magnesium fire starter

C

Chuck289

Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
196
I just got a magnesium fire starter. Ive been practicing with it in the back yard. I notice that my knife blade begins to get a little discolored. It appears to only be on the surface. I can wipe most if not all of the orange/brownish color off. This makes me wonder, is the spark hot enough and have enough duration to affect the heat treat of a knife blade?
 
I can't answer that last question, but with SAKs it's nice being able to use the nail file, awl or some other secondary implement to do this.
 
You are using your knife to shave the mag, and then the back of your knife on the flint. If the discoloration is on the back of the balde, what does it matter? Temperature wise, I think you are looking at 220-270 degree C at a very localized spot:

tempercolour.jpg
 
I have also used a mag block and a Old Timer "hunter" model for years. I have noticed nothing that would leave me to believe that the temper has been disturbed. I do use the spine nearest the pivot... so even if it did, it shouldn't matter.
 
CRAP, i've been using hot water to clean my SAK for a while now...i guess i shouldn't have. Can you guys tell me how heat treating works and waht i should or shouldn't do?
 
No problem. You can't get water hot enough to impact the temper of your knives. (Well, maybe in a pressure vessel, but then you couldn't get at it.) Those temps in the chart are in C where boiling = 100.
 
cheung_victor said:
CRAP, i've been using hot water to clean my SAK for a while now...i guess i shouldn't have. Can you guys tell me how heat treating works and waht i should or shouldn't do?
Click to expand...

You won't hurt it with hot water, Victorinox says their SAK's are dishwasher safe, if they can take that, hot tap water ain't gonna hurt 'em.
 
Hey GUys...

The best thing you can do is get a dedicated knife, used only for scraping the flint...

I have a cheap lock back made in India just for scraping flint and magnesium...

I wouldn't think of using even a decent knife for this duty...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
I've seen where people who will find a small metal file, like a hobby file, cut it to length, and attach it to the keyring on the mag-fire starter.
The file surface can grind off magnesium "dust", and the file edge makes a good striker.

I even read recently about someone who keeps a standalone fire steel with his magnesium starter, just in case the little flint rod breaks off the magnesium block and because the Fire Steel makes more spark per strike.
The magnesium is then basically "fuel" for the fire steel.

I think the steel in most any blade would dissipate the heat caused by repeated sparking, quicker than you could continue to create ever increasing heat build up that would change the temper of a blade. Unless maybe it's a razor blade.
 
I have a dedicated blade from a broken pocketknife stored in a pill bottle with the magnesium block and some petroleum jelly cotton balls. It's a neat little waterproof fire starting kit.
 
I use my old P-38 "John Wayne" can opener to strike the flint. You have to use the blade of the opener to do it, but it works for me. I took the toliet chain off my firestarter and replaced it with paracord and looped it through the hole in the can opener.
 
Get yourself a setup like this and you'll not have to worry about staining/dulling/whatever your good knife.

magnes.jpg


Knife I've had for years , it was under 10$ , perfect size for this use.
 
chuck289, any luck starting a fire with it? My experience is that weather doesn't affect it; I can't start a fire with it wet OR dry :confused: Don't try to shave the magnesium off with your blade. Use the spine, or you will dull the edge. That's how I ruined my VG-10 blade.
 
SkunkWerX said:
I've seen where people who will find a small metal file, like a hobby file, cut it to length, and attach it to the keyring on the mag-fire starter.
The file surface can grind off magnesium "dust", and the file edge makes a good striker.
Click to expand...

That sounds like an interesting idea - I will have to try it. Also made me think of using a SAK saw to do the same thing, only faster. It would kick the heck out of your magnesium block, but if you were in a hurry..............

StandOnGuard, what's seems to be your problem?

It's been my experience that people don't make a large enough pile of shavings. It normally works quite well.

Doc
 
Hey Guys..

Rebeltf..

What kind of knife is that ??
Pretty neat looking...

Doc is correct...

You have to use a pretty decent amount of shaving to get it to work properly...

If you don't you will have a Very intense burn,, but it'll be gone in the blink of an eye....

With a decent pile of shaving,, you will get a nice long 6-8 second burn, that will ignite most tinder...

I have a 3 foot rod of magnesium that I use a wood rasp on and catch the shaving in a tray...
I've found that these shaving, are a little harder to ignite,, but burn better than curls or magnesium dust...

BTW..
you can buy magnesium rods at any decent RV store..
They are used a sacrificial anodes in RV water heaters...

Mine came out of a well, and the other out of a water heater..

ttyle

Eric...
O/ST
 
StandOnGuard said:
chuck289, any luck starting a fire with it? My experience is that weather doesn't affect it; I can't start a fire with it wet OR dry :confused: Don't try to shave the magnesium off with your blade. Use the spine, or you will dull the edge. That's how I ruined my VG-10 blade.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was able to get a fire going fairly quickly. A setup that I found works well, is to use a cotton ball soaked with vaseline, shave a few shavings onto it and spark it. It lights right up. And the magnesium dust doesn't blow away as easily because it sticks to the vaseline. I have a gerber multi-tool that I beat on, and I find that the file works well for filing shavings off.
 
Normark said:
Hey Guys..

Rebeltf..

What kind of knife is that ??
Pretty neat looking...

Doc is correct...

You have to use a pretty decent amount of shaving to get it to work properly...

If you don't you will have a Very intense burn,, but it'll be gone in the blink of an eye....

With a decent pile of shaving,, you will get a nice long 6-8 second burn, that will ignite most tinder...

I have a 3 foot rod of magnesium that I use a wood rasp on and catch the shaving in a tray...
I've found that these shaving, are a little harder to ignite,, but burn better than curls or magnesium dust...

BTW..
you can buy magnesium rods at any decent RV store..
They are used a sacrificial anodes in RV water heaters...

Mine came out of a well, and the other out of a water heater..

ttyle

Eric...
O/ST
Click to expand...

Wow I didnt know you could buy those rods like that , how much do they run ? I'd love to experiment on that.
The knife in my pic , I cant remember where I got it but I recall it wasnt too awful expensive , I've had it for a long time.
I keep it sharp enough to do a good job shaving that block only. It says "UC58 Stainless Steel - Japan" on it , whatever that means.

Yea dittos on the pile you need to have to make a good start , about the size of a dime or so , doing it in a good breeze is a PITA ! I would not want to rely on one of these for my primary source of fire unless I had no other choice. Bic lighter , matches , when those run out that's when this Mag and knife happen :D
 
rebeltf said:
Yea dittos on the pile you need to have to make a good start , about the size of a dime or so , doing it in a good breeze is a PITA ! I would not want to rely on one of these for my primary source of fire unless I had no other choice. Bic lighter , matches , when those run out that's when this Mag and knife happen :D
Click to expand...

It could be my 60 year old memory, but I seem to recall that the advice was, "........a pile the size of a quarter......." In fact, I would even make it a bit larger. I've used magnesium fire starters many times and I have had no problems.

As far as using it in a breeze, collect the shavings in a piece of bark etc., rather than just trying to create a pile on some flammable material, and when you have sufficient quantity, place the shavings in a small tinder bundle, or the like to protect it from the wind. This will keep it from blowing away when you're trying to ignite it and also give you a head start on your fire. Hope this helps.

Doc
 
Yea the advice was on a pile the size of a quarter , I just woke up and am on my first cup of coffee , my coins are still mixed up :)
 
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