Firesteel No Knife

[Mistwalker]

A while back, in the "three most important items thread", Rotte brought up using a firesteel without a knife. This evening I was limited on time due to work and didn't get to do any firecraft practice with my oldest because of a date. Soooo I decided to just play around a little. I do need to try this again with a piece of raw chert or flint fresh out of the ground but I did manage to start a couple of fires with a fire steel with no knife.


The first was simple, and cheating.... unless it's a survival situation...but it was still a learning experience for me so I thought I'd share it.


The first thing I did was grind up some leaves that were mostly dry but still have a high moisture content from all the rains a day or so ago and all the fog we've been having at night. Then I added a little hand sanitizer for an accelerant.

you can barely see the flames in this one due to the flash but they are there.

Soon they were reeeaally easy to see.No problems catching the dead pine on fire.

The second fire I think was a little more like what Rotte was talking about. I used a piece of fatwood I'd found, and the only prep was scraping off a pile of fuzz and then breaking it into as small of pieces as I could manage with my bare hands.

 

[sicily02]

Great pics mistwalker, very clever of ya lol.

Bryan

PS what would you be doing with out a knife though lol.

 

[Mistwalker]

Great pics mistwalker, very clever of ya lol.

Bryan

PS what would you be doing with out a knife though lol.

I'll be feeling completely naked if it ever happens

 

[THE PUNISHER]

kool pics,and the hand sanitizer worx never thought of that...........

 

[TheGame]

I usually always use a rock for my firesteel. It has a curve that fits it perfectly.

 

[Mistwalker]

kool pics,and the hand sanitizer worx never thought of that...........

Thanks man. I knew the hand sanitizer would burn, just had never tried it with a firesteel and without knife

 

[Joezilla]

Try the broken glass, very fun stuff, and more common than flint!

 

[Katdaddy]

Just curious, you did this with a LMF steel right? How would this work with a misch metal steel? They seem so much harder to get a spark from, even with a knife.

 

[dawsonbob]

Just curious, you did this with a LMF steel right? How would this work with a misch metal steel? They seem so much harder to get a spark from, even with a knife.

I do it all the time with my GG misch metal fire steel. Any hard, sharp edge will throw sparks from one of those. A sharp edge on a rock works really well for scraping wood for tinder, too.

 

[dawsonbob]

Nice pics, Mist. Playing with sharp rocks is fun, isn't it?

 

[banana-clip]

Great information there, didn't know hand sanitizer was flamable and you could make a spark from a rock and broken glass on a firesteel...thanks :thumbup:

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day Brian

....you can barely see the flames in this one due to the flash but they are there.

Out of curosity, was the hand sanitiser alcohol based? If it was, I can understand why the flames aren't that obvious.




Kind regards
Mick

 

[jca21]

great pics bro.

i've search high and low on many trails round here for flint but just cant find the stuff. i'd sooner find gold then find flint out here


house keys make an ok striker. you could always take a small piece of hack saw blade, wrap it in some masking or electrical tape and put it under the insole. that way you'd always have a handy striker when you need it... or if the bad guys tie you up you could cut yourself free macgyver style

 

[Mistwalker]

Try the broken glass, very fun stuff, and more common than flint!

I'll have to give that a shot. Actually glass is pretty rare in the woods here now and on most of the trails I travel. I do find some beer cans a little ways in some times, and lots of plastic water bottles from the "I'm into the health and fitness but screw the environment" crowd...but not so much glass. However I do tend to find a good bit of chert, probably one of the reasons the native americans loved this place so much.

Just curious, you did this with a LMF steel right? How would this work with a misch metal steel? They seem so much harder to get a spark from, even with a knife.

Yes, I did this with an LMF Army model. I haven't tried the mischmetal steels with anything other than steel yet.

Nice pics, Mist. Playing with sharp rocks is fun, isn't it?

Thanks Bob. Yeah actually it is...it's like a trip back in time. At one time when I was younger I wanted to be an anthropologist, I used to make a lot of stone and wooden tools...then I reeeeaally discovered steel and have been addicted since .

Great information there, didn't know hand sanitizer was flamable and you could make a spark from a rock and broken glass on a firesteel...thanks :thumbup:

Thanks man, glad you learned something new :thumbup: Sharing the info is what the W&SS section is all about right

G'day Brian



Out of curosity, was the hand sanitiser alcohol based? If it was, I can understand why the flames aren't that obvious.




Kind regards
Mick

Hullo Mick,


Yep, 62% Ethyl Alcohol. That's why the flames are barely visible until the leaves catch.

great pics bro.

i've search high and low on many trails round here for flint but just cant find the stuff. i'd sooner find gold then find flint out here


house keys make an ok striker. you could always take a small piece of hack saw blade, wrap it in some masking or electrical tape and put it under the insole. that way you'd always have a handy striker when you need it... or if the bad guys tie you up you could cut yourself free macgyver style

Thanks JC, glad you liked the pics.

Yeah, flint is rare here too, we just have a lot of chert.

I've been thinking about having Bryan make me a hardened striker that I could put on my key chain, I guess I need to talk to him about that.

 

[Anrkst6973]

I've always got a little bottle of sanitizer and a pair of surgical gloves in my belt pak..Guess those glove would light right up if I needed them to! (Thanx guys! Thats what I call thinking outside the box.) Yall started this! I tried the flint and glass bit..hummm I must not be doing it right. I get sparks from the flint, not as massive an amount as with a knife but enough to start a fire. No luck with the glass tho..it just seems to crumble or flake at the edge. Yall should try one of these Breeden Strikers! Talk about making sparks! The beveled spine idea is a winner. I might suggest beveling both sides leaving the edge 2-3 32nds wide across the flat..so it would work for both right and left handers. Another idea that came to me was this cheap lil whiskey flask that I got for X-mas last year (I dont drink so..) Its steel and wont leak so I filled it with rubbing alcohol to prime my stove with. By itself it weighs next to nothing, holds like 6 ounces total. Thats enough to start dozens of fires! Hey dont blame me if theres no fatwood left in the woods..Its MistWalkers fault!! Good thread Brother..lots of knowledge compressed in here.

 

[Rotte]

Very nice Mistwalker! I don't know if you saw the thread where a few of us tried a similar experiment: Contest

I found that a sharp edged rock threw sparks fairly well. Good tinder made it fairly straightforward.

 

[dipbait]

Is that chert a broken arrowhead? Ive picked up pieces from plowed fields and they work real well.

 

[Mistwalker]

I've always got a little bottle of sanitizer and a pair of surgical gloves in my belt pak..Guess those glove would light right up if I needed them to! (Thanx guys! Thats what I call thinking outside the box.) Yall started this! I tried the flint and glass bit..hummm I must not be doing it right. I get sparks from the flint, not as massive an amount as with a knife but enough to start a fire. No luck with the glass tho..it just seems to crumble or flake at the edge. Yall should try one of these Breeden Strikers! Talk about making sparks! The beveled spine idea is a winner. I might suggest beveling both sides leaving the edge 2-3 32nds wide across the flat..so it would work for both right and left handers. Another idea that came to me was this cheap lil whiskey flask that I got for X-mas last year (I dont drink so..) Its steel and wont leak so I filled it with rubbing alcohol to prime my stove with. By itself it weighs next to nothing, holds like 6 ounces total. Thats enough to start dozens of fires! Hey dont blame me if theres no fatwood left in the woods..Its MistWalkers fault!! Good thread Brother..lots of knowledge compressed in here.

Thanks E, glad you enjoyed the post. Never tried the latex gloves before, I wonder how they would do as tinder or accelerant. A little golden grain in the flask could do wonders.

Very nice Mistwalker! I don't know if you saw the thread where a few of us tried a similar experiment: Contest

I found that a sharp edged rock threw sparks fairly well. Good tinder made it fairly straightforward.

Thanks Rotte. No, I missed it...I remember you talking about it but never saw it when it happened, I wish I had seen it I'd like to have participated. Things have been hectic here lately and I miss a lot of things.

Is that chert a broken arrowhead? Ive picked up pieces from plowed fields and they work real well.

Yeah, that is a broken point, that's why I said I need to find a "raw" piece. I had a raw piece I was playing with but I have miss placed it and need to dig up another...there is a good bit buried in my back yard, I find it every time I dig a hole.