Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,035
It has been eleven days now, and Alayna's hand is doing much better. Hopefully they will be able to remove the stitches this Friday
We went up to my partner Andrew's house yesterday, and she learned a new skill. She was a bit traumatized by her accident and the amount of blood involved. She has been a bit skittish about things and worried about me cutting myself while I am at work. So we wanted to "get her back on the horse" so to speak. So we did a few quick lessons with her on how even with the use of only one hand that one isn't as limited as they may think so we showed her how she could prep tinder and even start a fire one handed.
I'll preface this with the statement that am usually against the idea of using a knife as a fire steel striker in a survival situation, regardless of using the spine of the edge. It works fine on picnic outings and on the patio, but I have just seen it cause enough problems in the woods to be against the idea if there is another option. I keep a dedicated striker on my sheath, and those of my family, and our back up systems all have their own on-board strikers that aren't sharpened like knives or pointy. That said, in one hand techniques when someone has injured a hand, and needs a fire, is one of the exceptions for me.
We helped her prep her tinder, and set up her fire lay, and then showed her how she could prop the knife on a branch with the blade overhanging the tinder, hold it in place with her foot, and then throw sparks directly into her tinder bundle when she pulled the ferro rod across the knife edge. It took her a few tries, and I didn't get pics of the fire starting because she was so excited (after being stuck in a house and moping for ten days with 26 stitches in her hand) that she just left the knife there sticking in the fire as it started and so we had to talk about that and how to go about it in the future. She is still really excited that she did it, and so now she wants to do it again so she can share the pics with a friend who moved back to Germany a few years ago. So, one day after school, today is her first day back and I hope that goes well, we will go to some local woods and redo the scene for photos.
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We went up to my partner Andrew's house yesterday, and she learned a new skill. She was a bit traumatized by her accident and the amount of blood involved. She has been a bit skittish about things and worried about me cutting myself while I am at work. So we wanted to "get her back on the horse" so to speak. So we did a few quick lessons with her on how even with the use of only one hand that one isn't as limited as they may think so we showed her how she could prep tinder and even start a fire one handed.
I'll preface this with the statement that am usually against the idea of using a knife as a fire steel striker in a survival situation, regardless of using the spine of the edge. It works fine on picnic outings and on the patio, but I have just seen it cause enough problems in the woods to be against the idea if there is another option. I keep a dedicated striker on my sheath, and those of my family, and our back up systems all have their own on-board strikers that aren't sharpened like knives or pointy. That said, in one hand techniques when someone has injured a hand, and needs a fire, is one of the exceptions for me.
We helped her prep her tinder, and set up her fire lay, and then showed her how she could prop the knife on a branch with the blade overhanging the tinder, hold it in place with her foot, and then throw sparks directly into her tinder bundle when she pulled the ferro rod across the knife edge. It took her a few tries, and I didn't get pics of the fire starting because she was so excited (after being stuck in a house and moping for ten days with 26 stitches in her hand) that she just left the knife there sticking in the fire as it started and so we had to talk about that and how to go about it in the future. She is still really excited that she did it, and so now she wants to do it again so she can share the pics with a friend who moved back to Germany a few years ago. So, one day after school, today is her first day back and I hope that goes well, we will go to some local woods and redo the scene for photos.
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