Striking a spark with your knife

sodak said:
Interesting observations. I've squared off the back edges of my Moras, to no avail. I tried striking them on sharp rocks, nothing. I've heard of Cody Lundin doing this, I'd like to know how. I'm pretty disappointed in the Moras, they must be fairly soft steel.

I have no problem getting huge showers of sparks with my Fehrman Peacemaker, just use the sharp corner in the finger choil. After 1 or 2 hard rubs, I have a spot rubbed through the coating right on the edge and it's the 4th of July. I haven't tried a SAK yet, but will soon. I'm also going to try sharp rocks. So far, the fine file on my leathermans produce the best spark of all.

I've heard that getting sparks with ferrocium depends on hardness, not carbon. These tests would seem to confirm that.
Click to expand...

If you are using a rock, not a purchased rod or flint, but a rock off the ground, you need to use a high carbon steel knife. The sparks created come from the steel of the knife, not the rock. Think about grinding an axe on a wheel, where are the sparks coming from, the axe. When you are using a BSA hotspark on a knife, stainless or high carbon, where are the sparks coming from, the hotspark. So you need to use a hard rock, one with high glass content, and strike the knife to a sharp edge of the rock. So your knife is kinda like the hotspark now and you need something with a sharp edge to take off a little steel, i.e., a hard rock.

Here is how I do it. Hold rock in left hand positioned so a sharp edge or ridge is facing out. Tinder, or ideally char cloth, on top of rock sticking out under my thumb. I hold the knife vertically in right hand with handle down, spine out. Yes the edge is facing towards my palm, but not touching! I hold the blade VERY TIGHT using all four fingers on one side and thumb on the other. In very quick multiple strokes I glance the edge of the rock repeatedly with the spine of the knife. To be consistent with strokes and their location, it helps to anchor your elbows to your sides.

This maybe one of those things it is easier done than said. Let me know if I didn't explain correctly. Hopefully the analogy is correct.
 
Thanks Quiet Bear, I'll try your style. Maybe tomorrow, when I've had coffee instead of beer.... :D
 
kevin the ferro rods come in a bunch of sizes, from the large rods on the swedish fire steel/gerber strike force/blast match, which are in the 1/2 inch range, and throw some heavy sparks. to the boy scout hot spark/ doan tool, which work ok but are smaller rods. i taught my children to use the cheap doan tool knockoff from walmart, about 6 bucks. they both can start a fire in zero temperatures and heavy snow with the doan tool. i had them use the can opener on a swak to strike the sparks.

i bought some of the swedish firesteels from bagheera from belgium, gave them out to some of my hunting buddies when we did a firestarting school trying as many techniques as we could come up with you can buy them from survival sheath, i have bought a couple there.
http://www.survivalsheath.com/fire/index.htm

kershaw also imports them and you can buy them from some of the internet folks that sell kershaw products. also the NRA asells a survival kit for about 12 bucks with a blast match, a saw, and a mirror in a small waterproof box, this is a pretty good deal.
http://www.nrastore.com/nra/product.aspx?productid=SS 21955

they all work well.

alex
 
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