Firesticks, Firesteels and Fire Lighting. A Noobs learing!

[TrickyT]

Having had a 'day to myself' I decided to have a go at improving my fire lighting techniques. What a steep learning curve it was!

I had some kiln dried kindling, about 6" long and 1" square which, with the help of my Mora, I quartered and then made some firesticks out of them. I made about a dozen, thinking there will be plenty to practice with!

I then attempted to start a fire using my Light My Fire Army Firesteel.

Here are my findings. I know to most of this will be 'second nature' but thought I would give some advice to help out others who are just learning or think it must just be them. It is never quite as simple as Ray Mears or Youtube makes out unless you have mastered the basics!

1 - The striker on the Firesteel is awkward to hold and use (imho) took me quite a while to work this out. Ditch it ASAP and use the back of your trust carbon knife. Great sparks easy every time.

2 - 6" firesticks may look compact and fancy, but they burn out VERY fast and are very fragile. I needed to put several together to get a flame going.

3 - Have plenty of small kindling ready BEFORE you start, you always need more that you think.

4 - Build the fire up with small kindling, get a good heat into it before adding larger bits. Don't be tempted to chuck on larger bits too quickly or you will smother the flame.

5 - Practice, practice, practice and finally practice. Once you have mastered it in ideal conditions, try it when the weather is nasty!

Hope this reassures others who are learning that it can be done.

Regards

Trevor

 

[jackcbr]

Funnily enough I did the same yesterday. As the temp was -5 and we still have a bit of snow on the ground, thought it would be a bit of a challenge. Took my video camera and recorded my efforts, as I'm not that experienced at it, it would give me something to post and get comments on. Will have to edit it down a bit as it is over 15 minutes long.

Tomorrow I'm going to give it a go again but this time with crampball fungus and a pencil sharpener. Once again, video camera in hand.

 

[georann]

Nice one Trevor, welcome to the world of bushcraft. It's always good to learn from your mistakes, far better than someone just telling you how its done.
Slightly hypocritically, just thought I'd add my two penneth:
Firstly, I agree firesticks (or feather sticks as theyre sometimes known) can be right fiddly buggers and it always seems to be that you have a full head of feathers then chop, they all come off! No advice on that one, just practice.
Secondly, its good to practice finding natural and man made (be it tumble dryer lint or homemade charcloth) tinders to start your fire and hold your ember before lighting the featherstick. I just personally find it substantially easier, especially in poor conditions.


Otherwise keep up the good work. Good luck
Dan

 

[TrickyT]

Raided the filter on the tumble dryer this morning, along with some other man made fibers. They all took with the firesteel and striker first time.

Was particularly impressed with cotton wool smeared with Vaseline.

These used in conjunction with a feather stick lit the fire first time and very easily.

Will be adding some of these to my bushcraft bag.

Regards

Trevor

 

[MSkiba]

I just cant use them tiny firesteels. Thats why I bought a big chunky one and made my own handle.

Got that in my firekit, as well as a pull cord incase I need to make friction fire.

Im hoping to test the firesteel tonight with some fatwood shavings / dust I made

 

[jackcbr]

Was out in the damp and rain today trying to light a small fire. Used one of my cramp balls to take a spark. Took a few attempts, but worked a treat. My problem was getting anything else to take. My cotton wool wouldn't go. The dead pine needles seamed a little to wet, or not enough. I used a pencil sharpener to get some fine dry wood, but don't think I had enough. I did have some feather sticks from a dead standing pine, but never had enough going to use them.

Will try again this weekend and see how I get on.

 

[hogstable]

I did some wet firelighting two days ago, not really any rain but very damp cold and everything was soaked plus there was still some snow on the ground.

What I did was with the back of my swiss army knife draw off the lichen and excess damp stuff off the birch bark then I put it in my pocket this is really good to dry it out and I can't recommend that enough. Instead of firesticks per se, I just took the outer parts of the wood off so I had a dryish but very cold wood left. Smaller sections I put in my smock pocket to keep them out of the damp. So I didn't use smaller pieces as there wouldn't be any of them left and they were harder to shave anyway. Some of them were feathered a bit but not significantly.

Used loads of birch bark to get the flames going and then added smaller pieces and larger ones in a big teepee to heat them up. Although I find the new stiker fiddly to use and it doesn't spark as easily it was noticeable when the much bigger shavings went up later when the flame got them.

The other thing I did was to stack the wood that I was going to put on next in a hollow square on the outside of the fire. This was very effective in drying the wood out as the steam evidenced, when they started to char / burn I took them off, definiately helped the fire burn hotter when I put them on,

It was a result and I was quite happy with my efforts and not having to resort to cotton wool and vaseline. I did some experiments later with birch bark off the trees on the floor and they lit easily with the flame of a lighter.

I will experiment with the vaseline cotton balls and birch twigs that I would usually use to see if they will go up.

 

[jackcbr]

Sounds good, I've never failed using Birch bark. Sadly this wood doesn't have any. But the idea of pocketing the tinder is a good one. Judging by the forecast it will be similar weather this weekend, so I will give it a go again.

Practice makes perfect! And is also fun...

 

[Whittler Kev]

The best advice I got was off Jason from Woodland Ways. The gist was:

Make sure you get all the kindling and wood together before you start lighting the fire & always get twice as much as you think you will need. Its amazing how the stuff you spotted close by when you started lighting the fire seems to vanish when you need it

 

[jackcbr]

Again very true, I'm slowly running out of dead standing to use for practice. So trying to use as little as possible these days. I keep trying to get the smallest of fires going just to say I can. I guess it would make more sense to brew up, but I don't do hot drinks, weird, I know.

 

[PhotoGirl]

Talking about firesteels, I got my fella one of these, though the place I got it from chucked in a compass in the handle and a striker. I think in my opinion a cracking piece of kit. Was fairly begrudgingly gifting it.

 

[TonyAndMikeTakingAHike]

You can use the saw on your Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman multi-tool to create a small pile of saw dust. If the dust is dry, I find it takes a spark fairly well. Good luck in wet conditions though.

Also, some firesteels are "softer" than others. The sparks from some firesteels are much larger and last longer than others. I'm calling these "softer" for lack of a more technical description. Obviously, with the softer firesteels, you are trading away a longer product life for more firepower - more metal can be scraped of the rod with each strike. The Light My Fire products seem to be harder. I purchased some of the softer firesteels online. PM if you want the link (forum rules forbid links?).

 

[bigandy]

You can use the saw on your Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman multi-tool to create a small pile of saw dust. If the dust is dry, I find it takes a spark fairly well. Good luck in wet conditions though.

Also, some firesteels are "softer" than others. The sparks from some firesteels are much larger and last longer than others. I'm calling these "softer" for lack of a more technical description. Obviously, with the softer firesteels, you are trading away a longer product life for more firepower - more metal can be scraped of the rod with each strike. The Light My Fire products seem to be harder. I purchased some of the softer firesteels online. PM if you want the link (forum rules forbid links?).

i think as long as your not affiliated to said company in any way other than being a satisfied customer your ok(i stand to be corrected of course).

 

[jackcbr]

Success!

This morning I managed to get a small fire going using a crampball and a pencil sharpener (OK, and a fire steel). Thanks for the tips guys, the one about popping the pine needles in my pocket seemed to solve things. It wasn't quite as damp as the other day, but still chuffed that I got it going.

That's tick 2 and a great way to start off the new year.

 

[TrickyT]

Have had several more attempts over the last few days,each one has had a better result.

More preparation on the kindling and less on the feather sticks.

Have been using the fluff from the tumble dryer to take my initial spark, which works a treat. Then a single feather stick followed by smaller kindling, then working up as the fire has taken. Never rushed anything and it works spot on.

The more I practice the easier it becomes.

Regards

Trevor

 

[You Bleed Jam]

Many thanks for the info - I'm rather new at this, im pretty certain i have the basics though, Just need to perfect the technique, as i havn't tried it in quite a while,

Cheers
Ben.