Damage to knife from firesteel?

E

Enkrig

Joined
Dec 17, 2015
Messages
258
Hi everyone,

I have only recently started using a firesteel (or, "ferrocerium rod" is you prefer). In using it with my knife, I noticed that the firesteel scratches and damages more than I expected the sharpness of the spine of the knife (see pictures below). More than normal because I think that I would have to sharpen the spine with some sandpaper after every 2-3 uses. Is this normal?

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By the way, I've observed a similar thing even when using a different knife...
 
I don't care for the way a fero rod trashes my knife spines, I never use a knife and carry an esee flint striker / bow drill socket.


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Normal. A lot of the marks wash off. I don't usually get much actual wearing of the blade. There are differences:
- some firesteels are harder than others
- laminated blades have a softer steel on the outer layer, which is what you ate using there
- differences in pressure & angle affect performance.
 
mtangent said:
Normal. A lot of the marks wash off. I don't usually get much actual wearing of the blade. There are differences:
- some firesteels are harder than others
- laminated blades have a softer steel on the outer layer, which is what you ate using there
- differences in pressure & angle affect performance.
Click to expand...

All good points. The other knife I also noticed the damage was not laminated steel, though (ATS-34), but I guess this might mean that my firesteel is perhaps a harder one...
 
xrayit said:
I don't care for the way a fero rod trashes my knife spines, I never use a knife and carry an esee flint striker / bow drill socket.
Click to expand...

My firesteel actually came with a striker... But, (I'll stir the pot...) so are you saying that all of those guys that put the firesteel (only) in their sheath to use with their knife just don't care?
 
I'd say it's more likely that the rods don't get used very often, not that the user wouldn't care.

I used my standard F1 to strike a LMF rod and it left some marks too. In the future I'll probably just use the attached striker instead.
 
You will damage the top of your knife doing this. Or I guess you could just call it wear. Not much damage to speak of, and mostly cosmetic. The sparks coming off thoe steels are hot. Add in the friction. And as they say, "That's going to leave a mark"

That being said. Like Eric, I just carry the striker. I can always use my knife if I lose the striker in an emergency situation. But that road travels in both directions. It's nice ti have a striker and steel if you lose your knife too.

I build a fires with a fire steel on average of 4-5 times per week, sometimes more. Most are one or two strike deals. But I see no reason to subject my knife to that kind of "wear" on a regular basis.

Like most things knife related. There really isn't a definitive answer. Just different ways of doing things. And different levels of tolerance.

I know a guy who litterally tortured his 870. He trapped and that gun was rough. Saw him use it as a canoe paddle once. The front furniture was completely gone. But he hit what he aimed at. So who am I to judge. And he never worried about his gun getting dinged up.

Knives are tools. Or at least many of them are. Different people treat tools in different ways. I also know people who wax their lawnmowers.
 
One of the reasons I don't use my knives for this.

Especially when I have a few hack saw blades in sections. They are completely flat. Light, and throw good sparks.

I've never purchased a factory rod withe striker. Just made a my own.
 
All that I've noticed from this use on my knives is discoloration, which doesn't bother me. I don't own a striker, and using the spine of my knife doesn't bother me at all. Plus one less thing to carry (striker).

For those that don't use the spine of the knife for this, do you use the spine for other tasks at all? I use mine a lot for scraping fine tinder, or smoothing something I carved, but just curious if people avoid those uses due to the wear/marks that may come from it.
 
If you don't like what it does, just bring a small part of a hacksaw blade with you to strike the ferro rod. Works better than a knife blade anyway.
 
I use a Blue Hawk carbide knife sharpener (just like a Speedy Sharp but cheaper) that can be found at Lowes as a striker. And before that I was using a piece of a broken off fingernail file as a ferrorod striker. Both work much better IMO than the spine of a knife. Personally I'd rather not muck up the spine on any of my knives with ferrorod burns.
 
ATJ999 said:
If you don't like what it does, just bring a small part of a hacksaw blade with you to strike the ferro rod. Works better than a knife blade anyway.
Click to expand...

This. The ferro rod that I got came with the little hack saw blade piece.
 
Thank you all for the comments. Come to think of it, I actually had seen the hacksaw idea... Thanks, ATJ999.
 
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