Will a rodent solution make sparks?

SVTFreak

SVTFreak

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With a flint rod, if i strip the coating off a small spot on spine? Aka, like the bear grills "survival" knife? In fact, using that exact rod from it (as some one gave me one so it's sitting there and curious if it'll work).
 
PatrickKnight said:
One thing you should be aware of is the spine of the RS is rounded, so in order to throw a good spark you will have to flatten it out so it has a sharp corner.
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Yeah I noticed that.

Actually. May not do that. I just remembered I have about a 2 ton pile of steel out back. I may just cut off a little piece for that. I don't kind using my knives, but hate to grind one off when there's other options readily available.
 
Just get a few cheap P-38 can openers. They work good for fire starters and have several other uses.

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You can also use part of an old hacksaw blade. Grinding down part of the spine on the Rodent Solution will create stress risers--I doubt you would ever break it, but still...why mess with such an awesome knife. I ground down the spine on a Becker once so I could use it to strike my ferro rod, and I regretted it immediately afterwards. I ended up stripping the whole knife and polishing the spine so it wouldn't look like :barf: Personally I think using a knife to scrape a ferro rod is a bit of a fad, but that's just me...
 
billygoat162 said:
Personally I think using a knife to scrape a ferro rod is a bit of a fad, but that's just me...
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Yeah I think you're right. This thread is a good example of an idea asked too quickly before I thought it through well and came up with a better way. Premature epostulation.
 
SVTFreak said:
Yeah I think you're right. This thread is a good example of an idea asked too quickly before I thought it through well and came up with a better way. Premature epostulation.
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Lol. Better you than me this time, SVTFreak. :) Actually I don't think it was a bad question at all. One time I ground flats on a Alox SAK for the purpose of striking a fire steel, and although it struck fine, it also caused the tool to close so far that the thumb notch was hard to get to :( I think you're making the right call in carrying a secondary striker.
 
I carry a few broken hack saw blades. You can make a little pile of ferro rod with the teeth, and then strike it.

I don't use my knife edges (I would if I needed to for real).
 
Bigfattyt said:
I carry a few broken hack saw blades. You can make a little pile of ferro rod with the teeth, and then strike it.

I don't use my knife edges (I would if I needed to for real).
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:thumbup: Ding! Winner! :thumbup:
This works great!!! I used shears to cut the hacksaw blades to size (about 3.5 -4 ") then attached them to the a Magnesium block and flint combo with a small ball chain.
I've got one in all our cars and give'em to friends going hiking too.
 
evltcat said:
:thumbup: Ding! Winner! :thumbup:
This works great!!! I used shears to cut the hacksaw blades to size (about 3.5 -4 ") then attached them to the a Magnesium block and flint combo with a small ball chain.
I've got one in all our cars and give'em to friends going hiking too.
Click to expand...

+1 on the shears. The first time I cut up a hacksaw blade for this, I used a Dremel and then sharpened the spine with it. So much for the heat treatment on the hacksaw blade. Sharpening the spine with some sandpaper works well though.
 
So, I know a lot of folks would not use a knife edge to use the fire steel…….

I know there are better options like a good striker/scraper/hacksaw piece, etc. But I lit a bottle caps worth of hand sanitizer aflame last night with the edge of my Taliwhacker LE, on my second try…… :)

Then, my friend was keen on lighting some on fire like I did BUT he didn't have very good technique and ended up striking the edge probably dozens of times in the same spot…..

After all this I had to stop him to see how the edge was holding up, I looked and thought I saw some deformation but it turned out to just be stuck on pieces from the fire steel. After a couple dozen passes on a DMT Coarse stone the edge looks perfect and is quite sharp.

My fire steel was pretty tore up though once my buddy got done with it, soft steel is no match for SR-101 it seems…… ;)
 
Some great suggestions so far but one thing I had done is used one of the halves of safety scissors. throws sparks like no other!
 
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