Fire steel incompetence

[beginner]

Tried to use my firesteel to ignite some hexamine fuel blocks in the outdoors,got nowhere fast,even crumbling the blocks and getting the sparks right in there failed.
What did i do wrong ?

 

[Normark]

Hey Beginner....

Your problem is that you don't have any tinder....

Hex from what I remember is hard enough to light with a match.. Triox I believe works better with the fire steel...

Try a cotton ball soaked in Vasaline,, or a big wad of 0000 Steel wool..

That will get your fuel tabs going...

Actually with the steel wool, and good tinder you won't need fuel tabs....

Also try your striker at a different angle,,and maybe put a better edge on it to get a better shower of sparks...

Hope that helped....

ttyle

Eric...

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On/Scene Tactical
Leading The Way In Quality Synthetic Sheathing

 

[Strabs]

Ditto on what Eric said. From my experience, Hexy performs poorly. Trioxane rules and if your using it to cook with in the little military type stoves have some of the Esbit type bars ready to go when the Triox peters out. They make a great pair.
I also keep (besides cotton balls and petroleum jelly) a couple bars of triox in my kit as a back up.

 

[bsquare]

Hey beginner,
Done a lot of flint and steel for historic reenactments. Learn to make a good char cloth. It'll catch and hold a spark for a long time till you can get some tinder around it to blow it into a flame. The Steel Wool works good also but I can't use that in the 1700's era! Char cloth you can make at home on the barbi or in a camp fire with an old tin and some pure cotton cloth. If you can find a reenactment/rendezvous open to the public near by, visit and you can probably buy some char cloth there, or someone will probably be happy to show you how to make it. I keep a little with some flint/steel and tinder in my emergency pack, right next to the bic and zippo!

Just gotta learn to blow harder! and don't give up, you'll get it eventually with practice.


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be prepared

 

[Normark]

Hey Bsquare...

Ohhh ya for sure...
I didn't even think of that...

Char cloth is a Very good method of starting a fire...It is Highly flamable and produces a fire Very rapidly...

Heres how I make it...

Small tin.. I use a tabacoo tin to make large amounts of it...

Place 2" X 2" pieces of old cotton cloth or blue jeans into the tin.

Puncture a hole in the lid and put the lid on the can.

Toss it in a fire,,or BBQ and when it stops smoking you have Char cloth...

Do not remove the lid while it's still hot.
It can burst into flames, then you'll have ashes..

ttyle

Eric...

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On/Scene Tactical
Leading The Way In Quality Synthetic Sheathing

 

[greg c]

Go straight to the dryer, get a nice big wad of lint.

 

[Marion David Poff]

Your experience with hexamine sounds out of the ordinary to me.

I grind it under my heel, and it lights pretty well for me.

What sort of firesteel do you have?

What luck are you having with other chemical tinder and natural tinder?

Have you ever got hexamine to light?

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Thank you,
Marion David Poff aka Eye mdpoff@hotmail.com

My website, guided links, talonite/cobalt alloy info, etc....
http://www.geocities.com/mdpoff

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