feather stick with the RC6...

C

carspidey

Joined
Mar 12, 2010
Messages
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I tried some feathers with the RC6, but it did not work out as I expected...

Sorry there are no pictures (my camera broke), but i felt like sharing...

I had a question about this too... would it be easier to make feather sticks with a convex grind knife than with the RC6? It seems like all videos i see about feather sticks are being done with convex grind...


I did get some shavings... and spend sometime with my misch metal firesteel and lit some fires inside my apartment :D :D :D It was really rewarding seeing that flame... :) although it took me a while to get them started (I am new to this)...

You guys are really inspiring...

I'll be posting threads about my backpacking trip this past weekend and my experiences with the RC6 (batoning, fire making, and survival carry system)...
 
I suck at feather sticks, but I'm getting better. I need to get better at that AND whip me up a spoon!
 
You can make feathers with almost any knife. It's more a matter of getting the technique.

Here's what I do, hope it helps:
Kneel down on the ground, holding the top of the stick in your non working hand.
Put the base of the stick on the ground in front of you.
Hold your knife in a secure hammer grip.
Maintain the same angle between the knife edge and stick all the way down, you don't want the blade biting into the edge too much, or you end up with no curls.
My arm remains fairly straight as the blade pushes down- the force is coming more from the shoulder and upper body than from the arm itself.
More pressure should be put into keeping the blade close to the wood rather than pushing down.

It's just a matter of practice, once you find the right angle, you can work up to 4 or more curls per feather.
Also, tilting the tip up or down will cause the curls to gather at one side of the stick, which can help you fit more curls on per stick.

Tiny feathers with many curls can be lit with a firesteel, which is good fun, and useful if you don't have tinder.
 
I'm a shaving guy as well. Feathersticks are nice and all but the shavings work just as well for me.
 
i really need to get a camera!!!

making fire this way is the most fun and I'd like to share :(

What do you mean by shavings??? do you mean you shave the wood in teh same manner you would the feather??? sorry for not knowing... :D
 
after posting i tried it again with what you guys said and it seem to work better...

I am getting better at it :D
 
carspidey said:
What do you mean by shavings??? do you mean you shave the wood in teh same manner you would the feather??? sorry for not knowing... :D
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with not knowing. I do this mostly cuz I suck at keeping the feathers on.

4005993978_d6b800aa83_b.jpg
 
Here's one I did with my Izula earlier today.

IzulaFeathers.jpg


I think the technique far outweighs the particular grind of the knife. Sharp always works best too.

B
 
either way you look at it the goal is thin strips of wood....sooo. whatever works best for you.
 
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