- Joined
- Feb 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,199
Firesteels are really great to teach/learn about making fires. With a firesteel, you really need quality tinder, whether it's man-made or natural and you have to understand how to capture and coax the spark/ember into flame.
My son really likes the Blastmach, he just doesn't have the coordination and strength to get enough sparks into the tinder. With the Blastmatch, it uses less motor skills and is easier to "aim" the shower onto the tinder and control the movement of the firesteel.
My primary means of starting fires is by firesteel. However, if I'm cold, wet or injured, that Bic or Storm-Proof matches are my backup methods. My son was trying to get a fire going after it rained. It took a while to find dry enough tinder (he also used a cottonball/Vaseline) and then it took even longer to whittle enough small dry wood to maintain the flame from the cottonball. After that amount of time, his nose was runny, hands were cold and he was shivering...it taught a valuable lesson about the effects of being cold (he wasn't really wet) and how when you "need" a fire, conditions are usually much more difficult to get one going.
ROCK6
My son really likes the Blastmach, he just doesn't have the coordination and strength to get enough sparks into the tinder. With the Blastmatch, it uses less motor skills and is easier to "aim" the shower onto the tinder and control the movement of the firesteel.
My primary means of starting fires is by firesteel. However, if I'm cold, wet or injured, that Bic or Storm-Proof matches are my backup methods. My son was trying to get a fire going after it rained. It took a while to find dry enough tinder (he also used a cottonball/Vaseline) and then it took even longer to whittle enough small dry wood to maintain the flame from the cottonball. After that amount of time, his nose was runny, hands were cold and he was shivering...it taught a valuable lesson about the effects of being cold (he wasn't really wet) and how when you "need" a fire, conditions are usually much more difficult to get one going.
ROCK6
