Noob to flint and steel

N

newbie_nick

Joined
Dec 2, 2008
Messages
83
Hey all!

After doing a bit of research, I bought a firesteel and some jute twine because I wanted to learn the art of fire starting without a match. I ripped apart the jute so it make a "bird's nest" and prepared my wood shavings, small kindling, larger kindling, etc on the side. When I hit the firesteel, the jute took off like a match to gasoline, and I didn't have any time to throw my wood shavings onto it before the jute burned itself out. On the second try, I placed some wood shavings on the pile of shredded jute before I struck the firesteel, but it barely caught the shavings on fire before the jute burned out. Seriously, I was shocked about how fast the jute took off!

Does anybody have any good pointers before I try it again? I was thinking about leaving some of the jute in rope form rather than shredding it, but I thought that I'd post the question here, too.

Thanks all!
Nick
 
An easy fuel for fire steels is cotton wool, rubbed with petroleum jelly. When it's pulled apart, the fibrous ends of the cotton wool catch easily, then the vaseline (do you guys call it that over there?) burns for quite some time. I wonder if you could rub the vaseline into the jute?
Good luck,
G
 
Starlight1967 said:
An easy fuel for fire steels is cotton wool, rubbed with petroleum jelly. When it's pulled apart, the fibrous ends of the cotton wool catch easily, then the vaseline (do you guys call it that over there?) burns for quite some time. I wonder if you could rub the vaseline into the jute?
Good luck,
G
Click to expand...

I second this. I have some of these in my kit. Plus the petroleum jelly can be used for many other things. Nice to have in your kit.
 
Thanks to you both! I'll have to give that a try. Ultimately, I would like to find natural tinder, but I'm not sure what to look for. Dried grass, perhaps?
 
If you wanna cheat, keep a small personal sized bottle of hand sanitizer in your pack. Works to clean your hands, remove tree-pitch, degrease engines (yup), and is flammable to boot. It just takes a spark and a single drop will burn about 15-30 seconds, long enough to catch tinder, and start the burn on larger pieces. The flame burns very low and blue, in bright light you can't even see it, but it works great to turn any tinder into super tinder. Plus it has a million other uses aside from it's intended use.

Hand Sanitizer. Yup.
 
as for natural tinder, try cedar bark. its easier to collect from dead trees, you want the fiber underneath the outer part. after you've collected a good potion work it with your hands until you feel its soft enough. it works great, once you become proficient at it its really quick and easy.
 
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