Cliff Nieporte's Firestraw Pics

[Guyon]

Told Cliff a while back I'd post some pics for him. Here was his original post from 12/21/05 about the burn tests, and here are his pics:

You guys got my curiousity going so I headed to the woods today to do some burn time testing on the fire straws.
I took some pictures too , but I can't seem to get them to show up here. I can e-mail them though , if anyone wants to have a look.
To use them , I split out the middle portion & pulled some of the cotton out , fluff it up a little & then hit it with some sparks from a rod that was in a Blast Match that I managed to break awhile back.
They will ignite with one scrape of the rod & burn 3 minutes & 20 seconds.
May burn longer if I use more PJ when I make them...I'll give that a try next time.
The tinder I used was a little larger than pencil size maple & was burning well before the straws burned out.
Had no trouble getting larger stuff to burn after that.
These things work very well. Thanks for sharing all of the different ideas on how to make them & how to use them. I'm always looking for ways to improve what I use & appreciate everyone's ideas.

 

[skammer]

Good pics of the benefits of a large quality blade for splitting.

Thanks for sharing.

Skam

 

[SubaruSTi]

What kind of knife is the large one?

 

[JD Mandrell]

I'd like to know what that big knife is also!

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Looks like a flat ground RD. Nice idea on the straw, I made a few recently used hemp rope plus wax to fill plus a cotton ball and PJ on one end, wrapped in wax paper and then spyderwire. You can pack a lot of paper and fishing line on one, not as much for fishing as for general cordage.

-Cliff

 

[Ravaillac]

Good pics of the benefits of a large quality blade for splitting.

I (and anyone else) could have done the splitting he shows with a mora. He could have done it with his f1 too.

 

[skammer]

I (and anyone else) could have done the splitting he shows with a mora. He could have done it with his f1 too.

Yes, but unlike you he could also of split 8 inch knotty pine as well, kind of difficult with a mora. Lets not start this debate again.

Skam

 

[cleaner145]

Yes, but unlike you he could also of split 8 inch knotty pine as well, kind of difficult with a mora. Lets not start this debate again.

Skam

I'll second that motion. Great pics though. :thumbup:

 

[Cliff Nieporte]

Hi all.
Thank You , Guyon , for getting these pics up. Much appreciated.
The larger knife is indeed a flat ground Ranger RD6. I suppose I could have used any number of knives to split out that wimpy stick in the pic , but there were some larger diameter pieces that needed to be resized too. Also , it's the knife that I had with me at the time , so , well , you know...

RD did a fine job as did the F-1. I'm happy with both of them.

Thanks again Guyon & thanks all for reading.
Cliff Nieporte

 

[Cliff Stamp]

The larger knife is indeed a flat ground Ranger RD6.

It is difficult to tell from pictures, but the edge looks very fine. If you have the time you might want to write up a review for Justin to put on the website to illustrate its performance as it would complement well the existing review of the sabre ground model.

-Cliff