...or at least, that is my conclusion after getting my first Swedish firesteel just over a month ago. Since then I've been trying to get a flame to catch from all sorts of different tinders - and it's surprising how much I've worn down my firesteel in that short time. I'm happy now that I can get a fire going once I have the tinder lit (i.e. going through the stages of small kindling, etc), but I've been practising firelighting in preparation for lighting from a bow drill. I figured that I didn't want to expend all that effort getting a coal and then not be able to turn it into a fire.
I'm coming to the conclusion that if the tinder doesn't catch quickly, then you're wasting your time continuing to scrape at the firesteel - you need to work at improving the tinder you have or find something else.
I have had very good success with
Geoff
I'm coming to the conclusion that if the tinder doesn't catch quickly, then you're wasting your time continuing to scrape at the firesteel - you need to work at improving the tinder you have or find something else.
I have had very good success with
- cotton wool
- charcloth (and have been able to light this with an old file and a bit of flint)
- well scraped birch bark
- properly dried cramp balls (though it can be tricky getting a spark to land on a cramp ball and stay there so I now tend to hollow them out a bit)
- pulverised rotted wood
- feather sticks (though I have subsequently tried to light my feather sticks from a flame and they haven't really burned, so I suspect that they aren't very good feather sticks)
- dry grass (though this pretty well always works as a secondary tinder once I have a flame)
- clematis bark (I have found with some of these more fibrous tinders that the sparks tend to fall through the gaps)
Geoff