

It's against what I would have thought initially to go slower, so I'll try it out going slower. The thing is, I'll have to manage the pressure precisely because if I have too much pressure, then when it does scrape, it goes too fast. Good thing I tried this out before I needed it outdoors! :D
 
You've gotten some good tips already on using the Blastmatch. Dried leaves aren't always the best tinder source. There is a lot of variety and some work better than others. Also, it is possible that the leaves aren't quite as dry as you think.

Most tinder needs to be prepped before it will accept a spark. Take a handful of dried leaves and crush them, twist them, etc, exposing lots of little fibers and small particles to catch your spark. Ideally you want to create a little "bird's nest" of tinder that is packed loosely enough to allow for sufficient oxygen for ignition.

Good luck.

-- FLIX
 
After reading this I ran right outside and tested my new (never used) Blastmatch. I had no trouble lighting a pile of fat wood. The "hold at an angle" helped. The sparks do seem to "sizzle" a little longer than from my LMF Army steel, but I have better control with the steel. Both started their Fat wood Piles within a few efforts.
Ron Athay
 
I have also found that the BlastMatch does a good job of igniting things like fatwood, PJB, dryer lint, etc. I think it does better with more fibrous things like dry grass, cattail fluff, etc. I've had luck lighting all of these things, I figured that dry leaves would be the same to light and when they didn't, I got worried.

I do like the design of the BlastMatch and its one-handed operation, it just took me some practice to use it correctly.
 
Forget dry leaves, I can't even get a pile of those to light with a Bic. Just about anything else will be better tinder as others have mentioned: dryer lint, cotton balls, fatwood scrapings, and even regular wood scrapings. Make sure they are scrapings though, and not shavings (i.e. you drag your knife edge across the wood at a 90 degree angle, or with the spine of your knife if it is well squared).
 
All the above advise is very sound. You could also try using char cloth. Works very well. Throw a few sparks on the char cloth and you have an instant ember.

Making it:
http://www.kingsley-hughes.com/outdoors/bushcraft/fire/making_charcloth.php

I used some flint, a steel, some dryer lint, jute twine, and char cloth just Saturday. Worked well.

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