Fire Steel?

picked up a couple of these yesterday seem a great deal for the money! its a really large fire steel.
Bear Claw Chris Lappe said:
I recently found a large steel by Coghland that are really inexpensive, but I've been using it testing different knives and it works just fine, throws good sparks.

The large black one in this video.

[youtube]CYIQJllqVc0[/youtube]
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Cotton balls worked great. Lit the first ball with one strike, second ball took about five. Still getting used to using one, but I'm liking it now that I know it works. How easily does it light tinder such as dry pine needles?
 
DeltaCypher0 said:
So I took most of y'all's advice and picked up a Light My Fire steel. I got home and tested it out on some newspaper, and I was very unimpressed. I was able to make showers of sparks that blinded my eyes, yet the newspaper and tissue paper was very stubborn to light. I finally was able to get both to light after about 100 strikes or more. Is there something I'm missing?
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mtangent said:
I have given up trying to light paper, so would be happy to her an answer re improved technique.
Cotton wool ignites very easy, & is easy to carry in a small waterproof container. That is now part of my fire kit.

You also have to make sure the tinder is completely dry. Newspaper soaks up moisture from the atmosphere.
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Igniting tinder with a firesteel requires more tinder prep. Your tinder needs to be "fluffy" or "wispy" or "fine". Think about the difference between a torn up cotton ball with all of its fine individual fibers, and then think of a flat piece of newspaper or tissue paper. I can still light newspaper, tissue paper, paper towels, etc. with a firesteel, it just requires a little more preparation. Take your newspaper and rip it up really fine, try to shred it such that you can see fibers along the edges of the ripped paper. Then pile it up, put your firesteel right down in the middle of it, and bear down with a firm scrape on the firesteel. You should get ignition.

A shredded up cotton ball, unraveled and fluffed jute twine, cattail fluff... this stuff ignites easily because there is more surface area and air access to facilitate the combustion reaction. Practice on cotton balls and jute, then work up to other natural tinders and wood shavings/scrapings. The fluffier your tinder is, the easier it will take a spark and ignite.

For a nice homemade firestarter, search for "petroleum jelly cotton balls" in the Wilderness and Survival Skills sub-forum. Basically vaseline coated cotton balls that take a spark easily, but burn longer with the fuel coating. Stick a few of those in a waterproof container and you have a nice backup.
 
DeltaCypher0 - Kudos to you for learning the firesteel/flint and steel. Like the others guys have said throwing a spark requires more tinder prep. Try some Charcloth to catch the spark or something really good is the (alochol based) hand sanatizer. With the spark throwing you have to go really small tinder. If you are wearing blue jeans or some other cotton clothing you can scrape it with your knife and come up with "lint" that will help you with your fire. But try the hand sanatizer, you'll like it!
 
Oh yeah, really like the light my fire set of fire steel, once you get the hang of that get you a piece of flint and a striker, less sparks but loads of fun!

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DeltaCypher0 said:
Thanks for the advice, HikingMano. I'll try it all out in the field when I have a chance.
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You're welcome, and have fun! :thumbup: :)

BPrepared304 said:
[...]Try some Charcloth to catch the spark[...]
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Charcloth is great stuff! DC0, look around the W&SS, there's all kinds of tinder stuff to pick up on... charcloth, jute, PJCBs, fatwood, natural tinders (birch bark, tinder fungus, cattail fluff), dryer lint (from cotton clothes only! no synthetics), hand sanitizer, etc. I personally carry PJCBs, Jute, Charcloth, and a little fatwood. Once you get sucked into spark methods, you'll soon be looking into friction fire :)
 
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A bk-14 Will not spark a fire steel unless a spot of the coating was removed on part of the spine. But other than than, Mischmetal has i believe a higher iron content, so the spark is much hotter and last longer.
 
Sparks struck from steel (knife-hard carbon steel) with natural flint are not only fewer in number but also not nearly as hot as sparks from man-made flint. Charred cloth highly recommended as tinder for natural flint and steel..
 
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just want to add to the thumbs up on getting into the firesteel. The best thing is to try to burn everything.... well, within reason. The more things you try, the more you'll see what catches a good spark. It can be a longish process going from spark to coal to flame, some stuff will flame up right away, and some stuff (like char cloth) will just form a small ember, which you can work with.
A word on hand sanitizer, some kinds have too much water, so try out your preferred brand before you NEED it. But it can be heaps of fun!
 
I was looking for a thread like this. Thanks guys, I have one all ready but have not spent much time using it yet. I was always bringing steel wool and that seemed to work, but I like to cotton ball with p.jelly in it. I might pick up those larger and cheaper ferro rods and just start practising again. I never knew they came painted. that might explain why I had a hard time the first few times.
 
I find the Light My Fire to be superior to the Coughlans, but the C. still kicks out well enough. Do not be a lemming and strip the coating of your 16, it will just make for more maintenance on the knife. Snap the end 2-3 inches off a hack saw blade and use that as a striker. I garantee that you will get showers of sparks from the cheapest fire steel around. The fire steel and hack saw blade will both have hole to run a cord through. Set this up as a neck carry and put a better quality fire steel on your car\house keys with a piece of clear plastic fuel line covering it. Now you are pretty much ready for any crap situation that pops up.
 
[video=youtube;1hBMS4S4_fs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hBMS4S4_fs&feature=g-upl[/video]

LMF and fatwood
 
I love fatwood. You can scrape a small pile of dust off of fatwood that even an empty Bic lighter will light or you can shave off larger curls when you need more heat.
IMO it's the best all around tinder.
 
1. size: any. i like ones with a large handle though - big enough to hold with winter gloves on...the more you need the fire, the more likely your hands are also really cold and dexterity becomes a real problem.

2. brand/type: goinggear.com's misch metal. you have to strike it hard, much harder than the regular ferro rod (like the light my fire types) but in exchange you get globs of molten metal that lasts a lot longer than just a ferro rod's split-second spark. in tougher conditions, you can even scrape misch metal rod slowly and it'll act like a magnesium bar - shavings will pile up without lighting...then you can light that shavings with a quick scrape.

3. striker: yes, i highly recommend attaching a dedicated striker to the firesteel. that way, if you lose your knife, you can still start a fire (i'm a believer in having almost fail-safe systems). you can strip the coating from the spine and file it squared, or just use the edge if it's a true emergency.

regardless of the type of firesteel though, 99% of it is technique and fire prep.

[youtube]6OTrqA0vfss[/youtube]
 
There are some here that forgot more than I know on this topic. But from my own real world personal experience, practice using your fire steel in the worst possible conditions. When you can consistantly get a fire going using wet or damp local natural materials with cold hands, then good conditions are a snap. I'm no super nature dude and can barely identify some trees or plants. But forcing myself to use local materials really sharpened my eye. I never thought of using old wasp nests until I did this stuff.
 
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