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Fire Starting disappointment

markhait

markhait

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
297
I took our family camping this past week and really had a great time.
We just went to a state park off of Lake Huron. Did
some great hiking and sight seeing through this beautiful area.
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While I was there though, I figured it would be a great time
to practice my fire starting skills er...lack of.

I have a a good collection of various fire starters, but
only took with me a new one that come out. The Sparkie
fire starter. A great little tool. Small and compact.
My dissapointment is not from the product, but with my
selection of tinder material. I just can never seem to
find the correct dry tinder to start a fire with only spark.

So when all else fails...cheat
I have the RAT 7 knife that I LOVE to death!
One of the things that I really like about it, is that
it has a small pouch in the front of the sheath.
In that pouch I can easily fit: a small diamond hone,
a small piece of fat wood and a small altoids tin that
has some cotton balls and some hexamine tabs and a few
pieces of WetFire tinder.

That Wetfire tinder is some awesome stuff! Anyway...
I just took a small piece of Wetfire tinder, struck a
spark and had a fire. I put the Wetfire tinder in the
altoids tin for that exact reason..can't seem to get a fire
started and you need one NOW! Anyway, that stuff is fool
proof....yes, I said fool proof! Even this fool was able
to use it and get a good fire going easily.

Just so all of you don't think I'm a total idiot. I do
know how to get a fire started with 1 match or by using
a mag stick, but I was hoping to take my fire starting
ability to the next level.

Suggestions?! I tried tiny wood slivers, fat wood and some
fluff around the campsite.
 
I love WetFire too. Amazing stuff.

I am like you, I need to practice fire starting skills more often. I think I am not using enough tinder and therefore there is not enough heat for enough time to get the kindling going. Other times I get the kindling going, but it is not enough to get the larger pieces going. Practice practice practice.
 
Great pictures!

I'm working on this too.
So far my only success with tinder gathered in the wild has been the fluffy tissue paper bark from birch trees.
 
Beautiful pictures!

This is what I found was the easiest way for me to start a fire using any piece of dry wood I find.

Instead of "tiny wood slivers" try a golfball sized pile of wood scrapings. Instead of using the edge of your knife to "shave" slivers off a piece of wood or fatwood, use the spine of the knife, or the edge held perpendicular to the wood to "scrape" real thin curls off the wood.

If you use the spine of the knife(fixed blade only!) Make sure it is sharply squared off, you can do this yourself with a file. Or if you have a cheapo knife, use the edge. You do it in the same manner as you strike your fire steel, so you should be able to use whatever you use to scrape the firesteel with.

Start with fatwood, as it will be easier, and start with a large fluffy pile of scrapings. As it gets easy for you, move to regular dry wood, and you will notice that you won't need as big a pile, but the bigger the easier.

I hope that helps a little, I made a video to try and explain the same thing. It isn't very good, but maybe a picture can help say what a keyboard cant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jY-Qu448E0

[youtube]2jY-Qu448E0[/youtube]
 
the key is in the prep. always get more than you expect to use, especially in tinder and kindling. the more tinder you have, the more surface area to catch a spark.
 
Hey Stingray4540...GREAT video...thats exactly what I needed to see. I was making slivers of fat wood with my blade. Love it! Thanks....I'll have to go out now and test it.
I often say thats the biggest problem I have...can't think outside the box! So easy, but I don't think without someone showing me, I'd ever figure it out.
 
markhait said:
Hey Stingray4540...GREAT video...thats exactly what I needed to see. I was making slivers of fat wood with my blade. Love it! Thanks....I'll have to go out now and test it.
I often say thats the biggest problem I have...can't think outside the box! So easy, but I don't think without someone showing me, I'd ever figure it out.
Click to expand...

No problem, I hope that helps you figure it out. Just remember, the more you have and the fluffier it is, the easier it is to light. Let us know if you get it!

ArturoTostadoIII said:
Stingray, is that a mora?
Click to expand...

Yes, I rehandled it with a piece of 2x4 and antler, my first re-handle actually. It didn't turn out too great though...

rksoon said:
Great vid Stingray, didn't even know you had a channel :)
Click to expand...

Well, I don't really, that is the only video I've ever uploaded. It seemed a lot of people were getting disappointed when they couldn't light a fire with there fuzz sticks, so I wanted something that would help explain how to make thin enough scrapings that will easily light with a firesteel.

Midnight Scout said:
Thanks for the video Stingray!
Click to expand...

Your welcome.:thumbup:
 
Mature cat tails work wonders also. If I can find any, just fluff out some of the fuzz and you will have a flame on the first spark. As said before, however, you must have all the prepwork done for a full blown fire before you start.

Doc
 
Stingray....yep it works! I played around a while before going to bed last night.
This poses another problem for me though....which fire starter should I now carry with me on my sheath! Since I was doing it wrong all along, I bought MANY different sparking tools.
I have: Sparkie, Swedish fire steel, magnesium bar and a Aurora Magnesium Fire Starter.
Can't all fit though :-(
I'm thinking maybe I should get just a ferro rod, but I do really like the concept of the Aurora....check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
This place has the cheapest stuff that I've found yet! Check them out.
http://www.campingsurvival.com
Thanks again Stingray....you really helped me!
 
I love threads where people teach others, heck, it's how I have learned stuff over the years here. Great video!
 
I like the Firesteel, but need practice, I've had luck with dray grasses and ceder bark, but carry vasalene cotton balls in case. I really need to practice more.

BTW...Great vacation pic's, I really like that lighthouse! I want to go see one in real life someday.
 
Markhait: Glad to hear it!
I say, play with them all, and carry the one that you find is the easiest to light stuff with(the one you are the most confident in).

Personally, I like these: http://goinggear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=16&products_id=43

I used to make these myself, until I saw that goinggear.com is making and selling them. I like to keep a petroleum jelly cotton ball in the capsule as a last ditch safety net. PJCBs work every time, just in case I can't natural tinders to work for me when it matters.
The way that Aurora looks though, you may be able to fit a PJCB or two in the cover with the firesteel...

P.S. How are those Auroras? Do they noticeable larger or longer burning sparks?
 
I keep mentioning this one, but it is great piece of kit that folks used to firesteels tend to forego because you don't go directly from spark to flame. This is the use of charcloth as a spark catcher to create a glowing coal. You use the charcloth traditionally with flint and steel which is my preferred way to make a fire now. The charcloth catches a spark. You then place the glowing ember in a tinder basket that can be made out of teased out strands of jute twine or natural materials. Here a combination of flash tinder like cattail fluff, milkweek seed fluff, phragmities or dandilion seeds with tinder extenders like cedar bark, birch bark or really find cut up sticks.

Once you've placed the coal in the tinder basket you then blow it into flames. Why is this approach so good? Because it is a windproof solution. One of the difficult things to do is get a firesteel fire going in the wind because you scrape a pile of sawdust and the little pile of sawdust is gone before you finish your strike. Or you get a fragile little flame going and poof its gone from the wind. When you start a fire with an ember + tinderbasket - wind is your friend. The more wind you have, the less blowing you need to do. Only danger of using charcloth is you can't let it get wet. Then in won't work.

On a final note to the OP - you did good. Everybody should have something they feel works great as tinder to combat different conditions you encounter. While I don't bring wetfire along, I always have a little chunk of coglans paraffin firesticks or jutetwine or fatwood and more often then not a combination of them. Its all good to say you can go off and start your fire with natural tinders and it is great to practice doing that. However, relying on it to the point that your forego an alternative is not a very smart thing to do.
 
kgd said:
I keep mentioning this one, but it is great piece of kit that folks used to firesteels tend to forego because you don't go directly from spark to flame. This is the use of charcloth as a spark catcher to create a glowing coal. [...]
Click to expand...

Charcloth is amazing (next to pjcbs) :thumbup: I keep a little baggie in my PSK. Even managed to get a damp papertowel to burn once, that was impressive to me.

I just tried practicing again today while on a hike; I didn't really have time to make a lot of spine-fuzz, so the little flame I did get went out pretty quickly. And I think I need to square my spine better...it's not the greatest at scraping.

Good thread markhait, it's got everyone re-evaluating and practicing :) :thumbup:.

ETA: great vid too!
 
Yeah, nice video! :thumbup:
Glad to see you got it figured out. Now that you've got fatwood down, try doing the same thing with regular dry wood.;)

P.S. Thanks for the shout out(I think that's the word I'm looking for...)
 
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