Using the spine of the knife for striker.

Infi-del

Infi-del

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Apr 6, 2009
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Hey guys, I wanted to ask a few questions about using the spine of your knife as a fire steel striker. I see lots of guys do and up till now I've just used an old jigsaw blade or my blast match which has it's own striker. I'm thinking about buying my first high end bushcraft knife and wanted to know if there are any ill effects on the blade when this is done over and over. Does it nick or ding the steel? Does it discolor it beyond repolishing it? Do the hot sparks offer any damage to the heat treat? I know they're tools and should be used as such but I try to care for my blades as best I can so they take care of me. If there are any negative aspects to striking with the spine, then it's not much trouble to bring a striker along. Is this something that is common practice with no ill effects or is it something that is done in a pinch when there are no other options? Thanks in advance.
 
The heat treat wont be bothered by the sparks. You can put your knife in a 300 degree oven and it wont bother the heat treat. NExt time you spark with the spine feel the knife. If it didnt blister your fingers from touching it it aint hot :)

It will sort of nick the 90 degree edge or mush up the spine with use some. Doesnt a hammer face get dented from nails? Just the nature of tools. You can get teh spine back to 90 sharp by honing it with something I'd think :)
 
I have completely stopped using the spine. I have used many knives and gotten varying degrees of damage. I use my knives, and use them hard. But at the same time I take very good care of them, and protect them from tasks that damage them as much as possible. Besides, using the tooth side of a high TPI Sawzall blade on Misch emits a veritable shower of sparks. I snap whatever length of the blade I want off in a vise. The mounting screw hole serves as a lanyard attachment. The damn things last forever, does not flex when you use them, and protects my knives. If I do not need as many sparks, I use the spine of the Sawzall blade, as using the tooth side eats up a rod quicker. A couple of bucks compared the large amount of money I have tied up in some of my more expensive knives.
 
And what about coated blades? Will the fire steel spark? And if it does, will it scratch the coating?
I'm not anal about my gear (ok, just a bit :rolleyes:), but usually a coated blade is not ss, so if you scratch the coating off the blade looses it's rust defense.
 
I use the spine of an opinel to scrape a fire rod. It is better than a broken saw blade as it has a nice handle to hold and has a blade that is sharp. Additionally, in my opinion, the opinel is better than a fixed bladed as it can throw sparks with the blade closed.
 
blgoode said:
The heat treat wont be bothered by the sparks. You can put your knife in a 300 degree oven and it wont bother the heat treat. NExt time you spark with the spine feel the knife. If it didnt blister your fingers from touching it it aint hot :)
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+1

I've used the the serrations on the thumb ramp and the smooth spine of a Centofante III Spyderco which has a very thin blade. No damage yet.

If I'm just messing around or practicing with different tinder I use a hacksaw blade but I have no problem using a knife spine.
 
A coated blade will not throw sparks. You need a sharp edge. Maybe the thin coating like on a griptilian, but not the thick coating like on a Busse.
 
LUW said:
And what about coated blades? Will the fire steel spark? And if it does, will it scratch the coating?
I'm not anal about my gear (ok, just a bit :rolleyes:), but usually a coated blade is not ss, so if you scratch the coating off the blade looses it's rust defense.
Click to expand...


After I found rust under the coating on one of my blades I strip any coating off these days. I can protect the knife from rust with steel wool or a buffing wheel far better than any coating I've encountered.
 
jw2n said:
I have completely stopped using the spine. I have used many knives and gotten varying degrees of damage. I use my knives, and use them hard. But at the same time I take very good care of them, and protect them from tasks that damage them as much as possible. Besides, using the tooth side of a high TPI Sawzall blade on Misch emits a veritable shower of sparks. I snap whatever length of the blade I want off in a vise. The mounting screw hole serves as a lanyard attachment. The damn things last forever, does not flex when you use them, and protects my knives. If I do not need as many sparks, I use the spine of the Sawzall blade, as using the tooth side eats up a rod quicker. A couple of bucks compared the large amount of money I have tied up in some of my more expensive knives.
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I hear ya, I think it's not too big a compromise to carry a striker with me if it will help better protect my blade.
 
I use the spine of my knives to strike sparks. Frankly, my knives are tools. If that leaves a mark, which to date it has not, who cares?
The spark is what counts, right?
 
I have thrown countless sparks with the spine of my knife. The knife's ability to spark a ferro rod is one of the things I judge its performance by. I have never experienced any discoloration or nicks that could not be buffed out.
 
The striker that came with my fire steel works so much better than any knife that I have tried that it's not worth the effort to use the knife. However I have found also that few tools spark better than the back of the Opinel blade.:eek: Instant spark shower.
 
Spine of a SAK saw will throw a good spray of sparks.
I squared up the backs of my Moras just so they could throw a spark ( three minutes with a vice and a file). I never use the edge.
Carl
 
Since purchasing my Sm Seb in 2006, I haven't purchased another that won't throw sparks from the spine. In fact, I usually try to find out how well a knife throws sparks before I buy it:thumbup:
 
The spine of my Fallkniven F1 throws sparks better than anything else I've tried, including the strikers that come with the steels and old hacksaw or jigsaw blades.

One thing that I like about using the spine of the knife is that the knife handle is so much more comfortable to use, and easier to control, than the striker tends to be.
 
Check out my little JK Striker Knife in this pic and you can see that it makes a bit of a mess of them.I don't think I'd want to use my best knives for striking on a regular basis when it's so easy to carry a little striker instead.

Each to their own though !!!!

P1180029-1.jpg
 
I use my blade when I need to but I prefer a devoted striker. If I'm just lighting fuel or something, I just use the knife spine and even sometimes the edge. Its just a quick strike and done. When I'm all hunkered over a tinder bundle and usually leaning over into a fire pit or something then I like a little striker. I don't have to worry about driving the tip of my knife into rocks in the pit or the iron walls or driving the tip into ashes with hazards under there. So for me, its not the actually striking the rod that I'm worried about but the striking close to the ground in a fireplace full of rocks and hazards to my sharpened steel.
 
There are a lot of variables involved here. For example:

- If you are using an air hardened steel, the spine will be as hard as every other part of the knife.

- If you are using an oil quenched steel, the spine could be:
a) Soft. Done torch heat treat, and the spine does not receive much heat. The last blgoode knife in O1 I handled was done this way.
b) Differentially quenched, leaving the spine less hard than the edge, but still hard.
c) Softback draw, which is similar to b), but drawn back to a desired hardness which is generally less hard than in b).
- Then, you have the type of steel making a difference.

With all that said, I use my knife exclusively for firesteel striking. The main reason is that a striker is just one more thing for me to remember, and I don't want that. The handle gives me a nice, firm and comfortable grip for striking.

The best striking method I have ever come across is using a high amount of pressure, over a short amount of distance, and towards the tip of the firesteel (much to the discrepancy of the instructions included with firesteels). But, the proof is in the amount of stuff I am capable of lighting. With that particular method I find strikers, hacksaw blades, and the like extremely uncomfortable. That is why I prefer the knife handle. Also, when used that way, the knife does not need to move, and takes away many worries expressed here.

Now, with all that in mind, I have never seen any "damage" with my knives. The firesteel leaves a "yellowish" film, which readily wipes off the blade. In all the use I have done, I have not seen any degradation whatsoever in how sharp the corner of the spine is. I honestly did not think it was something to even worry about until it was brought up here.

Long way of saying, I will keep using the spine of my knife with no worry :thumbup: :D

Also, I wanted to add that being at least capable of striking is a requirement for any knife for me, whether you do it regularly or not. I have used many knives that will not do it well because of coatings, or edge rounding or whatever. Even if you use a striker or other "tool", you have to consider that you could always loose it or forget it. You are more likely to keep close tabs on your knife. So, knowing that it CAN do it in that situation is a big bonus, IMO.

B
 
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