Izula fire starting

B

borommokot

Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
59
ok folks, well i'm a city kid here so i've never really started a fire without anything like matches or a lighter. Today i decided to try my hand at fire starting. I used the izula and the flint that came with the kit, along with some dried foliage i found in my yard. It took me a while to get a fire going but it got going. :D I just have a few questions. How much pressure should you use on the flint? how much of the magnesium shavings is too much? not enough? can this do any damage to the blade, aside from dulling it? thanks
 
i have a light my fire firesteel and i find steady hard strokes work the best, i usually push pretty slow as well
 
I don't have the Izula kit firesteel but do have some from goinggear.com that fit almost perfectly in the Izula choil. What I do is take a round mini file and file the coating off the choil, then I can use the choil to spark instead of the cutting edge.
 
Congrats on your first fire. It's a skill that everyone should work on.

As for the magnesium, the problem many people have is they they don't use enough or they get is spread out and not in a small pile to where it can all burn together and really light the tinder. I generally make a "nest" of tinder, put the magnesium in it, then make another little tinder bundle to sit on top once it's lit.

The more pressure you use with most steels, the more sparks you will get, up to a certain point. As long as you are getting good sparks, whatever pressure you are using is fine.
 
I have a miche metal ferrocerium rod, and I don't usually need to many strikes. I like fatwood for my fire starting. The miche metal really throw molten balls of fire. Don't use the cutting edge for the striking. The burning metal is a coule thousand degrees and can slightly affect the temper on the edge of the knife. Use the spine of the knife, or better yet a sepperate striker. I like to make a nice pile of fatwood shavings, then use the steel, while having all your prep done. ie, pile of tinder, small twigs, medium twigs, then kindling, then logs. Insert whatever term you want for the fuel.

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Have fun practicing and using your tools. :D
 
I don't particularly like the ferrocium rods, like the ones you're using, the GG misch metal rods must have spoiled me, but I do have a tip with the magnesium. Pack a few cotton balls, which are tinder in them selves, use them to pick up/collect your magnesium shavings. This makes it easier to stop them from blowing around. Hope this helps
 
hi congrats on your fire, one thing you could try adding to make it easier is dryer lint. that stuff goes up fast and hot. also you hold the knife still and pull back with the steel.

take it easy
cricket
 
The rod that comes with the Izula kit is a miche metal rod, correct? The Stike force Rod throws sparks far in excess of the Light my Fire steels. I think it's miche metal. I totally agree that the miche metal rods are the best on the market for firestarting.
 
Good to hear your working on your fire starting skills. One thing that really helps when your scraping the magnesium off the rod, scrape it off onto a small peice of duct tape. That way no breeze will blow it away and it keeps it in a small little pile.
 
cody1 said:
The rod that comes with the Izula kit is a miche metal rod, correct? The Stike force Rod throws sparks far in excess of the Light my Fire steels. I think it's miche metal. I totally agree that the miche metal rods are the best on the market for firestarting.
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The Izula fire starter is not misch metal, just a standard ferro rod as found on other magnesium fire starters. Misch metal rods don't throw a shower of sparks like a regular ferro rod. They throw a few bigger "globs", for lack of a better word, which last longer. If you can stand up and your sparks hit the ground, it's a misch metal rod.
 
Cotton balls soaked in vasoline packed into an empty red bull shot bottle is a great way to carry enough tinder for several fires.
 
borommokot said:
ok folks, well i'm a city kid here so i've never really started a fire without anything like matches or a lighter. Today i decided to try my hand at fire starting. I used the izula and the flint that came with the kit, along with some dried foliage i found in my yard. It took me a while to get a fire going but it got going. :D I just have a few questions. How much pressure should you use on the flint? how much of the magnesium shavings is too much? not enough? can this do any damage to the blade, aside from dulling it? thanks
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as to much magnesium because the stuff burns FAST! I took 10 minutes to scrape a nice little pile my first time an when I lit it it was burnt before I could get my feather stick on it! As far as pressure on the flint you want enough to get a good shower of sparks an not so much that you are digging into it. I dont prefer to strike my flints with my knife edge, it doesnt seem to dull it much but that is just my pref....
 
cody1 said:
The burning metal is a coule thousand degrees and can slightly affect the temper on the edge of the knife. Use the spine of the knife, or better yet a sepperate striker.
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yeah that's one thing i was concerned about. I did use the blade, so im curious if the several strikes i did had any affect on the heat treat. I'm guessing for now it was minimal enough not to matter though. Thanks for the tips everyone, just what i was looking for. Now another question. A few people suggested that you could remove the coating on the spine, and use that area to strike with. Does it need to be sharpened or filed at all in order to scrape better?
 
borommokot said:
yeah that's one thing i was concerned about. I did use the blade, so im curious if the several strikes i did had any affect on the heat treat. I'm guessing for now it was minimal enough not to matter though. Thanks for the tips everyone, just what i was looking for. Now another question. A few people suggested that you could remove the coating on the spine, and use that area to strike with. Does it need to be sharpened or filed at all in order to scrape better?
Click to expand...

Depends on the knife but yeah, if it's not throwing sparks, you may need to "square" up the edge some with a file to get it sharp enough.
 
I doubt that throwing a few sparks from a firesteel will affect the heat treat on the blade. It would have to raise the temperature on the blade to over roughly 325 degrees to affect it. If you can touch the blade after using the firesteel, it isn't anywhere near that warm.

The 325 reference came from another thread where someone asked about baking the knife at this temperature (I believe, may have been 350) and Rowen responded that it would be fine.
 
Congrats on the flame. There is nothing like a hand struck fire.

A little trick is to take a cotton ball with some Vaseline. One strike should lite it and yields about a 3 to 6 minute burn. Should burn long enough to be able to ignite your kindling to start your fire. A 35mm container holds a half dozen "grease balls" for a little travel fire kit.

Mike
 
cricketdave said:
hi congrats on your fire, one thing you could try adding to make it easier is dryer lint. that stuff goes up fast and hot. also you hold the knife still and pull back with the steel.
take it easy
cricket
Click to expand...

100% true
if you move the striker you hit your tinder.... and you'll get frustrated :D
 
borommokot said:
ok folks, well i'm a city kid here so i've never really started a fire without anything like matches or a lighter. Today i decided to try my hand at fire starting. I used the izula and the flint that came with the kit, along with some dried foliage i found in my yard. It took me a while to get a fire going but it got going. :D I just have a few questions. How much pressure should you use on the flint? how much of the magnesium shavings is too much? not enough? can this do any damage to the blade, aside from dulling it? thanks
Click to expand...

The main thing is you got your fire going without any previous experience doing this. That's the whole concept behind the small emergency kit - not necessarily being able to do it with absolute efficiency but just being able to do it. Remember this is an emergency kit. You will dull your blade somewhat in one spot but in a survival situation who cares? If you want to practice using the flint then I would suggest using something other than your knife as a striker. That way you are building skill and then if something happens you know you will be able to get a fire going using the blade. Most all of our survival skills and tools are based around this type of logic.
 
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