Starting a fire with a Mora #2 in the snow. Flint and Steel.

[Woods Walker]

Starting a fire with a Mora #2 in the snow. Flint and Steel.

Just a short video showing foraging for yellow birch which was then used to help start a fire on the snow. This fire was ignited using a Mora #2, chert, jute and charcloth. The fire was started on snow using the twig fire method for the purpose of heating a day camp shelter, boiling water for Hemlock tea and cooking deer meat on a stick.

Platform for kindling.



Twig fire platform, pile of Yellow Birch bark and Mora knife ready to go.



Success.



Check out this short video showing the foraging and firestarting.

[video=youtube;VrDUAOTTxCw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDUAOTTxCw[/video]

 

[Bo T]

Pretty neat. I m surprised your char didn't catch right away. You were making lots of sparks. Was it a little damp out?
I talked with an old timer who forged up strikers. He said they needed to be soft enough so a short, thin slice of steel would peel off of the striker. I bought one and it does send the sparks right out above the edge of the flint. Do you think the back of the Mora is a little too hard?

 

[Woods Walker]

Pretty neat. I m surprised your char didn't catch right away. You were making lots of sparks. Was it a little damp out?
I talked with an old timer who forged up strikers. He said they needed to be soft enough so a short, thin slice of steel would peel off of the striker. I bought one and it does send the sparks right out above the edge of the flint. Do you think the back of the Mora is a little too hard?

I prefer a dedicated striker to be hard. For example the spine on this O1 striker knife is harder than my Mora's spine. It throws much better sparks. The blade and curl were tempered more to mitigate chipping/breaking.



The Mora does get the job done however.



In this case it was cold windy but bad luck also played a roll. The sparks flew all around refusing to land on the char cloth. That's that way it rolls when using marginal methods. Sometimes things go much faster as it did in the below video.

[video=youtube;AcM47mhJxE8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcM47mhJxE8[/video]

In any case using a knife to start a fire is more fun than anything else. Firesteel, Bic and waterproof matches for actual need IMHO.