Stingray- I really hope you don't think that I'm dogpiling on you here but actually all three of these statements are wrong. I agree with you that it won't damage the knife in any way and I only use my knife spine to strike firesteels. I'm in the 'don't want another thing to remember/lose' crowd so I use my knife.
But, in no way does the spine have to be hardened. I differentially treat most of my knives and they will all throw sparks just the same. Now, that sharp corner may break down faster than a fully hardened one. I just tried six different 'soft spine' knives in my shop and they all work fine. Also used some cutoff drops of steel on the floor that are not hardened at all. Work great. It's just the sharp edge you need not the hardness of the steel. A rock, as someone mentioned will work fine, as will a sharp piece of glass.
For the second point, see above answer.
For the third point, the knife just needs a sharp corner. Degree of the angle doesn't matter. You just have to raise, lower the angle of the knife in order to make contact with that sharp edge.
All good. Carry on.:thumbup:
Ok, I totally agree with you. My statement that the spine has to be hardened, is more along the lines of practicality. Sure if you sharpen up soft corners it will strike, but it will get dull really quick, and you will have to file your spine again. At least this was my experience. Sure it will work, but you will have to sharpen it too often to be practical, at least for me anyways. Of course, my experience may be an exception, but I usually caution people against it, just to save them from getting frustrated if they are new to using firesteels.
I also agree, that any angle will work, but it is much more difficult if you have an obtuse angle as apposed to 90 - acute angles. And it is easier to explain to someone to just flatten there spine, then if they put a different angle on it, and unintentionally put the obtuse angle on the side they want to use. Of course, I don't exactly suggest using a level, it's just easier to explain to someone, if you know what I mean.
I guess my original post was more geared toward someone who is new to firesteel use, or new to using you knife as a striker. It's mainly to try to keep them from getting discouraged. If you are experienced, or not easily discouraged, then by all means do what you want, you'll figure out from experience what works and what doesn't, and how difficult different approaches are compared to another approach.
Also, someone might think that a knife spine is inferior to whatever other striker they are using, but it may just be a case of there tools not following my 3 points. I merely state that those 3 points MUST be followed, so maybe someone who thought it didn't work, might see that there set up did not agree, then try it again with better results. Maybe it was possible for them to do it with there previous set up, but not having the experience to know how to get that configuration to work might lead them to believe that the knife spine in general didn't work. Does that make sense?
