I was sitting around last night with a little time on my hands and wanting to do something more productive than watch TV. I had some extra fire steels and several deer antlers, so, I decided to make up a few fire steels using the deer antlers as the handles. Most of them are 5/16" x 3", with one of the fire steel blanks being a 3/8" x 4". I drilled them all out, set them with epoxy, and soaked them in oil over night.
A month or so ago, I tried out an idea that I had seen a few other people do with the pull apart quick release key chains. I really liked how it worked and figured that I would make a few others like it. The 3/8 x 4" seems a little too big for my pocket, but the 5/16" x 3" works perfect. It's nice having a lanyard attached to it so that I don't have to worry about it falling from my pocket and losing it. But, I also hated how the lanyard would get in the way, or the issue with too much or too little para cord. It was hard to find a balance between having a long enough lanyard to actually be able to use it for fires, but not too much that it was a hassle to deal with the extra length. With this, I can make a long enough lanyard to keep the fire steel in my pocket, and then just release it when I'm ready to use it.
Here it is with the pull apart quick release attached.
Here it is with it removed.
I'm going to put a few coats of spray shellac on them to give it a nice shiny look and they will be finished.
A month or so ago, I tried out an idea that I had seen a few other people do with the pull apart quick release key chains. I really liked how it worked and figured that I would make a few others like it. The 3/8 x 4" seems a little too big for my pocket, but the 5/16" x 3" works perfect. It's nice having a lanyard attached to it so that I don't have to worry about it falling from my pocket and losing it. But, I also hated how the lanyard would get in the way, or the issue with too much or too little para cord. It was hard to find a balance between having a long enough lanyard to actually be able to use it for fires, but not too much that it was a hassle to deal with the extra length. With this, I can make a long enough lanyard to keep the fire steel in my pocket, and then just release it when I'm ready to use it.
Here it is with the pull apart quick release attached.
Here it is with it removed.
I'm going to put a few coats of spray shellac on them to give it a nice shiny look and they will be finished.