magnesium/flint observations on knife edge

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savagelh

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Feb 18, 2010
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I was messing around with a cohglans el cheapo magneseum/flint fire starter in the garage this weekend and decided that it is really not a good idea to use your main blade to scrape the mag or strike the flint.

I was using a convexed tenacious to scrape a little magnesium off of this thing and used the same knife to strike the flint. It destroyed the edge of that knife and it took me quite a while to sharpen out the damaged part. I should have taken pics.

I decided that from now on I'm far better off using ferro rods or LMF's I don't think the magnesium is even really beneficial. If you used your knife to create some tinder or even just used a little pocket lint instead I think it would start a fire just as easily. It would definately save your edge in a survival situation.

Also the jimping on the back of the tenacious created almost a better spark than the edge. I was just using the tenacious cause it's a beater and I was just messing around. It doesn't seem to use or waste as muck flint material per strike either.
 
Mag bars have their own set of followers. If you stick with it and produce enough shavings, you will get most things a flame. Do you want to do that with your main fixed blade? All depends on priorities. If you need a fire now, what is more important your edge of your fingers and toes??
 
kgd said:
Mag bars have their own set of followers. If you stick with it and produce enough shavings, you will get most things a flame. Do you want to do that with your main fixed blade? All depends on priorities. If you need a fire now, what is more important your edge of your fingers and toes??
Click to expand...

Agreed......

I personally like the leather punch on my Vic Pioneer for this. The short blade, as well as the sharp v throws sparks from a ferro rod that I could almost weld with.;)

savagelh said:
I was messing around with a cohglans el cheapo magneseum/flint fire starter in the garage this weekend and decided that it is really not a good idea to use your main blade to scrape the mag or strike the flint.
Click to expand...

Another very small point..... I use a mag block as well, and that is NOT flint. It is ferrocerium rod. Much different. ;)
 
I use the blade in my Leatherman for both mag block and ferro rod because I dont really use that blade for much else. I've not noticed any damage to it because of said use either, other than needing to sharpen it.
 
I use the file on my Leatherman foir the magnesium block. I make 100% sure I always tie a piece of hacksaw blade to the kit. It can mess up an edge in short order.

Kind regards from Africa
 
The Tenacious steel is extraordinarily soft. Ive tried the same thing with mine, and it also destroyed the edge.

Ive also tried striking a regular LMF steel with the edge on my RC-3 and it wa a little dulled, but nothing destroyed.
 
those small pieces of hacksaw blade are so light & easy to pack i ca'nt imagine using anything else. in fact one can carry small pieces of hacksaw as easy as a business card.--dennis
 
the MFS bars are drilled on one end, so don't just stick the sawblade *somewhere* in your gear, tie it to the MFS with some 550. make it long enough and you don't have to take it off to use it. put a ranger band around the two and it'll keep 'em from rattling around.

also i recently saw a video where they were testing various MFS side by side. some of the cheapie chinese ones with generic packaging were not burning the shavings at all. looked like they were bogus clones using aluminum blocks not magnesium. perhaps they're from recycled "mag" wheels. :rolleyes:

so don't assume that even something as simple as that works, try it out.
 
ya i was just using the edge of my knife to test how it would hold up. In a real situation I would definately use the spine. Instead of a hacksaw blade I tied a bi-metal jigsaw blade to it. I don't think I'll even carry this thing just stick it in my atv survival kit.
 
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