This may sound a bit basic, but I only got the hang of it a couple of weeks ago.
I've been using my knife and steel to produce lovely showers of sparks, but it was taking me lots of attempts to actually get anything to land where I wanted it to, and for the spark to then ignite the tinder.
I was using the back of the knife at about mid point, and scraping it along the full length of the fire steel.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had some cramp balls, and cut a piece off one to try to light it. The piece was a bit too small really, and my sparks were going all over the place. So, I used the very end of the fire steel and the back of the knife closer to the tip and just did little strikes, a few less sparks, but those that were produced all landed where I wanted them to and the cramp ball was duly smouldering away with the minumum number of attempts.
Just thought I'd share it as I find it easier to control doing it this way.
I've been using my knife and steel to produce lovely showers of sparks, but it was taking me lots of attempts to actually get anything to land where I wanted it to, and for the spark to then ignite the tinder.
I was using the back of the knife at about mid point, and scraping it along the full length of the fire steel.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had some cramp balls, and cut a piece off one to try to light it. The piece was a bit too small really, and my sparks were going all over the place. So, I used the very end of the fire steel and the back of the knife closer to the tip and just did little strikes, a few less sparks, but those that were produced all landed where I wanted them to and the cramp ball was duly smouldering away with the minumum number of attempts.
Just thought I'd share it as I find it easier to control doing it this way.