Fire lighting with a fire steel

[njc110381]

Well as some of you may have read, my steel that I asked Launditch1 to make for me arrived in the post today. I spent a couple of minutes tapping sparks from it (very ammusing I must say) and then decided I'd have a go at making fire with it.

Is it meant to be this simple? On my second strike of the flint I caught a spark in the char cloth and coaxed it up to a decent ember. I wrapped it in a tissue and blew it a couple of times and it was off.

This is the first time I've ever used a traditional steel. I really do have to wonder why people bother with these new "strike a light" type rods? I'd read that it was a lot harder to set an ember with a traditional steel but so far it's been easy. I did have ideal conditions for it but all the same I expected it to take much longer to work!

I'm going to use it to light the wood burner now!

 

[gregorach]

Yes, it really is that easy!

The attraction of modern ferrocerium rods is that you don't need to mess about blowing your ember into flame, which is where things usually go wrong just when you really don't want them to. You also don't necessarily need pre-prepared tinder of any kind.

 

[launditch1]

I think the earlier steel strike-a-lights were made of ordinary wrought iron and were harder to get decent sparks from..
The ones i make are from high carbon steel that are heated a bit past the curie point for maximum hardness.
I wonder if the old ones were case-hardened?..I feel an experiment coming on.
Glad youre having fun with it,easy int'it?!

How about this then!http://www.ingenious.org.uk/see/Soc...A2-BAF6-E51F-590CDAE3CC4D}&s=S1&viewby=images

 

[lannyman8]

awsome work but now try it in a damp forest when its raining and you will understand how it can be hard at times.

you also need to take dry tinder ready to use with your char cloth or tinder fungus.

give the fungus a go its a bit harder (cramo balls) grow on dead ash and burch lookes like a dark darl brown golf ball.

hope this helps chris.......

 

[Martyn]

I really do have to wonder why people bother with these new "strike a light" type rods?

I've got a small collection of firesteels and love them. But I hav not yet found a "field" tinder that can be used green. By that I mean you need charcloth or something similar that has been pre-prepared. I have not found anything in the woods that you can just "use" to catch a spark, with the one possible exception of cramp balls if you are in the middle of summer and are lucky enough to find a very dry one. This means no tinder (or wet tinder) = no fire. Also, flint is a consumable. It wears away pretty fast and if you dont live in a chalky area or by the sea, finding new bits of flint can be troublesome.

Ferro rods on the other hand, will light just about anything. Birch bark, feather sticks, dry leaves, dry grass, woodshavings, paper, etc. Ferro rods will also strike with just about anything, broken pebbles, bricks, broken pottery or glass etc. I have absolute faith that I could walk into any wood with just the clothes on my back and a ferro rod, and within a few minutes, I'd have a fire.

 

[PREPER]

When I got my first fire steel I took it out into the woods and successfully used it to start a fire with every bushcraft material I could find or carry with me.
THEN I went out in poor weather, it was a LOT more difficult.
Now I practise when I can in all 'conditions' and over time have become confident that I can get a fire going almost anytime/anywhere.
BUT it took a fair bit of practise/experimentation!

PREPER........

 

[njc110381]

I've been playing with some other tinders and you are right it's harder without goods preparation. I think my ideal is to master the fire drill but that's another stage all together. Looks like I'll just have to make some more char cloth and carry a lighter just in case!

 

[lannyman8]

a lighter and some inertube are always a massive realy good just in case........

 

[Martyn]

I've been playing with some other tinders and you are right it's harder without goods preparation. I think my ideal is to master the fire drill but that's another stage all together. Looks like I'll just have to make some more char cloth and carry a lighter just in case!

It's my favorite method of firestarting by a long margin, but if you dont have charcloth, amadou or dried cramp balls, you are pretty much dead in the water. I've never managed to get anything else to take a spark ...and I've never seen anyone else on here claim they have either.

Here's some of mine...

Brilliant things. Love em, it's like making fire with art - but you need a plan B.

 

[durulz]

As others have said, yes - it really is that easy.
But, also as others have said, it's not so easy in the wet if you have no dry tinder.
I always have this funny dilemma with firelighting. Of course, the 'truest' way to do it is to make fire with nothing other than what you find in the environment you are in. All other forms of firelighting require you to take materials with you. And when you realise that, you realise that taking a flint and steel with you is no more 'hard core' than taking a Bic lighter - both require you to bring in manufactured objects from outside. And that's no difference at all.
But there is a sense of self-reliance and achievement in using flint and steel. Even if it is mis-placed.

 

[njc110381]

The point about the flint and steel is very true. It's not really any more natural than a lighter. When you look at it like that a lighter is little more than a small package with the flint, steel and tinder all stored in it!

I wanted to work on the flint and steel to train myself how to deal with an ember. It's not that hardest thing to do to get an ember into a flame but I wanted to do it a lot before I started drilling to get embers. Imagine how annoying it would be if you got your first decent ember with the drill for it to then fail because you're not that great at moving on to the next stage! It also has a lot of history behind it. I like that kind of thing.

I like to think I'm reasonably good outdoors. I recognise food plants and animals and can trap pretty well both with man made and natural materials. I can make shelter and know how to have a comfortable night with no problems. I learned all of that when I was young. The only thing I wish I'd worked on was fire. I always carried a lighter and now I'm finding it pretty tough to learn!

 

[Martyn]

Dont dismiss it too lightly though. From Oetzi the Iceman till the invention of the match, it was pretty much how everybody made fire. Without modern firemaking tools, it would be back to flint & steel. The materials can all be found naturally, the main difference is that it all needs a fair bit of advance preparation. If you put the time in to find and prepare the materials, then you have a very easy, fast and reliable method of firestarting. It's just not something you can gather on the spot.

As you said, it also gets you familiar with growing a fire from an ember - makes no difference that the ember is a piece of glowing cramp ball or wood dust from a bow drill. Blowing an ember into a good fire is the fun bit and the other half of the battle. It's certainly a skill that's good to practice, if only to discover the pro's and cons of different tinder's and the different materials and methods of making a "birds nest" bundle. One of my favourite alternatives is to roll up some birch bark into a toilet roll shape and stuff with dry flax, grass, cattail fluff, leaves, old mans beard or whatever. Make a dent in one end with your finger and bind the tube with a couple of wraps of grass strands. You can keep it in your pocket and when ready, just drop the ember in the finger dent, cover it a little with tinder and blow through the tube. If you find yourself somewhere where the materials are abundant, you can make a few and carry them with you. It works really well, try it.

 

[John Fenna]

And when you realise that, you realise that taking a flint and steel with you is no more 'hard core' than taking a Bic lighter - both require you to bring in manufactured objects from outside. And that's no difference at all.
QUOTE]

I can make a flint and steel set from "found objects" and a bit of sweat ...I cannot make a Bic.
That is the difference...

 

[Adze]

And when you realise that, you realise that taking a flint and steel with you is no more 'hard core' than taking a Bic lighter - both require you to bring in manufactured objects from outside. And that's no difference at all.
QUOTE]

I can make a flint and steel set from "found objects" and a bit of sweat ...I cannot make a Bic.
That is the difference...

I can see that... both, however, required that someone start a fire first to make them.

Unlike the chicken and the egg, there is a definitive answer to "which came first, the fire or the firesteel?"

It may just be that the first person to smelt iron to be used for making the first firesteel used a chunk of iron pyrites and a flint, but did the man who made the charcoal or built the bloomery? Questions we'll never answer.

It is possible to make fire, reasonably quickly, having been dropped naked in the Kalahari by using a fire plow (no need for cordage then and, granted, you need to know what wood to use locally etc. etc.) but you'd pretty soon be looking for an easier way

 

[PREPER]

When I got my first fire steel I took it out into the woods and successfully used it to start a fire with every bushcraft material I could find or carry with me.
THEN I went out in poor weather, it was a LOT more difficult.
Now I practise when I can in all 'conditions' and over time have become confident that I can get a fire going almost anytime/anywhere.
BUT it took a fair bit of practise/experimentation!

PREPER........

I went out in the rain this week with a mate to practice firelighting in wet conditions using only a fire steel and a knife. We managed it but it took far too long, I am not so confident anymore. I need to practise more me thinks

PREPER............

 

[Martyn]

I went out in the rain this week with a mate to practice firelighting in wet conditions using only a fire steel and a knife. We managed it but it took far too long, I am not so confident anymore. I need to practise more me thinks

PREPER............

I think we are at cross purposes here...

I think you are talking about one of these?...

Whereas this thread is about these...

They are very different things. It's like talking about starting a fire with matches in a thread where the topic is starting a fire by rubbing sticks together.

 

[PREPER]

Fair point, to clarify I have 'mastered' the fire steel but I have moved on to the 'real thing'. I am finding it difficult.
I have much to learn, but will preserver.

PREPER.........