Doan U.S. Military Issue Fire Starter Questions

T

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How does the striker attach to the magnesium piece? Does it slide into a groove? If so, is static friction the only thing to stop the striker from sliding out of the groove?

Is it always necessary to scrape slices off the magnesium piece with a knife onto kindling to aid the ignition of the kindling, or is that only in wet conditions?
 
Um are you talking about flint & steel method? from my experience you just scrape magnesium into your tinder bundle or whatever. I guess if your tinder was super dry you could just furiously scrape away to produce continuous sparks start it up. neither are very complicated from my experience.
 
the sparking rod is in a groove which is held in place with some sort of epoxy or heat glue.
As for the effectiveness of the magnesium bar, it works great in a laboratory with no time limitations, but in the field, you're gonna be scraping a long time, losing a lot of the scrapings in the ground, and screwing up your knife edge so badly that if you were to get a fire going, you're gonna curse it as the costliest and most time consuming fire you ever made.
 
the striker blade on a blastmatch has a tendency to break off. I've had two break on me. If you must have a ferro rod, get the strike force instead. Fir tinder, I usually have a few wrapped tampons in my first aid kit and some sort of petroleum jelly based antibiotic stuff.

I think the utility behind the ferro rod is that you can leave it in a kit and forget it for years and then take it out when needed. Beyond that, it's utility and ease of use is far inferior to a zippo, butane lighter, or even a box of kitchen matches.
 
ferro rods are great if you have time to practice first. If you expect a fire in 5seconds, you'd better take matches and accelerant.

the fire section of my BOB is overdone, but remember that fire is one of the key items in keeping you alive long enough to do anything.

have an esbit, can of "magic heat"(essentially a can of kerosene with a wick and lid), small bic lighter, swedish firesteel(black handle), and a few books of matches... bic, ferro and matches are in a waterproof case(and yes, it's been tested).

zippo on my belt... butane torch in my bag.
 
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