Spark-Lite Criticism

[Jon Carter]

Hello Everyone,

I think that I found out about the Spark Lite
from some folks in this forum so, I thought
ya'll might be interested in a recent observation.
The Spark Lite sparker that I obtained from
Brigade Quartermasters(plastic and green in
color) was the primary fire starter in a tobacco tin kit that I put together to reside in my water bladder pack. About 3 weeks ago
I went on a travel down the (middle) Ocoee
for some white water fun and during the course of the trip my raftmates and I were voluntarily thrown from the raft at a place
on the river that is safe for such. Quite an
experience being *thrown* from the raft, everything happens real fast... Anyway I went in, pack and all and later dried everything out...*Except* my Tobacco Tin Kit. See, I *thought* the rubber seal would keep everything
waterproof for the short time I was in the water; about 3 minutes.
Yesterday while experimenting with natural tinders and a metal match without much luck, I decided to pull the Spark Lite out of the Tin Kit and see if it would serve me any better.
Needless to say, everything in the kit was _still_ wet.
Every thing in the Kit was still usable except some paper matches that I had dipped in petroleum jelly and the Spark Lite.
There appears to be some clay? surrounding the spring and flint that I can only guess that is there to stabilize the flint. This clay like substance *expanded*,splitting the
wheel end in two rendering the sparker practically useless. The metal wheel fell in
my hand as I picked it up.

I am really glad I tested (and will continue)
my gear BEFORE I really needed it!

BTW, is there anything out there around the
same size that is WATERPROOF!?

Thanks to all of you regular posters and Mr Davenport,Mr Ron,Mr Jones for all of the informative information ya'll post. I don't post much but
I read here all the time....a sincere Thank You.

[This message has been edited by Jon Carter (edited 08-07-2000).]

 

[conrads]

I run a few layers of electrical tape round the seam, easy to undo and seems to retain enough stickum that I can re-use it,

 

[Marion David Poff]

A metal match is probably the solution.

They are waterproof, functioning once the surface is cleared.

I have some sources on my Fire page...

http://www.geocities.com/mdpoff/fire.html

------------------
Thank you,
Marion David Poff aka Eye, Cd'A ID, USA mdpoff@hotmail.com

My review of the World Survival Institute, Chris Janowsky survival knife, the Ranger.

Talonite Resource Page, nearly exhaustive!!

Fire Page, metal match sources and index of information.

"Many are blinded by name and reputation, few see the truth" Lao Tzu

 

[Jimbo]

Hi Jon:

Thanks for letting us know! I got a Spark-Lite from Marion to test and didn't find any problem after soaking. I guess I'll have to get more brutal and write up more results.
As Marion says above - the best solution to all is a ferrocerium rod. It works under all conditions.
You mentioned that you also had some problems with starting natural tinders. There are two solutions to this, the easiest being to use a large rod which throws a huge spark. The Blast Match in particular will set almost anything on fire. If you'll let us know what you were trying in your area though, I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.
I'll be putting up a page on natural tinders with my usual large slow loading pictures just as soon as I can get my grand-daughter to leave the salmon alone and get back to taking pictures.

 

[Bagheera]

Hi Jon,

I can only give you one advise that is contact 'Four Seasons Survival' ASAP and send them your Spark-Lite as I'm sure that Mr. Oak Norton (President) will surely want to see your (faulty) specimen.

I have soaked the spark-lite overnight in salt water and it didn't give me any problems whatsoever.

I will see if I can open up a Spark-lite to see the internals more clearly but as far as I know there are only 4 pieces in a Spark-lite that is 1. the coil-spring 2.the flint(s) 3. the hardened triker wheel and 4 the plastic "case" consisting of 2 plastic halves 'glued' together.

The older Ever-lite which is an brass version of the spark-lite shows clearly that there is no need for "packing" materials.

Spark-Lite's are officially used by the military, so I guess they tested them over and over again they even went from the brass one's to the plastic ones.
My Scouts, known for their power to wreck most equipement luckily within the makers warrentee period

have jet to succeed in wrecking a Spark-Lite.

But I also have to stand behind Marion, a nice Ferrocium stick like the Swedisch Light-My-Fire Army model also travels with me and throws a lot of sparks.

By the way Jeff Randall sells on his site the Swedisch Light-My-Fire Large Military Ferrocium sticks with and without a metal scraper attached to the lanyard (with scraper is the latest model) for I believe only $10

Cheers,

Bagheera

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[This message has been edited by Bagheera (edited 08-08-2000).]

 

[Jon Carter]

Hey! Thanks for all the great Tips/Replies.
Jimbo:
I started with wood shavings from what might have been Poplar.. they were dry but perhaps
too dense.
I then tried Leaves, Ground "Gumballs" (for the technically minded) ground Pine Cone,
and shredded paper towel. The Spark Lite Tinder finally did the trick.

I am quite new at
starting a fire with natural tinder and spark.

Bagheera:
Thank You for the input. I probably will not
actually send the unit back but I may buy another one to try. They are not expensive and I really like the small but effective tinders that they supply. Perhaps the grey
clay like substance was adhesive that was affected by the extended dampness in the tin.
I will check out the Swedish Light-My-Fire.

QUESTION:
When you guys use a metal match with a saw blade piece what part of the "blade do you use?
I found that the toothed side produced *way* more spark but quickly wore the rod down to the point that I will be replacing it soon. (maybe its just my Super Human Strength

)

 

[Jimbo]

Hi Jon:

Use the non-toothed part of the hacksaw blade or the broken tip. For sure the toothed part wears away the rod fast!

Probably the way to start with tinders is to try stuff around the house. I know - a strange way to get into natural tinders..
Cotton batton works well - especially in Q-tips with cotton ends. Dryer lint - though you'll find that some fabric softeners have fire retardent in them and so the lint just won't work. A big rod, or a smaller one with a sharp striker to throw more sparks - will start a Kleenex just by throwing a spark onto the sheet. You'll find though that shredding and chopping up the tinder to create more edges will allow it to be set on fire with far less spark. That's the key to using natural tinders - find something fine fibered with lots of edges, or rub and chop until you have fine stuff with edges.
You'll then want to make some water resistant tinder, so just rub some petroleum jelly into your tinder. Anti-perpirant sticks usually work well too, some of that stuff is highly flammable. You'll notice that this makes things a little harder to light. Just rub enough in to coat. I use the same principle with natural tinders using sap from balsam fir, so practising with home stuff has its applications to natural stuff.
The easiest natural tinder has to be dandelion fluff, the fluff on cottonwood or poplar trees, or the fluff out of brown cat-tails. Any spark on these will produce a flame. Basically look for anything fluffy and try it. Fireweed is all over here, and at any time of year there are stalks with either this years or last years fluff. The tinder I use may not be in your area, but the concept is to be looking around for naturally occuring fluffy stuff and try it. It's amazing how much there is when you go looking.
The reason we go into tree identification and use of tree bark is quite simple. When it's been raing for a while all of the fluffy stuff is soaked and will not light. Unless you've had the foresight to gather a bunch and stow it in a plastic bag. I use cedar bark from red cedar because it's all over where I live. I just tear off some of the stringy bark and rub between my hands for a few minutes until it shreds like hair. Then I chop on it a bit to get lots of edges and it catches easily. Birch is great too - look for trees with silvery peeling bark. You have to scrape it a bit to get lots of fine stuff to start. These trees contain lots of oils and so the bark will light even after being soaked for a while. Important for guys like me who live in a rain forest.

I'm sure that people will be posting with trees and tinders available in your area. In the meantime it should be easy to collect some stuff to learn with.
Wood shavings have to be very thin to start. Wood scrapings work but it often takes a while to scrape wood down to powder.
Wood shavings are the way to catch the flame once a fine tinder starts up. Practice by whittling fuzzy sticks. The trick is to use a very sharp knife and cut very thin shavings. You'll know how thin they are because the thinner you shave them the more they curl.

So as you see you don't exactly have to become a botanist to get through this stuff - having fun trying first is very educational. You don't even have to live in the wilderness as parks and people's gardens have all sorts of stuff. Just ask nicely.

I'll put up a web page devoted to tinders soon - well when my grand-daughter has tired of shooting camping and catching salmon and gives me some rest. In the meantime you might want to look through: http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Rapids/5404/survival/