firesteels I can't get it right

I carry a firesteel and use it exclusively for fires when in the hills, dont even carry matches anymore.

The thing with the firesteel is that you are using the sparks to make a coal, then to coax the coal into a flame.

Tinder is very important. Here i use sagebrush, aspen and cottonwood bark alot. These all have bark that is almost ready made tinder on the older dead and dying trees. Grab a handfull, rough it up between your hands to break it down a bit finer and it will catch a spark.
 
DPris said:
What's with the "cheating" concern? :)
Are you just playing with fire, or are you trying to do something useful?
If useful, there is no cheating. You get your fire started any way you can, with whatever materials it takes.
If you have to tote your own tinder in the form of cottonballs, and it gets a fire going for you, what's cheating?
Denis
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If I was somehow actually in a survival situation I would hate to run out of cotton balls and not be able to get a fire going!

Plus I want a challange!
 
Just a thought- I use the ends broken off used hacksaws as scrapers(1-2" long piece), they have holes for the cordage and the teeth near the end are still sharp. You can use the teeth to create wood dust from your dry shaving source. A small pile of dry wood dust ignites pretty easily from sparks.

Bill
 
Recently I have woken up to what a difference that a hard squared knife spine makes in using these rods. I used to primarily use a piece of snapped off hack saw blade, which does produce a shower of sparks for me. A few weeks ago I spontaneously bought a tiny Shrade Sharpfinger, well the Chinese version anyway. When I used the thick sharply squared off spine on this knife I damn near fell on the floor ! Great huge gobs of longer lasting thicker burning chunks of rod flew off. What a difference ! I had previously heard of the squared spine tip and tried it more or less with mixed results. I don't like chewing the blade coating off the top of some knives so I took a file and removed the coating on a few knife choils. I recently did this to my ESEE 6, then did the adjacent sides just enough to expose a clear squared edge. It works well. Did the spine on a few Moras as they were uncoated, sure helped. Recently one of the fellows here woke me up to scruffing up my materials such as damp, frozen grass or whatever. Makes sense on multiple levels. Exposing as much tiny fiber as I can helps me with a rod outdoors. I did the pj cotton balls years ago and try to use natural local materials now if I can.
 
Woods Walker said:
Birch bark works very well.
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^^This.

Birchbark is the bomb. I use ot all the time. When i find a birch tree, ill stuff my pockets with it. I start almost all my fires, regardless of the season, with birch bark. And it'll light even when damp.

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SubaruSTi said:
Yeah what attracted me to it is the durability of them and the challenge.

I agree keeping the steel closer to the target will help as the temperature has to be higher right when it comes off the steel.
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When using just standard dry wood shavings making a large "fluffy" pile with lots of holes for the sparks to go into works best. Not sure which type of rod you are using, and could you duplicate your tinder pile in a pic?
 
I'm using one of the custom ones from knives ship free and one that came with a hedgehog leather works sheath. I'm going to try again tonight ill post up some results and or pics.
 
Sub,
If you can carry a steel on outings that may run into a survival situation, you can carry cottonballs. A whole bunch. They compress very easily & weigh nothing.
Or, swap your steel for a BIC or a butane jet lighter.
My point is that if you're just playing, play on. If you're talking a serious fire then you use any method that works.

If you find yourself lost, wet & cold in the outback, your primary interest will not be "a challenge", it'll be to get the damn fire going as quick & easy as you can. :)
Denis
 
Oh and last light the jute twine worked okay, I furbed it up a lot more and it light within one or two strikes. It burned for about 35 seconds or so but I didn't use much only around 2 inches worth and like 3 strands.

I think fat wood shavings would work better, I may try those soon.

And yeah guys I'm just horsing around with this trying to improve my skills. I know it will work with cotton balls but the durability and throw in your pocket and go has much appeal with the firesteel so here I am fail boating around with it lol!
 
I got a few large metal embers to go into the pile of shavings but to no avail. I reshaped the small mound of shavings a dozen times many many hard strikes as close as I could get them, many were orange and a few got into the pile but they never lit it or even come close to burning any part of them.

I feel an accelerant is needed to allow the fire steel or work or some sort of super fluffy material. It lit the jute twine and dryer lint like a pro but anything dense like wood it seriously struggles.

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PropThePolecat said:
The shavings need to be much thinner and finer than that. Try scraping wood dust with the spine or edge of your blade.
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I tried that but it's hardly collectible and I would think in very humid conditions it may not work as it would collect a lot of humidity
 
The Polecat has given good advice, the shavings need to be really thin, and some woods work better than others. If you have birch around you, look at how thin the outer most layers can be, the stuff that looks like very thin paper. If you want to scrape some into dust, you'll need a fair amount and something to keep it off the ground, like a layer of dry bark. The moisture in the ground can/will transfer into your fine tinder shavings or dust. Even some aluminum foil will work as a moisture barrier. Keep trying, it always looks easy in the videos, but I doubt anyone started out with instant success. Once you've mastered the basic technique, you'll need to move onto doing it in wet conditions...now that will drive ya nuts!
 
I've been in situations where I've made the tinder so fluffy that it actually soaks moisture from the air and ground around it. I'm starting to suspect certain types of wood as I've replicated it at the same time/same place with different woods.
 
Stickman said:
The Polecat has given good advice, the shavings need to be really thin, and some woods work better than others. If you have birch around you, look at how thin the outer most layers can be, the stuff that looks like very thin paper. If you want to scrape some into dust, you'll need a fair amount and something to keep it off the ground, like a layer of dry bark. The moisture in the ground can/will transfer into your fine tinder shavings or dust. Even some aluminum foil will work as a moisture barrier. Keep trying, it always looks easy in the videos, but I doubt anyone started out with instant success. Once you've mastered the basic technique, you'll need to move onto doing it in wet conditions...now that will drive ya nuts!
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I tried the scraping method but the wood is so dry and hard that its not easy. I got a small quarter sized fluffy pile but it didn't light, it's pretty hard to aim it right.

At this rate it will be zero fires per ferro rod!

PS. We don't have birch trees n my area. No pines either.

Hickory, cherry, red oak, white oak, burr oak, hackberry, walnut, a few maples, and hedge and mulberry. The most common are oak cherry and hackberry.

Maybe a really good butane lighter would be a better backup starter. The ferro rod is limited so its not the end all be all fire starter anyhow.
 
SubaruSTi said:
I tried the scraping method but the wood is so dry and hard that its not easy. I got a small quarter sized fluffy pile but it didn't light, it's pretty hard to aim it right.

At this rate it will be zero fires per ferro rod!

PS. We don't have birch trees n my area. No pines either.

Hickory, cherry, red oak, white oak, burr oak, hackberry, walnut, a few maples, and hedge and mulberry. The most common are oak cherry and hackberry.

Maybe a really good butane lighter would be a better backup starter. The ferro rod is limited so its not the end all be all fire starter anyhow.
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Not sure if it's already been suggested but try making some shavings using a pencil sharpener and then hit those with the ferro-rod.
 
SubaruSTi said:
Oh and last light the jute twine worked okay, I furbed it up a lot more and it light within one or two strikes. It burned for about 35 seconds or so but I didn't use much only around 2 inches worth and like 3 strands.

I think fat wood shavings would work better, I may try those soon.

And yeah guys I'm just horsing around with this trying to improve my skills. I know it will work with cotton balls but the durability and throw in your pocket and go has much appeal with the firesteel so here I am fail boating around with it lol!
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I take your point about learning to use natural tinders. (Do try cat tail fluff and other similar seed fluff.) However, a small metal pill container (available at most drug stores) attached to the cord on your ferro rod can contain 2-4 cotton balls for "throw in your pocket" purposes - just in case its survival we're talking about.
 
Thomas Linton said:
I take your point about learning to use natural tinders. (Do try cat tail fluff and other similar seed fluff.) However, a small metal pill container (available at most drug stores) attached to the cord on your ferro rod can contain 2-4 cotton balls for "throw in your pocket" purposes - just in case its survival we're talking about.
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I would never be in a survival situation in IL anyways, you can just walk out of nearly any park in the area and my property is nowhere near big enough to get lost on.

I can easily carry 50 matches for a survival situation use anyhow. But it's fun to practice this stuff, I have for years but I've always been a fan of matches. I guess I'm a novice, maybe someday ill figure a way to do natural materials with a ferro.
 
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