this has more to do with the care of your edged tools in teh wilderness...so i will get on with it
i don't know how many times i have seen videos of "bushmen" using a firesteel to throw sparks, but they use the edge of thier knife.
"here is a firesteel, throws hot sparks. here is a mora that joe sharpened up so it is like a razor. watch this" he then takes the edge of teh knife and drags it down teh steel, throwing a massive pile of sparks.
this is an actual example i pulled from a real life video.
you might wonder what is so wrong with doing this...IT BITES A BIG CHUNK OUT OF THE EDGE OF YOUR BLADE!!!
i noticed it did this on the edge of the hacksaw blade i used as a striker i used for a while (i now use a small flake of real flint...much better), though not too severely.
to test what it did to a real knife, with a real edge, i took one of my beater knives with a sharp edge (an old serrated steak knife that i put an edge on with the grinder) and dragged it downt the last half inch of my steel, throwing a pile of sparks, and then i checked it out. the edge had little half holes burned out of the edge where the sparks were struck. i did read that a ferro rod's sparks will burn somewhere between 2000 degrees and 3000 degrees F. if i am not mistaken, this is enough to ruin the temper in that area of the blade, not to mention the micro serrations.
in a survival situation, or any situation, this is a stupid thing to do with your knife, as it will reduce its capability to do what you need it to do besides throwing sparks.
the sharp edge of a good knife is really unequalled though, for sparking. this tempts us, but there is a good alternative. we can get those small slider razors like this one:
the little tiny ones that are only an inch or two long, that go on a key chain. there are also the cheapies that are very slim that slide into a slim metal sleeve instead of a plastic one.
it is important to use the proper tools for the job, and to not damage the ones that you have.
i don't know how many times i have seen videos of "bushmen" using a firesteel to throw sparks, but they use the edge of thier knife.
"here is a firesteel, throws hot sparks. here is a mora that joe sharpened up so it is like a razor. watch this" he then takes the edge of teh knife and drags it down teh steel, throwing a massive pile of sparks.
this is an actual example i pulled from a real life video.
you might wonder what is so wrong with doing this...IT BITES A BIG CHUNK OUT OF THE EDGE OF YOUR BLADE!!!
i noticed it did this on the edge of the hacksaw blade i used as a striker i used for a while (i now use a small flake of real flint...much better), though not too severely.
to test what it did to a real knife, with a real edge, i took one of my beater knives with a sharp edge (an old serrated steak knife that i put an edge on with the grinder) and dragged it downt the last half inch of my steel, throwing a pile of sparks, and then i checked it out. the edge had little half holes burned out of the edge where the sparks were struck. i did read that a ferro rod's sparks will burn somewhere between 2000 degrees and 3000 degrees F. if i am not mistaken, this is enough to ruin the temper in that area of the blade, not to mention the micro serrations.
in a survival situation, or any situation, this is a stupid thing to do with your knife, as it will reduce its capability to do what you need it to do besides throwing sparks.
the sharp edge of a good knife is really unequalled though, for sparking. this tempts us, but there is a good alternative. we can get those small slider razors like this one:
the little tiny ones that are only an inch or two long, that go on a key chain. there are also the cheapies that are very slim that slide into a slim metal sleeve instead of a plastic one.
it is important to use the proper tools for the job, and to not damage the ones that you have.
