Hickory instead of Fatwood? Worked for me.. Kinda..

myright

myright

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I got a great idea in my head that I could use some of the Hickory wood that I use for smoking on the grill. I've got a whole bag of it and I don't use it all that much.

I used my SDS skinner to shave the wood. I used the shavings on top of a plain piece of cotton and nothing else.

I used the Light My Fire set up and tried to use the rod that the RAT guys sent out, but I can't get the thing to throw sparks. I got sparks once and then couldn't get it again. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Anyway - Hickory works pretty well once the cotton is let. I tired lighting the wood shavings on their own and I couldn't get it to work.

Can you normally throw a spark right on wood shavings and have them light?


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I've done it with pine shavings.... no cotton, no pj, nothing....just the shavings - fine curls. I was using a 4" ferro rod (Ben's Backwoods) and the sharp spine of a D2 EnZo Elver. I did it twice and it took about 5 tries each time.
 
I'll guess I'll just have to keep trying to get my shavings ultra thin and practice making sparks as well.

Thanks.
 
I tried the same thing with ash shavings, but didn't have impressive results. Some marginal luck with pine until I got it thin enough...very thin birch worked and of course shaved birch bark worked. The conditions were wet and windy at the time and I learned the value of putting either aluminum foil or a piece of dry bark under the tinder, the dampness of the ground really does seem to affect the early stages of the fire. The weekends that I was experimenting with these tinders were wet with rain and snow and without PJCB or fatwood I had little to no success. I should have put up a tarp before attempting to light a fire as the rain kept killing my efforts, but I didn't think it was going to be as difficult as it turned out...similar to Pit's recent experience. Bottom line is to practice when it crummy outside, and try different tinders, it's worth it.
 
Shavings will work... you just have to get them paper thin. Depending on the type of wood, sometimes you can scrape at 90deg to get good shavings.
 
myright said:
I used the Light My Fire set up and tried to use the rod that the RAT guys sent out, but I can't get the thing to throw sparks. I got sparks once and then couldn't get it again. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.


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My son and I had a similar experience with our Mish metal rod. Try quick, light, strikes. It works every time for us now.
 
That rod that Rat sent out looks like the same 1/2 inch dia. stuff that the strike force uses. How sharp mof an edge are you using on the rod striker? That may be the problem. They need a really crisp square edge to strike properly.
 
wildmike said:
That rod that Rat sent out looks like the same 1/2 inch dia. stuff that the strike force uses. How sharp mof an edge are you using on the rod striker? That may be the problem. They need a really crisp square edge to strike properly.
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I was using the spine of the SDS in the picture. I'll try out a few different things and see what I can get to work.
 
One thing that I've seen guys do that I think is wrong.... I don;t know how you're doing it.... and that is striking the rod with the force of their arm. What I do is squeeze my left thumb against the knife blade while my fingers are holding the ferro rod and my right hand is holding the knife. The spine travels about 3/4" along the ferro rod and the more pressure you use the better the molten fragmentation. IF you are using the force of your right arm (or, rather, knife arm, whichever that is), the knife will continually strike and scatter the tinder pile, AND you won;t get as good a spark.

Another thing I noticed: I can get much better (thinner and whispier) shavings with a scandi grind or convex edge than I can with a v-grind.

Also, scraping (ala Magnussen) should not produce dust but rather very fine wisps of shavings. If all you're getting is dust, increase angle to 95 or 100 degrees or sharpen the knife!

Mine spark and light on just very fine curls.
 
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I've got the day off tomorrow, so I'll probably play around a little bit more and see what I can come up with.
 
Cut some wood curls almost so thin you can see through them and they will catch a spark as long as they are dry. When stuff is wet even thin fatwood shavings or dust will struggle to catch a spark !!!
 
pitdog said:
Cut some wood curls almost so thin you can see through them and they will catch a spark as long as they are dry. When stuff is wet even thin fatwood shavings or dust will struggle to catch a spark !!!
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I tried, but that darn hickory is pretty tough to get a a good curl off of. Admittedly so - I did not start with a knife as sharp as I'd like it to be. I had just used it on a cutting board so the edge wasn't perfect, but it's not going to be perfect in the woods either.

Ok - so I'll touch up the blade and try the same knife and I'll also try a knife with a thinner blade and see what happens.

I made sure to be in a controlled environment for this first test, my garage with the doors closed.

Tomorrow I will try it outside and see what happens.
 
myright said:
I tried, but that darn hickory is pretty tough to get a a good curl off of. Admittedly so - I did not start with a knife as sharp as I'd like it to be. I had just used it on a cutting board so the edge wasn't perfect, but it's not going to be perfect in the woods either.

Ok - so I'll touch up the blade and try the same knife and I'll also try a knife with a thinner blade and see what happens.

I made sure to be in a controlled environment for this first test, my garage with the doors closed.

Tomorrow I will try it outside and see what happens.
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The main thing is bro that you got a fire started, yeah you had to use cottonballs as well but so what, you will have them with ya anyway and if you didn't I'm sure you could shave some fuzz from your socks etc !
I do know how you feel though, in one of my recent posts I had to resort to my mini-Bic and I felt really embarassed that I couldn't get it going with just the ferro-rod. That's what I get for living in one of the wettest parts of the planet !!!!
 
I have done it several times with both ceder and pine. I just made super fine shavings, long curls usually, which i rough up by rubbing them together between my hands. Works wonders.
 
pitdog said:
The main thing is bro that you got a fire started, yeah you had to use cottonballs as well but so what, you will have them with ya anyway and if you didn't I'm sure you could shave some fuzz from your socks etc !
I do know how you feel though, in one of my recent posts I had to resort to my mini-Bic and I felt really embarassed that I couldn't get it going with just the ferro-rod. That's what I get for living in one of the wettest parts of the planet !!!!
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You're right - I'm always going to have something with me that will aid in getting the fire started.


LOL - Something just came to mind that I'd like to see someone try. How would it work if you shaved a pile of hair onto the ground and sparked into that?

Hell - I may have to cut my hair tomorrow to see what happens. I don't think it would smell all that great :thumbdn:
 
YES! But they have to be SCRAPINGS not SHAVINGS.

Here is a little video I did a while ago, don't know if it is clear how I distinguished the scrapings and shavings, but it is important. You have to be really really good to get shavings to light, but scrapings light pretty easily with a little practice. I used fatwood in the video, only because I didn't have any dry wood laying around, but the idea is the same.
Hopefully it can help show you better what I am trying to explain.
[youtube]2jY-Qu448E0&hl=en&fs=1[/youtube]
 
Wow Stingray - Great video. That's a good idea to get the spine of the knife sharp. I've also never thought of using the spine of the knife to scrape the wood either.

Thanks for the info.
 
myright said:
You're right - I'm always going to have something with me that will aid in getting the fire started.


LOL - Something just came to mind that I'd like to see someone try. How would it work if you shaved a pile of hair onto the ground and sparked into that?

Hell - I may have to cut my hair tomorrow to see what happens. I don't think it would smell all that great :thumbdn:
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Hair should go up pretty well ( if I had any on my head I'd give it a go !!!!).:D

I did try some sparks onto some bird feathers during a rainy hike recently, they looked oily so I thought they might catch but they didn't !!!!:(
 
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