Firesteel and Feather sticks

D

dogstar

Joined
Jan 23, 2011
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Hello, I see videos on youtube of people carving feather sticks and lighting them with a firesteel. I have never been able to duplicate this. What do I need to do?

A) Feathers need to be paper thin
B) Feathers need to be fine like string
C) Use a specific type of wood
D) Keep throwing sparks till the sucker catches fire
E) None of the above
 
i kinda gave up on trying to light the feather sticks directly with a firesteel... i've had success lighting the feather sticks using "ferrocium" rods that throw globs of molten metal but never really with the light my fire style swedish army firesteels.


you could probably give ferrocium rods a try, they require a different technique but in my opinion are much easier to use than the traditional firesteels.


alternatively, you can just fuzz up a piece of fatwood or scrap some shavings from birch bark and spark those :D
 
dogstar said:
Hello, I see videos on youtube of people carving feather sticks and lighting them with a firesteel. I have never been able to duplicate this. What do I need to do?

A) Feathers need to be paper thin
B) Feathers need to be fine like string
C) Use a specific type of wood
D) Keep throwing sparks till the sucker catches fire
E) None of the above
Click to expand...

Great questions buddy ! I went out today and did it myself so I could maybe give ya some tips !

In all the video's I have posted in the past my Fuzz sticks have been made from Fatwood. Igniting a regular wood fuzz stick with a ferro-rod is IMO very difficult, heck even Ray Mears used a match to light his in one of his episodes !!!

Where I live everything is usually wet/damp so any wood I pick off the floor is going to be no good. Any branches high up in trees are going to be living and thus no good for fire-starting. What I have to look for are low dead branches such as this one on a Cedar tree today. I could tell it was dry by the crisp crack it made as I broke it off~

p6280004d.jpg

By pitdog2010 at 2011-06-28

When it comes to the curls the main aim is to make them as thin as possible. I don't really think the actual shape matters too much although I find tight curls seem to catch and hold the spark easier.
I made this fuzz stick from the branch in the previous pic~

p6280005f.jpg

By pitdog2010 at 2011-06-28

Now to lighting it. I find the best way is to have the ferro-rod as close as possible to the tinder and to strike many times in quick succesion till you see a flame. I'm guessing it took me maybe 20 + strikes before this fuzz stick caught !!!

p6280007.jpg

By pitdog2010 at 2011-06-28

* Don't believe everyone on here when they say they lit their fuzz stick etc with one strike !*

For the record it usually takes me 1 strike to light a cotton ball, 1-2 strikes to ignite dryer lint, 1-4 strikes to light Fatwood and as I mentioned a hell of a lot to light regular fuzzy's !!!!

Here is an old vid of me making and lighting a fatwood fuzzy, you will see how much easier this is to do~

[youtube]UOL7aiNjMTw[/youtube]

Hope this info helps ya !
 
tonym's got an excellent video on regular (light my fire, etc.) vs. misch metal (goinggear.com, etc.) ferro rods and very thin feather sticks:

[youtube]6OTrqA0vfss[/youtube]
 
Thanks for the responses. Just for clarity, by "firesteel" I mean ferrocerium, aka "Swedish firesteel," not the old fashioned flint and steel.
 
I find that lighting feather sticks directly with even ferro rods can be troublesome.

The wood needs to be dry. That seems like a big ole' "DUH" but sometimes it is holding more moisture than you think.

I find that if I make the shavings as thin as I can and get a lot of them (way more than you think you will need) you will have a better chance. I generally do NOT go for super long shavings like you see some skilled guys doing...most of my shavings are an inch or two long...it is not a beauty pageant, we want small bits with high surface area to maximize air to fuel ratio for ignition. I also recommend 2 good bases for them (like a bit of birch bark or foil if you have it). Here is why...

I started using this trick and it has improved my success remarkably. I make a big pile of feather sticks, then I break off all the curlies. You must make sure your hands are dry and not sweaty! I take the shavings and mash them up as if they are a bar of soap and I am washing my hands. This action tends to fray the edges and break them up (increasing the surface area). I do this wadding over my base (foil or bark)...hopefully you see a bunch of tiny fragments and wood dust falling out onto the base. I then drop the remainder of the shavings onto my base of bark or foil, THEN I lay the second base on top and flip the whole thing over. This inverts the pile and leaves all the fines on top (and they will catch the sparks easier).

Try it. If it doesn't work, curse my name.

Seriously though, this should improve your success rate a bit...but realize even with matches, success in building a fire is not always guaranteed. Be patient and practice.
 
Make sure you have a dry base. Shavings suck up moisture like a sponge. You might need a more aggresive strike. It is just as easy to do with any type of ferro rod IMO. Its all in technique and practice. Paper thin curly shavings is what youre after...3x what you think is enough. There is no magic kit that makes this stuff easy. Its all practice and tech. Ive seen shavings lit with the ferro on a mag bar. You want a HOT spark. What are you using as a striker? An awl on a SAK or multitool works frickin great. I think sometimes people like to blame their lack of skill with a tool on the tool itself, and are always looking for an easy way out. (I was guilty of this for a time too) There is no easy way, your top knot is the best tool you can have. Practice, practice, practice.......
 
dogstar said:
Hello, I see videos on youtube of people carving feather sticks and lighting them with a firesteel. I have never been able to duplicate this. What do I need to do?

A) Feathers need to be paper thin YES[/B
]B) Feathers need to be fine like string YES
C) Use a specific type of wood It specificaly need to be dry wood
D) Keep throwing sparks till the sucker catches fire Yup, that's about it.
E) None of the above Nope, you're on the right track.
Click to expand...


Just keep practicing on making your fuzz sticks thin. When striking I like to pin the shavings with my ferro rod and scrape down in to them in a controlled manner. This directs the hot sparks in to the shavings you want to light.



JV3 said:
tonym's got an excellent video on regular (light my fire, etc.) vs. misch metal (goinggear.com, etc.) ferro rods and very thin feather sticks:

[youtube]6OTrqA0vfss[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Man, I don't know how you can take a guy that sounds like that seriously....


:o
 
Well, I made some shavings from a piece of pine, trying to make them as thin as possible. I was able to light them using my LMF scout. Yippee! Nothing like the smell of burning wood inside the house. I also ordered a couple of misch metal rods from Goinggear.com. It will be interesting to test those.
 
dogstar said:
Hello, I see videos on youtube of people carving feather sticks and lighting them with a firesteel. I have never been able to duplicate this. What do I need to do?
Click to expand...

You may need to practice your feather stick shaving technique, perhaps a thinner knife or a sharper one will make better shavings. Also, I notice that you are in Oakland, CA. You should be able to find pine trees with resin (fatwood) which should work better for you. You can even buy fatwood sticks in the BBQ section of your supermarket/hardware store in 3-lb bags for cheap with which to practice and carry in your kit.
 
I don't think anyone mentioned this, but it's important to carve with the grain to get fine feathers. It's almost impossible to get fine feathers when you carve against the grain, because you are tearing the wood instead of cutting it.
 
Well, I gave this a try in the great outdoors... and I failed. I tried to carve feather sticks as fine as I could, and it would not light with either type of firesteel. I thought, maybe the wood was too wet. So I made sure to grab a stick that snapped easily and still no luck. I even made fine shavings with the spine of my knife, but no luck. I as able to light some lichen with ease, but my goal was to use the feather stick. As a result of this trial, I added a magnesium rod to my kit. At least my DIY misch metal rods were easy to make and functional:
firesteel.jpg
 
Last edited:
j williams said:
Make sure you have a dry base. Shavings suck up moisture like a sponge. You might need a more aggresive strike. It is just as easy to do with any type of ferro rod IMO. Its all in technique and practice. Paper thin curly shavings is what youre after...3x what you think is enough. There is no magic kit that makes this stuff easy. Its all practice and tech. Ive seen shavings lit with the ferro on a mag bar. You want a HOT spark. What are you using as a striker? An awl on a SAK or multitool works frickin great. I think sometimes people like to blame their lack of skill with a tool on the tool itself, and are always looking for an easy way out. (I was guilty of this for a time too) There is no easy way, your top knot is the best tool you can have. Practice, practice, practice.......
Click to expand...

Like J says - good shavings that self curl on dried wood. Here it is good to split the wood, taking the rounded sides off it, and make the curls from the center rather than doing it from the side of the wood (both easier to make curls from a sharp edge of the wood and it is dryer). Then using your striker give her hell until you see flames.

I sometimes use a little fuzzy stick as a match for my twig stove. The video below at 8:08 min shows it being done. Note there was some editing that happened because I first tried it, striking for about 10 s and failed, but I noticed some of the shavings charred. So I just went at it again and managed to light it in about 3 strikes (you only see the later). Again - skip to 8:08 min of the vid. I use on of those little going gear strikers with a going gear rod.

[youtube]ZdNL3fQnCMs[/youtube]

Another one I did - skip to minute 4:08 for the wood shavings.

[youtube]OMV2HXGrt5E[/youtube]
 
mtwarden said:
is that the magnesium block holding the firesteel? if so, that's a great idea! :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, it's just a piece of pine dowel that I quickly made into a handle. Here is misch metal rod, magnesium rod and striker on a neck lanyard. I got the magnesium rod at a booth in an art & wine festival some time ago. Thanks for all the encouragement and tips, everyone. I'm sure I'll get over the hump with practice.
fsmagn.jpg
 
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