Too much free time :) Lots of pics

T

Temper

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
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Recently I broke a Blastmatch, I dont honestly know the cause as it pulled the striker off while I was suing it. This is a tensile issue and AFAIK I hadnt over stressed the striker tab laterally. Anyway, the people at Ultimate Survival sent a replacement out, no questions asked. This left me with a still servicable rod and it seemed a waste not to use it.

Soooo, after thiking on it and looking at a Swedish Firesteel I decided to make a hold for it. Not just any hold though, a home made aluminium one from recycled soda cans.

Here are the victims waiting for trial by fire. I used a Cat food can as the crucible, not exactly ideal but Mongo my rescued wild kitten insisted :)

cans.jpg


Mongo

Mongo02.jpg


Starting the melt. This is done in a biscuit tin with Kitty Litter in the bottom.

starting-the-melt.jpg


With a little help from my Vornado fan I got some pretty mean temperatures.

Molten.jpg


Hot Aluminium cooling in the mold. This was made by drilling a 2X2 with an 1" bit. I actually made too much molten aluminium, I had no idea how many cans I would need so I figured the more the merrier :)

cooling-in-the-mould.jpg


Here is the casting out of the mold.

Mould-and-casting.jpg


Here it is on its own after a bit of rough filing.

Rough-filing02.jpg


After more filing drilling and messing around (I didnt have a drill bit the diameter of the fire steel. Filing a fire steel can be fun.
Here it is waiting for final filing/rubbing down and some JB weld to hold it in situ.

almost-done.jpg


All in all about 2 hours work, less if you had a proper set-up and all the tools you need.
 
Nice project! During/after WWII, a lot of scrap duraluminum was laying around on the Pacific islands, and a lot of broken bladesteel. Many a bayonet found a new life with a cast aluminum handle. Some of them were quite fancy. Some incorporated plexiglass spacers too. I wonder if you could make a fire piston this way?

Codger
 
Very cool project and photos showing the sequence! Now you can add metal casting and firesteel modding to your resume. Mongo looks like he's guarding his toys pretty closely.

Breaking off the striker was a problem with earlier Blastmatches. The manufacturer reinforced the holder for it after users in the field indicated there was a problem. The reports I've heard agree with yours -- the company stood behind their product and replaced the faulty units.
 
I had used the Blastmatch exclusively for fire starting and pretty much any excuse I could think of for about 8 months, so its not like it broke out of the box. I dare say it would work as inteded for Survival purposes. All the same though, I was a little dissapointed when it snapped off. I may cast a case for the replacement out of aluminium, now that would be a project worthy of afew beers while waiting for the melt :)
 
Well, I finished the filing, dressing up & bonding of the rod into the hold. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Here it is with a cut down Mag block and a Permanent Match, can you say 'pyro' :)

Casting-project.jpg
 
For those of us in a climate where fire-starting may be taking place at -30C, wood might be a good choice for a handle -- although not nearly so cool!

(Disgusting pun intended. :p )



(Great cat, Temper. We have four banging around the house -- all strays. No. 4 came crying at the back door two months ago at age five weeks [Mom?]. I wonder if they leave a mark on the mailbox to inform the other strays that I and the wife are a soft touch. [Dog grumbling in background. #@^$# cats!])
 
Thomas Linton said:
For those of us in a climate where fire-starting may be taking place at -30C, wood might be a good choice for a handle -- although not nearly so cool!
Click to expand...

In cold winter temps the blast match plastic case is known to get brittle and break. Another reason I own a strike force and not the blast match.

Skam
 
Cool project!

Question: Why didn't you put the rod into the aluminum while it was still liquid? It would have saved any drilling and other hole-making efforts.
 
Thomas, Thanks she is a sweetie, I found here when I went to take out the garbage one morning. I took one look at this dirty skinny ball and said 'Wow, it sucks to be you' I got half way back to the house and turned round and went and got her. She was 8 weeks old and weighed 400g (about half of what she should) within 2 weeks she was over 800 :)

Rhino, Casting metals is not like pouring in epoxy or other things, you have to deal with dirt (it wont stick if things are not clean), cooling times, being able to place it in situ perfect in 1 go. Its too much hassle. As its only aluminimum it wasnt a problem to work with at all, in fact it was no harder to work with than a hard wood.

Skammer, I agree the Blast match does have a few flaws, another bing the pressure needed to make sparks, this tends to drive the rod into the ground and away from the carefully placed tinder sometimes.

I might be tempted to make an aluminium case for my blast match using the same technique, it would be an interesting project I think :)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ALL !
 
Temper said:
Well, I finished the filing, dressing up & bonding of the rod into the hold. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Here it is with a cut down Mag block and a Permanent Match, can you say 'pyro' :)

Casting-project.jpg
Click to expand...

hey i see you have the leatherman squirt in the pic. do you find that the blade is dull because it only has on edge?!!!
 
No, I havent found it to be a problem at all. Mid you I dont whittle totem ploes with it so its hard to say how good it actually is but I have had this since it came out and I havent sharpened it yet.

The P4 is a great tool, well worth the money.
 
I got one for 5 bucks from a state surplus (airplane confiscations) try your local state surplus!

i have only needed to do a lil touch up on the blade,
 
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