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Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
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Contest
- Thread starter Rotte
- Start date
Thanks a lot Rotte!
yeah, there was some rain today, this made this contest even harder, I gathered the pine needles that were caught in the branches of trees, cause the ones on the ground were still damp.
what I found out that really helps to start the fire is crushing the pine needles ( I noticed this by accident a long time ago, the ones picked up in my driveway that were crushed by the car's tires ignited a lot easier than the rest) but I didn't do this today cause I was in a hurry to get the prize. and crushing the fibers would take me longer.
I guess what I learned in the end is that if I had taken the time to crush the pine needles, I would've saved me some time and trouble later cause the fire would've been a lot easier to start.
Using the rock was a bit awkward, yeah. mostly because you can't drag the rock on the rod, you have to strike it. and that took some time for me to get used to.
With a knife or proper striker you can lay the prepared tinder on the ground and use one hand for the knife and the other for the ferro rod. using the rock it's very hard to control where the sparks will land so a lot of the strikes go to waste.
After all it was a good experience and now it makes me value much more what a simple piece of sharp metal can do in a situation like this.
yeah, there was some rain today, this made this contest even harder, I gathered the pine needles that were caught in the branches of trees, cause the ones on the ground were still damp.
what I found out that really helps to start the fire is crushing the pine needles ( I noticed this by accident a long time ago, the ones picked up in my driveway that were crushed by the car's tires ignited a lot easier than the rest) but I didn't do this today cause I was in a hurry to get the prize. and crushing the fibers would take me longer.
I guess what I learned in the end is that if I had taken the time to crush the pine needles, I would've saved me some time and trouble later cause the fire would've been a lot easier to start.
Using the rock was a bit awkward, yeah. mostly because you can't drag the rock on the rod, you have to strike it. and that took some time for me to get used to.
With a knife or proper striker you can lay the prepared tinder on the ground and use one hand for the knife and the other for the ferro rod. using the rock it's very hard to control where the sparks will land so a lot of the strikes go to waste.
After all it was a good experience and now it makes me value much more what a simple piece of sharp metal can do in a situation like this.
hey kuruptd, the ferro rod is different than the LMF type, I noticed that the LMF throws a lot of sparks everywhere. but they fade fast. this one (can't remember where I got it, maybe on the survival topics site) seems to throw little blobs of molten metal that lasts longer, they even bounce on the ground still on fire. Keep in mind that this is with a proper striker. with the rock it was just some shy sparks. nothing else.
the rod had a lot of wear even before the contest, so I'm not sure if the rock chewed that much off, but I can say that it took me more than 100 strikes just to get the first little ember. this was hard work.
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I won't enter this one... but what a great idea Rotte! This gets everyone out there and trying.
I may go out tomorrow... if so I'll give it a go and post pics.
Here's my ferro... (1/2" x 12")
Here's my striker...
Dang Magnussen !!
Where the heck did you find that beast of a ferro ?Not to hijack the thread but is that an RWS hanging up on the wall behind you in the first pic ?? Just curious ...
Count me in for trying it also but not for the prize... Gives me reason to practice more is all...
That's great Hector. So which prize were you going to claim? The Nimravus or the RAT kit? From the looks of your ferro rod, the RAT fire kit might not be a bad choice....
I'll take the Nimravus, just because I have a RAT fire kit arriving soon!
thanks a lot for the contest, I will do something to keep the generosity flowing.
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2008
- Messages
- 20,082
Dang Magnussen !!
I think that's a goinggear rod ant it's fittingly called THE BEAST
http://goinggear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=1
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 9,491
I won't enter this one... but what a great idea Rotte! This gets everyone out there and trying.
I may go out tomorrow... if so I'll give it a go and post pics.
Here's my ferro... (1/2" x 12")
Here's my striker...
Overcompensating????
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 26,042
I've used pine needles as a tinder material before. They catch really well...once they actually catch. Getting them to that point can sometimes be difficult, since they have to be bone dry for them not to just smolder when the spark hits 'em. You have to be ready once they flare up though! They burn up pretty fast. Fortunately where you find them there's never a shortage.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Okay,
Jealous of Hector's rapid satisfaction of the contest, he spurned me to get off my butt and go outside to forage in the backyard. This attempt was a fail. One, no light (had to live off my poor maglight led) and two my motivation wasn't to travel too far.
I went to a spot where I had some old decoration rocks. Not much choice, most of them smooth river stones.
At least there is lots of tinder possibility. However, this stuff was wetter than I'd like it to be.
I also put together some cottonwood sticks and loaded it up on a ceramic platform for my trials. Unfortunately no dice. I could get sparks from the rock, but they were weak sparks and the somewhat wet leaves just failed to accept the sparks. I then decided to cheat (without entry) because I wanted to see if I had any hope with this stuff and went inside and grabbed my striker. Still no dice. Those leaves just had too much moisture to grab a spark.
Today, at work I took a coffee break and decided to retry things. First, finding your tinder in the day is much easier to do! I went to the Detroit River behind my work. There is a little public beech/boat launch and I thought this was as good as any a place to forage.
A quick perusal through the shrubs at the margins of the beach yielded the exact kind of tinder I was looking for. Actually, I expected to come across some phragmities tufts and was surprised to find none of this stuff around. However, this stuff was good. Its Canadian thistle and the flowerheads still have anough silky seeds in them to do. I've used milkweed often for tinder, but never thistle before. This was my chance to try a new tinder <- always a fun thing to do!
Next, finding a rock. Well at least along the river there are no shortage of these. I had it in my head that I was going to find a mussel shell. Elliptio complanata works great and I've used these before. I was going to knap a notch in the mussel shell and make my natural version of the Joezilla Shango firesteel notch.
Unfortunately, my plans were spoiled by the fact that this beach was reclaimed not too long ago. So despite my searching, I couldn't find any mussels. There were zebra mussel shells but these are too small and too thin to work effectively. So I had to find a rock.
I took about 2 minutes to find this one. A quick test indicated it worked great! Check it out, it already has the Shango notch in it!
Seeing as this is a public park in a city, I wasn't going to set a big fire, but another thing that river/waters provide are drift wood. I noted some nice pieces here. They were a bit moist, but had I built my fire large enough from kindling and then better fuel wood, I would have been looking at using these to sustain a longer term fire if necessary. Always good to scout the surroundings for nature's bounty!
Okay I laid out my tinder on the sand. I had my thistle, some burs from another plant and some dried leaves off of the bur annual that was still attached to the plant but nice and dry. Notice the fluffy seeds from the thistle and of course my Shango-notched rock.
Literally - 3 strikes and that thistle lit up like the best of them. These tinders are flash tinders, so you have to be ready to nuture that 3-4 second flame you get with them. The dried up leaf did that well. I was kind of hoping the burs would work too but they kind of sucked at it. The tough part is doing all this and then trying to get a shot of it.
Once that piece of leaf started to flame up though, I was pretty golden and from the fire would have been easy to nurture with small sticks. I think the shango-notch in the rock might even help to shave some of the sticks also.
Jealous of Hector's rapid satisfaction of the contest, he spurned me to get off my butt and go outside to forage in the backyard. This attempt was a fail. One, no light (had to live off my poor maglight led) and two my motivation wasn't to travel too far.
I went to a spot where I had some old decoration rocks. Not much choice, most of them smooth river stones.
At least there is lots of tinder possibility. However, this stuff was wetter than I'd like it to be.
I also put together some cottonwood sticks and loaded it up on a ceramic platform for my trials. Unfortunately no dice. I could get sparks from the rock, but they were weak sparks and the somewhat wet leaves just failed to accept the sparks. I then decided to cheat (without entry) because I wanted to see if I had any hope with this stuff and went inside and grabbed my striker. Still no dice. Those leaves just had too much moisture to grab a spark.
Today, at work I took a coffee break and decided to retry things. First, finding your tinder in the day is much easier to do! I went to the Detroit River behind my work. There is a little public beech/boat launch and I thought this was as good as any a place to forage.
A quick perusal through the shrubs at the margins of the beach yielded the exact kind of tinder I was looking for. Actually, I expected to come across some phragmities tufts and was surprised to find none of this stuff around. However, this stuff was good. Its Canadian thistle and the flowerheads still have anough silky seeds in them to do. I've used milkweed often for tinder, but never thistle before. This was my chance to try a new tinder <- always a fun thing to do!
Next, finding a rock. Well at least along the river there are no shortage of these. I had it in my head that I was going to find a mussel shell. Elliptio complanata works great and I've used these before. I was going to knap a notch in the mussel shell and make my natural version of the Joezilla Shango firesteel notch.
Unfortunately, my plans were spoiled by the fact that this beach was reclaimed not too long ago. So despite my searching, I couldn't find any mussels. There were zebra mussel shells but these are too small and too thin to work effectively. So I had to find a rock.
I took about 2 minutes to find this one. A quick test indicated it worked great! Check it out, it already has the Shango notch in it!
Seeing as this is a public park in a city, I wasn't going to set a big fire, but another thing that river/waters provide are drift wood. I noted some nice pieces here. They were a bit moist, but had I built my fire large enough from kindling and then better fuel wood, I would have been looking at using these to sustain a longer term fire if necessary. Always good to scout the surroundings for nature's bounty!
Okay I laid out my tinder on the sand. I had my thistle, some burs from another plant and some dried leaves off of the bur annual that was still attached to the plant but nice and dry. Notice the fluffy seeds from the thistle and of course my Shango-notched rock.
Literally - 3 strikes and that thistle lit up like the best of them. These tinders are flash tinders, so you have to be ready to nuture that 3-4 second flame you get with them. The dried up leaf did that well. I was kind of hoping the burs would work too but they kind of sucked at it. The tough part is doing all this and then trying to get a shot of it.
Once that piece of leaf started to flame up though, I was pretty golden and from the fire would have been easy to nurture with small sticks. I think the shango-notch in the rock might even help to shave some of the sticks also.
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 765
I have started a whole bunch of fires playing around in the back yard using plain ole pine straw. That was my tender of choice because we are surrounded by pine trees here in south Mississippi, we have no fall so to speak so no dead leaves in abundance and the grass hasn't started to turn brown yet. With the goingear rods no need to even rough it up! It will take a spark easily.
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2009
- Messages
- 4,573
Okay, now I'm going to have to try it. Like I said, I've used pine needles as a starter, but only after using finer stuff to catch the spark.
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2008
- Messages
- 3,214
Excellent write-up Ken. I think you really highlighted some of the challenges in using a ferro-rod, but, with Hector-like persistence, demonstrated it can be done.
Thistle is my 'go to' tinder in my local area. It is so fine and oily that is catches a hot spark really easily. Cattails work well too.
Congratulations, you have come in second place and are the winner of the RAT fire kit. The irony here of course is that I carry PJCB's in my RAT kit so that I don't need to find tinder...like thistles. :thumbup:
EDIT: KGD is forfeiting and does not come in Second. The RAT Fire Kit is still available for the Second Place winner--get out there and create fire!
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- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
I love that Rotte offered this contest up and was willing to give me the 2nd prize.
However, I really want to see the thread continue and I really want to learn from the experiences of others. In that spirit, I'd like to forfeit myself.
Let the next POSTER WHO DEMONSTRATES STEELESS STRIKING WIN!
However, I really want to see the thread continue and I really want to learn from the experiences of others. In that spirit, I'd like to forfeit myself.
Let the next POSTER WHO DEMONSTRATES STEELESS STRIKING WIN!