- Joined
- Oct 6, 1998
- Messages
- 957
Hi Guys,
Some time ago I got a bunch of Orange colored Gerber Strike Force Fire Starters through the help of a good friend for our Scouting group, orange is the preferred color as our Scouts have a habit of loosing/leaving behind equipement and the blaze orange just sticks out yelling "don't leave me"
I have a black Gerber Strike force but didn't use it often because it's a lot bigger then the Large Military Firesteels that I use.
I still wanted to experiment with the Strike forces fat (1/2") flintsteel so I did the following.
Without destroying the Strike Forces plastic casing I managed to pull the fat flintsteel from its 'holder'. I just clamped the flint in a vise and then slowly pulled turned the plastic casing off, The flint is helt only by friction.
I then put the flint on a 1/2" thick piece of wood inside a plastic container (4"x6"x2") filled it with water so the flint was completely UNDER water and put that on my drilling table and using the bench drill drilled a 1/8" hole through one end.
Keep that flint UNDER water as you otherwise have fireworks and also burn the drill bit.
The 1/2" wood piece under the flint is just so you don't drill through the plastic container.
Don't throw away the drilled out ferrocium, just pour of the water and let it dry, it forms a good hot tinder addition.
When the drilling was done I put a 1" split-ring through the hole and now I have a "fat boy' 1/2" diameter by slightly over 2" length firesteel dangling from my key-chain that will provide thousands of fires.
The nice thing, when I remove the split-ring I can push the flint right back into the casing of the strike force (with drilled part first) and nobody ever knew that I modified it.
The split ring offers a secure grip so that controlling the firesteel is easy.
I have to confess however that the Large Military Firesteel with it's 3/8" diameter flint is easier to carry , less weight, and longer so you can control it and it's sparking better.
That's the reason most of our scouts carry Large military Firesteels as personal firesteels, the Blaze Orange Gerber Strike Forces are "group" items that are not easilly lost
Best Scouting wishes from Holland,
Bagheera
Some time ago I got a bunch of Orange colored Gerber Strike Force Fire Starters through the help of a good friend for our Scouting group, orange is the preferred color as our Scouts have a habit of loosing/leaving behind equipement and the blaze orange just sticks out yelling "don't leave me"
I have a black Gerber Strike force but didn't use it often because it's a lot bigger then the Large Military Firesteels that I use.
I still wanted to experiment with the Strike forces fat (1/2") flintsteel so I did the following.
Without destroying the Strike Forces plastic casing I managed to pull the fat flintsteel from its 'holder'. I just clamped the flint in a vise and then slowly pulled turned the plastic casing off, The flint is helt only by friction.
I then put the flint on a 1/2" thick piece of wood inside a plastic container (4"x6"x2") filled it with water so the flint was completely UNDER water and put that on my drilling table and using the bench drill drilled a 1/8" hole through one end.
Keep that flint UNDER water as you otherwise have fireworks and also burn the drill bit.
The 1/2" wood piece under the flint is just so you don't drill through the plastic container.
Don't throw away the drilled out ferrocium, just pour of the water and let it dry, it forms a good hot tinder addition.
When the drilling was done I put a 1" split-ring through the hole and now I have a "fat boy' 1/2" diameter by slightly over 2" length firesteel dangling from my key-chain that will provide thousands of fires.
The nice thing, when I remove the split-ring I can push the flint right back into the casing of the strike force (with drilled part first) and nobody ever knew that I modified it.
The split ring offers a secure grip so that controlling the firesteel is easy.
I have to confess however that the Large Military Firesteel with it's 3/8" diameter flint is easier to carry , less weight, and longer so you can control it and it's sparking better.
That's the reason most of our scouts carry Large military Firesteels as personal firesteels, the Blaze Orange Gerber Strike Forces are "group" items that are not easilly lost
Best Scouting wishes from Holland,
Bagheera
