ferrocerrium rod striker questions

S

skaterboy

Joined
Dec 29, 2006
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ive read on the forum that using a hacksaw blade as a striker is a good way to go I've also read that the teeth eat up your rod so I have a few questions would it be better to grind the teeth off?
would you get the same amount of sparks?
 
I`m guessing the amount of sparks would be less, than a hacksawblade with teeth, but it will make your ferro-rod last longer.
And generally, anything with a 90 degree angle or sharper, will throw lots of sparks off a ferro-rod. Mind you, that the angle can`t be burnished or smoothed in any way. It needs to be sharp, but it doesn`t have to be a cutting edge.
 
Yes. It's the carbon steel in the sawblades that do the work, although, the roughness of the teeth probably helps spit out a little more spark. ....but, the back edge of the hacksaw blade, held at the right angle and pushed down the rod with the right pressure, should do just as well.

I wouldn't carry around a hacksaw blade if I was carrying a knife. And if I was carrying around a hacksaw blade, I'd have to axe myself "Where's my knife?"
 
A lot of hacksaw blades, from what I've read, are somewhat harder on the teeth side than the back side. If you ground off the teeth, you should still get more sparks from the teeth side. Never had enough free time to test the theory, but I'm quite willing to listen to anyone who's tried this.
 
Yup, it is carbon steel that the sparks are made of, because the flint is harder than the steel. I think when you have teeth, you have more surface area of steel contacting the flint, therefore more sparks. I use a hacksaw blade sharpened at about a 60 degree angle (a little tooth is left).
 
Respectfully, I must disagree. Carbon steel is what makes the sparks when you're using flint (not ferrocerrium) and steel. When using ferro rods, it is the ferro rod that creates the sparks - that's why you can use glass or rock, etc. to strike the ferro rod.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Respectfully, I must disagree. Carbon steel is what makes the sparks when you're using flint (not ferrocerrium) and steel. When using ferro rods, it is the ferro rod that creates the sparks - that's why you can use glass or rock, etc. to strike the ferro rod.

Doc
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Correct. The Ferrocerrium (mush metal) is getting shaved off when using a rod. Conversely, the flint is shaving off little slivers of carbon steel when using a flint and steel. Its the shavings that make the spark. You can use anything harder than your ferro rod and sharp enough to shave it to get sparks from it.
 
Fiddleback said:
Correct. The Ferrocerrium (mush metal) is getting shaved off when using a rod. Conversely, the flint is shaving off little slivers of carbon steel when using a flint and steel. Its the shavings that make the spark. You can use anything harder than your ferro rod and sharp enough to shave it to get sparks from it.
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How come I can't get a spark from some stainless steels?
 
Are you scraping the painted section. The item that gets shaved makes a spark, not the shaving item.

As a general rule stay away from stainless anyway.
 
It should work with stainless steel and ferro rods as well, the thing is that the knife is not "sharp" enough on the back side.
If you feel the the backside of an F1 or S1 its quite sharp, not "rounded". It is not because its not stainless steel but because its grinded that way.
 
I took my ferro rod into the back this AM and got sparks from a stainless ruler, a cheap pair of scissors, and an old fork. I ground a sorta kinda edge in some old rebar, and got sparks with it too.
 
that by grinding off almost all the teeth but leaving just enough to "bite"into the flint will give lots of sparks.Chris Janowski did it this way.....
 
I use a section of hacksaw blade but I strike with the back side, the side without the teeth. In fact I buy used dull hacksaw blades at the flea market for a quarter and snap off the the blade into about a 3' piece. I started doing this because I had broken a hacksaw blade at home and ended up with a piece of metal 3" long with a hole in one end. I guess it reminded me off a striker. County Comm sells a folding hacksaw, actually a sabre saw blade with a handle, for cheap.
 
County Comm also sells the rods for ~8 bucks. And they've got 550 parachord pretty cheaply too.
 
I've got sparks from stainless,carbon, glass and even a sea shell,not great from the shell but enough to start a fire.
 
sodak said:
A lot of hacksaw blades, from what I've read, are somewhat harder on the teeth side than the back side. If you ground off the teeth, you should still get more sparks from the teeth side. Never had enough free time to test the theory, but I'm quite willing to listen to anyone who's tried this.
Click to expand...

I think you may have a point there Sodak. Some blades are bi-metal...maybe this applies only to the front of the blade where the teeth are.

In any event, the backside of hacksaw blades works fine.

The very best spark I get is from the spine of my BM Nimravus. It is by far the best spark thrower I've tried. Mind you, I have not done a science test on every piece of metal within my reach, but it does better than all my blades, hacksaw blades, etc.
 
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