Ferro rod and steel types?

[ledders666]

Does anyone know if the RWL34 steel gives of a descent spark on a Ferro rod? Or how comparable it is to 01 steel which gives off loads of sparks.

Cheers

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[lou1661]

Seems fine to me. Just tried my knife made of RWL34 out with the ferro rod i use, seems fine to me, but i have not done a side by side comparison.

 

[Billy-o]

It depends on the hardness of the steel not, as is occasionally thought, whether it is carbon or stainless steel. If it is hard (and has a sharp enough corner) it'll strike. You must have noticed by now how much the ferro rods screw up the steel on blades. Best thing in any case is to get hold on an inch-long piece off the end of a used hacksaw blade - keep the hole .

 

[Janne]

In the old fashioned steel and flint it is the steel that produces the sparks.
The opposite from the modern firelighter you ask about. The sparks there are tiny bits of the ferrocerium rod.
The harder steel ( knife, saw blade, whatever) the more ferrocerium shavings = more sparks.

Has anybody tried to use a ceramic knife?

 

[Billy-o]

Funnily enough I was thinking this afternoon of trying a bit of glass

 

[Robson Valley]

I don't know that glass is as hard as the typical ceramic knife blade.
But by all means, try a piece of glass.
Both of them are really brittle for certain as thin edges, they chip like crazy.
Something that can dig into the ferrocerium.
Wiki says the ignition temp of the fine fragments is 150 - 180C

 

[Ruud]

Glass and rocks work just fine. They (and spines of knives for that matter) do however work way better on softer firesteels like the LMF's and Woodlore firesteel.

If it has an edge, it can scrape. If it can scrape it can produce sparks.

 

[Billy-o]

I don't know that glass is as hard as the typical ceramic knife blade.

That was my thought. I often sand-out dings and chips in the rim of drinking glasses and it is super easy, so I assumed at least that type of glass might not be too hard.

 

[Janne]

Hardened glass might work? It is 'ceramized' so to speak.
Like the French Duralex?

But as you need a sharp shard, you do not get those easily if you break one Duralex?