Neat trick with a firesteel

OH baby, That is very slick!! :thumbup:

detail: I noticed he doubled it, then wrapped it around the striker, so, it's looking like you need minimum 4 layers, maybe up to 8.

Nice little bit of info.

Thanks for sharing that one! :thumbup:
 
I've done that already expect I only kept paper against striker with my thumb. Looks easier the way he shows though.
 
Not only is that a neat trick, but I haven't thought about looking up anything related to bushcraft on YouTube. Thanks for both tips!
 
Hey guys,

I just had to try this. So last night, went out back, shielding from the snow and freezing rain that was falling and gave it a shot.
It works. I was getting flame after 3 to 5 strikes, not 2 or 1, mgiht be my bad technique. :thumbdn:

Then it dawned on me. I laid a single piece of TP out flat on a piece of firewood. Put the Fero-rod at a 45° angle, pressing right down on the TP.
With the first strike, got fire!! Tried again. Same same. TP takes a spark like nobody's business!
So, with the remaining sheets, I struck each one, they took spark and ignited. They don't burn for long, but if your trouble is making it from ember to flame, TP will yield flame quickly! A regular two-ply piece, lying flat, will burn with good flame for about 10 to 15 seconds, so you need other tinder close by, if not resting on top of the TP to take the flame and further the fire.

Note to self: add a few sheets of TP to tinder container.

TP: it's not just for wiping! :D
 
Yep, I watched a guy do this with his cotton charcloth... he said "This is the ONLY way to do it." Wrapped it around his steel striker, and hit the charcloth with the flint. (That is, he hit the steel striker THROUGH the cloth.)

He made it look easy :D
Mike
 
HE'S BURNING HIS KNIFE!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

FoxholeAtheist & SkunkWerx, thanks for the link and the follow-up info.

Another trick for catching a spark that I've heard of (but haven't tried myself yet) is to coat tissue paper with nail polish and let it dry. The polish makes the paper waterproof and keeps it from getting soggy from environmental or body water/vapor. It also supposedly serves as a tinder accelerant when the paper catches a spark & ignites. Guess it's time for a trip to the Dollar Store for nail polish. Color coordinated to my kit, of course. ;)
 
Good idea!

Anyone try wax paper and this technique?
Just popped into my head, but I can't test it now. Might be able to try this evening.

I really don't like TP as tinder, because it always, in my experience, gets damp and is pretty useless. But then I live in PNW, where it is pretty damp, most of the time.

I always carry a 8x10 sheet of wax paper folded small in my mini kits.
It works great for my other fire starting techniques so I love the stuff.

Brome
 
Wapiti said:
Good idea!

I really don't like TP as tinder, because it always, in my experience, gets damp and is pretty useless. But then I live in PNW, where it is pretty damp, most of the time.

I always carry a 8x10 sheet of wax paper folded small in my mini kits.
It works great for my other fire starting techniques so I love the stuff.

Brome
Click to expand...

I had thought about waxed paper. Someone mentioned duct tape in another thread. I like this TP technique-- should be really hand when it is windy and your tinder gets blown into the next valley.

I was looking at a bicycle patch kit and thinking that one of those tiny tubes of rubber cement would make a good fire starter.

I always look at fire starting instruction in view of living in the PNW. There's parts of the western Cascade and Olympic slopes that haven't dried out since the last ice age :) If it isn't raining, why do I need a fire?:D I'd like to see a fire starter that is basically a road flare in a 35mm film can-- pop the top, stike it, and get 5-10 minutes of *intense* heat. It would make a good emergency signal device too.

There was the story about the 12 year old from Seattle at Disneyland with his father. Dad asked him what he throught about the trip and the boy said, "Gee, Dad, the rides are great, but what is that bright thing in the sky?"
 
DaleW said:
I'd like to see a fire starter that is basically a road flare in a 35mm film can-- pop the top, stike it, and get 5-10 minutes of *intense* heat. It would make a good emergency signal device too.
Click to expand...

Dale,

Coldwood timed how long a PJ soaked cottonball would stay lit.
As I recall it was in the neighborhood of 8 to 9 minutes!
You can fit 4 or 5 of these in 35mm film container. They take a spark well, and burn hot and long.
 
Hmmmmm. You got me thinking now.
Wouldn't take much to cut down a flare to build just what you decribed. Glue the cut end down in a film canister with construction adhesive (another great, but very toxic, fire starter itself), or epoxy, and you would be good to go.
I have cut up flares before for other crazy projects, not hard at all.
End up wasting a good section of the flare though.

I like that story! He, he, he!;)

Brome
 
Wapiti said:
Hmmmmm. You got me thinking now.
Wouldn't take much to cut down a flare to build just what you decribed.

Brome
Click to expand...

Yup, I have a ~3" section of a 15 minute flare, slathered in duct tape. Takes about two minutes to do that. The flares are at lest as toxic as the Liquid Nails-- you don't want to be huffing any of the fumes! I was just day-dreaming a ready-made and fire-starting-optimized version. Fed Ex and USPS would poop their drawers trying to ship them :eek:
 
Wapiti, I don't know if waxed paper would work with the "Wrap It & Stroke It" method, but I suspect it would, once your rubbed/tore through the paper enough to get the edge to strike a spark off the ferrocium rod. The thing that I spot that might get in the way of the process would be if wax rubbed off the paper and served to lubricated the rod surface, causing the striker edge to skate along the surface rather than digging in and tearing out metal (which is the spark).

Piet Henskens used to include slips of pink waxed paper-like tinder with the Swedish Army Firesteels. IIRC he found the paper tinders in France and reported that they were intended for starting woodstove fires. But I'm getting old enough to plead daftness if that info isn't accurate. ;)

Egg carton firestarters from Senor Stamp with materials used and burn times listed.
 
I carry a tube of that bike tyre patch glue in MY kits. Its very flammable!
A dab of it on your tinder burns quite well & Ive managed to light it with a spark from a Swedish firesteel & sparklite
 
Waxed paper burns well enough, when exposed to flame, but, I haven't had much luck with it readily taking a spark, not like the TP.
 
If you crumble wax paper, it catches a spark and burns well. Or smolders well.

I go to the local "head" shop, where they sell drug paraphernalia (sp), and get charcoal disks meant for burning incense. They are very cheap, and come in waterproof foil packets. Take one out, wrap in wax paper like a hershey's kiss, and hit it with a firesteel. It doesn't look like it catches, then you see the grey line on the charcoal, burns for a good long time. It doesn't look like it's on fire, but be careful touching it - don't ask how I know...
 
I've experimented with this and and have 3 of these in my PSK (and in my wife and daughter's PSKs).

There are these cotton "pads" that my wife got. They're disks, about the size of a thin oreo cookie. I coated some with vaseline and some with parrafin oil (best, IMO). Then I roll them up tightly like a tortilla. Then cut them in half with scizzors (how come I don;t know how to spell that word right now?).

This is messy, but with parrafin oil it's at least doable. Now I have these little "tortillas" that are cut in half. I take a strip of wax paper, about 1-1/2" wide by 6" long. I roll those tortillas up in it, folding in the sides as I roll. Then a dab of hot glue at the very end. Now they're additionally waterproof and don;t get anything else messy in the PSK. They look like the little "tinder quicks" you see that come with Sparklight flintwheels, or the tinder quicks in Doug Ritters PSKs.

If I need one, I unroll the wax paper and just leave the cotton pad on top. Spark it up with your knife spine and a flint. They burn for a full 80 seconds. That's 80 seconds..... plus the wax paper starts burning underneath, adding a little heat and flame to get your "real" tinder going.

There're probably lots of better things out there, but I've tried these enough to feel confident about them and for the time being they're part of my PSKs. I keep steel wool in a small ziplock baggies (because it's lightly saturated with parrafin oil) in all of our packs and BOBs. I want to put a few wisps of unsaturated wool in my PSKs but I haven;t done it yet.
 
I tried the waxed paper wrapped around the striker on my firesteel tonight. It worked just fine. Usually took about 5 or 6 strikes. The waxed paper lights a piece of firestarter just fine. I found that you can light a Coghlins firestarter stick just with the firesteel as well. Break off a small piece, and light the rough, broken edge by resting your steel on it and striking. It usually took 15 or so strikes though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top