Firesteel in rain

[ril25]

Athough I've started fires many times with the swedish firesteel, I've failed last time during a rain. Could anyone help me out what should I do in similar circumstances?
So, it was raining already for three days when we went to the woods. We have put up a tarp - to protect from direct rainfall, and tried to start a fire with the firesteel under that. We decided not to use any artificial materials for the fire (except the firesteel itself) and here comes the hard part since the heavy rains, there were not many dry natural materials around.
It's usually easy to start a fire with firesteel in dry weather but it was raining. So we had no chance to find dry grass, moss, dry tinder fungus, poplar cotton or any other fluffy stuff. Birchbark and fatwood would be great tinder, but there were no birch and pine around - I know the area well. So we've ended up making feather sticks. We have made a dozen of them in different sizes, from the dry inner part of different pieces of woods. But it was also unable to catch the sparks from the firesteel...
What else could I do in these circumstances? Or is that a limit of the firesteel usage, and we had no chance at all?

(Ps. Of course we have started the fire after all, using a piece of paper, but it was like cheating and made me very sad to fail the natural way.)

 

[mountainm]

You have to dry the tinder with your body heat as you move around camp. Or feather up the insides of dead wood where it's still dry.

 

[Disco1]

I always carry a tin with natural tinder that I've collected before that way I always have tinder and small kindling dry and ready for use.

 

[redneck]

The buffed up inner bark from cedar trees is brilliant, so is honeysuckle bark, also feather sticks from the inner of dead standing wood, make them fine and they will easily light from a ferro rod, or find pine or spruce or fir and use the sap or resin from them, there's loads of ways to light fire using natural materials in the rain..I have used every method mentioned here in the pouring rain and succeeded, but it just sometimes takes a while.

 

[Stevie777]

I soak Cotton Balls in Vaseline/Petrolium jelly and carry them stuffed into a small tin..£1 for the tin, £1 for the Vaseline and £1 for the cotton balls all from poundland ...never fails. first spark and you have fire. Sometimes you just need to get a fire together without the need for old school ways.

Shop around for Cotton balls and Petrolium jelly, you can buy large amount for very little.

[video=youtube;BF4WDVVDTp0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF4WDVVDTp0[/video]

 

[Goatboy]

Standing rotten timber or rotted trunks ofter have dry punk wood if you take stuff from the interior. That and resin filled old softwood roots and branch stubs can be shaved into fine shavings and the high resin content makes them pretty waterproof.
Like others though I invaviably carry cart around natural tinders in my pouch.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Toffee_Apple]

Three pairs of socks...One to keep your feet warm, one to start a fire & one if you can't find the toilet roll!


Don't sweat the petty things & don't pet the sweaty things..!

 

[Stevie777]

Three pairs of socks...One to keep your feet warm, one to start a fire & one if you can't find the toilet roll!


Don't sweat the petty things & don't pet the sweaty things..!

And remember which pair you used for what.

 

[bambodoggy]

(Ps. Of course we have started the fire after all, using a piece of paper, but it was like cheating and made me very sad to fail the natural way.)

Nothing wrong with using a piece of paper.....paper has been around rather a lot longer than modern Swedish fire steels and there is nothing natural about them.....or the cotton wool with petroleum jelly on it that some use

If you want natural then it's flint and iron pyritise or friction fire....nothing wrong with other ways but don't worry you aren't being natural in your tinder selection if you're lighting it with a modern fire steel

I light most of my fires with a bic lighter.....I'm often told by people brandishing fire steels that I'm not a traditionalist using a lighter.....I smile and watch them walk back to their nylon tarps, take off their cordura boots and lay on their synthetic filled sleeping bags to contemplate just how natural they are

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[sunndog]

Lots of options for finding dry natural tinder as others have said.
But if you are carrying means to start a fire then IMO your kit ain't complete unless you have a tinder pouch of some sort. first nations would have carried one generally so it wont detract from yer bushy street cred, esp if using a modern firesteel

 

[Hammock_man]

You could get a Misch metal firesteel. This gives off a few sparks but they are more like lumps of molten metal rather than pretty picture book sparks. Pretty sparks will light cotton wool and meth no problem but the misch metal steels will land a still burning lump which gives the tinder more chance to spark.

 

[janso]

Nothing wrong with using a piece of paper.....paper has been around rather a lot longer than modern Swedish fire steels and there is nothing natural about them.....or the cotton wool with petroleum jelly on it that some use

If you want natural then it's flint and iron pyritise or friction fire....nothing wrong with other ways but don't worry you aren't being natural in your tinder selection if you're lighting it with a modern fire steel

I light most of my fires with a bic lighter.....I'm often told by people brandishing fire steels that I'm not a traditionalist using a lighter.....I smile and watch them walk back to their nylon tarps, take off their cordura boots and lay on their synthetic filled sleeping bags to contemplate just how natural they are

Cheers,

Bam.

Love it; I've had that before and just smiled to myself at 'traditionalists'...!


Sent from my hidey hole using Tapatalk... sssh!

 

[Atarian]

I have a flint and steel, a firesteel, waterproof matches and a bic in my pack. If I'm all relaxed and I'm having fun I'll break out the strike-a-light and charcloth. If I'm wet, grumpy and cold the Bic comes out straight away, I'm not ashamed!

 

[User3326]

Spine of a knife, saw or anything with a well defined squared edge. Using the square edge, scrape the wood. You'll get nice fluffy/ fine shavings of tinder. As long as its relatively dry wood it will light with a fire steel. Then you can add your feather sticks to get it going before you build up a fire.

Source of dry wood, if you're not splitting big logs, is dead branches on living tree's. It's off the ground and is relatively dry. Trim them off with a saw properly/neatly.