Fire steels & blade spines

[addyb]

A silly question, but if I were to purchase a fire steel to use with my new Clipper, how would I have to modify the spine of the blade to be able to propely use a fire steel with it? I'm asking because I remember hearing once that stainless steel is quite difficult to produce sparks with.

Thanks,

Adam

 

[British Red]

A silly question, but if I were to purchase a fire steel to use with my new Clipper, how would I have to modify the spine of the blade to be able to propely use a fire steel with it? I'm asking because I remember hearing once that stainless steel is quite difficult to produce sparks with.

Thanks,

Adam

Addy,

Its a myth IMHO. I have produced an acceptable shower of sparks from stainless, carbon, flint knap, the file on my Leatherman, a baked bean tin.....

The only thing you need to get a spark out of a fireteel is a decent square spine

Red

 

[RovingArcher]

Addy,

Its a myth IMHO. I have produced an acceptable shower of sparks from stainless, carbon, flint knap, the file on my Leatherman, a baked bean tin.....

The only thing you need to get a spark out of a fireteel is a decent square spine

Red

That's been my experience as well. Square up the spine and it'll do just fine getting sparks from your firesteel.

 

[Andy]

Mora knives often don't have a very square spine. a bit of time with a file sorts it out quickly enough though

 

[mrostov]

If I'm using my Leatherman or Swiss Champ, I prefer to use the back edge of the wood saw to strike a firetool.

 

[RovingArcher]

I use the sharp edge of the awl on my SAK.

 

[addyb]

Thanks for the tips, guys.

Adam

 

[C_Claycomb]

As answered in the FAQ thread at the head of this sub forum. Ok, only more or less answered.

Will stainless steel work on a firesteel?
Yes. Anything that is harder than a fire steel and has a sharp edge will strike sparks. The chromium content of the steel, that which makes it stainless or not, is irrelevant.

My knife won’t cast sparks from fire steel.
There are only three things that this could be.
1. Your knife’s spine does not have sharp enough corners on the spine. Use a file or a sharpening stone to grind the spine square. You are trying to machine (mechanically cut into) the ferro rod. Its no different really from a high speed saw or grinder throwing sparks as it cuts steel.
2. Your knife’s spine is too soft. If your knife has had a differential heat treatment to give it a hard cutting edge and a soft/springy back it may not be hard enough at the spine to throw really good sparks. The Kellam Wolverine and all other Precision Tempered blades fall into this category, as might some customs that are differentially tempered or hardened.
3. Your blade has a coating. If your blade has a baked on coating, or laquer to prevent rust you will have to remove it from the area of spine you want to use for striking sparks. See No 2 above. If you want to have the knife spine bite into the ferro rod you need a hard sharp corner. No coating. Some coatings are thin enough (those on Falknivens) that they move out of the way all my themselves when the spine is applied to the rod.

 

[Brixton]

My Helle Egen is absolutely pants for making sparks
My Frost Mora is fabulous
I prefer the feel and look of the Helle knife
At least till my new Ben Orford one turns up (gloat gloat)
So I use the wee bit of metal that came with the ferro rod thingy
Not really a problem as it doesn't weigh much and looks like some sort of new age/goth dogtag trendy necklace.

Plus I can lend it to others to have a go and if they lose it or break it I am not upset.

I will never lend a knife again.
I lent a buck to a friend once and he took the tip off it using it to cut cable ties off a scaff pole

 

[Goose]

I have found the Tin opener on my swiss army(type) knife is brilliant and safer than my knife when the kids use it.

 

[demographic]

Pretty much as Brixton has pointed out, if the three or so grams that the firesteel striker weighs is too much then perhaps you need to work out a bit

Oh and stainless works just fine with firesteels, as long as it's got a good square edge and it's harder than the firesteel it will strike sparks.

Proper flint is another matter aparently but to be honest I have never really tried it.
Sure someone with a brain will come allong shortly and fill you on about the rest.

 

[Longstrider]

If you ever have cause to worry about what will or will not make a good shower of sparks with a ferro rod, just tie a short piece of hacksaw blade to the ferro with a piece of string. The back of the hacksaw blade will produce a good shower of sparks every time, and if you don't mind wearing down your rod quicker than normal, you should see what the toothed side does! It's like Nov 5th !
That little bit of hacksaw blade has other uses too, as it will still cut metal should you need it to, and it saves you from getting those little burn marks on your knife blade that some get when using the two together.

 

[addyb]

Hacksaw blade? Wow...that is a REALLY bloody great idea! I'm going to scrounge one up in my garage, cut it down to size and slip it into my survival kit.

Thanks!

Adam

 

[Martyn]

Hey, why not take the ferro challenge...

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=945

 

[addyb]

Thanks, but no, I'm not quite there yet. I still haven't created fire with a bow-drill, sadly. When I master that, then I'll move onto flint and steel.

Here's another random question: Frosts Clippers have plastic and rubber handles. And bug repellent contains deet. (I use 100% deet repellent.) If I get bug repellent on my hands after application, will it melt the plastic and rubber of a Clipper? This may seem like a strange question to those of you who wear a lot of natural fabrics in the bush, but I've seen deet repellents strip paint off of axe handles and melt synthetic clothing.

Adam

 

[Martyn]

Thanks, but no, I'm not quite there yet. I still haven't created fire with a bow-drill, sadly. When I master that, then I'll move onto flint and steel.

Here's another random question: Frosts Clippers have plastic and rubber handles. And bug repellent contains deet. (I use 100% deet repellent.) If I get bug repellent on my hands after application, will it melt the plastic and rubber of a Clipper? This may seem like a strange question to those of you who wear a lot of natural fabrics in the bush, but I've seen deet repellents strip paint off of axe handles and melt synthetic clothing.

Adam

Hmm, I think we are at cross purposes here, the ferro challenge mentioned above, is referring to a ferrocerium rod - a firesteel - it's the same thing. Not a flint and steel, that's entirrely different.

Ferrocerium is an alloy of iron and a load of other "pyro-phillic" elements which combine to make a material that casts a shower of hot sparks when subjected to a moderate amount of friction from an abrasive substance. Also known as a "Swedish firesteel".

Ferro rod, firesteel, Swedish firesteel - they are all the same. The abrasive can be anything that is harder and sharper than the ferro rod itself (see the ferro challenge).

Flint and steel is different. In that instance, the sparks come from the steel and the abrasive is the flint.

 

[addyb]

Well thanks for the advice guys, I squared off the spine on my Clipper today and it works quite well with flint. Now I can add "Swedish fire steel" to my never ending list of things to buy.

Adam

 

[Martyn]

Well thanks for the advice guys, I squared off the spine on my Clipper today and it works quite well with flint. Now I can add "Swedish fire steel" to my never ending list of things to buy.

Adam

Go for it Adam, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Once you get that firesteel though, be sure to test a range of materials to use as a striker - it's good to know what works and what doesn't. You'll be surprised what works well - broken pottery and broken glass for example. If you have a sedwish firesteel, it's extremely unlikely you could be caught in the outdoors without finding something to use as a striker, though your clipper will always be first choice for convenience sake.

Have fun.

 

[addyb]

I'll keep that in mind, Martyn.

You know, this Clipper keeps impressing me, no matter what I do with it. Yesterday in the rain a friend and I decided that we wanted to make a bush lean-to, so after a couple hours of work we had a silly little lean-to set up and we lined the inside of it with about a foot deep of evergreen boughs. Then we sat inside of it smoking ciggies for a while and watched the rain soak everything around us while we stayed quite dry.

But gawd, the knife just doesn't want to quit! I can brush or sticks all day with it and it still stays amazingly sharp. Mind you, I had to work for a while to bring the edge to this point, but I have never been this impressed with a knife before.

Adam

 

[Damascus]

If you use a hacksaw blade, I always use one and I think produce the best sparks remember to sharpen the top 3/4 inch and it makes a handy little razor blade to cut and skin rabbits as well.