Ferro rod striker and handle?

[tr.slate]

Hey all, been practicing my fire starting with a 3" ferro rod. Tried sanding the coating from the spine of my izula, but I'm only getting small sparks about 1/4 of the time. :grumpy: Tried striking with the blade edge and worked great, big showers of sparks, but there must be a better way than dulling the knife edge right? Anyone have a homemade striker that works well for them? Or maybe I just havent been as aggressive with my sanding as I need to be?

I also find holding the bare rod in hand is pretty hard on my fingers after a bunch of unsuccessful strikes, and wondering best way to craft some sort of holder or something.

(oops! i think i put this is the wrong forum, so if a mod can move to the outdoor gear that would be great. sorry)

 

[gadgetgeek]

the carbide strikers from going gear are pretty fantastic. With the izula, once you get rid of the coating, you will have to flatten the spine and sharpen the corners to at least 90 degrees. if you stripped it right back, you can just sharpen the edges of the spine at the same angle as the main grind. With the sanding I suspect you have slightly rounded the edge of the spine, which makes sparking tougher.

as for rod handles, I like to super glue on a few wraps of 2mm cord. you can get fancy with knots, or loops, or whatever.

 

[druid189]

I don't have an izula to see what you mean but if you make the spine a perfect 90* angle, it should spark very easily for you. Remove any coating and make a 90* spot on the spine and it will save your edge.