How do you strike your Fire Steel?

T

TGR.Shadow

Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Messages
127
I'm wondering if anyone prefers to strike their fire steel directly on the edge of their blade? I have seen a few people strike it off the spine of their bare blades but all ESEE blades are powder coated. I was pondering taking about an inch of the coating off the spine of my izula to use as the strike point.

Thoughts?

TGR
 
depends on the situation... life or death i'll use the blade other wise i'd scrape of some coating and use the spine (though my first choice would be a bic :eek: )
 
mollyssurvival.com said:
depends on the situation... life or death i'll use the blade other wise i'd scrape of some coating and use the spine (though my first choice would be a bic :eek: )
Click to expand...

Agreed but there is just something about getting a fire going with a spark. NON life or death situation that is :D
 
I use the spine. I also hold the knife still and pull the steel rearward.Less chance of scattering your tinder bundle that way.

As well you can use the striker that came with the steel, or a cutdown piece of hacksaw blade works very well too.
 
i generally use the edge of my rc6, near the choil. really dosn't hurt the edge much, nothing that a couple seconds with a stone dosn't fix right up.

take it easy
cricket
 
i generally use the edge of my rc6, near the choil. really dosn't hurt the edge much, nothing that a couple seconds with a stone dosn't fix right up.

take it easy
cricket
 
On some of my knives I use the spine, others I use the blade. On the RC-4S I have I use the rear most serration and it throws great sparks.
 
I use the spine, I took the coating off of a spot just for that reason.
I have used the serrations on an RC-4S before - works like a champ.
 
I use a Corona Sharpening Tool, designed to sharpen gardening tools.
It has a small bit of carbide and throws great sparks.
Its small and in a pinch you could sharpen your knife with it.
It was like $5 at Lowes.
I cant take the credit for this though, heard about on ZS.

Corona

AC_8300.jpg
 
Necrodamus said:
I use a Corona Sharpening Tool, designed to sharpen gardening tools.
It has a small bit of carbide and throws great sparks.
Its small and in a pinch you could sharpen your knife with it.
It was like $5 at Lowes.
I cant take the credit for this though, heard about on ZS.

Corona

AC_8300.jpg
Click to expand...

I saw one of these @ sportsmans the other day. you say it makes a good striker an I can see why but how about for sharpening? is it just to small to repair or put a good edge on a blade?
 
Spine of the knife (the Izula is stripped) or a piece of hacksaw blade, or the striker from the Swedish firesteel.
 
TGR.Shadow said:
I saw one of these @ sportsmans the other day. you say it makes a good striker an I can see why but how about for sharpening? is it just to small to repair or put a good edge on a blade?
Click to expand...

Really its designed for crude edges like on shears, but it can be used for small ding removal. Stone is always better for sharpening in my opinion. It works ok on hawks, axes and such though.

It will shave magnesium very well. On softer flint rods or mish metals it will dig in if you apply too much force.
 
I typically use a dedicated striker that TTD got me from Goinggear.com, nice little peice.

At the SHOT show, I demonstrated the firekit hundreds of times a day with the edge of an Izula. That same Izula is still in my pocket and has yet to be sharpened. Hardly even dulled it much.

I would have no issues with using the edge of my blade in an emergency.
 
I generally use my izula edge. It cleans up fast if need be, and rarely takes more than one pull to start.
 
while I prefer highly polished edge in a pinch the corona carbide sharpener will keep any of you're regular cutting tools sharp enough. Practice on a cheap knife but with a light touch you can easily keep you're hunting or bush craft knife sharp enough to perform any reasonable task in the field. Making feather stick with pieces of hair or shaving is discouraged though :)
 
You should really not use the edge, I'll post some pics in the morning showing why.
 
i use a striker as i do not want to ruin my blade edge and i find a striker more effective than a spine
 
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