Fire Starter Knife Accessory

Andy, go on Google or Yahoo, keyword search Swedish Fire Steel, and take your pick. :D

It's just a ferrocium rod with a handle, looks like the one pictured in the link you attached was very neatly re-handled in a wood to match the handle on the knife, cool idea. Ferrocium rods are great, they throw a crazy hot spark that will catch in a lot more types of tinder than the low heat spark produced by flint and steel.

Sarge
 
Thanks for the tip, SilverFalcon.

I've heard the 'strike anywhere' matches are being discontinued because of terrorism. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

I sometimes carry what I call 'firechips'; chips of wood full of sap. You can smell the turpentine. Everytime I harvest a tree I look for any of the serveral sections in the trunk or main limb where the sap collected. The wood is extremely combustive.




munk
 
munk said:
I've heard the 'strike anywhere' matches are being discontinued because of terrorism. Does anyone know if this is true or not?
munk
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I hope someone was pulling your leg. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. :barf: :barf: :barf:
 
Kitchen matches? They still sell 'em around here. I always carry a few in an old brass "waterproof" (yeah right) matchsafe.

Gotta be careful with them things, can't leave 'em laying around. Don't you know if a mouse grabs one in his mouth and takes off running with it, he's liable to strike the durn thing and set your house on fire. An ancient bit of lore (more like urban legend) I was taught as a child.

Sarge
 
Thanks sarge.

I haven't found strike anywhere matches in a long time. I don't know if they are legal or not though.

I read in the anarchists cookbook you could make a grenade with them. Drill a hole in a tennis ball and fill with match heads. THen throw the ball at something and boom. I always thought that was bullhockey. Anybody know for sure?

I've read, more on topic, that cotton balls soaked in vaseline were excellent tender for a survival kit. Haven't tried it yet though.
 
munk said:
I sometimes carry what I call 'firechips'; chips of wood full of sap. You can smell the turpentine. Everytime I harvest a tree I look for any of the serveral sections in the trunk or main limb where the sap collected. The wood is extremely combustive.
munk
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It really is isn't it! I've chopped a few libs like that that almost exploded into flame when tossed on a fire!:thumbup:
 
Don't you know if a mouse grabs one in his mouth and takes off running with it, he's liable to strike the durn thing and set your house on fire.>>>>>>>>>>> SilverFalcon

Well, you if it saves the life of just one child it's worth it. (not)


I like the strike anywhere matches, but they can fail and are limited in usefullness to how many you brought with you. Flint and steel options are good because they work. I wonder if carrying a small lens wouldn't be good too.


munk
 
As kids, we would take empty sewing thread spools, affix some elastic with rubber bands to one end, covering the hole, and launch strike-anywhere matches at, er, various targets. Sometimes you needed to strike the head first, but you had to shoot fast.

WHAT kind of handbook?
 
As kids we'd take two good sized bolts and one nut. Screw a bolt halfway onto the nut, put a match head or two in the hole, then screw the other bolt in the threads left on the other end of the nut. Throw it at the ground or a wall ... kaBLAM!.:D
 
As kids we'd take two good sized bolts and one nut. Screw a bolt halfway onto the nut, put a match head or two in the hole, then screw the other bolt in the threads left on the other end of the nut. Throw it at the ground or a wall ... kaBLAM!.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try this asap! I think I'm regressing back to childhood:cool:
 
Acetate guitar picks (Fender Thins) are great accelerants, they burn FAST.
You can get one burning with just a lit cigarette.
Cheap, and easy to pack in a tinder box.


DaddyDett
 
munk said:
Thanks for the tip, SilverFalcon.

I've heard the 'strike anywhere' matches are being discontinued because of terrorism. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

I sometimes carry what I call 'firechips'; chips of wood full of sap. You can smell the turpentine. Everytime I harvest a tree I look for any of the serveral sections in the trunk or main limb where the sap collected. The wood is extremely combustive.




munk
Click to expand...

Yes, fatwood. I stuck two or three in my emergency bag a while back for that purpose. We use them to start fires in our firepit if conditions are damp or windy.

Jeff
 
Great Tip DaddyDett.
Ever since I went with the Picboy carbon/nylons, the ol' Fenders are just gathering dust, now i guess they'll gather sparks :p
 
The "fire steel" can produce copius quantities of hot sparks.

A match is as likely to produce a hot flame.

If one cannot start a fire with 25 matches, he is unlikely to produce a fire with any number of sparks.


I recognize that the above opinion is not curently Survival PC - except with persons I respect as experts.
 
Man are you ever right about those guitar pics. They burn like a blow torch for about a minute. I mean flaring up and spitting little curls of flame. Back when I played I wasn't so sober all that much and we discovered that by accident. We thought it was real cool and laughed our a__ off on it.
 
aproy1101 said:
Thanks sarge.

I haven't found strike anywhere matches in a long time. I don't know if they are legal or not though.

I read in the anarchists cookbook you could make a grenade with them. Drill a hole in a tennis ball and fill with match heads. THen throw the ball at something and boom. I always thought that was bullhockey. Anybody know for sure?

I've read, more on topic, that cotton balls soaked in vaseline were excellent tender for a survival kit. Haven't tried it yet though.
Click to expand...


I spent alot of my teenage years that I'll never get back trying to make stuff outta that cookbook, I think I had an average of 10% success.:o

Vaseline is goood stuff. My favorite is mixing it in with dryer lint. They say it does great with steelwool too though. messy stuff, but worth it. It's helped me out on a few wet days. Also made some really nice emergency candles with dryer lint and paraffin wax inside a small coffee can, like a portable campfire. Just gotta sure to have a way to put it out again.

My favorite was firestarter was a Gerber Strike Force. I had a helluva time makin' myself pay $15.00 for it at the time, but once I got it, I realized that it and the $4.50 magnesium blocks were in TOTALLY different leagues. It's a bit big and clunky, but still quite manageable in a coat or cargo pocket, or a daypack. Plus, that extra bulk is nice when your hands are weak, wet, tired and numb. I wonder if any of those are still around?

I'll admit, I'm a total wimp when it comes to fire. I usually carry a pack or two of matches in waterproof containers, the Strike force or other sparker, along with a cheap lighter in my front pocket. I've heard the hardcore survivalist types claim real men should be able to rub sticks together and start a fire in the middle of a hail storm, so I guess I continue to fall short in this regard...:D
 
aproy1101 said:
Thanks sarge.

I haven't found strike anywhere matches in a long time. I don't know if they are legal or not though.

I read in the anarchists cookbook you could make a grenade with them. Drill a hole in a tennis ball and fill with match heads. THen throw the ball at something and boom. I always thought that was bullhockey. Anybody know for sure?

I've read, more on topic, that cotton balls soaked in vaseline were excellent tender for a survival kit. Haven't tried it yet though.
Click to expand...

I tried something like this when I was a kid and about burned the house down. Took a thin sheet metal tube and capped it at both ends, drilled a small exhaust hole in one end, and then filled it with match heads. Then secured the tube to a long piece of hi-test line with two fishing line quick-detach swivel clips. The idea was to make a little rocket that could skate along the line. Didn't count on the fact that a whole bunch of matchheads in a confined space makes an incredibly hot flame. The tube basically melted as it scooted along the line, and the whole blazing chunk fell onto the grass near the house and caught it on fire.

My sister and I put it out with the garden hose, but had some 'splaining to do.

I don't know about a tennis ball, as it doesn't seem to me to be particularly lethal (Hit the dirt! He's got a fused Penn Championship!) but I have no doubt that the same number of match heads inserted into a capped piece of pipe and fused could easily kill someone.


Norm
 
Sylvrfalcn said:
It's just a ferrocium rod with a handle
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Correct spelling ferrocerium, for iron and cerium. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrocerium

Here's one place to get little ones. At one time I glued a small one to a key and carried that on my keychain. Later I found commercially a small one glued into a slit on a small magnesium rod. It's smaller than a key and I carry that one on my keychain now. I have some big ones like the swedish firesteel for camping.

Here's a pretty good deal on a survival kit with a blastmatch from the NRA.

Fatwood is good tinder. I use it to start my woodstove. I used to get it from old tree stumps. Rotten stumps are easiest. Use a khuk to rip away the outside until you get to the pitch-laden interior. That does not rot and you can usually find good solid material. When the tree is cut the pitch keeps flowing and soaks some of the wood.

Now I found an easier way to collect fatwood. You can buy it in boxes at Safeway.
 
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