"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

[5K Qs]

I despise emojis I loathe emojis..they sre for cold brained people unable to use the language....or mathematicians as they are more commonly known . Tongue poke laugh

I never thought there’d be this much discussion about emojis on this subforum. Should we have a moment of silence or maybe pour one out for these guys?

Barrett, I certainly miss those guys! Add the smile, the frown, the cool, thumbup, and thumbdown and that set of nine emojis would meet all my cold-brained communicative needs and artistic desires!!

- GT

 

[Peregrin]

I never thought there’d be this much discussion about emojis on this subforum. Should we have a moment of silence or maybe pour one out for these guys?

I feel better now!

 

[Modoc ED]

I despise emojis I loathe emojis

Tell me it isn't so Jon Took me two days but I finally figured out how to put Emojies in my threads/posts using XP with the new BF software I bet your head is exploding right about now
All in good fun Jon. Stay safe

 

[waynorth]

I've been typing in the emojis for years, as I find it faster, but that's all gone to pot now!

Me too!! sad face I find this new system requires too much effort to line up fifty or so emojis, or worse, angry face, post several pictures!! With the old system, I could drop a sequence of 6-7 pictures in one drop!! smiley Now it's one at a time!! another angry face; bored!!

 

[waynorth]

Oh!! - - - - -You can tap a bunch at once!!

 

[waynorth]

I'm just foolin' around!!

 

[screened porch]

I'm a little disappointed that the Copco I found in my basement for free cuts better than my new celebrated Misen.
The Misen drags where the Copco slides.

 

[Tyson A Wright]

I'm a little disappointed that the Copco I found in my basement for free cuts better than my new celebrated Misen.
The Misen drags where the Copco slides.

My Misen was very sharp right out of the box, but I've seen reports of them with the wire edge still attached (so a little stropping set them right).

Oddly enough, that was true of my GEC 97 - it seemed very dull, but upon close inspection, the wire edge hadn't been removed. 10 seconds of stropping and it was very sharp.

-Tyson

 

[WhittlinAway]

Ferro rods are easier to get a fire going with in the wind than a match or a lighter. With the ferro rod, the wind is your friend. I absolutely never use matches any more.

A little fatwood, made into fine shavings, and some scrapings of the fatwood, made with the back of the knife or the back of a SAK saw - multi tool saws are good for this too, as are Silky Saws, and scrape the ferro rod. It is not necessary to be really vigorous with the scraping, and it works better if the tip of the rod is braced on the surface of whatever has the scrapings on it. Get close. Don't try to ignite shavings a foot away. It is NOT necessary to have a carbon steel scraper. Stainless works fine. Even a sharp rock shard will work. Once you get it, it will become your favored way. It won't take long to get it either. Lots of YouTube videos will show the way.

Fatwood really isn't necessary either. Actually, just for fun, I sometimes cut a green branch with leaves on it and make some really fine shavings, which can be ignited with the ferro rod. These shavings burn out fast, but they will ignite.

There is ABSOLUTELY no way to do this with a flint and steel, or to directly ignite any shavings that I have seen - even fatwood, directly with a flint and steel. For that it is necessary to have some tinder that will glow upon catching the relatively cool spark thrown by striking hardened carbon steel (yes, I have often used the back of an old I*XL pocket knife for this, but prefer a steel made by grinding the edge of an old file smooth), with a rock that is hard enough to scrape off red hot particles of steel off the striker. I have never had an actual piece of flint, but have found it pretty easy to find a piece of quartz, that can be broken to produce a sharp edge, that will produce good sparks.

The easiest way to produce the tinder (char cloth), is to get some 100% cotton cloth, as some from some old blue jeans before they stated putting (gag) spandex in them. Get a strip of this about 2 or 3 inches wide and 18 or so inches long. Get a cookie tin, with a tight fitting lid, and have it open at the ready. Hang the cloth over a stick and ignite it with a match or lighter. It will flame up. Be ready when the flames die, and while the cloth is still glowing put it in the tin and put the lid on. Open it up after a few minutes, and look at your lovely char cloth. Other things can be used to catch the spark, but I have found that making char cloth is the easiest, and works really well.

Practice, in some fairly dim light, striking sparks by hitting the "flint" with the steel. When you can consistently make sparks, (you don't need to make a fireworks display), then prepare a tinder bundle of dry grass, really fine wood shavings, scrapings of fatwood, dry pine needles etc., about the size of a softball and work it into a kind of birds nest shape. Now take an inch or so of the char cloth, lay it on top of the flint, or quartz, really close to the edge, and strike some sparks. On the first or 20th try - or more, or less -don't give up - a spark will land on the char cloth and start it glowing. If you blow on it a bit, wave it around or hold it up to a brisk wind it will glow more. For first effort you might want to add a little more char cloth to the mix which will then be put into that birds nest which can then be folded over and blown into flame.

With a carbon steel striker, and quartz available for the picking up anywhere I frequent, it comes down to the tinder - the char cloth. It is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to find tinder in the wild that will ignite when you need it. It can be found, but will need time to dry and process it. You need DRY tinder for this to work, but when you have that - away you go. By the way, the back of a Silky Saw makes a wonderful striker for making sparks with quartz.

With a little practice you may start to wonder why matches were ever invented!

So, it took a while longer than I'd intended, but I finally got around to acquiring a steel striker and some flint. The blacksmith I purchased the setup from included some char cloth in the package, so I was good to go without having to follow these instructions (yet) to make my own.

Last night I played around a bit with the kit and managed to get a spark to land on the char cloth and get it glowing. It actually went better than I thought it would. Today I decided to see if I could light a fire and succeeded in getting another piece of char cloth glowing and using it to light a bird's nest I'd built from feather stick shavings.

Thanks again to screened porch , Henry Beige , Jack Black , and M Mr. Chips who all responded to my original request for information. As usual, this place is a great place to find information and the folks here are a delightful, generous sort with it.

 

[Just Tom.]

So, it took a while longer than I'd intended, but I finally got around to acquiring a steel striker and some flint. The blacksmith I purchase the setup from included some char cloth in the package, so I was good to go without having to follow these instructions (yet) to make my own.

Last night I played around a bit with the kit and managed to get a spark to land on the char cloth and get it glowing. It actually went better than I thought it would. Today I decided to see if I could light a fire and succeeded in getting another piece of char cloth glowing and using it to light a bird's nest I'd built from feather stick shavings.

Thanks again to screened porch , Henry Beige , Jack Black , and M Mr. Chips who all responded to my original request for information. As usual, this place is a great place to find information and the folks here are a delightful, generous sort with it.

When I need to light a fire outdoors, I typically employ the fire-lighting services of Messrs. Diamond, Zippo, and Bic.

Seriously, though, that sounds like fun and I should try it some time.

 

[screened porch]

My Misen was very sharp right out of the box, but I've seen reports of them with the wire edge still attached (so a little stropping set them right).

Oddly enough, that was true of my GEC 97 - it seemed very dull, but upon close inspection, the wire edge hadn't been removed. 10 seconds of stropping and it was very sharp.

-Tyson

That's a good idea. A wire edge where an edge doesn't belong might also explain cutting myself when I don't see why I should be.

 

[WhittlinAway]

When I need to light a fire outdoors, I typically employ the fire-lighting services of Messrs. Diamond, Zippo, and Bic.

Seriously, though, that sounds like fun and I should try it some time.

It was fun and extremely satisfying. Definitely recommended as something to try.

 

[Jack Black]

Me too!! sad face I find this new system requires too much effort to line up fifty or so emojis, or worse, angry face, post several pictures!! With the old system, I could drop a sequence of 6-7 pictures in one drop!! smiley Now it's one at a time!! another angry face; bored!!

There are so many emojis, and yet they are LESS expressive than before I find. Take :rolleyes : for example, look what we have now! The other one looked happy, not this guy!

So, it took a while longer than I'd intended, but I finally got around to acquiring a steel striker and some flint. The blacksmith I purchased the setup from included some char cloth in the package, so I was good to go without having to follow these instructions (yet) to make my own.

Last night I played around a bit with the kit and managed to get a spark to land on the char cloth and get it glowing. It actually went better than I thought it would. Today I decided to see if I could light a fire and succeeded in getting another piece of char cloth glowing and using it to light a bird's nest I'd built from feather stick shavings.

Thanks again to screened porch , Henry Beige , Jack Black , and M Mr. Chips who all responded to my original request for information. As usual, this place is a great place to find information and the folks here are a delightful, generous sort with it.

Nice work Greg, fun isn't it? And nowhere near as hard as many folks would guess. There's all sorts of natural tinder you can make a nest from, but you do need charcloth, amadou, or chaga to get the initial ember. Certainly a useful skill to learn (you can even use the spine of your knife)

 

[Jack Black]

If you edit a post, I love the way the 'Save' icon is a floppy-disc!

 

[screened porch]

you do need charcloth, amadou, or chaga

I knew what charcloth is.
One of these days I'll get around to making that saltpeter fuse of natural fibers, and see if that works. It should. They used to use flint and steel to light the matches on their matchlocks.

 

[WhittlinAway]

There are so many emojis, and yet they are LESS expressive than before I find. Take :rolleyes : for example, look what we have now! The other one looked happy, not this guy!

Fascinating point, Jack. It just struck me that that means that those reading pre-upgrade posts now may interpret their meaning, or at least subtleties of it, differently than they would have when originally posted. I guess we are at the cusp of an ”old emoji” to “modern emoji” language shift here.

 

[Jack Black]

Fascinating point, Jack. It just struck me that that means that those reading pre-upgrade posts now may interpret their meaning, or at least subtleties of it, differently than they would have when originally posted. I guess we are at the cusp of an ”old emoji” to “modern emoji” language shift here.

Good point Greg

 

[r8shell]

There are so many emojis, and yet they are LESS expressive than before I find. Take :rolleyes : for example, look what we have now! The other one looked happy, not this guy!

The new emojis don't bother me too much. They're pretty similar to the ones on my Android Phone.
Now, if the search function would get back up and running, I'd be happy. (but I'll still find something else to complain about. It is a Porchenburg tradition)

 

[Jack Black]

The new emojis don't bother me too much. They're pretty similar to the ones on my Android Phone.
Now, if the search function would get back up and running, I'd be happy. (but I'll still find something else to complain about. It is a Porchenburg tradition)

Too right, that's why we need :grumpy: back!

They're the SAME as the ones one my Android phone, but I still don't like them, and surely, the vast majority are superfluous here? I'm darn sure I'm gonna get my money's worth though! :grumpy: : rolleyes:

Yay!

 

[Headwinds]

Yay!

I'm having a little trouble with your syntax.