Ah, excellent. It was late, knew my brain wasn't at its best. Been flamed too many times for sharing my experiences when they *gasp* differed from someone elses. Getting a little gun shy these days.
I've been doing and teaching this stuff a long time.
Same here. Forty years of stomping the woods, 28 years of wild edibles, 25 years with ferros, 25 years of primitive living skills, 6 years with F&S, amateur (unpaid) teaching of hiking, hunting, primitive and wilderness self reliance for almost two decades now.
Long enough to know what works for some may not for others.
Very true.
I am somewhat familiar with the environment these guys are in, having backpacked/MTB'd Vancouver Island for a month in my early 20's. There is wet and there is WET... and these guys were WWETT!
Must be a whole 'nother level of wet from what people say. After several days of rain around here it does take some extra thought and work to get flame from natural materials gathered in situ. Sounds like that is a normal day out there.
I used to be much more active on these boards and have posted flint and steel, friction fire and ferro rod fire making with some difficult(sometimes silly) techniques and materials.
Thanks for sharing. I'll look 'em up as I get a chance. In my experience everyone has things they can learn and things they can teach.
I too take things to ridiculous levels to see what there is to learn. Never know what might be useful. Sometimes it is a tiny detail or two that helps us turn the corner from difficult to easy on a task.
BTW... both a ferro and fatwood are completely waterproof, so soaking them in a bucket would be a poor example(or was that the point you were making?). I know at least one of the contestants found fatwood(There are a few species of pine on the island)... I hope he had a ferro.
Yes, that was the point. Since they are waterproof and can be soaked for weeks yet still work just fine, that kind of obviates the whole "too wet to make fire" concept.
Did the soaking years ago just to see what would happen. Under certain circumstances ferros will erode due to electrolysis. Fortunately, wet is only one component of that thus fresh water alone will not harm a ferro.
Believe it was Josh (tapped out first) on Alone who found the fatwood then filmed himself having trouble getting flame with it. He exhibited many poor techniques from having a rough time getting good sparks to using thick curls. In my experience curls from every type of wood, no matter how thin or dry, are tough to ignite with a ferro. Talking 20-100 scrapes on a ferro with curls when less than ten ignites most scrapings. Fatwood scrapings usually in three or less. Since they are looking at up to one year in the woods, conserving resources is paramount.
This ease of ignition is why I make, and advocate others making, scrapings when using a ferro. Many things work to make these scrapings: knife spine or edge, saw spine or edge, axe spine or edge, rocks, glass, tin cans, etc. Most types of wood work. We scrape by abrading the wood with the edge nearly parallel to the wood. Looking for coarser than dust yet finer than shavings.
Happy Trails Y'all!!
