help with a ferro rod.,,,please.

adam0321

adam0321

Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Messages
495
So I here is the story. I am a US marine and have spent a good portion of my life in the woods. I have been to Survival school/wet and cold weather. And Like most people in my career field, my knowlege is mostly academic. Well I have always started fires using a firesteel but have always used a cotton ball soaked in p-jelly. Lately I have tried making fires with a ferro rod using only natural materials. I have been making a few feather sticks and spent the good part of today trying to get a fire going. I got one right off the bat but on my second attempt I could not get it lit to save my life. I am using the firesteel.com gob spark. And the scraper that came with it. I know alot of it is paractice but After today there is little left of my firesteel. I am taking chunks out of it trying to get the sparks to light the tinder. I am not sure what type of wood I am using. But I can't seem to get it....

Any thoguhts on technique, and firesteels?? Suggestions. How hard should I be scraping. It seems some people can light a feather stick first try with a ferro rod.

Any suggestions?

I see rods on peoples knives that look like the seldom get used, or am I just destroying mine. After about 2 hours I have gouges out of mine..
 
Different ferro rods react differently to pressure and speed. I have problems with this brand as well, others swear by them. Get yourself a Strike Force and you'll immediately see the difference.
 
Take a look at this video by tonym ... it should be helpful to you.

[video=youtube;6OTrqA0vfss]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OTrqA0vfss&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/video]
 
Surface area is your friend. Consider a tampon; highly flammable if you tease it out, it'll flash up effortlessly, but it doesn't burn so great even if you hit it with a lighter if you don't.

Same thing applies to natural materials. Exposing fibers by bashing or fluffing with the hacksaw side of your striker usually pays dividends. Consider the difference you can see in a match stick between one that has been split a few times or even fuzzy curls carved into it and one that has been chewed at the end. Crumbling, pounding and scraping will produce finer tinder than cutting alone. It's one of the reasons I prefer a bit of hacksaw blade to any other form of striker.
 
adam0321 said:
I was thinking of this one?
http://goinggear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=16&products_id=48

I wish I lived closer to some of the members on this forum for some mentoring.
Click to expand...
You can try it, although there are some really cheap Coughlan's out there that work well. I don't want to deal spot, but look around, they are very common. The type of ferro you are using, when I use it I tend to shave off long slivers that don't ignite. I greatly prefer the "lesser" types of rods that don't weld, but do release a shower of sparks. YMMV.
 
If you throw sparks into fatwood shavings you should be good to go.
What's your current approximate location. Someone from here may be nearby for teaching. I'm a former jarhead and have gone through a couple firesteels before I figured it out.
 
I don't think the problem is with the ferro rod, as you say you've had success with it before. You may just need to find/create a more flammable tinder nest. Without an accelerant (like petroleum jelly) the fibers need to be VERY fine and soft. Wood isn't ideal, unless it's permeated with resin (fatwood). Try other natural tinders such as cedar bark, thistle down, etc. Roll the tinder or fluff it in your fingers to break it down a little bit, then create a "nest" for your sparks to land in. Play with it a little bit to find the right density.

Good luck!

Frosty
 
Sounds like you are getitng plenty of big sparks so it isn't your firesteel. It is either technique or tinder and my bet is on tinder.

You said you don't know what kind oif wood you are using, well if it's a hard wood like oak or maple you aren't likely to get fire from the feathersticks. You need a wood with resin like pine or spruce that's why you see people talk about fatwood. What you need to do is learn what natural tender in your area takes a spark well. Birch bark, cattail fluff, a nest of dried grass or pine needles.

ground up birch bark or dust made by rubbing the edge of your knife on fatwood are probably the best at least in my experience.

For yoour technique i have seen some people who hold the frirestell way to far from their tinder like they are literaly trying to throw a spark at it from 6 inches away or hit the rod as hard as they can. you should have your steel almost touching your tinder when you do a nice clean scrape down the blade.

tell us where you are and there may be a member nearby who can help you out.
 
Give the one stick fire a try

[video=youtube;grWSLbl19Ns]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grWSLbl19Ns&feature=player_embedded[/video]
 
Thanks for all the help. Last night I started with cotton balls then moved on to man made tinders. I was able to get them after a few strikes. Well tonight I went out to the same spot. The wood I am usisng is a hard wood, maybe oak. I made sure I had the tinder nice and fine. I actualy sraped the side of the wood and made basicaly saw dust. I was able to get it lit after just a few strikes. ANd I was able to get it consistantly. I think it was deffinatly the tinder. Thanks for all the help.

Can I post pics as a non paying member? If so How? If not then how do I become a memebr where I can post pictures.
 
Great to hear, and you can post pics:

1. I use photobucket to host pics
2. after uploading to photobucket hover cursor over pic and select the link for (img)
3. come back here and paste the (img) link and once you post your reply it will show us the pic for free :)
 
Expanding on the Photobucket route, this from Modoc ED:

postingpicturesx.jpg



Opening more broadly:

An image usually has to be hosted somewhere on the internet first. [That's not strictly true but for now let's say "must be"]. Provided you have the address of that image - by right clicking on it and doing a "copy image location" you have part A.

Part B simply to paste that address between a pair of tags. Whether the forum software types those tags for you after you press a handy button or you manually type them in makes no difference. The single thing that may trip you if you type them is that the second tag has an / in it that the first one doesn't.


Here is an example from bulgron -
imageurl2.jpg
 
adam0321 said:
I live in N Florida. Not sure how much birch bark there is down here
Click to expand...

I grew up on the panhandle. You won't find much birch bark, but I couldn't take a walk without running into fatwood (often reffered to as fat lighter in that neck of the woods), old man's beard (treemoss), and cat tails. Try those out.
 
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