Light MY Fire

R

Raincoat

Joined
May 10, 2008
Messages
19
I bought the Light My Fire Army edition. I went and tried it. I tried it on a sry napkin as well as a fully non covered paper catalog for Campmor, just like newspaper.

Well, I followed instructions and it honestly didn't work as well as I thought it would. I would swipe the metal onto the stick and it surly did spark and its ambers did go onto the paper. But they quickly burned out. Not really what I was expecting.

I finally got both the napkin and the newspaper to light, but to be honest it was 100% luck, as i can say that to get that fire, it took between 20 and 30 strikes/sparks.

I then went and tried it again, but had the same results.


If you want to use this thing, I think you need to carry some tinder with you. I know I do, so can anybody recommend any?
 
You often will have to scrape off the first layer for it to start throwing good sparks.

As for technique, hold it handle up with tip actually into the tinder (even braced on something sturdy under the tinder bundle) and slowly/forcefully scrape into the bundle.

Brian
 
Cotton Balls!!

I carry some cotton balls in my pack all the time. Its pretty much a one shot job with the Light my FIre steel and cotton every time.
 
I carried one for years only mastering dryer lint and cotton balls. They work very well.

Then I expanded my horizons to fuzz sticks and a new world opened up.

search on fuzz sticks in this forum, lots of hits.


You tube is awesome to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E1G2DQjrSs


Have fun and challenge yourself.
 
Are you using the striker that comes with it?
Personally i'm not that crazy about the striker.
The back of my SAK saw blade works soooo much better as a striker.
 
For the Army Model: there's a light coating on the rod. It has to be scraped off. When you use it, put the tip on your tinder as brians suggested, then the striker. Pull the rod towards you, not moving the striker. I've found that this is easier and lessens the possibility of your striker going too far and actually messing up your tinder pile. But if you'd rather keep the rod still and move the striker forward, that works too. Whatever you feel works best.

For the tinder: I use cotton balls that have a coating of petroleum jelly on the outside. This takes a cotton ball's "burn time" of 45 seconds and expands it to about 6 and a half minutes. It acts as a small candle; the cotton is the wick and the petroleum jelly is the wax. Store them in an old 35mm film canister. They'll light even when wet, as long as they're not soaked.
 
The firesteel method does require practice and the more you use the method the more comfortable you will get. From your description, it sounds like your problem is more with tinder then the sparking technique. However, as said above using a better striker than the one that comes with firesteel helps. A lot of people use the awl of their swiss army knife. I like to use a little dime-store utility knife. A piece of hacksaw blade is also often suggested.

Tinder. Really you have to reject the notion that the firesteel is like a match or a lighter where you put a flame to a flammable material and ignite it. You have to think of your tinder as being able to catch the spark. As others have said, try something that is really easy and almost guarenteed to work first.

One of the best ones to start on is cotton balls that have been smeared with vasoline. First kind of scoop a little wad of vaseline on the cotton ball. I like to use those facial, make-up remover pads since my wife has them kicking around everywhere. Make sure the vaseline gets well smeared all over the cotten. Then use your fingers or a knife to tease out some of the cotton fibres. You want to have a bunch of fibres sticking out rather then having everything matted down. You will find that all you need is to have a spark hit a couple of these fibres and instant ignition. The vaseline serves to prolong the burn so you can get about 30s to 1 min of burn. Practice the above first. That way you will get comfortable with the sparking technique and not have to worry about tinder. That comes next.

When you get good at the above then you could be looking at igniting other materials. Dryer lint, fatwood scrapings even your napkin and newspaper. I found a good intermediate training item was using Coglans firesticks. These things are paraffin embedded sawdust. You scrape the edge of it with your knife to make a little pile of dust and ignite that. The key to these materials is surface areas. You want to throw sparks into a little pile of dust - the smaller the particles the better. For the napkin, spend a little time teasing out the individual fibres and get a little pile of them. This will work much more effectively then simply shooting the sparks onto a flat piece of paper or top of a napkin.

Good luck and keep practicing!
 
Yep, cotton balls either dry or soaked in petroleum jelly work great. You could also try making char cloth. For natural tinder a combination of fluff and fiber seems to work best. Something like cattail fluff with very fine wood shavings mixed in.
 
This seems to be a recurring problem. Perhaps somebody who has experienced failure and persisted and made all those wonderful discoveries should do a tutorial on firesteels. How to use them, with what strikers, on what material, etc.

Then, the next time the question pops up, we can link the question poser to the relevant material.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
This seems to be a recurring problem. Perhaps somebody who has experienced failure and persisted and made all those wonderful discoveries should do a tutorial on firesteels. How to use them, with what strikers, on what material, etc.

Then, the next time the question pops up, we can link the question poser to the relevant material.

Doc
Click to expand...

I'm on it. Now, I don't have video capability, so you won't be seeing me on YouTube, but I can go over a few types of firesteel devices and methods. Besides the Doan (magnesium and flint in one) tools and the Light My Fire type, what do you recommend? I have various strikers and types of tinder.

As a note, I've found that the Light My Fire types work best with a hacksaw blade as the striker.
 
Good that you tried this out at home first rather than in the field. Just practice and you'll be a pro in no time.

Try the PCB, then different types of tinder till you get proficient. Do it outside, in the wind and in the dark. Be able to light a fire anytime anywhere.
 
A small roll of Jute twine and a 8" piece of bicycle inner tubing works great. I used to carry 550 cord and still do like to have some around, but for simple camp tasks like guy wires for a shelter, building traps, etc, jute twine often works better and serves a dual purpose.

I like to pack ultra light weight. I can start a fire super easily with a 1" section of jute twine and a 1/2" section of inner tube. No matches, lighters, cotton balls, or anything else. The twine is dual purpose and the inner tube is almost weightless.
 
Fool proof method;

Prepare a small pile of shaved wood or other tinder. Take a square of dry toilet paper and and fold it over the the striker so that when your drag the striker over the rod the paper is in between the striker and the rod.
Be careful because paper will ignite almost instantly. With a little practice you just let the ignited paper slide off onto the tinder pile and......

VOLIA

Instant fire.
 
If you take that same napkin and tear it up, exposing lots of fiber, it will probably catch right away. Same with paper towels or tissue.

A buddy recently showed me his method of firelighting with a firesteel. He carries a cheap little pencil sharpener in his pack. He finds a suitable dead stick to sharpen and gets lots of little shavings that he collects into a pile. It lights immediately with his firesteel. Basically the same principle as the aforementioned fuzz stick.
 
TFin04 said:
A small roll of Jute twine and a 8" piece of bicycle inner tubing works great. I used to carry 550 cord and still do like to have some around, but for simple camp tasks like guy wires for a shelter, building traps, etc, jute twine often works better and serves a dual purpose.

I like to pack ultra light weight. I can start a fire super easily with a 1" section of jute twine and a 1/2" section of inner tube. No matches, lighters, cotton balls, or anything else. The twine is dual purpose and the inner tube is almost weightless.
Click to expand...

You mean you burn the inner tube? Never heard of that before.
 
I just tried riddleofsteels's method of wrapping paper around the striker and it worked really well, the paper caught in a couple of strikes.

Andrew
 
Hartsell said:
A buddy recently showed me his method of firelighting with a firesteel. He carries a cheap little pencil sharpener in his pack. He finds a suitable dead stick to sharpen and gets lots of little shavings that he collects into a pile. It lights immediately with his firesteel. Basically the same principle as the aforementioned fuzz stick.
Click to expand...

Holy balls that is an awesome idea. I usually just have some fatwood shavings, but I really like that.

As mentioned above, it isn't so much about the firesteel as about the tinder. Dryer lint or cotton balls make it much easier than a piece of printer paper.
 
I must agree, the cotton balls with petroleum jelly make all the difference.
My 12 year old Girl Scouts used the Scout model to make fire at their last camp out. The cotton balls, with or without the vaseline, worked better than the other tinders we tried.

gsfire1.JPG


After getting a flame, you add small bark or twigs until they create more fire, then begin adding larger pieces slowly.

gsfire2.JPG


The girls had great fun with their fire steels.
 
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