Taught The Mrs. A Little About Using A Firesteel.......

[Mistwalker]

A few days back I told a couple of friends I get some fatwood together for them. This afternoon I decided to process some and get it ready to send off. It was a nice afternoon out, here some shots of my views looking up while out by the fire pit.

This is the fatwood stump I started splitting.

It's a nice rich little stump, they should be happy with it.

And... to show just how good of fatwood it is...these are some shots from Lisa's first firesteel lesson. Until today Lisa had never made a fuzz stick, though she has done a good bit of whittling, and had never sparked her firesteel even once. I was really proud of her, I think she did really well, making three small fatwood fuzz sticks and igniting all three in just under ten minutes. She did really well on the last one going from sparking tinder to flames in about 7 seconds.

#1... ummm, this one was rather entertaining.

#2 She did much better on this one

and then #3 and I think she did great with this one

This is the video of her sparking the last one...she beat me and my camera by about half a sparking. I tried to embed the video but apparently don't know how...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUF0dS-0wZg

 

[Graham_S]

Nice photos,

 

[FerlasDave]

Nice one mate. What wierd about this is I gave my missus her first firesteel lesson a couple of days back. She is also called Lisa. :O

 

[Mistwalker]

Thanks Graham,

I know how it must look as I've had a couple of people mention her technique but actually in the pics where she is holding the knife above her leg the "carving" force is coming from her left thumb, the right is simply hand holding the knife in place. The knife is scalpel sharp and requires very little pressure to make fuzzies. She has seen me do it the same way except most of the time while standing holding the block of wood about stomach high. With the amount of force being used and how it is being applied there is actually very little chance of any slipping at all.


Thanks Davey,

How did she do?

And tell me...is there any chance Lisa comes from some ancient language and means naturally curious and stubborn as.......?


.

 

[FerlasDave]

She did pretty good to say as it was her first time and she didnt want to get her jeans muddy. :O Only took a few tries with birchbark and her preperation was brilliant.

I think you could be on to something there mate...

 

[Mistwalker]

Cool, maybe it's more like....very smart, naturally curious, and stubborn as........

I wish we had some of the other Birches here in this area. we just have the Silver and Black Birches that I've seen. The Silver Birch bark works for a lot of things but the Black Birch is more like the bark of other trees.

 

[FerlasDave]

Very smart or very lucky?

I tried black birch once but it didnt seem to work properly. Maybe theres not enough oil in it to light from a spark. Not seen any other types of birch either though.

 

[Whittler Kev]

Thanks Graham,

I know how it must look as I've had a couple of people mention her technique but actually in the pics where she is holding the knife above her leg the "carving" force is coming from her left thumb, the right is simply hand holding the knife in place. The knife is scalpel sharp and requires very little pressure to make fuzzies. She has seen me do it the same way except most of the time while standing holding the block of wood about stomach high. With the amount of force being used and how it is being applied there is actually very little chance of any slipping at all.


Thanks Davey,

How did she do?

And tell me...is there any chance Lisa comes from some ancient language and means naturally curious and stubborn as.......?


.

Glad you said that. The first thing I thought was her poor legs.
Well done to her on the feather sticks and getting them going

 

[The Cumbrian]

I hadn't even heard of fatwood until I read your posts, and now I look for it all the time that I'm out and about. Along with birchbark, I still can't quite believe how flammable it is.
How are you finding your knife after extended use? It certainly looks the business.

Cheers, Michael.

 

[Mistwalker]

I hadn't even heard of fatwood until I read your posts, and now I look for it all the time that I'm out and about. Along with birchbark, I still can't quite believe how flammable it is.
How are you finding your knife after extended use? It certainly looks the business.

Cheers, Michael.

Fatwood is an awsome tinder for wet conditions and it ignites easily.

Yeah right lol, doesn't the knife still look brand new?! I designed that knife for her and for some reason she won't let me leave the house with it!! However all of the other knives I have that Bryan made are holding up quite well. This will be their first winter and that will tell a lot of the tale.