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- Jan 20, 1999
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FERROCERIUM ROD (ARTIFICIAL FLINT) CARRY OR STORAGE TIPS
A recent question in the Hoodlum forum on methods to carry a small ferrocerium rod prompted me to post something similar to the following. The question was posed at: http://pub1.ezboard.com/fhoodlumsquestionsandanswers.showMessage?topicID=1082.topic in a thread called: ?Attaching sparking rod to SAK.?
I wanted a convenient way to carry a 2 inch by 1/8 inch ferrocerium rod. This is referred to by Ron Hood as the Woodsmaster Mini Kit Sparker, (of http://www.survival.com/index.htm) or by Greg Davenport at http://secure.sawshop.net/ssurvival/products/index.htm as a metal match. Most of us always carry keys and like Doug Ritter of www.equipped.com, I wanted to attach it to my key ring, but this one is not made the same way, so a new method had to be found. Since I completed my simple solution, I have seen some references to other methods, which I partially list in this post.
This is how I did it:
I cut off the rear end of a PaperMate stick pen, which are now one piece and hollow to the end. The piece of pen barrel has to be long enough to hold the ferrocerium rod plus some additional room. I then drilled a small hole perpendicular to the pen barrel, at the open end. This allowed me to attach it to my key chain. I used a Twisty key ring, which being plastic coated aluminum aircraft cable, should not cause a spark and effectively shuts off the open end, keeping the flint inside.
I suppose you could use some type of wooden spacer, such as the rear end of a wooden match (with the head cut off) or a piece of cotton, to keep it from hitting a metal key ring. These would also serve to provide a small amount of tinder, but might make removal of the metal match difficult. Further, over time the cotton just compresses, and in my case, just formed a little ring around the rod.
The small rod and holder together weigh less than .2 ounces, at least 1 large & 2 small paperclips less.
The small rod registers as .1 ounce on a digital postal scale. The holder by itself did not register on a digital postal scale. The Boy Scout Hot Spark model weighs about .2 ounces, note the available rod is shorter but thicker, 3/16". Other weights for comparison, a 4" x ½" rod is 2.9 ounces, 6" x ½" x ½? 4.3 ounces, as supplied by Mike Mlodzik; 4" x 3/8" inches 1.6 ounces, 1.7 with the striker, as supplied by Greg Davenport.
A more elaborate method, by Howard Wallace, involving affixing the rod to a key, is shown here http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/000448.html . I weighed one of my keys and it registered at .2 ounces. Others have devised ways to insert it into their corkscrew on a SAK (Swiss Army Knife). Shrink tubing has been used to cover the rod. The leather belt sheath that comes with the GATCO diamond sharpener with the brass handle works great to carry a 4 inch rod. The sheath weighs .8 ounces.
With respect to the SAK, it would be nice to surround the glasses screwdriver with ferrocerium, leaving the screwdriver blade protruding enough for use. If one of the SAK companies was going to actually going to manufacture a ferrocerium insert, I do not see why this could not be done. Of course I do not understand why the Leatherman Wave does not have an awl!
The steel shaft would also support the ferrocerium. So, what BladeForum member or Hoodlum has an "in" with SAK....and barring that, who has a very accurate drill press? If someone tries this, Mike Mlodzik says soapy water keeps down the sparks...But clean up all that sawdust first!!!
For the curious, borrowing from a previous post of mine in a fire starting thread, the composition of artificial flint can be found at http://www.equipped.org/devices28.htm#Sparks
According to that page, these are the constituents: a mixture of metals and rare earth elements, by weight approximately 20% Iron (Fe) with trace amounts, less than 3% each, of Zinc (Zn) and Magnesium (Mg) and the remainder a combination of rare earth elements, 50% of which is Cerium (Ce), the remainder primarily Lanthanum (LLa) and Neodymium (Nd) and trace amounts of some other rare earth elements. An interesting fact mentioned there is that apparently any sharp edged scraper will work, even a glass fragment. (I use my Leatherman Wave file, if not using the Blast Match one-handed method with built in tungsten carbide striker/scraper or the scraper supplied with Greg?s 4" x 3/8" metal match.) This differs from natural flint which requires iron or steel...as also described there. A search for ferrocerium here in the Wilderness & Survival Forum will bring up several threads on the subject, including the ? Easiest and most reliable fire source? thread at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/000004.html , where I had mentioned the constituent elements of artificial flint.
Does anyone know if these elements vary much from manufacturer to manufacturer?
I routinely carry the small ferrocerium rod in the pen barrel. It is not just for backwoods use. I was kindly taken to a Dolphin?s game by Les (in case he reads this
) where we, accompanied by our children--OK only one of mine--were having a tailgating party before the game. Matches did not work as well to start the small prepackaged, disposable grill as did the ferrocerium rod and tinder- a cotton ball with Vaseline on the outside. Besides, I wanted an excuse to use my rod.
Most reading this would know, but just dip some cotton balls in Vaseline, and stuff in a film can. To use just pull the cotton ball apart some to provide a fluffy surface for the spark. This was one of the better tips I read. Read some other posts to get an extensive review of natural tinder and the posts or book of Greg Davenport in what qualities make a good tinder. You can watch Ron Hood start a fire using a ferrocerium rod and tinder in his Volume 1 - Spark Based Firestarting, of his Woodsmaster series.
I have posted a picture of the Boy Scout Hot Spark here: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=91257&a=665876&p=33202557
A picture of it sans packaging and scraper are posted here: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=91257&a=665876&p=33202559
along with a Twisty key ring, a pen barrel holder for the rod, and a basic small ferrocerium rod as previously discussed.
My knives, if you are interested are in my knives album which you should be able to navigate to, but if not, the link is: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=91257&a=817804
[This message has been edited by Donald (edited 11-16-2000).]
A recent question in the Hoodlum forum on methods to carry a small ferrocerium rod prompted me to post something similar to the following. The question was posed at: http://pub1.ezboard.com/fhoodlumsquestionsandanswers.showMessage?topicID=1082.topic in a thread called: ?Attaching sparking rod to SAK.?
I wanted a convenient way to carry a 2 inch by 1/8 inch ferrocerium rod. This is referred to by Ron Hood as the Woodsmaster Mini Kit Sparker, (of http://www.survival.com/index.htm) or by Greg Davenport at http://secure.sawshop.net/ssurvival/products/index.htm as a metal match. Most of us always carry keys and like Doug Ritter of www.equipped.com, I wanted to attach it to my key ring, but this one is not made the same way, so a new method had to be found. Since I completed my simple solution, I have seen some references to other methods, which I partially list in this post.
This is how I did it:
I cut off the rear end of a PaperMate stick pen, which are now one piece and hollow to the end. The piece of pen barrel has to be long enough to hold the ferrocerium rod plus some additional room. I then drilled a small hole perpendicular to the pen barrel, at the open end. This allowed me to attach it to my key chain. I used a Twisty key ring, which being plastic coated aluminum aircraft cable, should not cause a spark and effectively shuts off the open end, keeping the flint inside.
I suppose you could use some type of wooden spacer, such as the rear end of a wooden match (with the head cut off) or a piece of cotton, to keep it from hitting a metal key ring. These would also serve to provide a small amount of tinder, but might make removal of the metal match difficult. Further, over time the cotton just compresses, and in my case, just formed a little ring around the rod.
The small rod and holder together weigh less than .2 ounces, at least 1 large & 2 small paperclips less.
A more elaborate method, by Howard Wallace, involving affixing the rod to a key, is shown here http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/000448.html . I weighed one of my keys and it registered at .2 ounces. Others have devised ways to insert it into their corkscrew on a SAK (Swiss Army Knife). Shrink tubing has been used to cover the rod. The leather belt sheath that comes with the GATCO diamond sharpener with the brass handle works great to carry a 4 inch rod. The sheath weighs .8 ounces.
With respect to the SAK, it would be nice to surround the glasses screwdriver with ferrocerium, leaving the screwdriver blade protruding enough for use. If one of the SAK companies was going to actually going to manufacture a ferrocerium insert, I do not see why this could not be done. Of course I do not understand why the Leatherman Wave does not have an awl!
For the curious, borrowing from a previous post of mine in a fire starting thread, the composition of artificial flint can be found at http://www.equipped.org/devices28.htm#Sparks
According to that page, these are the constituents: a mixture of metals and rare earth elements, by weight approximately 20% Iron (Fe) with trace amounts, less than 3% each, of Zinc (Zn) and Magnesium (Mg) and the remainder a combination of rare earth elements, 50% of which is Cerium (Ce), the remainder primarily Lanthanum (LLa) and Neodymium (Nd) and trace amounts of some other rare earth elements. An interesting fact mentioned there is that apparently any sharp edged scraper will work, even a glass fragment. (I use my Leatherman Wave file, if not using the Blast Match one-handed method with built in tungsten carbide striker/scraper or the scraper supplied with Greg?s 4" x 3/8" metal match.) This differs from natural flint which requires iron or steel...as also described there. A search for ferrocerium here in the Wilderness & Survival Forum will bring up several threads on the subject, including the ? Easiest and most reliable fire source? thread at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/000004.html , where I had mentioned the constituent elements of artificial flint.
Does anyone know if these elements vary much from manufacturer to manufacturer?
I routinely carry the small ferrocerium rod in the pen barrel. It is not just for backwoods use. I was kindly taken to a Dolphin?s game by Les (in case he reads this
Most reading this would know, but just dip some cotton balls in Vaseline, and stuff in a film can. To use just pull the cotton ball apart some to provide a fluffy surface for the spark. This was one of the better tips I read. Read some other posts to get an extensive review of natural tinder and the posts or book of Greg Davenport in what qualities make a good tinder. You can watch Ron Hood start a fire using a ferrocerium rod and tinder in his Volume 1 - Spark Based Firestarting, of his Woodsmaster series.
I have posted a picture of the Boy Scout Hot Spark here: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=91257&a=665876&p=33202557
A picture of it sans packaging and scraper are posted here: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=91257&a=665876&p=33202559
along with a Twisty key ring, a pen barrel holder for the rod, and a basic small ferrocerium rod as previously discussed.
My knives, if you are interested are in my knives album which you should be able to navigate to, but if not, the link is: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=91257&a=817804
[This message has been edited by Donald (edited 11-16-2000).]
I retrieved the rod with no problem but for the moment a Hot Spark is on my key chain. Thus, if you try this method of carrying the rod in the tube you should reinforce the tube, get a stronger one, immobilize the rod, or some combination of the above. 
Here is his response which I imagine he wont mind if I post.
