Firesteel mark

[Ralph]

If I am using the firesteel with my knife it leaves a greyish,blueish brown mark afterwards. It is easy to wipe off but it is a bit of a pain. Is it normal?

 

[miniac]

Mine does that aswell, so I guess it is

 

[tomtom]

totaly normal in my experience.. i wouldnt worrie about it

 

[P@ul]

I also think your find it’s pretty normal, I also noticed when looking close that there are also small splatter marks but they seem to polish out.

P@ul

 

[BobFromHolland]

I use the firesteel-embedded-in-magnesium type myself.
I wear it at my key-ring.

It also works wonders to open beer-bottles etc.

Just wipe after use with my hands. The inside of my trouser pocket does the rest beautifully.

 

[Ahjno]

Completely normal and nothing to worry about I reckon.

When you scrape with your knife over the firesteel to start a fire - you'll get a lot of sparks :11doh:
These sparks are created, or are actual the scraping bits you remove with your knife from your firesteel (you remove a tiny bit of your firesteel every time you use it). :yikes:
By the movement made by your hand / knife and the different kinds of metals the firesteel contains (somewhere around 20 different metals, etc. are in it) you create the sparks.
These sparks (scraping residu) is what you find as brownish / greyish yuck on your knife.

If you don't want the stuff on you knife, just use something else to scrape (which can be actually almost everything with a sharp edge).

Hope this helps