Fire steel question

Revolverrodger

Revolverrodger

Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
3,886
Ok I have a pretty basic question. Please don't be too harsh :D
I tried to light a fire using my LMF army. The tinder was fine birch bark. Temperature was around freezing. I kept making large sparks but they never caught. Since I didn't want to fail in front of my 3 yo son I added a cotton ball when he wasn't looking and it burned ASAP :)
What am I doing wrong ?
When I look at videos on the internet it looks dummy proof.
Help needed
 
I know birch bark well it's very abundant up here. Take a thick piece and scrape the inside of it into fine dust and hit it with a spark. Don't just try and light the bark with a spark.

Like this.
cimg6863q.jpg

cimg6865l.jpg
 
Just hold the knife 90 degrees to the bark and scrape it into a pile gently without putting a hole in the bark, with a little practice you'll have it in no time.
 
Some suggest holding the "scraper" still and horizontal over the tinder and pulling/scraping the ferro rod up at a 45 degree angle. I have tried it and it works. Seems to concentrate the sparks on the target better.

Of course, if you actually needed a fire, it's PASS/FAIL. No extra points for not using PSC. ^___^
 
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