Primitive or Modern fire?

[Chip Dale]

I was out this afternoon and decided to make a brew. So out comes my flint, fires now burning well. Then it dawned on me. In my kit I both a modern flint & steel and the more traditional Iron Pyrite & Alibates, but I now tend to use the more modern method.

So my question is, am I becoming lazy, or is this now a natural progression for a primitive method relying upon modern technology to carry it into the future?
Does anyone else find that they have both primitive equipment, but tend to use the modern kit first, and if so why?

 

[Bob Hurley]

I think it's only human nature. Improvements were accepted over time because they were just that - improvements.

If I'm determined to stay to a certain level of technology on a trip, then I take only appropriate things. It takes no willpower to avoid using a cigarette lighter if you don't have one with you.

 

[hootchi]

Have you seen this thread by the great pebble? :biggthump

I would send it back for repair.

 

[Jeff Wagner]

Everything is relative and the adoption of better methods is the nature of development. Once upon a time, the things we now consider primitive were themselves the high point of technological achievement of their time. A hunter of 1750 carrying such items as a good steel striker, a brass tinderbox w/burning lens, a flintlock rifle of .50 caliber or better and forged blade would have considered himself to be properly outfitted with some of the best that technology had to offer and could scarcely dream of any better equipment.