RAT spine work for fire starter?

J

Jesse Jaymes

Joined
Feb 25, 2002
Messages
30
Been pouring over youtube videos and such this Saturday pondering which knife is going to be my next purchase.

I am going to obtain the firestarting kit, and am asking if the spine of the knife will work to spark the metal?

I understand from reading the post below that the edge/blade makes a better striker, but I would like to practice making/starting fires without destroying the knife.

Does the blade coating prevent it from creating spark?
 
Well, the blade coating prevents it, and the RAT fire kit takes a pretty keen edge to get it to light.

I used a cheapo knife to practice...like a gas station knife.

Now I have a Victorinox Classic paracorded to the lid. It throws out some mean sparks.
 
I keep a peice of hacksaw blade with my firesteel, so I never use my knife, but if you were to remove the blade coating from an area of the spine, I'm betting it would work.
 
I've been using the choil on my RC-3 to scrape my firesteel. Does a decent job and throws a lot of sparks.
 
It'd be really cool if RAT made an izula type knife with a few serrations on the "spine" to strike their fire steel with.
 
Jake Bauer said:
It'd be really cool if RAT made an izula type knife with a few serrations on the "spine" to strike their fire steel with.
Click to expand...

I am glad you posted this, I have been wondering myself. With my Barkies I use the spine and it does a great job but with the RATS since they are coated I was wondering what people were doing.
 
gottahaveit27 said:
Are you talking about a misch metal RAT firesteel? I have trouble getting a reasonable "fire ball" unless I use the edge of a knife.
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Nope. Just a Light My Fire firesteel. I've tried the spine. No dice. Then I used the notch of the choil and was able to produce decent sparks. I'd still use a piece of hacksaw, but I've lit a few fires this way. Did the same with my D2 RAT-3.
 
I had no problem getting either a standard Light my Fire firesteel or the RAT model to generate sparks using the edge of my "dull as hell" Microtech Scarab. Knife doesn't have to be too sharp.
 
I finally found a use for my Buck hartsook(s30v )....as a fire steel scrapper,works great attach it to my RAT fire kit. now if you have a serrated version of a RAT knife ,I use the serration part and she'll throw some sparks,whether it is a Standard fire steel or RAT fire kit ! if PE version you may need to remove some paint from spine or use the edge ,your call
 
texastonydobbs said:
I finally found a use for my Buck hartsook(s30v )....as a fire steel scrapper,works great attach it to my RAT fire kit. now if you have a serrated version of a RAT knife ,I use the serration part and she'll throw some sparks,whether it is a Standard fire steel or RAT fire kit ! if PE version you may need to remove some paint from spine or use the edge ,your call
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Tony - Now that would be the comparision photo to see! The massive Hartsook :D vs. the RC-5.

I keep my Buck Hartsook (interesting little knife) in a zippered organizer in my briefcase.
 
The Hartsook/Fire kit would be a great combo. I think I'll be getting the 420 HC version hartsook for a keychain knife (15 bucks and comes with a small caribiner/bottle opener). If and when I get a Fire kit it might get clipped on there instead. I second a Hartsook/RC5 pic. Or RC 4 or 6
 
I sharpened a striker from an LMF on half of one side and it works great as a striker/emergency blade. If you use serrations you will chew through your mischmetal much more quickly. For survival it does'nt matter but for practice why waste.
 
Buy a lighter and a can of gas.
Anyone can dry a soaking wet lighter of in a few minutes and they start fires so much easier.
 
These_Nutz said:
Buy a lighter and a can of gas.
Anyone can dry a soaking wet lighter of in a few minutes and they start fires so much easier.
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The quickest way to die in remote conditions is to rely on a butane lighter as your sole source for fire building. Spend enough time in the bush and you will see that lighters are excellent when they work but notorious for not working when you need them to, especially in wet environments. I'll take a ferro rod any day if I can only have one source for building fire.
 
These_Nutz said:
Buy a lighter and a can of gas.
Anyone can dry a soaking wet lighter of in a few minutes and they start fires so much easier.
Click to expand...

If you are going to play with petrol, then why bother with a lighter at all?

You could stand back a few feet and launch molten globs of metal into your gasoline puddle with a RAT fire kit.
 
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