Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,053
Today I got another package in from Two Wolves. As bad as I hate to admit this "out loud" I lost my ESEE Fire Starter on a recent hike for photos and had to replace it. This time I had enough sense to have a contingency plan 
.
One of the things I really like about this fire steel is the size and shape of the handle. I thought it would work well for one handed fire starting and I was right. In the process of giving a lesson on this technique I tried it with a couple of different tinders today.
The first one was bamboo. Now this stalk is leaned against my shoulder but this same technique would work with the bamboo still up-right and growing.
After I got my shavings scraped and collected I put them on a piece of bark, weighted them with a few twigs so the wind wouldn't blow them away, and set them in the sun to dry for a while. It works better if you turn them after a bit.
As the shavings dried I set about gathering fuel for the fire. One thing here that works really well for a first stage fuel is dead vines hanging from the trees. They get broken a lot of times when a tree a vine has finally starved of light dies and falls taking out some of the vines when it does. Since they just hang in the air drying they make a great flash fuel.
Once the tinder is dry just find a large leaf or a few leaves to make a dry base, lay out your tinder, and place you fuel on top. I used dry vines and some of the finer tips of some dead pine branches. then find a stick for a prop. It needs to be the right diameter or thickness to allow you to have the full length or at least most of your fire steel between the edge of your knife and the leaves you're using for a base. Having your firesteel stuck through your tinder pile hurts nothing in fact it helps. Hold the knife firmly in place with your foot (I've found it easiest to use the foot on the same side as the hand I'll be using to spark with), hold the ferro rod firmly against the edge of the knife and keeping pressure on it pull back quickly. The sparks ignite your tinder and once it's burning good move your fuel on top of the flames. A little tip here...sometimes tinders like bamboo shavings that aren't quite dry, or cedar bark will only ember at first and need to be blown into flames.
Virtually no ill effects on the knife and the edge is still perfectly serviceable.
.
One of the things I really like about this fire steel is the size and shape of the handle. I thought it would work well for one handed fire starting and I was right. In the process of giving a lesson on this technique I tried it with a couple of different tinders today.
The first one was bamboo. Now this stalk is leaned against my shoulder but this same technique would work with the bamboo still up-right and growing.
After I got my shavings scraped and collected I put them on a piece of bark, weighted them with a few twigs so the wind wouldn't blow them away, and set them in the sun to dry for a while. It works better if you turn them after a bit.
As the shavings dried I set about gathering fuel for the fire. One thing here that works really well for a first stage fuel is dead vines hanging from the trees. They get broken a lot of times when a tree a vine has finally starved of light dies and falls taking out some of the vines when it does. Since they just hang in the air drying they make a great flash fuel.
Once the tinder is dry just find a large leaf or a few leaves to make a dry base, lay out your tinder, and place you fuel on top. I used dry vines and some of the finer tips of some dead pine branches. then find a stick for a prop. It needs to be the right diameter or thickness to allow you to have the full length or at least most of your fire steel between the edge of your knife and the leaves you're using for a base. Having your firesteel stuck through your tinder pile hurts nothing in fact it helps. Hold the knife firmly in place with your foot (I've found it easiest to use the foot on the same side as the hand I'll be using to spark with), hold the ferro rod firmly against the edge of the knife and keeping pressure on it pull back quickly. The sparks ignite your tinder and once it's burning good move your fuel on top of the flames. A little tip here...sometimes tinders like bamboo shavings that aren't quite dry, or cedar bark will only ember at first and need to be blown into flames.
Virtually no ill effects on the knife and the edge is still perfectly serviceable.
