Firesteel vs a Lighter...

Iz Turley and I were talking on our last outing about doing a man in the creek scenerio when it gets cold. Be interesting to see what gets fire and what doesnt when it counts.
 
j williams said:
Curious, but why would you not wanna be good with both?

My ferro rod definatly sees way more use then a lighter, as its my primary method, but I'm curious why you wouldn't wanna be good with both? Seems like to me that is putting it one basket.

Not trying to piss on ya, just wanna understand what you are saying. (Sorry if its obvious, I'm kinda tired) lol

When I say primary, I dont mean I catagorize my implements and skills into order of preferance. I have a skillset of firecraft, and that is what I rely on for fire. Depending on time, mood, locale, etc.....
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What I meant was I'm not trying to convince ANYONE that THEY should be good with both. Again, to each his own. If all your comfortable with is rubbing two hot dogs together to start a friction fire........ great. ;)

I happen to rely on a mag-block/ferro rod combo for the reasons you have mentioned. I carry a Bic as BACKUP because..... again..... why not? Sorry if I was unclear.
 
Cascade_mtn's said:
What I meant was I'm not trying to convince ANYONE that THEY should be good with both. Again, to each his own. If all your comfortable with is rubbing two hot dogs together to start a friction fire........ great. ;)

I happen to rely on a mag-block/ferro rod combo for the reasons you have mentioned. I carry a Bic as BACKUP because..... again..... why not? Sorry if I was unclear.
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Ah!!! Ok Im trackin. Thanks!!!

2 hotdog hearth, or hotdog with notch carved out? hahahaha....Hotdog friction fire. Well put man.
 
j williams said:
Ah!!! Ok Im trackin. Thanks!!!

2 hotdog hearth, or hotdog with notch carved out? hahahaha....Hotdog friction fire. Well put man.
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It's a highly under rated family secret. Of course the last family member that knew the "secret" has a Darwin award pinned to his dead carcass. ;)

Glad you're trackin....... and back to the topic..... a real world test as you mentioned (even though I have a pretty good hypothesis already on what method would be better) would be a good idea. Water isn't the problem as I see it however. I carry my kit in a water proof container. Wind however is a different story. Two summer ago a Friend and I went to the Blue Mountains in Oregon. When we reached the higher elevation and stopped to make camp it got real cold and windy. REAL COLD WINDY. As I was setting up the tent and such while he was trying to make fire using a zippo. No such luck. We both ended up huddling together to block the wind, and used my recipe of tinder and ferro rod. Worked well. Everyones M.M.V. of course. Just what my experience has been.
 
Now you guys have gone and done it! Ima gettin' me some Bear Grylls fire-makin' hotdogs, too! :D

I wonder how they'll take to a nice paracord wrap... ;)
 
timberweasel said:
Now you guys have gone and done it! Ima gettin' me some Bear Grylls fire-makin' hotdogs, too! :D

I wonder how they'll take to a nice paracord wrap... ;)
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Dunno, but I bet they go down smooth with urine.;) (C'mon, can't forgo the customary Bear Grylls joke)
 
Sorry to bring this back up, I just gotta say its hilarious when a Bear Grylls joke kills a thread. I love it.....

I think all that can be said has been said....lol
 
Hawkings said:
I don't know if this tread is to dead to bring back again, but this is a pretty cool vid on bic ligthers I think Cliky linky
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That was a great vid, thanks for posting. The trick about removing the metal guard was especially cool, I never knew that.

For what it's worth, I carry an LMF army steel on my sheath, and usually a Bic in my pocket, along with a backup firesteel and mini Bic in my PSK.
 
Dago Red said:
It seems that it is a pain in the ass to shave off enough to start a fire. I plan to buy magnesium shavings online (I found a place you could buy them bulk) and put them in a little container to carry instead.
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All you really need is some cotton balls & petroleum jelly, strike the firesteel onto the cotton balls and they should light really easily. With a good smear of petroleum jelly on the cotton balls they should burn for several minutes.
 
If we're talking about worse case scenerio (survivial situation), don't expect that you will have two able hands. This is where I believe the lighter and its ability to be operated with one hand has the advantage. Sure the blastmatch can be used with one hand (and thats why the military uses it), but most bushcrafters are not using blastmatches. However no one likes blastmatches because it doesn't fit into their nice firesteel loop along side their custom $300 knife. Now I understand there are ways that one can use a normal ferro rod with one hand but it is exponentially more difficult at this point than your standard lighter (I have normal and wind proof jet ones). A lot of people pretend to plan for the worse but they never plan to be hurt during a survival situation (fall and lose your gear or a canoe/whitewater dump) and that is just naive. If you're going to have 3x redundancy of kit for different scenerios where you might use your main gear, then seriously think those scenerios through to their logical conclusion and plan accordingly.
 
My last camping trip lit one fire and let it burn out 5 times for 6 times for 6 meals. I used 5 cheapo matches total........... left over hot coals restarted one of them(so not completely burned out). The time before that I used a lighter and the thing only worked half the time, between humidity and the cold.


Lighters are over rated, that's my opinion.
 
I don't want to bother with firesteel,lighter is just enough for every task I need. Cheap BICs and one tourch lighter is all I carry with me outdoor.
 
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