Me + Firestarting = Fail

T

Thaumaturgist

Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
56
I wanted to see if I could get a fire started with my LMF firesteel. My son and I went out today. It's about 15 F outside, with about 6 inches of snow on the ground. It's the first time I've ever actually tried lighting anything other than my camp stove with the LMF. We went into our woods, where I found an old dead jack-pine. I was able to push it over with some effort. Then I took the hatchet and chopped off the punky stuff around the outside, but I believed the inside had some good fatwood. It was really solid and smelled very "piney". I've never tried to harvest the stuff, but I've read about it here. First I made some shavings from a piece of it, and tried to throw some sparks on it. The sparks wouldn't stay hot long enough to light anything. So... I looked for an old bird nest, or something. All I came up with were some dried up old ferns that didn't have any snow on them. They felt pretty dry, but they didn't seem to take a spark very well either. As much as I tried, I only had small flames twice, but they wouldn't stick. Probably impatience on my part. I'd add some more fatwood, but the fire would go out. The fatwood, when it burned did have blackish smoke. Well, eventually it got dark on us, and I quit trying. I'll go out again, but any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I can try to take some pics tomorrow, but didn't bring the camera today.

I know it's partly a failure on my part, but I thought the fire rods would throw hotter/longer sparks. Are the fire rods from goinggear, etc. better?
 
Try scraping the fatwood with you knife so it makes a sticky dust then hold the striker just above it and pull the firesteel back and it should work. It does take some practice to get one to work first try every time though
 
The rods from GG are no better than anything else out there. LMF, Coghlans, Doan , Gerber strike-force , are just as good ,if not better. Your problem is " catching" the spark. Unless the shavings are really fine , it may be very difficult, even for fatwood. The cotton balls smeared with petroleum jelly are almost foolproof as long as they are kept dry. A simple empty film can or such is all that's required. If you don't have these with you , try to make shavings or dust with your knife and keep it fine as possible. Beware of wind blowing it around on you. Have small tinder at the ready. This is how I always approach it.
:)
 
Somedays things just don't go our way, I've been there swearing and cursing so I feel your pain, LOL !

As someone else said scrape the fatwood to make nice pile of dust. Also try the pencil sharpener technique. Use ya knife to shape a bit of fatwood down to pencil size and make some shavings with a pencil sharpener, break these shaving up a little with ya hand and they will be good to go.Shavings usually light but the dust definitely will.
Always make sure you have plenty of tinder at your side ready for when you do get a flame and never rush to add it, just add a little at a time and let it establish before adding more.


Regarding the PJB's etc I would carry them but try and get used to using natural tinders if ya can because you might not always have the PJB's and stuff.
 
i make fatwood dust at home by jamming pencil sized pieces of fatwood into an old electric pencil sharpener at home. it turns the fatwood into a real fine dust that seems to light off a spark fairly easily. pits pencil sharpener technique also works very well

if you've got birch in your area try taking a piece and shaving it up by running your blade parallel to the birch bark. throw a spark on the fine shavings and you should be good to go.

firesteel.com also sells some fairly soft magnesium rods that work great as an emergency tinder. i've recently started experimenting with it and have good results.

good luck on your next outing.

edit:

i prefer the rods from goinggear over the lmf stuff. just my preference but i've been able to throw the sparks off a GG firesteel onto shredded birch bark and have it catch in a few strikes. the lmf required a bit more "prep" work.
 
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Fatwood dust works great. Some char cloth or fluffed waxed jute with the dust in a birds nest will almost ensure success in wet conditions.

I suggest finding a hunk of fatwood, baton it up at home then saw into little chunks. You'll have piles of "dust" for your firekit.

Also, experiment with the angle of the striker, whether it's the knife spine or attached striker, when using it. A slight adjustment can result in a huge improvement of the intensity of the spark. If the firesteel still has the black coating on it, scrape it all off. Also try different speeds. Sometimes a well placed short slow strike is all you need.

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Thaumaturgist said:
I wanted to see if I could get a fire started with my LMF firesteel. My son and I went out today. It's about 15 F outside, with about 6 inches of snow on the ground. It's the first time I've ever actually tried lighting anything other than my camp stove with the LMF. We went into our woods, where I found an old dead jack-pine. I was able to push it over with some effort. Then I took the hatchet and chopped off the punky stuff around the outside, but I believed the inside had some good fatwood. It was really solid and smelled very "piney". I've never tried to harvest the stuff, but I've read about it here. First I made some shavings from a piece of it, and tried to throw some sparks on it. The sparks wouldn't stay hot long enough to light anything. So... I looked for an old bird nest, or something. All I came up with were some dried up old ferns that didn't have any snow on them. They felt pretty dry, but they didn't seem to take a spark very well either. As much as I tried, I only had small flames twice, but they wouldn't stick. Probably impatience on my part. I'd add some more fatwood, but the fire would go out. The fatwood, when it burned did have blackish smoke. Well, eventually it got dark on us, and I quit trying. I'll go out again, but any pointers would be greatly appreciated. I can try to take some pics tomorrow, but didn't bring the camera today.

I know it's partly a failure on my part, but I thought the fire rods would throw hotter/longer sparks. Are the fire rods from goinggear, etc. better?
Click to expand...


Knowing where you are would help. Any fluffy weed, such as milkweed pods work fantastic, grapevine bark, cedar bark, the inside of dried popular bark as well as lots of differents dried weeds and grasses all will catch a spark and burn well. My advice is to go out and try lots of different tinders and see what works and what doesn't.

Fatwood is great when you can find it but it is not the be all end all. Chris
 
August West said:
Knowing where you are would help. Any fluffy weed, such as milkweed pods work fantastic, grapevine bark, cedar bark, the inside of dried popular bark as well as lots of differents dried weeds and grasses all will catch a spark and burn well. My advice is to go out and try lots of different tinders and see what works and what doesn't.

Fatwood is great when you can find it but it is not the be all end all. Chris
Click to expand...

He did say there was 6" of snow on the ground so I'd imagine nearly everything is going to be soaked through. When it's like that over here you can forget grasses and seed pods. Cedar bark maybe with limited success, fatwood is close to foolproof when properly prepared!
 
pitdog said:
He did say there was 6" of snow on the ground so I'd imagine nearly everything is going to be soaked through. When it's like that over here you can forget grasses and seed pods. Cedar bark maybe with limited success, fatwood is close to foolproof when properly prepared!
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Man if I hear fatwood one more time I think I will puke and to think I had a hand in starting this on here. I hate to think that people may die of hypothermia in a birch forest because there is no fatwood.

I read his post, 6 inches of snow does not cover cedar bark, birch bark, cat tail down, weed heads, browse, grape vines, down cottonwood and popular limbs and a host of other great tinder. Chris
 
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If you can carry a firesteel, you can carry a small supply of tinder. Vaseline on cotton balls, parafin on cotton, jute twine, or sawdust, store-bought emergency tinder, etc.

Fatwood isn't an option for me. There are pines, but not many. Of course there are other supplies of natural tinder, and knowing how to recognize/harvest them when you see them is definitely a valuable skill. But if you don't trust yourself to start a fire by friction and bring along a firesteel, there's no reason not to bring a little tinder of your own as well.
 
I tried the same yesterday under 'no snow but cold' conditons. Seems like I was making my tinder bundle way to small. I even grabed some birch bark off a nearby treee and it helped a little but I had to resort to firestarting gel so technically in a real situation I would be dead. Firestarting is just that tough.
 
August West said:
Knowing where you are would help. Any fluffy weed, such as milkweed pods work fantastic, grapevine bark, cedar bark, the inside of dried popular bark as well as lots of differents dried weeds and grasses all will catch a spark and burn well. My advice is to go out and try lots of different tinders and see what works and what doesn't.

Fatwood is great when you can find it but it is not the be all end all. Chris
Click to expand...

I'm located in Central Minnesota. I have birch in my yard, but nothing down in the woods surrounding the house. I didn't really want to just pull some bark off the birch in the yard. If it was a real situation, I would hope that I'd have pulled out all of the stops. I know how good of a fire starter birch bark can be. I just had it in my head that I could get it going with the fatwood. Just goes to show how easily we/I can have a one track mind.

Things I had on hand....
Birch bark - Yes - But only on the live tree in my yard :-)
Milkweed - No
grapevine - No
Cedar bark - No
Poplar - Yes, lots, but mostly green, or down, and wet from the snow.
Propane Torch - Yes, but in the house, and my glasses would have fogged up getting it. :D

If you can carry a firesteel, you can carry a small supply of tinder. Vaseline on cotton balls, parafin on cotton, jute twine, or sawdust, store-bought emergency tinder, etc.

Fatwood isn't an option for me. There are pines, but not many. Of course there are other supplies of natural tinder, and knowing how to recognize/harvest them when you see them is definitely a valuable skill. But if you don't trust yourself to start a fire by friction and bring along a firesteel, there's no reason not to bring a little tinder of your own as well.
Click to expand...

True enough! More or less it was something I just wanted to try. When I go into the BWCA, I've always got PJ cotton balls with.
 
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August West said:
Man if I hear fatwood one more time I think I will puke and to think I had a hand in starting this on here. I hate to think that people may die of hypothermia in a birch forest because there is no fatwood.

I read his post, 6 inches of snow does not cover cedar bark, birch bark, cat tail down, weed heads, browse, grape vines, down cottonwood and popular limbs and a host of other great tinder. Chris
Click to expand...

Better grab a bucket then my friend because Fatwood is and always will be my mainstay when it comes to natural tinder.

I don't have Birch bark where I hike so that for me is not an option, when I lived in the UK I was surrounded by Silver Birch and I have to agree that is great stuff.
Every time I hear Cat-tail down I have to scratch my bald head because in the constantly damp climate over hear that stuff sucks ba**s as tinder. It is always soaked right through and would'nt light with a flame thrower. I find even when it is dry that is only poor at best, just a flash tinder.
Weed heads, old mans beard etc also fail me over here, too damp.

Did ya see the Duel survival episode where they were in the PNW and couldn't make a fire ? I could see Fatwood stumps behind them as they searched for tinder but obviously it must make them puke as well !:D
 
pitdog said:
Better grab a bucket then my friend because Fatwood is and always will be my mainstay when it comes to natural tinder.

I don't have Birch bark where I hike so that for me is not an option, when I lived in the UK I was surrounded by Silver Birch and I have to agree that is great stuff.
Every time I hear Cat-tail down I have to scratch my bald head because in the constantly damp climate over hear that stuff sucks ba**s as tinder. It is always soaked right through and would'nt light with a flame thrower. I find even when it is dry that is only poor at best, just a flash tinder.
Weed heads, old mans beard etc also fail me over here, too damp.

Did ya see the Duel survival episode where they were in the PNW and couldn't make a fire ? I could see Fatwood stumps behind them as they searched for tinder but obviously it must make them puke as well !:D
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I will have to defer to your opinion, I have no experience with the PNW. If the conditions are as bad as you say, I would never leave the house without bullet proof tinder in my pocket. Chris
 
There's always the option of trying a fluffed piece of shoelace or cutting a small patch of your clothing or gear to use. Your almost always never without some option.
 
LMT66 said:
There's always the option of trying a fluffed piece of shoelace or cutting a small patch of your clothing or gear to use. Your almost always never without some option.
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I've used human hair before. Got it off my back. Made 3/4" rope about 8" long out of it, and used it like a wick for a candle. Smelled bad, but lasted us the entire trip. Worst part, was that 2"x2" bald patch on my back, I just teased the hair around it though, never knew it was there.

:D

Moose
 
August West said:
I will have to defer to your opinion, I have no experience with the PNW. If the conditions are as bad as you say, I would never leave the house without bullet proof tinder in my pocket. Chris
Click to expand...

Yeah Winter time I always a few ' almost fail proof tinders ' from the traditional PJB's to Zip Brand BBQ lighters( I've found these to be the most reliable, they burn hot and strong even in downpours for 6-8 minutes).:thumbup:
 
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