This was over vacation a couple weeks ago.
We're at the inlaws cabin, wife and I were relaxing around 10:30 at night, kids asleep.
"Click", lights and furnace go out.
It's freaking dark, too; the place is probably 10 miles from the nearest street light, and cloud cover blocked any moon or star light.
Pulled the keychain flashlight from my pocket, retrieve my headlamp from the hydration pack I use hiking.
Call the power company, they say 2-3 hours before power will come back.
In July this would just be annoying, but the cabin is not well insulated, and it's about 5 degrees out.
The roads are have a nicely slick coating of light snow over ice, so driving into town is not optimal.
Luckily, they have a fireplace with a wood stash outside, so I make a couple trips. No ax in sight, no decent matches.
Back to the hydration pack, get my RC-4 and RAT firestarter kit. Baton up some kindling, make a nice little wood frame over a sheet of birchbark, take a vaselined cotton ball from the RAT firestarter kit, one strike and we have FIRE.
Obviously this wasn't a life threatening situation, but I'm sure glad I brought my little bag of goodies. If the power company had said 12 hours instead of 2-3, and it had been -20 like it's supposed to be tomorrow instead of 5 above, would have been a bit more interesting. It was a good reminder that even under "normal" circumstances, we're not that far removed from needing some basic skills.
Thanks again Jeff and Mike, for making some great equipment. Even after splitting the wood up, the RC-4 cut hair off my arm.
As a suggestion, and I'm guessing everyone here already figured this one out, what works great for a striker for the firesteel is to cut a couple inches off of the end of a hacksaw blade. I wire loop the hole to the firekit so they're attached, put a coupe thicknesses of duct tape over the back of the blade to make a handle, and put one layer of masking tape over the sharp edge. It keeps the blade from cutting up other stuff in the kit, but can be easily peeled off (or just use the striker a couple times and it scrapes off).
We're at the inlaws cabin, wife and I were relaxing around 10:30 at night, kids asleep.
"Click", lights and furnace go out.
It's freaking dark, too; the place is probably 10 miles from the nearest street light, and cloud cover blocked any moon or star light.
Pulled the keychain flashlight from my pocket, retrieve my headlamp from the hydration pack I use hiking.
Call the power company, they say 2-3 hours before power will come back.
In July this would just be annoying, but the cabin is not well insulated, and it's about 5 degrees out.
The roads are have a nicely slick coating of light snow over ice, so driving into town is not optimal.
Luckily, they have a fireplace with a wood stash outside, so I make a couple trips. No ax in sight, no decent matches.
Back to the hydration pack, get my RC-4 and RAT firestarter kit. Baton up some kindling, make a nice little wood frame over a sheet of birchbark, take a vaselined cotton ball from the RAT firestarter kit, one strike and we have FIRE.
Obviously this wasn't a life threatening situation, but I'm sure glad I brought my little bag of goodies. If the power company had said 12 hours instead of 2-3, and it had been -20 like it's supposed to be tomorrow instead of 5 above, would have been a bit more interesting. It was a good reminder that even under "normal" circumstances, we're not that far removed from needing some basic skills.
Thanks again Jeff and Mike, for making some great equipment. Even after splitting the wood up, the RC-4 cut hair off my arm.
As a suggestion, and I'm guessing everyone here already figured this one out, what works great for a striker for the firesteel is to cut a couple inches off of the end of a hacksaw blade. I wire loop the hole to the firekit so they're attached, put a coupe thicknesses of duct tape over the back of the blade to make a handle, and put one layer of masking tape over the sharp edge. It keeps the blade from cutting up other stuff in the kit, but can be easily peeled off (or just use the striker a couple times and it scrapes off).
