Would you mind to elaborate?
I cut small curls with my knife for the bulk of my catch tinder (I use this term because it's the small bit to catch the spark) or what some call first stage tinder. I found though that if I would also scrape some fine dust with the teeth of the striker it would really catch easily. I started doing this while using a BSA Hotspark that doesn't throw huge showers of sparks.
One other nice thing is that the hacksaw blades are Bi-metal so I can use them to cut metal if needed. While they are minimal they do work, especially if I need to score something.
By the way, I really liked your article about your PSK and used it quite a bit when building mine.
Thanks,
Charlie
I'm not sure what the other guy is saying, but if you hold the back part(or teeth part that has been ground down into a blade or squared off) perpendicular to the fatwood, you can "scrape" really fine curls, much finer than if you try and "shave" curls off with your blade. Similarly, you can use your knife edge, held perpendicular, to scrape, or the spine of your knife(if it is squared off nicely) held at an angle so that one of the 90degree angles is perpendicular to the fatwood.
Kinda like this: l<
I have found that this method is by far the best for getting really fine curls that catch easily with a spark. I squared the spine of my knife, so I use it to scrape the fatwood and strike the steel, and it works beautifully.
I hope I explained it in a way that makes sense. If it makes sense try it, and I guarantee it will be like a light bulb going off and you'll be asking yourself why you didn't think about it before, that's what I did when I figured it out.
Just one more question... I am not familiar with the term "fat wood", can anybody help? Thanks,
Mikel
Fatwood is wood usually found at the base of dead Pine trees. The wood is saturated with pine sap, so fine curls or dust from it will catch fire from a spark really easy. Because it is basically completely solid pine resin(sap) it is waterproof. Think of it as magnessium, but much, much easier, and faster to use. In the States and Canada, it can be found at some local hardware stores, or places that sell firewood and firestarters, like somewhere that sells woodburning stoves perhaps, or you can order it online, just look for "fatwood", or "pitch wood". A lot of people use it to start woodburning stoves, or there woodburning fireplace, so look at those kinds of places.
